REVIEW: Jumped by Colette Auclair

In Jumped (Aspen Valley #2) by Colette Auclair, Beth Fanelli’s hopes were dashed when her year long marriage to Finn McNabb ended abruptly in divorce. Since then she has been pushing to prove herself to her father by successfully coaching young riders through the show circuit and creating her own line of show shirts in the equestrian world. When a friend’s destination weekend wedding in Aspen brings Beth face-to-face with her ex-husband, instead of feeling anger she begins to feel that same old tingle of attraction again. So when Finn gets injured that weekend, Beth takes care of him and they fall back into their comfortable routine. With the sage advice of her best friends Amanda and Harris, she has to decide if she’s capable of giving Finn another chance at winning her love.

“You want me?” she asked.
“Yes.” His voice was gruff.
“How bad?”
“Bad. But we can’t–”
Beth slammed her lips against his and kissed the “can’t” right out of him.

Finn has come to realize he never should have been so quick to give up on his marriage to Beth. God knows they both made mistakes. Now it seems he’s been given the chance to make amends when they both attend the same wedding. Their intense chemistry is still burning just as bright as ever, even after an awkward start. As Beth helps nurse Finn back to health thanks to a mishap at Amanda and Grady’s estate, he knows what he must do: find a way to apologize for their past, admitting his part in their break up, and prove to her how serious he is about reconciling.

‘If he played his cards right, the planets aligned, and the romance gods were feeling frisky, they’d share a life again.’

Second. Chance. Romance. Need I say more? Oh, but there is plenty more that makes this contemporary romance simply wonderful.

I took an instant liking to Beth when she doled out loving, but no nonsense advice to her best friend Amanda in book one, Thrown, when Amanda was on the fence about her relationship with Grady. And now that I’ve gotten a glimpse into Beth’s past and understand more of her personality, I have to say she was just as spunky and sure of herself as I thought she would be. I love that Colette Auclair has yet again given us a strong female character who had a mind of her own, and who was intelligent and funny. The secondary characters were basically everyone from the first book, which I was very happy to see. I still found them all just as charming as ever, especially young Wave with her crush on Finn, and Harris with his big attitude and even bigger heart.

Finn was no slouch either. He always had a witty comeback at the ready and was genuinely nice. Plus his willingness to make things right was admirable. Not that he didn’t take the occasional misstep as he admitted to past mistakes. A guy can’t be completely perfect, you know. (But he was pretty darn close.) 😉 Even though I know the underlying plotline of his injury bringing them together has been done before, I thought this was unique in that they had a previous relationship that clearly neither of them were over. And it also had a lightheartedness to it that worked very well for these two characters. Their emotions obviously were serious, but a lot of their dialogue was flirty and wrought with their own sense of humor they shared as a couple. It was quite entertaining to read.

Jumped is a romance filled with some of my favorite things: playfulness, second chances, strong yet quirky characters, and people with an affinity for animals. You can read this as a standalone, but I highly suggest also checking out Thrown, which was equally well written.

Book Info:

Published August 4th 2014 by Pocket Star | (Aspen Valley #2)

Thoroughly enjoying herself at her best friend Amanda’s wedding, Beth finds herself in an unexpected state of shock when she realizes she’s been seated next to her ex-husband, Finn, at the reception. Determined to not let this fluster her, Beth strikes up a conversation only to learn Finn isn’t the same man she walked away from.

Relieved the reception is over, Beth is looking forward to a relaxing weekend against the beautiful backdrop of sunny Aspen at Amanda and Grady’s estate. Little does she know Finn will be partaking in the weekend activities too. But just as Beth decides to keep as much distance between her and Finn as possible, Finn has a terrible accident and Beth is stuck being his bedside nurse.

Over the course of the weekend, Beth and Finn discover that the wounds of their failed marriage are not all that’s left. There are sparks…and hope. But just as they decide to give their relationship another try, Finn confesses a huge secret that could destroy everything he’s fought to get back—Beth, their relationship, and another chance at love.

Will Beth turn away, or will she take a leap of faith and say “I do” once (again) and for all?