Thank you to Netgalley for this advanced copy and for an honest review.
A cute from com, and loved the Japanese American culture added in! Sora is adorable and I LOVED Jack ( who doesn't need a buff sexy chef??? ). A fun read for over the holidays.

GENERAL INFO

Year Pub/Re Pub: 1/31/23

Book's cover: Good but need a darker pink/red to make it pop, it's a Valentine's Day story!

Format: Kindle

Source: arc provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Page Count: 288

Book's Price: $10.99

Price I'd Value: $8

Setting: Chicago

Genre: CR, Women's Fic

Tropes: childhood crush, feminism, plus size h(I don't consider Sora that @ size 14 though).

Standalone/Cliffhanger/Part of a Series: standalone

HEA/HFN ending: HEA

Epilogue Included: yes, they go back to kindergarten

Character(s)POV Spoken: Dual H/h

BOOK DESCRIPTION

Synopsis/Plot Summary: Sora has sworn off men after some bad breakups. She initiates a movement for being single, not celebrating V-day, and #gosolo. Jack has had a crush on Sora since kindergarten. He works in bakery at grocery store. A meet cute but with an ex husband and an ex fiancée.

M/F-M/M-M/M/F-etc: M/F

Representation: gay, poc, body positivity

Contains Cheating: no

Contains Children: Allie-Ian's daughter/Jack's niece 5 yrs. old

Flashbacks: Sora as a child dealing w/ her short-tempered father, or her mother always obsessed with dieting and losing weight

Jealy/Possy/OTT H/h : yes, when Jack meets Sora's ex-husband Marley, and she meets his ex-fiancée Mal.

Amount of Sex In The Book: make outs but sex off page

Overall Smex Rating: 1

CHARACTER DESCRIPTION

Hero: Jack Mann

Hero Description: Works at grocery store, Margo's. Wants his own bakery. Teased as a child being chubby. Very close to niece Allie- loved the glitter scene.

Hero Likability Rating: 5

Hero loves books/writing: no

Heroine: Sora Reid

Heroine Description: 32, writes for a cosmetics and fashion magazine(Slick). She works remote. Wants to write more serious pieces w/ integrity. Lives in condo her and Marley shared. Neighbor Pam hates her and her dog. Bacon is her favorite food group.

Heroine Likability Rating: 4

Heroine loves books/writing: yes, started when she was in 8th grade.

Secondary characters:
Nami-Sora's younger sister, getting married to Mitch
Stella-Sora's bff, licensed therapist
Arial-Sora's boss
Ian-Jack's brother, ER Dr.
Kylie-Ian's wife
Marc-Jack's oldest brother, a lawyer
Larry- Sora's beloved pit bull
Pam- neighbor who despises Larry and gives nothing but attitude to Sora.

H /h RELATIONSHIP INFO

Endearments: Jack-a-boo (from Mal)and Piggy Jack( from kindergarten kids).

OW/OM/Exes: Sora's exes -Marley-ex-husband, Dan-just broke up, found out he's married. Malort -Jack's ex-fiancé

Cheating Before/During/Outside H/h Relationship: no


CONTENT WARNINGS/TRIGGERS: miscarriage, cancer, body image issues


AUTHOR OVERVIEW: Cara Tanamachi -new author for me

PERSONAL OVERVIEW

Overall Rating: 3.5

Do You Recommend This Book: yes

Will You Re-read This Book: yes

Would You Read More Books by this Author: yes

COMMENTS/NOTES

Favorite line: "I'll be honest, I spend so much time feeling desperate just to BE with someone that I'm willing to overlook anything that seems bad." -Sora on her bad taste in men #Go solo challenge

New Vocabulary/beautiful words:
inertia-a tendency to do nothing or remain unchanged. Sora about her job, her condo, her love life, and her health.
mensch-a person of integrity and honor. Jack goes above and beyond to do nice things for Sora.

Sora is freelance writer who unwittingly gone viral for her #gosolo February after one too many bad valentine days. A lot of women and some men could surprisingly related. Dear friends, if you guessed that she meets ideal man right at that minute, you are right! How did you ever guess. I am all for it! This cute, flirty, spicy book has me from the the start! I was expecting a usual spool of love wins all at the end but found it really pleasant that it has another take.

