I loved the location and characters. Scotland is one of my favorite book settings and this novel did not disappoint. Overall, a great read.

So funny and yet also poignant, I loved Thea’s sense of humor and strong personality. I do recommend this- it has romance aspects, but isn’t sappy or sentimental. I hated to see it end!

I received a copy of this story from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

For some reason, I'm drawn to these slow, ponderous, British lit. They worm their way under my skin and into my consciousness and dig in deep. And they're always so quietly uplifting and hopeful.

This one is no different. It took me a moment to really get into it but once I did, I couldn't get enough of Thea and Edward and the drama of their small Scottish town. It is slow but in the best way. The realistic details and atmosphere are lovely and incredibly well-done. I felt like I was there alongside the characters. I'd love to spend days curled up in Edward's bookshop, listening to the rain.

There is something magically hopeful about the whole story. Yes, it begins rather terribly for Thea but seeing her start over - or seeing Edward start at all - is so warm and promising. The romance almost takes a back seat to just life and its shenanigans. I found that to be the perfect balance and really moved everything the way it wanted to, at just the right pace.

This feels like the perfect spring read, when flowers and trees are blooming again and everything is new. I definitely recommend it!

This book was really good! It was a sweet book with some romance, which is what I was looking for at the time. Plus, Scotland!! A place I have always wanted to visit. I can't wait to get this book into our library system.

This is a really lovely book that I thoroughly enjoyed. The characters were richly drawn, believable and I really enjoyed my time getting to know these folks. It was so nice not to have the typical 25 year old seeking out a new life or a new beginning but instead having a mid forty year old coming to grips with a failed marriage after her husband has an affair with her friend. It is believable, honest and a very good read. Rarely does an author understand the feelings and insecurities that so many of us hide deep inside that sometimes trick us in to sabotaging love when it finally finds us.

This story just keeps getting better and better as the book goes on. You find yourself actually wishing for all of the emotional baggage to be sorted out and provide a happy ending. I have met people so battered by life just like this couple. The author has created people with seriously messed up lives that are holding it together by their fingernails but they are really trying to make things better. Beautifully done book. Thank you for providing this advance copy. It is a lovely story and the author really created a wonderful, romantic book.

When Thea finds herself unemployed, suddenly single after nearly two decades of marriage, and at a crossroads, it is fate that her distant uncle left her his home and book collection in Scotland. Once she arrives in the quaint village, she quickly feels at home. The inherited rare book collection leads her to Edward, cantankerous and unsociable, whom she immediately feels is a kindred spirit. Their friendship grows when she takes a job at his shop, though there are many bumps along the way.

At first, I wasn't sure about the slower pacing of the book, but once Thea and Edward started interacting, I couldn't get enough of their wry, yet playful, banter. I loved how their friendship evolved and how Thea came into her own and grew more outspoken and emotionally stronger with each passing chapter. I appreciated that the characters had flaws and were in "midlife" (late 40s), which is a rare enough occurrence in a romance that it makes it notable. This book made me laugh and cry, which is a difficult thing to balance.

I'm rating it as 3.5 stars. The main reason is because the characters read as far older than their late 40s and I didn't care for how Thea never stops putting herself down when she was able to be so honest and forgiving with everyone else. It's a personal preference that I like my female characters to be more self-kind. There is also a lot of infidelity and men using women / unhealthy relationships throughout, which can be tough to read and makes Edward an antihero, which may not be appealing to some readers. That being said, it is a fine mental escape for fans who like a slower paced, PG13 romance.

Advanced copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Available in May 2021.

This book was so sweet., charming & refreshing. Wonderful to read a story about a character who is empowered by past events. The main character goes with her intuition and speaks her mind... and that’s what made the story a worthwhile read!

What do you get when you combine the end of a 20-year relationship, an unexpected inheritance, and a job at a used bookstore? You might wind up with a quaint home in Scotland, new friends, and the chance to start over. Thea has been made redundant at her job, discovered her husband has been keeping secrets, and decides to go see this house her great-uncle has left her. When she arrives in
Baldochrie, she is only planning a short visit to sort out the house and then head back home to straighten out her life. But what could be better than sorting out herself along with the house?

This is a book that explores how it feels to reevaluate your life after receiving several hard knocks. Starting over can be hard, especially when you are questioning what you did wrong or if you even did anything to cause all the turmoil. And as Thea learns, "It's good to have things to think about that have nothing to do with" your ex. Doing that thinking in a new place around new people may let you "pretend everything's is all right," and "maybe get to a point where everything is all right."

The setting is a big part of the story - the lodge house near the old manor, the quaint Scottish town, the bookstore, the shore. And the characters are an entertaining group: best friend Xanthe, curmudgeonly bookstore owner Edward, local lord Charles, Jilly and Cerys at the local coffee shop. Each person's interactions with Thea help to make her more believable and 3-dimensional. When she has highs and lows, readers will feel them with her.

