Chances Are
Barbara Bretton
Berkley, Sep 2004, $6.99, 336 pp.
ISBN: 0425197964

In Jersey Shore town Paradise Point, Maddy Bainbridge and Aidan O'Malley are getting married. The twosome know that they must also work extra hard to form a family unit that includes her five-year-old daughter Hannah and his seventeen-year-old daughter Gina. However, neither was prepared for the nuttiness of her family who are driving Maddy to think of eloping. All this lunacy is occurring in front of PBS as historical journalist Pete Lassiter is doing a series of shows on the town.

However, Maddy learns a secret that Gina is hiding from her father. When she informs the teen that she must tell her father, Gina reacts by threatening to run off to New York to take care of business. Worried that the child will be all alone at a dark pivotal moment when she needs love and support, Maddy agrees to hide Gina's secret from her dad even though it costs her the trust of her beloved and potentially the relationship.

CHANCES ARE overwhelmingly that Barbara Bretton's myriad of fans will appreciate this solid contemporary sequel to SHORE LIGHTS that continues the second chance at love story of two delightful protagonists. Gina's crisis is a fabulous subplot that strains the relationship of the lovebirds even as Maddy's family adds humor by sending the bride's blood pressure to the stratosphere with their demands and intercession on how the nuptials will play out. Ms. Bretton provides a fine return to the Jersey shore with this warm family drama.

Harriet Klausner