No Glitter Blown

Emotional bombshell.I knew this was going to be tough from the reviews I read prior to starting, but the first half was rough. Like bloody crescent palms' rough. We all come to books with our own histories and SECOND CHANCES starts with a doozy for me and then proceeds to just take the rest of my heart and drag it along. All I can say is thankfully the book settled down and stop being emotional terrorism.This story is about love and resilience, at least for the ones who are strong enough--the rest of us just stumble through life as psychological amputees. Maybe I just have unresolved issues, but Mark's ability to soldier on and commit was unfathomable to me. I can't imagine being able to put things on the line like that time after time--I just can't. So, it's a great read why not five stars? A couple quibbles: timeline jumping especially those that interrupt an ongoing scene at a crucial point and the perceived lectures that Mark always had to be the one forgiving. Antonio taking off without discussing before hand was ridiculous in it's inconsideration of Mark and their relationship. I understand his motivations, but not to even talk about it before executing the plan was mind-blowingly selfish to say the least. I didn't appreciate Mark's internal lecture about self-pride and losing what's important and Antonio's callousness being not addressed.