Perfect for fans of The Bookshop on the Corner or The Bookish Life of Nina Hill.

The title alone had me hooked by this book. I'm in my 30's and didn't realize how few books I read with older main characters. As such, I really enjoyed reading about people who have had the ups and downs that come over the years and are making a deliberate choice to be together and not just simply sliding into it. I will say though that for all the ways that the author described the characters, it was hard to actually form an idea of who some of them where, particularly the heroine. Her descriptions/attributes just seemed a bit all over the place. However, I love a second chance at happiness and I certainly love a UK bookshop so I will be recommending this one!

Thea’s husband is leaving her for one of her friends after twenty years together. In addition, she is unemployed. When a reprieve from life arrives in the form of a great uncle’s legacy, a house in Scotland and a large book collection, she heads north and finds herself owner of a cozy lodge in a lovely village and several valuable books. Guarded about entering new relationships, Thea cautiously meets two brothers: one, a charming lord and the other, her grouchy employer at the local bookshop. To trust again she must analyze her life and make choices for her future. The village setting is so appealing and the bookstore is central to the plot. Jackie Fraser’s descriptions are vivid and enriching. This reader wishes there had been more emphasis on the characters in this setting and the books that surround them and a little less self-pity and contradictory emotions.

Just as Althea’s life unravels, she learns a great Uncle has left her his house in Scotland, and his book collection. What else will she discover as she goes through the house? Small town friendships, a few dates, and more.

I wanted to love this book; it had so much promise! Ultimately, however, it was just.....bland. the dialog was boring and sometimes cringey. I didn't find anything redemptive about Edward, and his relationship with Thea seems doomed, given the pattern of behavior that mimics the reason she left her marriage. Not a great choice.

I really got into this one. I loved the setting and the premise. I wanted to love it but it was ok. Well written some parts were slow. But I really did get invested. It was good but not amazing.

I found the story slow-moving. There were moments of brilliance but not enough to make me recommend this one.

There are some plot spoilers in this review.

Life is full of the good and the bad so the question is how you handle the twists that life hands you.   Althea Mottram finds out that she inherited some money and a small cottage in Northern Scotland from a great uncle.  Good thing because this gives her somewhere to go after she finds out that her husband of twenty years has been having an affair with one of her friends, and he decides he wants to move his girlfriend into their house. Thea doesn't have any desire to move up to the tiny and rather desolate town of Baldochrie but since she just lost her job as well, she decides to at least spend the summer there while trying to figure out what she wants to do next.

The property was formerly a caretaker's house on the property of the local Lord, Charles Maltravers. He has been trying to re-purchase all of the houses on his land which were sold off after the war, and he will make her decent offer if she decides to sell the cottage, or she can simply rent it out herself as a vacation rental.   Thea's great uncle was also a collector of rare books which she also inherited along with the cottage. So she goes to speak to her uncle's friend, Edward Maltravers, who owns a second hand book shop and who deals with rare books. Edward is willing to purchase some and help her sell several others.

When Thea decides she is going to stay at the cottage, at least for now, she applies of the opening at Edward's bookstore. Edward is a curmudgeon but Thea likes his brutal honesty and generally ignores his unpleasantness and they play well off each other.

Where Much Ado About You by Samantha Young had a similar going off to somewhere new and work at a bookstore premise, that story had a much more lighthearted feel to it. The Bookshop of Second Chances had a dreary feel, just like the constant grey weather of Northern Scotland, and I found myself walking away from it several times to do mundane chores like load the dishwasher or sweep up the leaves off the deck, which is never a good sign for any story.

At almost 500 pages, there were some slow moving moments in the story, but I think I was most shocked about our hero Edward. Edward and his brother Charles never got along and pretty much hate each other. Edward was to inherit the title but relinquished it to his younger brother, Charles. There was definitely a woman involved somewhere and I anticipated hearing a standard plot of Edward giving up the title to either marry a woman who wasn't good enough or to prove that she loved him more than his title, but than his much more charming brother swooping in and stealing Edward's love away.   Well...not so much. Edward apparently gives up the title because he wasn't interested in all the B.S. that goes with being the Lord of the manor and lifestyle and pressure that would be forced upon him.  (This story does take the shine off the glamorously life of the aristocracy.)  And the romance clash between brothers comes down to the fact that because they always disliked each other, Edward made it his mission to sleep with all of Charles girlfriends and both of his ex-wives.

Now, how the grumpy and brash Edward managed to seduce all of his charming brother's woman, is amazing. And even Thea notes that the world of the lesser lords is like a soap opera. So it takes us half the story to find out that Edward is not only a cold jerk to everyone but he's a self-serving dick and he was complete unrepentant about his treatment of these women for his own petty revenge.  At this point,  while I was still amused by his banter with Thea, I was pretty turned off by Edward.

