Colton Gentry's Third Act

Colton Gentry's Third Act

Jeff Zentner

Enjoyment: Quality: Characters: Plot:

"A story of love, healing, and second chances ” (Emily Henry) following a down on his luck country musician who, in the throes of grief after a shocking loss, moves back home and rekindles a relationship with his high school sweetheart, from award-winning author Jeff Zentner. Colton Gentry is riding high. His first hit in nearly a decade has caught fire, he’s opening for country megastar Brant Lucas, and he’s married to one of the hottest acts in the country. But he’s hurting. Only a few weeks earlier, his best friend, Duane, was murdered onstage by a mass shooter at a country music festival. One night, with his trauma festering and Jim Beam flowing through his veins, Colton stands before a sold-out arena crowd of country music fans and offers his unfiltered opinion on guns. It goes over poorly.   Immediately, his career and marriage implode. Left with few choices or funds, he retreats to his rural Kentucky hometown. He’s resigned himself to has-been-dom, until a chance encounter at his town’s new farm-to-table restaurant gives him a second shot at a job working in the kitchen with Luann, his first love, who has undergone her own reinvention. Told through perspectives alternating between his senior year of high school, his time coming up with Duane as hungry musicians in Nashville, and the present, COLTON GENTRY’S THIRD ACT is a story of coming home, undoing past heartbreaks, and navigating grief, and is a reminder that there are next acts in life, no matter how unlikely they may seem. 


From the Forum

No posts yet

Kick off the convo with a theory, question, musing, or update

Recent Reviews

Your rating:

  • bookgang
    Mar 30, 2025
    Enjoyment: Quality: Characters: Plot:

     
    Thank you to Grand Central Publishing for the advanced reader copy for our show. 

    Readers may be surprised to discover that Jeff Zentner is firmly planting his feet in the romance world with his first small-town romance written for adult readers. 

    This earnest second-chance love story opens with an emotionally charged moment when a drunken Colton Gentry professes outrage against gun violence on the microphone at a sold-out show that he is performing. The reason for this outburst is not politically driven but personally driven because his best friend was murdered onstage by a mass shooter at a country music festival. 

    As Colton's drunken rant begins, his team cuts his microphone midsentence, unleashing a cancellation by the country music industry for his public stance against gun rights.

    With his personal life in shambles, a defeated Colton returns home to live with his mother, trying to find a new purpose and financial freedom away from his infamous past.

    Luann, left behind by Colton when the two struggled to navigate a long-distance romance when they were kids, is now the proud owner of a local farm-to-table restaurant whose dishes wow Colton's dishes when he visits as a patron. Still smarting from the loss years ago, Luann sets aside her misgivings to allow Colton to work as a sous chef for the restaurant. 

    But how will this impact Luann's world when Colton becomes the punching bag for a media circus that trails him? And, after leaving her, is he deserving of this redemption story? 

    The book offers readers a slow-burn romance as Luann and Colton rekindle their relationship. 

    There is a familiarity that Zentner believably builds, but it is no surprise that this magic is best captured when they are kids.  As Zenter is a young adult writer, it allowed him to sit comfortably in his wheelhouse while exploring a more grown-up story of navigating divorce, kids, and sobriety in their grown-up moments. 

    While steamy, the romance is almost entirely closed-door, with only a paragraph going beyond fade-to-black bedroom scenes.  

    Zentner painstakingly details throughout the mouth-watering food, drink, and unique flavor combos. My one critique is that this needed refinement as it detracts from the plot moving forward as Zentner doubled down on descriptions and menu boards, intent on culinary scene setting that gives insight into why this romance is a whopping 400 pages. 

    Like J. Ryan Stradal's writing of Midwestern food details, Zentner offers our book stacks a well-researched Southern food scene. But where he shines is a coming-of-age story that develops on the page, celebrating the defining moments of a man coming to know himself and who matters most in his thirties. 

    Despite the opener, the story stays surprisingly neutral as Colton finds commonality with everyone, which many readers will find comforting. It could be an excellent book club book for those who want starter conversations for their groups around the gun rights topic. 

    This novel will more than satisfy Jeff Zentner fans. 

     

    0
    comments 0
    Reply
  • View all reviews
    Community recs if you liked this book...