Book review: Last Chance Hero by Cathleen Armstrong

One thing that I’ve learned from my husband and sons is that fall is for football!

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It was very fitting, then, to read the novel “Last Chance Hero” by Cathleen Armstrong to kick off fall!  Thank you to the Revell Reads program for providing a free copy of this novel for my honest review.

“Last Chance Hero” is centered in small town in New Mexico named Last Chance.  The local football legend has returned from the NFL to coach his high school’s football team.  Meanwhile, a new doctor who doesn’t like football has opened her office in town.  If you suspect that sparks will fly, you’re right!

The storyline centers around Andy Ryan working to turn around the high school football program while Dr. Jessica MacLeod is trying to get her new medical practice established in a small town that doesn’t like change.  Both face some ups and downs along the way.

Characters is this book are multi-dimensional, and some are more likable than others.  The good doctor rubs some people in the town the wrong way at first with her big-city outlook.  Her character is a bit prickly through much of the book, but she learns to mellow some in the small-town setting. The coach is more congenial throughout the story.

Before receiving this book, I didn’t realized that this is the fourth in a series of novels about folks in Last Chance.  Ordinarily I don’t like to start reading in the middle of a series, but Cathleen Armstrong made sure that new readers would have no problem getting to know the town in this book.  I felt welcomed into the town, even without reading any of the preceeding books, and got to know the townspeople from the lens of Jessica, the newcomer to Last Chance.

While I generally liked the story, I felt that some areas could have been developed more.  The romance between Andy and Jessica develops very casually, and we don’t see much of the inner workings of their thoughts about the relationship, except when there is some conflict between them.

Overall, “Last Chance Hero” was a good, clean Christian book.  The book addressed real-world issues from a Christian viewpoint without feeling overly whitewashed like some Christian novels.

“Last Chance Hero” (Amazon affiliate link) is available from Revell at Amazon.com and other retailers.

Have you read any of the Last Chance novels by Cathleen Armstrong?

Thank you to the Revell Reads program for providing a free copy
of “Last Chance Hero” for my honest review.  All opinions are my own.

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