Now there was some moments of brilliance to this story but that mostly focused on Thea herself. I liked this older characters romance. I don't want to say second chance romance, since that usually references characters meeting again later in life and Thea and Edward have never met previously. But this is definitely a later in life romance as Thea is 44 and Edward is approximately 50, and you can see how you look at the world and the people around you differently at this point in life.

Obviously after being tossed away by her husband of twenty years, Thea begins this story in a bad emotional state of depression but as time goes by Thea because more of a say what I feel kind of person. She isn't as harsh or off-putting as Edward but she is no longer meek. I think this is a change of personality for Thea although I cannot be 100 percent certain. At the beginning of the story she is shocked and depressed, but I can't imagine her husband would have been off having an affair on the Thea we get to know later in the story. For example, Charles asks Thea out to dinner and she goes, not because she is interested in Charles because she says many times that the more charming brother leaves her cold. No, Thea wants to know that Charles is all about by asking her out in the first place and figures she can get dinner at a fancy restaurant in the bargain, because why not? She's not under some false impression that he is romantically interested in her and she'll have her heart broken. Then she blurts out her question as soon as dinner is served asking why would Charles asked her out, since there is no way she meets the standards of beauty or breeding for the next Lady of the house, so either he is trying to seduce her to get her property or to get back as his brother. While Charles sits there gaping like a fish, Thea is asking for the dessert menu.

Thea is sweet enough to make several friends in the town but she is also strong enough to ignore Edward whenever he grumbles at her, which is all the time.

It takes about 70 percent of the story before we actually get to a romance in this story. The problem is that once Edward admits to his strong feelings for Thea, he is all in and wants her to move in with him immediately. This throws Thea off balance since they are suddenly moving very fast and Edward's background with women is shaky at best and Thea's not ready to put her future happiness in the hands of one man again when she isn't sure he won't get bored with her. It appears that strong Thea was just a protective façade for a woman who's self worth plummeted after her husband tossed her aside and she isn't ready for the suddenly intense Edward.

As much as I liked Thea and this later in life romance, I can't really recommend slogging through the rest of this story.

I hate to write a bad review but there were so many things I did not enjoy about this novel. I will start by saying the writing itself is well done, there are lots of depth to the characters but unfortunately for me it did not make them any more likeable. The bookish elements were nice, I enjoyed the discussions of finding and selling rare books and the few antiques.

I went into this hoping for a You've Got Mail type appeal, a light romance with fun bookish elements. This story is not light at all. Thea's life is a mess (another trope I hate - although this time the man's life was not any more put together). Neither character was that likeable and while they started off as contentious, it took a lot longer for witty banter to appear than I hoped. Then when the relationship turned, the quickness with which one of the characters fell to be completely devoted and head over heels with a entire shift in behavior was not believable. Nor was the turn of events with the two brothers or the turn of events with her ex-husband (trying to avoid spoilers here).

The other thing that really bothered me was the inordinate amount of times these characters used the Lord's name in vein. I am not by any means a holy roller, once or twice using "Jesus Christ" as an exclamation of a horrible situation is understandable. These characters used it in more conversations than I could count. Surely there are other exclamations of frustration that could have been used.

I acknowledge some of these things may only be frustrating to me, so please go for this one if the synopsis sounds interesting to you. There were some lovely moments peppered throughout that were enjoyable.

While this book had a promising premise - heartbroken fortysomething Thea travels to Scotland after the death of a distant relative, primed for new beginnings and personal growth - it didn’t fully land for me. I enjoyed the story, the setting, and the secondary characters, but the writing felt a bit dry and choppy at times. The romance was a bit underwhelming for me and I had a hard time really getting into the story. I do think many readers would enjoy this slow burn romance, but it fell a bit flat for me.

I kindly received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this story and these characters. This is the kind of book that I always hope to find more just like it. I was already hooked by the setting. Scottish villages are my weakness. Small bookshop settings are also my weakness. So we are already two for two here.

I really appreciated the sweet romance, that it built it instead of being instant, and that there wasn't all kinds of ridiculous drama keeping the couple in conflict. A good word to some up my overall feelings for this book is cozy. It was just such a warm, feel good story that you can totally get lost in for a day or two.

I received this as an ebook ARC from NetGalley. Thea Mottram is going through it. She’s just been let go from her office job and, after almost twenty years, her husband is leaving her...for one of her friends. I’d say that qualifies as a bad month. One day, she receives a letter notifying her that she’s inherited a house on the Scottish coast and a huge antique book collection from her recently deceased uncle Andrew. The letter couldn’t have come at a better time. She takes the opportunity to escape and check out the space that is now, technically hers. During her time in this new town, she makes some new friends, including one particularly mysterious and brooding bookseller.

