Stacie Edmonds, fiercely independent and too much fun for her own good, is about to turn forty, although she looks twenty-five. The Sound Side, her marina-turned restaurant, a diamond in the rough on the backside of the island known as Kill Devil Hills, has been her place for three years. Ever since Rick, Stacie’s ex-husband, had driven them apart by his errant lifestyle, culminating in an affair, Stacie has been making it the kind of place where everyone wants to be in the summer on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. While Stacie has been focusing on running her restaurant, Tyson Garrett, her chef and ten years her junior, has been focusing on her, biding his time until the right moment to make his move. One problem looms large: Tyson wants a family and Stacie is unsure if she can bear the child they both want. Is it fair to let him love her? Can she trust again? Second Time’s a Charm is a story of rediscovering love and trust, of mastering destiny, of taking second chances, of forgiveness and redemption. Stacie and Tyson’s story is hardly a new twist on an old problem, but readers may sympathize with them as they encounter the realistic struggles of dealing with disillusionment, waning hope, and floundering in the doldrums of life without purpose or joy. While a stand-alone novel, Second Time’s a Charm also reintroduces Kyle, Stacie’s nephew, and his girlfriend Chelsea and other familiar characters from Mary Flinn’s previous novel The One. Readers of The One will be thrilled to learn more about Stacie and Tyson, while new readers will discover new friends in these pages.
