Oh... What do I say? This book was a huge disappointment, and I think it was made even more disappointing because I absolutely love Abbi Glines as a writer and as a person. 
 Taking chances had never been my thing. I wasn't a risk taker. I was careful. I didn't get hurt. 
 Was that what life was about? Taking chances? 
 From the beginning of Take a Chance, however I was not only let down, but annoyed. All of the back and forth in time during the first couple of chapters was disorienting. Going from past to present and back in alternating chapters is not my favorite writing style, however if done well I don't mind it. I think about how difficult it was for me to get into 
 by Tarryn Fisher at first because of the past and present. But, she did it well and made it work, as does Kyla Linde in her "Avoiding" series. The first couple chapters of Take a Chance did NOT work! It was distracting, and honestly, I was annoyed that the reader did not get the opportunity to experience those first couple of days that Grant and Harlow were together. Those first kisses and touches make the reader connect with the characters. Unfortunately, those encounters were left in the background as already occurring and the reader only got mention of them. 
 Luckily the back and forth only happened within the first few chapters, and then we were able follow Grant and Harlow's POV's in alternating chapters in the present. That worked for this book, and it's something that Glines does really well. However, that leads me to my next criticism... The men. All of Gline's heroes tend to be the hot guy, with the dirty, flirty mouth who becomes a caveman when he is around "his woman" and has seen a lot of action in the past. Grant was no exception to this rule. AND, not only did he have a dirty mouth, his dirty talk didn't work for me. It was actually funny- unintentionally. And therein lies the next issue that I had with this book. I can't say whether the reason I found the "sexy talk" unintentionally funny because I've read this all - from Abbi's previous books or whether it was just ridiculously silly. I simply couldn't take it seriously. 
 "Please, Grant. Let me play with it until it comes. I'll clean it all up," she said. 
 Ugh,, really? 
 And unfortunately there was a lot of cliched writing as well: 
 But never had I imagined it was so...big. I wasn't sure it was going to fit. 
 -Harlow 
 I had never had sex without a condom. I had no idea this was what all the fuss was about. Holy hell, I wanted that again. 
 -Grant 
 Come on... you are better than that Ms. Glines. Rush and Blaire's books were unputdownable! 
 This first book in a planned series of two (and part of the Rosemary Beach series) ended on a bit of a cliffhanger, simply setting us up for the next in the series. I will, of course read the next one, but I'm unfortunately not expecting much of an improvement.