This is a cute second chance romance although a little annoying at times.

Liberty was an overweight 15-year-old when she met Zack, a 17-year-old who was more interested in baking than partying and girls. Both suffered through teen mocking and bullying so it isn’t surprising that they developed a friendship with Liberty being the tester for many of Zack’s baking projects. An event caused Liberty to feel humiliated and abandoned by Zack. Liberty moved away the next day, changing her life to discipline herself to not eat sweets and to exercise rigorously in order to achieve and maintain an attractive body image. Liberty also disciplined herself to close her heart to true emotions and settle instead for rational emotional responses.

Fifteen years later Liberty is engaged to be married to her unemotional, lawyer boyfriend whom she has dated for several years. His sister is getting married and he asked Liberty to marry him and have a double wedding. The wedding is still several months away when they agree to visit Cape May with Liberty’s employees. Liberty is thrown for a loop when she discovers their host is none other than Zack.

Zack, now a single dad of a five-year-old daughter, is thrilled! He is awed at how beautiful Liberty is but he is dismayed that she tries to avoid him and won’t eat the meals and desserts he has prepared. He realizes she has lost the sparkle he cared for so many years before. Liberty tries to hold onto her anger from the loss of her first teenage crush but part of her wonders if Zack could really care for her as she is. Can Zack convince Liberty that he truly does care for her before she walks down the aisle to a ‘comfortable’ but uninspired marriage?

It was frustrating and sad to read Liberty’s lack of confidence and the extremes she took to change her nature. Zack and his daughter are lovely characters and Liberty’s friends are nice additions with their own romances. I found the ending a bit strange as it veered to cover the romances of Liberty’s friends in addition to her own romance. I didn't realize that this is the third story and the other romances were wrapped up here.

I found the story an easy read, and mostly fun if you can get beyond Liberty’s insecurities. I recommend this to readers who enjoy second chance romances.

I received this title through NetGalley.

DNF 25%. Very unlikeable heroine who was a nasty piece of work - rude to her mother, resentful and bitter at the world because some snotty-nosed teenaged boy did not reciprocate her crush at 15.

I couldn’t finish this in the end.

I made it about 45% in and couldn’t take the annoying characters any more.

Liberty is annoying, selfish, cold and frankly childish. Holding grudges for childhood slights for way longer than needed. I get she was upset Zack didn’t stick up for her when his friends made fun of her calling her fat etc but he was a teenage boy and teenage boys tend to be prats. (I don’t mean to generalise here either but its fairly common knowledge that most teenagers are obnoxious lol).

Zack was his own kind of annoying. Totally obnoxious and badgering. Why he wouldn’t just leave her alone I do not know. He wasn’t even aiming his so-called “charm” at me and it was bugging me. It was annoying and I ended up feeling for Liberty that he wouldn’t just leave her alone. He was like a puppy, full of energy and annoying.

Throughout the whole thing to be honest I was amazed Liberty had friends and that someone hadn’t told Zack to calm it the f down.

I was looking forward to trying a new author and from other reviews I was expecting a new Sarah Morgan type author. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case.

This is painful and every character is severely unlikeable.

Thank you to the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Review: This a contemporary romance and very enjoyable. This is about a girl who had a difficult time when young but when she bumps into someone from her past she has changed. One Upon a Heartbreak will have you laughing and crying and hoping the best for Liberty. A lovely cast of characters. Overall a great read I loved it.

Once Upon a Heartbreak by Cassie Rocca is a fun, sad, and delightful contemporary romance. When Liberty Allen was a teenager she was overweight and was bullied over it. After not hearing her crush Zack, defend her, she never returned back home. Years later they run into each other, and Liberty is thin and beautiful, but no fun. I love the quirky people and situations in this book, and watching the characters grow. I found this book to be a quick read, and recommend it to all readers who enjoy a sweet romance.

I received this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Liberty was an overweight and unconfident teenager, who fell for Zack.

Now, years later, she meets him again. She runs her own business and is about to get married, but is she happy? She shut off her emotions when she got hurt the first time, and is marrying for safety not for love. But will meeting Zack again change all this?

Liberty likes to be in control - of her life, her emotions and her eating habits. She was hurt really badly as a teenager and since then she has worked hard to become the person she is today, showing very little emotion and letting very little people get close to her. Her life is on track, she owns her own business and is engaged to be married. However, all the defences she has built up are about to come crashing down when her the object of her teenage crush careers back into her life. Can he melt her frozen heart?

Initially Liberty annoyed me - I just couldn’t take to her at all. However, as the book progressed and she started to thaw a little I found myself warming towards her. All in all I enjoyed the book.

I also found the references to the food (especially the cake) made my mouth water ... how I wanted to taste the yummy cakes mmmmm!!!

I didn’t realise though until I was nearing the end that this is the third book in the series (the other two focus on Liberty’s two friends who work with her) but it can easily be read as a stand-alone book.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

Solid chick lit…doesn’t take itself too seriously! You’ll laugh, cry, and say “Oh! No!” Definitely a fun weekend read :c)

Second chance romance for former teenage lovers now grown up! Rocca clearly has great affection for New York, which is an additional character in this light, quick read about Liberty, who has built a new life for herself there, and Zack, who's just arrived. Will Liberty go through with her wedding? Hmmm. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. This is the perfect sort of chick lit novel for a rainy afternoon.

Thank you for the opportunity to read. Took me a while to get into it and it's a little long, but a good story.

Really cute story! It’s clearly written by a European person so a lot of the phrasing and situations are not authentic of American culture but it’s really sweet and I love a great clean romance.

This second chance book is a good story. It was a little long but the story had a lot of romance.