Are you in the mood for a cute, cheesy romance? Yes? Then this is the book for you! The Second You’re Single is on the shorter side for a book, and while I usually love that about a book, this one could have used some extra pages to make things not feel so rushed. Just because two people knew each other in elementary school and then reconnect 10+ years later, doesn’t mean that they really know who that person is now. It seemed like a lot of what Jack saw in Sora was things that he saw in her in kindergarten, and vice versa. While I could absolutely feel the spark between the two, I would have like a longer getting to know you courtship with the feelings between them growing instead of being instantaneous. Sora is also described to be on the heavier side at a size 14, which is honestly about average. I wish there was more celebration of that instead of so much negativity towards it. I did enjoy the relationship between Sora and her friend Stella, and the meaningful conversation Sora has with her sister, Nami. Overall, a decent, easy read.

File this under: cute, sweet, childhood friends-to-lovers romance where he falls first and the heroine has sworn off dating for the month of February. If this sounds like a book you could enjoy, then you’ll definitely fall for Jack and all his kind, lovable, too-good-to-be-true ways. Sora is a slightly stickier character that has definitely been through several rough patches with boyfriends in the past (CW for miscarriage and cheating). So as part of her freelancing gig at a women’s magazine, she has decided to swear off Valentine’s Day and #GoSolo for the month of February writing about what it’s like to spend time on herself instead of on men. Sora and Jack’s meet cute is SUPER adorable and well written and of course meeting Jack throws a wrench into Sora’s plans to #GoSolo. This is the dilemma for most of The Second You’re Single; how to stay true to yourself while also fulfilling work commitments and a large social media following. Along the way we have Mal and Pam, two characters so easy to despise at first that seem to work against Sora, Nami and Sora’s mother whom all seem to thrive on miscommunication as to how they really feel about each other. I was glad to see some resolution with all of these characters; sometimes Sora seemed a little quick to judge and perhaps her perception was off more than should be expected. I could easily see this book playing off as a holiday-esque romcom on the Hallmark channel as each character was just a little bit stereotyped. I still found the book to be enjoyable and enjoyed all the scene’s with Sora’s dog, but all the bacon talk was a tad bit excessive. Check your content warnings for fat-shaming, miscarriage, parental verbal abuse, and cheating spouse. I hope to see more from Cara Tanamachi in the future.

I have to admit, I struggled to get through this one. I do think a lot of my struggles have to do with me and my personal tastes rather than the book itself.
My biggest pet peeve in romances is the miscommunication plot device and this one had it in droves and they were really stupid and utterly predictable miscommunications. I also didn’t feel the chemistry between the two MCs and the mom and sister really frustrated me with their lack of compassion for Sora having lost a baby.
Also, why is cheating such a problem in almost every relationship in this book?!?

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Griffin for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This was frustrating and forgettable. But a quick read, which I can always appreciate. I'm always here for a second chance romance, but an elementary school crush pining for years and the feelings are still going strong after all these years is a little ridiculous and unbelievable in a not fun and cute way. But I really didn't enjoy all the focus on weight - from Sora's mom's pointed comments, and Jack's constant reminiscing about his days a chubby child, and Sora's judgments of the health conscious, it was a little too much for me. Sora was immature and kinda judgmental and it was hard for me to care about the relationships - platonic and romantic - that she was involved in because I didn't really care about her or her journey.

The Second You’re Single was a breath of fresh air! This was my first experience reading this author’s work and I thoroughly enjoyed this light and charming read. It’s a slightly different take on the childhood friends-to-lovers romance trope. Yes, there’s lots of misunderstandings and miscommunications between Sora and Jack, but there’s so much more to this read. Sora and Jack’s characters are self-deprecating and quite humorous throughout the entire read, but there are some deeply moving and emotional parts as well. I loved Ms. Tanamachi’s reference to Kintsugi and the philosophy behind it. I just recently learned about it from a motivational speaker I was listening to recently and I loved it being incorporated into this story line! It looks like I’m in the minority as far as enjoying this book but I would most definitely give it a shot–it might surprise you! I’m grateful to have been given an opportunity to read and review an advance copy of this book through NetGalley.

A quick, romance trope-filled read, that attempts to speak to the pressures of single women/dating culture in our modern world. The story follows Sora Reid, a freelance writer, who decides to write a series of columns about swearing off men/dating for all of February. Almost immediately, however, she runs into Jack Mann, a pastry chef, who she went to elementary school with, and all of her plans of embracing singledom go up in flames. Parts of this book are really enjoyable--the chemistry between the leads, Sora attempting to navigate her own internalized fears/frustrations around relationships, and the challenging dynamics both characters shared with members of their families. However, while I enjoyed some of the ways that Sora, as a character, was allowed to be acerbic and messy (often female characters are not allowed to be depicted this way due to readers' internalized misogyny!!!), the way that Sora spoke/thought about food and bodies was challenging to read, particularly as there is no concrete/significant on-page dismissal of how problematic it is. I think that the author was portraying an honest experience, but I just with that more was done to address the harmfulness of Sora's internal thoughts. Overall, this book felt a lot closer to women's fic (I hate that title but alas that is what publishing has decided it is called) than romance and I think that is where it ultimately fell short for me.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This year, we should all go on a dating cleanse.
Goodbye, Dry January. Hello, Solo February.

