Melanie Bennett Jacobson is an avid reader, amateur cook, and champion shopper. She consumes astonishing amounts of chocolate, chick flicks, and romance novels. After meeting her husband online, she is now living happily married in Southern California with her growing family and a series of doomed houseplants. Melanie is a former English teacher and a popular speaker who loves to laugh and make others laugh. In her down time (ha!), she writes romantic comedies for Covenant and maintains her humorous slice-of-life blog. Her fifth novel, Second Chances, hit shelves this spring.
Visit Melanie: WEBSITE | TWITTER | FACEBOOK | GOODREADS
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LDSWBR: What books do you plan/hope to read this summer?
MELANIE: I’m heavily into contemporary YA right now. I just discovered Jessi Kirby and loved her stuff, so I’m going to read more of that and other similar books, especially Kasie West’s The Distance Between Us. I’m looking forward to my friend Jenny Proctor’s debut from Covenant, The House at Rose Creek.
LDSWBR: Did you ever go to summer camp, and/or what is your most memorable camping experience?
MELANIE: My most memorable camping experience was being trapped in a tent with my best friend over Spring Break in Florida while a skunk circled around outside. We were frozen until the little dude left.
LDSWBR: If you could have a summer home anywhere in the world, where would it be?
MELANIE: I know it’s not very exotic, but I think I’d choose somewhere in the South because that’s where I grew up. Maybe North Carolina or Tennessee on the side of a lake with some mountains in the distance. I love the lightning bugs and the smell of summer almost anywhere you go in the South during the summer.
LDSWBR: Thank you, Melanie!
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Find Second Chances
AMAZON (Paperback & Kindle) | DESERET BOOK (Paperback & ebook) | SEAGULL BOOK | GOODREADS
After walking out of a thankless job at a prestigious marketing firm, feisty California entrepreneur Louisa Gibson is going into business for herself. Lou’s pioneering venture, The Mormon Bachelor, is a reality dating web series sure to be fabulous advertising for her new marketing firm. And as a bonus, she can solve a problem close to home: while Huntington Beach is crawling with eligible, sun-bronzed Saints, they’ve forgotten the vital skill of dating. Lou hopes the reality show will finally inspire this group of hangout enthusiasts to pair off. But shortly before filming begins, the unthinkable happens — Trentyn, a.k.a. The Bachelor, gets a girlfriend. And Lou needs a new leading man — fast.
Enter Nick, Lou’s devastatingly handsome ex-boyfriend. He’s the stereotypical actor: shallow, self-serving…and perfect for the job. A whirlwind of dating ensues, with Nick at the center of it all. Things are going according to plan — that is, until Lou is forced to step in as a substitute bachelorette, becoming an unwitting cast member on her own show. Despite Nick’s attempts to reestablish their friendship and the growing spark between them, Lou is determined to keep her distance. The show must go on — but what’s a girl to do when the Mr. Wrong of the past just may be the Mr. Right of the future?
Read Shanda’s review of Second Chances
Have you ever seen and/or caught a lightning bug?
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Book prizes generously donated by the authors as of 6/22/2013 (more added throughout the countdown!):
- A Blind Eye by Julie Daines (signed), a bookmark AND a Mind the Gap temporary tattoo
- I, Spy by Jordan McCollum (choice of paperback or ebook)
- Sworn Enemy by A.L. Sowards (choice of paperback or ebook)
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- Farworld: Air Keep by J. Scott Savage (personalized copy)
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25 Responses to “Second Chances by Melanie Jacobson – Countdown to Summer 2013”
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When I was sixteen I saw lightning bugs in Missouri, and in 2006 I saw them in New York. I don’t remember if I caught any, but I think someone in my family did in Missouri.
Sadly nope, my mom said they were all over in Nauvoo, but we didn’t see them either of the summers we were there. :(
Yep! When I was 12 I spent the summer with my Grandparents and cousins in Virginia. Quite often we say fireflies. We liked to catch them and make ourselves diamond rings!
I’ve never seen a lightning bug, but I’d like to.
I went on my mission to Michigan, and we loved sitting out by the lakes catching fireflies! I would love for my kids to have that experience!
Yes! I grew up in North Carolina and we saw and caught them all the time! My niece is now serving a mission there and she recently wrote about her excitement at seeing them for the first time and it reminded me how amazing and fun they are!
I grew up in Iowa, where there were LOTS of lightning bugs! I didn’t realize that they weren’t out West until I came out here for college. I miss them.
And I have read this book – it is very cute! I love Melanie’s books!!
I have never been around lightning bugs. I wish we had some around here because I think my kids would be fascinated with them!
I have seen many of them… I would always try to catch them when I was younger, but they were too fast for me :)
No but my son would love to see one close up.
I have never caught any type of bug. The only bugs I even liked playing with were rollie pollies.
I love her books and how a lot of them take place in Huntington Beach, California, very close to where I grew up. There are fun to read and remember life as a teenager.
Melanie is becoming one of my favorite authors…her books are SO GOOD!
I have never seen a lightning bug…would love to!
Nope, I’ve never seen or caught a lightning bug.
Love, love love Melanie’s books!
This comment has nothing to do with lightning bugs, but I really like how Melanie’s books involve girls/women who are independent and have their own unique personality. It’s really refreshing.
Oh my goodness I love Melanie’s books. And I have them all but this one. I enjoy how all of her books have a link to a character in one of her other books. It lends itself to a neat kind of continuity. I also agree with her on maybe a summer home in the south. I have only even been to Florida ( and I’m not sure that counts) but it looks beautiful and with a kind of magical-esque quality about it.
I have never seen a lightning bug, but it is on my bucket list! I seriously need to see more of the Midwest and Southern United States.
No I’ve never seen one and every time we see one on TV I tell my husband I want to see one as part of my bucket list.
I grew up in Indiana and my brothers and I loved sitting outside at night catching fireflies. We’d cup our hands around them, watch them light up, then let them go. It never grew old!
I have never caught one, there is one trapped in my house right now. I have tried so hard to catch him just to make him leave my home, but he will not be caught! Melanie, I love your books, please keep it up!!
We have lots in our yard–a mile away there are some large meadows that have literally hundreds, maybe thousands of them. I don’t catch them, though, because they are so beautiful and I don’t want to harm them. In fact, I don’t even spray my yard or garden for bugs because it can kill the lightning bugs.
I was just talking about this with a friend who also grew up on the west coast like me and how weird it was that we’d never seen a lightning bug.
My relatives live in Oklahoma and I see lightning bugs all the time when I visit them in the summer.
Like a firefly? Yes. My hubby grew up in Wisconsin and we lived there during his grad school years. Lots and lots of fireflies there!
Saw lightning bugs for the first time at my brother’s house in South Carolina. Cool.