A Fun Contemporary Romance with a Bit of Magic
4.5
The Second Chance Year Book Cover The Second Chance Year
Melissa Wiesner
Contemporary Womens Fiction, Romantic Comedy, Contemporary Romance
Forever
December 5, 2023
Ebook, Paperback, Audiobook
336

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.

What if you could get a second chance at a very bad year?

Melissa Wiesner’s The Second Chance Year is a fun, magical story of when a wish for a “do-over” unexpectedly comes true. During a New Year’s Eve party at the end of a Very Bad Year, Sophie Thatcher finds herself in a funk. She lost her job as a pastry chef at a high-end restaurant. She broke up with her long-term boyfriend and now sees him with a beautiful blond on Instagram, and she’s been sitting on her brother’s best friend’s couch for months, eating Nutella out of a jar and watching episodes of the Golden Girls on repeat. When a fortune teller at the carnival-themed party offers her one wish, she is drawn by the possibility of a second chance. In a turn of events that made me think of the 1988 Tom Hanks film Big and the 1993 Bill Murray film Groundhog’s Day, she follows the fortune teller’s instructions and — poof! — wakes up the next morning on New Year’s Day one year earlier. She has from January to December again to turn her Very Bad Year around.

Photo credit Hulki Okan Tabak on Unsplash

This story is a delight to read. This is a rom com, but it’s also solid contemporary women’s fiction. The story of Sophie’s year is complicated. She has a lot to work through that is not easy. Sexual harassment and sexism at her job. Parents who don’t appreciate her. Complicated feelings about who she wants to be and who she thinks she’s supposed to be. The reader sees Sophie honestly trying to do things differently and learn from her mistakes. In the end, though, Sophie finds that she actually made more right decisions in her Very Bad Year than she gave herself credit for. I appreciate how Wiesner crafted Sophie as a character, and I honestly liked her from page one.

When I wished for this second chance year, I thought if only I could tone myself down and smooth out all the rough edges, I’d land the perfect job, the perfect guy, and finally, my parent’s acceptance. But it turns out that in pursuit of those things, I twisted myself into someone I don’t recognize. And I lost all the best parts of myself.

Sophie’s romantic interest, Jacob, is adorable. Jacob is a musician and one of her brother’s oldest friends. He’s quiet, talented, respectful, and steady. Get ready for a “I’ve been in love with you my whole life, but you never knew it” type of love story. It warmed every corner of my heart. Love-from-afar for the win!

Wiener’s writing is easy-going, and I could tell that the author wanted to have fun with word choices. Since Sophie is a pastry chef, references to baked goods are woven though out the story. It was creative and quirky for the most part but also kind of overdone: “my heart bursts open like molten chocolate cake,” “my dad’s face is as hard as a burned load of bread”, or “this could get as sticky as toffee pudding”. In addition, it’s a fairly predictable plotline. For example, near the conclusion of the story, Sophie is asked to serve someone in the restaurant who behaved appallingly throughout the story. I thought: Oh no. Is this a cocktail thrown in the face situation? Unfortunately, it was. That disappointed me a bit, despite Wiesner tacking on some viral social media videos of the moment to the villain’s downfall. Just a bit anti-climactic.

I give this 4.5 stars out of 5. It’s quirky, it’s heartwarming, it’s thoughtful, it’s romantic, and it has a bit of magic.