Sora is over Valentine's Day, feeling bad about her appearance, and like she has to keep up in the dating world. When she publishes an article for the magazine she freelances for, she suddenly finds herself the popular leader of the #GoSolo February movement. So, of course, she runs into an old grade school classmate that has grown up right.
Jack is working in a grocery store as their baker after losing his prestigious job working under a chef at a Michelin-star restaurant due to his now ex-fiancee. He's up for a baker of the year award and hopes to use the prize money to open his own bakery soon. When he sees the girl he had a massive crush on in school and then they start talking and he realizes she's still a funny and smart person, his crush comes roaring back. But personal and professional issues keep creeping up between these two.

This is not my meet-cute. I am not in a rom-com. I am in a horror movie.

The Second You're Single definitely leaned into the biting part of “biting rom-com” with a tone, secondary characters, and comments that weren't the most fun to read about. Told in first person pov chapters between Sora and Jack, I'm not sure there was clear definition between their character voices. Sora had more bitterness to her but the sense of humor between the characters that brought them together also made them sound the same. Sora is divorced after finding out her husband was cheating on her, the husband that she pregnancy scare married, she ended up miscarrying, and has bounced from man to man, the last being a man who she found out ended up being married. With her younger sister Nami getting married in a month, her mother breathing down her neck to lose weight, have a date for the wedding, and Valentine's Day coming up, Sora decides to let all the dating balls in the air drop and go solo all of February. The article she publishes for a magazine gets super popular and while her personal life feels in shambles, her professional life seems to be picking up.

I’ve wanted to kiss this man since I first saw him frosting baked goods at Margo’s.

With a declaration to be single all of February, Sora, of course, meets Jack. They did have an entertaining meet-cute, Sora's ex-husband and his new girlfriend make an appearance and Jack kind of saves Sora, and I liked the two's banter at first. We learn more about Jack and how he's dealing with a stalker of an ex-fiancee who has the money to really devote herself and is trying to buy the building Jack wants his bakery in so they can be “partners” and she can get back in his life, after cheating on Jack with her brother-in-law. Jack's ex-fiancee Mal, and Sora's ex-husband's girlfriend get that Other Woman treatment and it never felt great how Sora's character thinking pitted herself against thinner, more health conscious women. From Sora's point-of-view the women give her “looks”, and maybe they do in the story, but this “I love bacon, therefore they hate me and I'm less shallow than them.” felt very tired. There was a didn't need to be this long scene where Sora's sister and mom take her to an aerial aerobics class and the whole thing felt cringy '80s movie. There was also this line thought by Sora: I can tell he’s got big, thick, muscular arms, and the tiniest hint of a beer belly. Not gross big, just a slight, comforting pudge. “Not gross big,”??? I was confused and turned off by how this story was going about it's messaging.

“Sounds like you kind of have a crush on me, Jack Mann.”

You can probably see where this was going, Sora gaining professional success with her go solo articles but meeting Jack and really liking his company and wanting to go out on the dates Jack is asking her to go. You might also think, “Well, they only have to wait a month.”. At halfway through, these two admit the elementary school crushes they had on each other and jump in the sack, a jump in the sack scene that had some good sexual lead up but just as the condom went on, we're abruptly slam-to-black and Sora's waking up the next morning. By 60% they admit their love for one another but Jack gets up in his feels about feeling like Sora's dirty little secret as she keeps promoting that men suck. There's some dealing with their issues, Sora growing up being told by her mom to not stick her neck out and dealing with how her father's temper (he died of a heart-attack/stroke a year ago) still affects her today and Jack deals with his trust issues and current stalking issues from his ex-fiancee. Their family and friends get brought in with Sora's friend Stella the psychologist giving her advice and her troubled relationship with mom and sister and Jack's younger brother having marriage problems with his wife after their young daughter is in remission from cancer. I'm not sure I'd market this as a rom-com with these very decidedly not laugh riot issues thrown in all over the place.

“So, I’m not going to be afraid of broken hearts. That just comes with living. Just a risk we all take to find happiness.”