If you’re into slow burn romances – and I mean slooooooooowwwwwwww burn – this is definitely the book for you. The past few romance books I’ve been have been either New Adult or Contemporary, so the romance came in hot and heavy pretty quickly. This one? Not so much. In fact, that was one of the barriers to really getting into this book. I could feel the tension between Thea and her love interest and I just wanted them to do something. Like literally anything. I was desperate for crumbs. But once the first move was made, I couldn’t stop reading.

Not only is this a slow burn romance but, from the very beginning, our main love interest has an I-hate-everyone-but-you complex. I love those. There’s something about the brooding man who hates everyone but the main character. You can really see where his soft side comes out. It’s especially cute when he does little things for her and likes to pretend that it isn’t a big deal when it so clearly is. These are the things that will have you smiling at the page. (Oh, that’s just me? Okay. Never mind.)

This cast of characters is all in their mid-40s and fairly well settled into their lives. Well, everyone except Thea, that is, whose life has just been upended. Part of the reason why it’s such a slow burn romance is because Thea is fresh into separation from her husband, Chris, when she goes to the coastal town. She, like anyone going through a similar situation, needed time. Time to come to terms with what happened. Time to figure out who she is now. And, mostly, time to figure out what she’s going to do next.

Thea’s relationship with Edward, our brooding bookseller, starts off fairly rocky – as is expected. But there’s not as much back and forth as I’d expected there to be. I’ll attribute that to the age of the characters. These aren’t 20-somethings in college who are bound to break up and get back together 10 times by the end of the book. Like I said, they are fairly settled people who are simply either together, or they’re not.

Of course, there’s a big love declaration that I absolutely adored. But, even more than that, I loved the communication between Thea and Edward. One of my biggest pet peeves in romance novels is that most of the large fights are things that could have been solved with proper communication. Here, though, Thea and Edward communicate openly and honestly. Thea isn’t known for mincing her words and will tell you exactly what she feels, when she feels it. At her age, she thinks there’s no point to playing any games. I love it. Not only does it make for some funny situations because most people don’t expect her to say half the things she does, but the fights that are had are ones that really matter. There are some points where they each say things they don’t mean and that leads to a fight, but we can’t get rid of all the romance novel cliches, now can we? You win some, you lose some.

Despite how much I loved Thea, there were also some points at which I really couldn’t stand her. She just couldn’t believe how much anyone liked her. Whether it was platonic or romantic. She couldn’t wrap her head around people genuinely enjoying her presence. I can’t say that I blame her. Finding out your husband has been cheating on you is traumatizing. And when you find out how long he’s been cheating for, it only adds insult to injury. Anyone who has been through a similar situation surely understands how this can make you question who you are and how people receive you. It was an expected defense mechanism. It was just so hard to watch her self-sabotage sometimes, knowing how much people genuinely liked her.

Beyond that, I quite enjoyed this book once I got into it. It did take a while but I kept it on standby while I was reading other books. Eventually, it became my main focus. It was a cute romance that I recommend if you just want a feel-good story. I can see myself re-reading this one down the road when I need a pick-me-up. The Bookshop of Second Chances is set to hit shelves in May of this year.

Overall, I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

** This review will be published on my blog - KamariAnnamareads.com - along with Storygraph and Goodreads on April 2nd. I will update this with a link below to all publication points on that day.

The Bookshop of Second Chances by Jackie Fraser is a sweet, humorous romantic novel set in scenic, rural Scotland. It’s a second chance story where the main character, Thea, finds she’s reinventing herself after betrayal and heartbreak. She soon discovers she has inherited a home from a distant relative, across the pond, and the remote location is the perfect place for her to restart her life.

Though almost everything else seems ideal, Thea comes head to head with the local bookshop owner and the drama begins. The bookshop is charming, the setting is rather idyllic and the main character, who is middle aged, which is rare, is utterly forthright and straightforward. The cottage is cozy, the characters are quirky, and the story is rather light-hearted despite the topics. Some of the dialogue is a bit cringy and stilted at times, and the feud between the brothers is somewhat juvenile. There are a few off-color remarks, but ultimately this is a quick, feel-good, fun women’s fiction story.

The book was a little slow to start but I really enjoyed in the second half.

Because of being betrayed by her husband and best friend, Thea had a lot of emotion to overcome and handle. At the same time this happens in Thea's life, she inherits a house in Scotland and is able to go there to see the house and ends up being able to immerse herself into a new job and community while she works things out.

Edward was not the best person ever but this story goes to show you that there is someone for everyone and that right someone can make a difference in one’s life. I like how she brought the best out of Edward and that she didn’t even realize she was doing it. He also, through his awkward ways, helped her to get over her past and have the confidence in herself to go forward and fall in love and trust again.

Overall a great read.