What would you do if you were given a chance to travel back in time? Would you change things and make it better for the world? Or would you be inevitably making everything worse? This book made me question many such things. Elaina was an amazing protagonist, but I think the other characters could have used a bit more development! And there's not much mention of the world the book is set in, except for basic details. I really liked this book, but I think there's a lot of room for improvement!

Do you ever find yourself gripped by a book, whilst simultaenously exasperated by it? That’s a little bit how I felt about A Second Chance of Life. The idea of the main character, Elaina, going back to two years before her death to have a second shot at all the things she got wrong the first time around is an interesting one. However whilst I enjoyed the story and found that Lynn has a real talent for always keeping the plot moving (her pacing is brutally fast but in this context I really enjoyed that), Elaina definitely has some issues.
She’s alternately badass and wimpy, a player of the game and the one being played. I didn’t feel any of her nemises were particularly cunning or devious (just plain evil in Sonia’s case) but they still managed to outwit Elaina at least half of the time. The inconsistency threw me off more than once. Saying that I liked the idea of this alternate world in which etiquette is almost more stringent than in Victorian England. You touched a lady’s hand. She’s your wife now, bud. It added a slow burn to the romantic elements which I thought worked nicely.
My only other criticism would be that everyone is described as beautiful and every man within a hundred yard that isn’t a direct relation to Elaina is a potential love interest. I can understand this in some cases, but with Wayne (youngest son of a General and potential love match number three) I felt it was massively unecessary. He was brought it for about five pages as a new romantic interest, only to be sidelined paragraphs later as Lynn returned to her main romantic focus.
This for me was above all, fun. I could almost see it being a Harlequin title; light, quick to read and enjoyable on a surface level. It was just what I wanted in the moment and so gets my recommendation. However be warned; there are a couple of points in which you’ll want to put this down. Don’t do it. Power through and you will be rewarded.

actually really enjoyed this book. I loved the concept and plot. After having an "unlucky" life Elaina gets a second chance. I love how Elaine tries to use her wisdom of the past to not only help herself but others. There are also many complex plots that enhance the story. I would suggest this book for those you enjoy outlander, since it contains fantasy elements with a kick of typical historical courtesan.

This was a 3.5 star read for me. I add in the extra half star as it was so exciting I put down my other book, a New York Times bestseller, to finish this one. That's gotta says something!
A Second Chance is a cute story about a girl whose had a string of bad luck and gets a chance to do it all again. She starts anew just before her luck turns wrong. There's nothing special here per say; but it's a solid romantic, historical read. I could pick many things apart about it (the announcement of a new heir, the amulet that is forgotten for half the book, the motives of the step sister are vague, the future man is one dimensional, calculated is repeated ad nauseam, etc) but the reality is I looked past all those little things and still enjoyed this short read.
It's possible that it being just over 200 pages helps. I didn't have time to be annoyed too much by any characters and the action is non-stop, page turning fun.

I sympathize and understand our lead gal personally which also helped bring me into the story. Being betrayed, wronged or persecuted 'just because' is a sore spot with me. I always seem to side with characters who are a little manipulative if it helps gets some small amount of revenge on their tormentors. So if you hate the small justifications that we all use everyday for our actions then you may not agree with all of our heroine's choice; but you'd have to be heartless not to sympathize with her on some level.

Overall I believe this fun little romp is worth the time to read the 200 pages.
I'm curious about it being a series... I hope it's time travel with all new characters and not these main characters again as I feel their story is mostly complete.

I really enjoyed this book but it was definitely not a romance. It seemed like more of a mystery or thriller to me. That being said, I was hooked from the very first chapter and the author did a really good job of keeping my attention throughout the whole book. Elaina and her unborn child die a horrible death but she is sent back two years in time for a second chance and the opportunity to uncover a government conspiracy. You can't help but feel sorry for Elaina throughout the whole story. Just when it seems like things may start to go right for her, Sonia is always one step ahead of her. You automically hate Sonia for what she does to Elaina in the first chapter and that hatred exponentially grows throughout the story. I was disappointed that Sonia didn't get more than she deserved at the end. Her co-conspirator and Elaina's husband, Mendes, is brought to justice at the end but I thought Sonia was more deserving of that type of punishment. As I previously mentioned, this wasn't a romance. I wish there had been more romance between Elaina and Evan besides fleeting glances. Elaina does eventually get her happily ever after but the build up to it fell flat. However, I still really enjoyed the book but just be warned that there isn't really any romance. There is also one short scene of marital rape.

Posted on Les Romantiques - Le forum du site
Reviewed by Rinou
Review Copy from the Publisher

3,5/5

In this novel the heroine, Elaina, dies violently in the first chapter and wakes up two years before. She takes advantage of this stroke of luck to try and change her future, strong with the experience lived previously, but fate seems to conspire against her.

Let’s begin with annoying things: the novel is written in the first person and in the present tense, a style that can be okay at speaking, but that I find especially unpleasant to read. Secondly the society where the story takes place is not really explained, we discover things as we read and that can be disconcerting.

In spite of this style, I was hooked from the start by a very gripping and touching chapter: the scene where Elaina discovers it’s her half-sister who has plotted several years to make her life so difficult and where she dies praying the goddess to save her. Her coming back to life two years earlier, before the beginning of her setbacks, was quite interesting and I couldn’t wait to learn how she would thwart her half-sister’s traps.

