By Melissa Wiesner
Star rating: ★★★★☆
Blurb
In this unforgettable story full of charm, wit—and just a bit of magic—a woman down on her luck is given a second chance at fixing her life and trying one year all over again. Perfect for readers of Josie Silver and Rebecca Serle.
Sadie Thatcher’s life has fallen apart in spectacular fashion. In one fell swoop, she managed to lose her job, her apartment, and her boyfriend—all thanks to her big mouth. So when a fortune teller offers her one wish, Sadie jumps at the chance to redo her awful year. Deep down, she doesn’t believe magic will fix her life, but taking a leap of faith, Sadie makes her wish, opens her eyes, and . . . nothing has changed. And then, in perhaps her dumbest move yet, she kisses her brother’s best friend, Jacob.
When Sadie wakes up the next morning, she’s in her former apartment with her former boyfriend, and her former boss is expecting her at work. Checking the date, she realizes it's January 1 . . . of last year. As Sadie navigates her second-chance year, she begins to see the red flags she missed in her relationship and in her career. Plus, she keeps running into Jacob, and she can’t stop thinking about their kiss . . . the one he has no idea ever happened. Suddenly, Sadie begins to wonder if her only mistake was wishing for a second chance.
Genre: Fiction with romance subplot
Read if you Like:
🧁 Brother's best friend
🧁 He falls first
🧁 Self-discovery
🧁 Closed-door
🧁 Slow burn
My Thoughts:
The Second Chance Year is a story about what is important in life and the struggle between pleasing others and being true to yourself. It is a struggle that I think everyone, particularly women will relate to.
I am someone who has had the opposite journey from Sadie. I am a people pleaser who needed to learn to stand up for myself as an adult. Sadie stood up for herself and faced the consequences and decided she could go back and be more accommodating. As many a chronic people pleaser could tell her, it's easy to lose yourself when you spend all your energy focusing on what others want.
I really enjoyed watching Sadie's growth and see her learn to value herself. I also appreciated how this book explored sexism and women's struggles in the workplace. I enjoyed Sadie and Jacob's friendship but I didn't feel enough of this book was really focused on it for this to be a romance. This felt more like self-discovery fiction. As someone who mainly reads romance, some parts of this moved a bit slowly for my taste.
A final issue I had was with how this book handled Sadie's mood. She had months where she struggled to do anything which sounds a bit like a major depressive episode. However, once she had another chance she had no lingering issues with energy or sleep disruption. People who have that much trouble don't usually just snap out of it.
I think this book is perfect for someone who enjoys fiction with a romance subplot. For a romance, it is a very slow burn and I feel Sadie is really the focus. However, some romance readers will enjoy it!
I listened to the audiobook version of The Second Chance Year and really enjoyed it. Helen Laser does the audiobook narration (the book is single pov and therefore single narrator) and does a wonderful job! If you are an audiobook listener you may recognize her voice as she has done other popular titles including: A Witch's Guide to Fake Dating a Demon and Yellowface.
Thanks to Netgalley and Hachette Audio for providing me with an ALC of this book! All opinions are my own.
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