Colton Gentry's Third Act | Review

My favorite book of April! A beautifully written second-chance romance about grief, sobriety, and forgiveness.

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Colton Gentry’s Third Act by Jeff Zentner
400 pages | Published by Grand Central Publishing

The Set Up: Country singer Colton Gentry’s life falls apart when he goes on an anti-gun rant on stage, his wife asks for a divorce, and he moves back in with his mom in his hometown. In need of work, he takes a job working at a new restaurant in town, owned by the woman who’s heart he broke in high school.

This hopeful and romantic story was a balm for my soul. I ate up every bit of this book, and it actually felt very cinematic to me. I could easily see this as a movie that I would undoubtedly watch 100 times.

The story is told through alternating timelines which is like catnip to me. I always love to piece together the *then* and *now*. This was the first of Jeff Zentner’s work that I’ve read, and I absolutely loved it. His writing isn’t overly flowery, but the prose is accessible while still elevated.

“I’ve always been in your corner, even when I didn’t think you were in mine.”

I loved Colton right from the start. The hits just keep coming for him early on, and I felt for him and his grief about both the friend he lost and his marriage that ends. He and Luann had a really lovely romance, and I loved reading about them both in high school and present day.

This book had a definite small-town vibe, in the good ways *and* the bad, but by the end it just felt like a warm hug.

It was my favorite book I read in April ,and an absolute BANGER. This is the kind of romance I’m looking for! More literary-romance than rom-com. Is that a thing? Anything come to mind for you that you would recommend? Drop a comment and let me know!!