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The Second Chance Shoe Shop - Marcie Steele



Description
All Riley Flynn wants is to meet someone who makes her happy. But attracting the right kind of man is not easy, and with her heart still hurting from her last break-up, Riley believes she’ll never find love again. 

A year ago, Sadie Stewart’s whole world was shattered when her husband, Ross, died. She has struggled to keep herself together for the sake of their young daughter, but with the anniversary of his death approaching, Sadie finds herself overwhelmed by grief. 

Sadie and Riley work at Chandlers shoe shop, in the charming town of Hedworth. But when Chandlers is threatened with closure, the friends are confronted with the loss of not only their jobs, but also their support network - the glue that holds them together when they are close to breaking. 

As they put together a plan to save their beloved shop, Sadie realises that she might just be learning to live again. Could it be that new beginnings are just round the corner? The campaign also finds Riley unexpectedly crossing paths with charming photographer, Ethan. Maybe her second chance at love is right under her feet.

Review
I have to admit being drawn to this book just by the words "shoe shop" in the title! It didn't disappoint and I was transported to a lovely place called Hedworth in which the shoe shop sits.I really like a girl who makes good too, and this is what Riley Flynn sets out to do with her campaign to save the shoe shop from closure.

One of things a lot of writers do nowadays is throw in a reference to Twitter or some other social media platform - I presume to keep it relevant in today's world. However, time after time I find the author can never have used Twitter etc because of faux pas on their use. Not this writer. She absolutely nailed the use of Twitter, even getting the shoe shop running a competition on there too. This made the book feel very current for me and added a different dimension to the story.

I just loved reading about Riley's ideas for revitalising the shoe shop but she seemed to be so unlucky in love. The use of Twitter in this respect was also really cleverly done, showing how easy it is for tweets to be bandied about and peoples feelings being hurt with what may or may not be the truth. 

There are the other characters Sadie and Dan who work in the shoe shop with Riley. They had good story lines too,  there were moments that I was willing them to make different choices - I'll leave you to read it to find out about what they were.

By the last third of the book I was really rooting for each of the main characters and was rapidly flicking through the pages eager to find out what their fates would be - and that of the shoe shop!

This is a nice easy read but with just enough suspense to keep you entertained.

I'm giving it 4 out of 5 stars.

My thanks go to Netgalley for a copy of this book to review.

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