Gradually she sees details that went unnoticed the first time, but there are some changes that have her wondering (and the reader too). She’s a strong heroine in a society where women don’t have a lot of liberties, but she’s facing a shrewd and warped adversary who wants to rise in society at any price and is convinced Elaina is an obstacle. However Elaina doesn’t always succeed to indulge in revenge and almost let herself softened by her half-sister’s contrite façade.

There are unexpected twists, as the fact she saves her childhood friend’s life when he’s being massacred by a brigand, or the fact the nasty commoner she was forced to wed in her first life because of her half-sister’s scheme came back in the past too and does everything he can do for her to be his wife again. There are also the moments when Elaina tries to change the future, for example by trying to protect her little brother who should be seriously hurt in a riot, or by trying to drive away her half-sister in order to simplify her own life.

I found a lot of positive elements in this story, like the very promising beginning, the hint of romance for which we wonder if it will come to a successful conclusion, the plot with the half-sister. But there was also the heroine’s a bit TSTL side when she rushes a bit headlong and puts herself in potentially dangerous situations. It also lacked a conclusion concerning the half-sister, I’d have like to know what happened to her in the end. And of course the style which IMO do a disservice to the story. However I had a good reading time, hence my rating.

Absolutely epic concept. I found myself totally engrossed in this tale and its uniqueness. I honestly could not get enough!

The time travel aspect of this one was great as well as the aspect of second chances. However the world building was almost nonexistent, the characters didn't seem just right either. There were a few other things that just didn't work for me but I don't want to say because it is a slight spoiler. This was also supposed to be a fantasy but other than the time travel aspect was the only fantasy really in it. Which was fine but I wanted to make sure others were aware.

<i>I’d like to Thank Netgallery for providing me with a digital copy of this book in exchange for a honest Review.</i>

This book turned out to <i>not work for me at all, which means that it could still work for you</i>, if you’re into romance adult books with a bit of fantasy (in this case: time travel). However, I personally had not many things that I enjoyed in this novel, which leaves me with no other choice than to give it only <b>1 star</b>. This does not mean that I totally hated the book, I just did not like the elements and aspects of the story.

<b>Things that I liked</b>

• <b>The Time Travel aspect was what caught my eye</b>. I love books about Time Travel and always have a need to read more, since I haven’t read enough. So when I saw that this book featured time travel I was immediately captured and decided to request it. I still really liked that aspect going into the story, as we were going back in time a few years, with the chance for the main character to change the course of her life, which brings me to my second point.

• <b>The entire “Second Chance” aspect was really gripping</b>. Elaina has the chance to change things the second time around and it’s interesting to see how she can influence what is happening and shape her future, while still encountering different, new problems that threaten to bring her back to her old fate anyway. It really added suspense to the story and made for a great premise.

• <b>There was a lot of potential after all</b>. I really mean it, this could’ve been a good story, if the worldbuilding would’ve been expanded and if the character dynamics had been more convincing. The entire illegitimate vs. legitimate daughter conflict could’ve made for a great storyline.

<b>Things that didn’t work for me</b>

• <b>The worldbuilding didn’t convince me at all</b>. It felt rather flat and not complex enough. I was honestly expecting more magic, as this was labeled as Fantasy, but apart from the Time Traveling I did not see much of it, which made me rather sad. The Houses were a nice concept, but I had no idea what the differences between them were and why they acted a certain way. There was no backstory on what they did to become important and how they interact with other houses. In general, the worldbuilding didn’t feel remarkable and did not have a clear line

• <b>I also wasn’t a fan of the sexism depicted in the world</b>. Some aspects struck me as rather bizarre. Like how you had to marry someone when you touched them in public. It made me blink at the screen confused, because I did not see any common sense behind that law and it felt really weird. I’ve said before that I’m personally tired of sexist fictional worlds. This was one more example of it. The girls - despite being noble - were destined to become housewives and the main character was shamed by a “suitor” as a bore which made her self conscious. I didn’t like how the girls could become “disgraced” for literally everything, which made my blood boil, because I found this all pretty much unnecessarily sexist. Why do fictional worlds have to be full of dozen laws that determine the “disgrace” of a woman?

• <b>Sonia and Elaina’s hatred felt one dimensional and purely vicious without much complexity</b>. I get why they were enemies, but their relationships should’ve been complex, a hate-love thing, because Elaina originally really loved her, but they were nothing but mean and full of provenance. What also didn’t make sense was how Elaina suddenly cut her off when she came back into the past and Sonia never questioned that. Like Elaina may know her intentions now but Past-Sonia didn’t know that but still went with her odd behavior? (going from being like a sister to her, to cutting her off) I also thought that Sonia wasn’t a very complex villain.

• <b>The book just didn’t work for me at all and the rape scenes made me really uncomfortable as did the way women were treated</b>. The book and I aren’t going to be friends. The rape scene and the guy who’s all obsessive was what really put me off. Just no.

<b>IN CONCLUSION</b>: While this book had a great premise it <b>didn’t work for me at all and left me rather unsatisfied</b>. The sexism in the worldbuilding made me not enjoy the book and many aspects of the novel felt unfinished and not complex enough to make me care about characters and story.

I promised an honest review in return for this ARC. This read did not speak to me at all.

I really tried to like this story, it was well written but the characters just didn't appeal to me.

I have not read a book like this before and I would not be so quick to ignore this author. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time I was reading, I did not want to finish neither did I want to stop reading. I loved every second of this journey.