The ending gives us Sora putting a dent in her career by trying to be gutsy and go for Jack, but it blows up with a Big Misunderstanding (the way Sora completely ruined a huge moment for Jack left a bad taste in my mouth). Then the last 20% was a flurry of everyone's relationships and issues getting happy resolves, some feeling less forced than others. This story took place over a month's time and I can't say I believed in Sora and Jack's love. The biting tone had some off-putting moments and the rom-com aspects were drowned out with some pretty serious issues. I would also feel remiss not mentioning that the dog on the cover did not in anyway match Sora's rescue pit mix, Larry who was described as black and white with a colored black patch over the eye that was missing. Justice for Larry (and maybe rom-coms?).

DNF@17%

This one isn't working for me, unfortunately.

The premise sounded good: A woman who swears off all romance for February to combat Valentine's Day but ends up falling in love and having to decide whether to keep committing to her trend that took off or to let herself fall in love.

My problem with this is the main character whose said to be mid-sized, but she isn't very body positive. She's always commenting about food, diets, her eating habits, everyone in a supermarket's eating habits, etc. She's always commenting on people's bodies, and the whole vibe is really uncomfortable. Also, the girl hate?? It's so unnecessary. Every woman that our main character meets she has a problem with. All the women in the book are evil villains out to get her, and it's just sad to see women tearing other women down for literally no reason. Now sure, maybe the main character changes or something in the book (I only read the first 17%), but all of this just made me uncomfortable, and I don't care to keep reading.

I overall just didn’t love this one. The hero seemed overly nice, to the point of not even being like a real person, and the main character’s obsession with weight and bacon overwhelmed the good parts of the story. It was fine, but I ended up skimming through the last 20% just to finish it.

I'll keep this short, because I don't like to nag on unreleased books that I don't like, but I just never found myself caring too much about this novel. The premise sounded quite Hallmark movie-esque, which isn't a bad thing, that kind of cheesiness can be fun at times, but once I started this book I realized that I didn't love the characters too much either. So with a plot that felt uninspired, and character's who I didn't care much for, the never found myself able to care for the romance of this story.
Thank you to NetGalley for the eARC!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

"The Second You're Single" by Cara Tanamachi is a fun romantic comedy-style book about Sora, a writer who starts a social experiment to stay single through the month of February (#gosolo). Of course, this pledge is almost immediately put in jeopardy when she has a meet-cute with a former childhood friend, Jack, who makes it clear that he is interested in dating her. This book was silly, like all good rom-coms, and I enjoyed Jack as a male lead. I wasn't the biggest fan of Sora and the seemingly constant issues that occurred with her; other than that my only issue was with the immature language that Sora used when narrating her attraction to Jack. She's supposed to be a grown adult, but often seemed more like a twenty-two year old.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

My Selling Pitch:
Do you want to read an insta-love smooth brain material romance that doubles as an advertisement for bacon?

Pre-reading:
The cover is so cute. Bucket romance ready.

Thick of it:
Not a DJ. Bestie.

My office is also my hoard storage, haha.

I love chocolate strawberries.

I love the not-cosmo-magazine writer trope in rom-coms.

The real food for pets is kinda ridiculous. Purina kills it on nutrition and price. Like def don’t buy some brands, but just because it’s kibble doesn’t automatically make it bad.

I feel like this has all the potential to be a cozy, bucket rom-com.

Winter girlies love Uggs. Me included.

Yessss, maple bacon. God, this book is making me hungry.

Leave out the other lady hate.

What a book.

I love the Brawny towel man.

I agree. Eyeballs are the best.

Is it bonkers? Kinda. Is it realistic? No. Do I care? Not really, it’s cute.

You know I didn’t see ex-husband coming.

How old is our Chicago Bestie?

How are all these people getting married?

Astrotrashhhhh.

I agree. If they’re not blocked, it’s not over.

Take a shot every time this book mentions bacon. (Dead. You would be dead.)

Not the child cancer, haha.

This book is really hyper-fixated on food. Full disorder territory

1/4 into the book before we get her age. She’s giving young 20s. IDK about 32.

The short story book I just read also made a joke about food fucking and trich. Universe funny.

Would bet good money she’s watching Bluey.

Foodie network. I love trademark sidestepping.

It’s starting to really feel like this book is romanticizing disordered eating.

He was shitty, and he’s not your husband anymore. He’s allowed to have a new relationship. Fuck off.

He doesn’t text and drive? Sexyyyyy.

Oh, you know he’s gonna be at this event with Mal. (Yup.)

See, you haven’t blocked her number and you continue to interact with her. Clearly you’re not over her.

Nice Pam.

