Read the full review on Bookaholics Not-So-Anonymous.

The Winner Takes It All is the second book in Jennifer Dawson’s contemporary romance series entitled Something New and turns the spotlight on Shane Donovan and Cecilia Riley, siblings of Take a Chance on Me’s main characters Maddie Donovan and Mitch Riley. Both Shane and Cecilia are problem solvers, Shane having saved his mother and younger siblings from a far more difficult life after the death of his father and Cecilia handling the scandals involving her politician father. Shane wants to bring out the “summer Cecilia”—the less uptight, more relaxed Ce-Ce who doesn’t hide behind the rigid façade constantly on display for the rest of the world to see—and Cecilia wants to be the one to take care of Shane who’s too busy taking care of everyone else around him.

There’s a lot of tension between Shane and Cecilia, and while they may appear like opposites, they’ve actually got a lot more in common once their respective back stories come to light. Their romance is transformative, especially in the case of Cecilia, allowing herself to let go and simply be the woman she truly is and not who her father’s expects her to be. It does share a similar vein with the first book in that Cecilia does something behind Shane’s back but does so because it’s her way of helping him, but the preceding events are different in both stories. The rest of the recurring characters are back in full force and I find myself wanting each one of them to get their happily-ever-afters too. This winner of a sequel lives up to its title. The Winner Takes It All gets four stars. ♥