These people do not seem like they are in their 30s.

This book is really repetitive.

Post-reading:
This book feels more like an advertisement for bacon than a rom-com. I dunno, it’s not awful, but it’s definitely not good. It’s chock full of self-help, tired platitudes. Nothing groundbreaking or particularly insightful. The characters have some trauma porn backstories, but the book is so short and light the issues aren’t really given the weight they deserve. Supposedly the characters are in their 30s, but they read like young 20-somethings. This book also has a wildly unhealthy relationship with food-full disordered eating trigger warning. It’s a nothing, bucket rom-com. For all of this book’s inner monologue snark, it is a surprisingly clean romance, so if you’re looking for smut, keep going. If you want to turn your brain off and don’t particularly care for good plot, this’ll do.

Who should read this:
Easy read rom-com lovers

Do I want to reread this:
No

Similar books:
* Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella-writer at a magazine is a fraud for her love life
* Ten Rules for Faking It by Sophie Sullivan-radio producer goes on dates for a radio segment
* Would Like to Meet by Rachel Winters-romantic experiences for work
* The Friend Zone by Abby Jimenez-fertility struggles rom-com
* For Butter or Worse by Erin La Rosa-cooking show romance with fake dating for work

The Second You’re Single is a sharp, witty romcom I loved the concept for. Freelance writer Sora Reid is tired of being let down in love, so she starts a series with the magazine she writes for where she pledges to stay single through February, and all of it is going great, until she runs into baker Jack Mann, an old friend from elementary school who always harbored a crush on her—Sora is then put in a hard spot as she struggles between her feelings and letting down her readers. Sora is cynical and sarcastic and witty. She’s relatable and just felt really real. I loved the focus on self care and self love. Jack too is so sensitive and kind, but I wish there had been more of him. I loved there were dual perspectives, but this felt more like Sora’s story than a romance. Her journey is strong and some of the romance elements felt a little like an afterthought. But I loved this take on a second chance too, even though there were a lot of miscommunications—although I think that really was because Sora was more the star in this than the romance. The story is relatable and smart though. I breezed through it and had a lot of fun seeing where this romcom went!

3.5 stars, rounded up.
I started this and another book at the same because I couldn't decide which to read first, but this one ended up sucking all my attention.

It's a second chance of sorts with a freelance writer creating a challenge to not date for an entire month and a Baker who was her elementary school buddy.

I didn't really care for all the fat comments and the bacon obsession bordered on distracting (even for a thick girl who loves bacon). Also the sister was annoying af.

Rating : 3.5 out of 5

Blurbs :

Freelance writer Sora Reid believes in inertia. She’s the odd one out in a close-knit family of go-getters, including her Japanese-American mom, who hints about her need to lose weight, and her soon-to-be married, overachieving younger sister, who needs her to have a date for the wedding, since a wedding party couples' dance with their Scottish great uncle Bob simply won't do. For Sora, minimal input, minimal expectations is the way to go. She’d rather stay at home with her insufferable neighbor and her adorable pitbull.

The one thing that disrupts her inertia: an intense dislike for Valentine’s Day. What is it with the commercial love machine? Why do we pin our hopes on one romantic day, when staying home with a package of bacon and a bottle of tequila would be way better? Sora’s been betrayed and disappointed more than once and her heart is starting to feel like her Grandma Mitsuye’s antique Japanese ceramic bowl, with its many gold-filled cracks.

When her pledge to stay single in February inspires readers to #gosolo, Sora has a responsibility to empower her readers. But relationships aren’t built to last, so it shouldn’t be that hard. Right?

Enter Jack Mann. A muscle-bound baker who looks like he lifts logs on the weekends, Sora hasn’t thought of Jack since they were in elementary school together. When they see each other at the local grocery store and the attraction hits hard, Sora knows she has to shut it down, quick. She can’t #gosolo AND get the guy. She can’t let down her readers. And relationships always end, so why should Jack be any different–even though he’s confounding all her long-held expectations of love?

Thoughts : It's a romance book that makes my heart swoons. It's good in it's own way. Not everyone's style of romance but it's still worth reading. Really love the growth between our characters here. Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the copy.

Thanks to NetGalley for the digital ARC of this book!



Loved, loved, loved this book! The perfect rom-com for Valentine's Day. The characters are so likeable, believable and you can't help but root for them. I'd love to read more from this author.

DNF. This book was not for me - the writing style wasn't my jam and I couldn't relate to any of the characters. The blurb sounded super cute and I was really excited to read it, but ultimately I'd rather spend my time reading other things.

ARC kindly provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.