definitely a cheesy romcom. and unfortunately not my favorite. typical love story about a girl who reconnects with a past class mate and has to decide on what she wants to do. it was cute but i wanted a little more drama to my romance lol

This Was a very cute story, and I enjoyed that it was an Asian American romance. I also loved all the bacon references because bacon is my favorite food. I was lucky enough to get access to both the ebook and the audiobook. The story was great and the narrators were too. I would definitely consider checking out other books by this author! Thank you to NetGalley for providing me a copy of this beautiful story!

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Synopsis:

Freelance writer Sora Reid is the odd one out in her family, and needs to have a date for her overachieving younger sister's wedding. Her intense dislike for Valentine's Day has her pledge being single for February and she lets her readers know she's going to #gosolo. Enter Jack Mann, a muscle-bound baker who went to elementary school with her. They see each other at the grocery store and attraction hits hard, but Sora knows she needs to shut it down to #gosolo. Plus relationships always end, so why should Jack be any different?

Review:

This was an easy read. Who doesn't want to read an MMC who's buff and bakes?! Sora had an interesting family dynamic and I enjoyed following a long on her road to self-acceptance. I loved that Jack was a nerd in elementary and now he's really come into his own - I was like this. I remember being hit on by someone in my early 20s, who I went to high school with and they refused to believe that we had gone to school together. Cheers to the late bloomers!

3.5/5, rounded up to 4

Thank you St Martin's Press for the eARC in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts are my own!

This was such a fun one! I love reading books around the same time of year that the books are set in. This is a valentines day story that has such a great message. I really enjoyed the character development. I also enjoyed the messages that come across as these characters develop. I just wish that we got more from Jack it was from both their points of view. However, I felt like his side kind of lacked the during the whole story.

This story is about freelance writer Sora Reid who has just gone through a rough break up. She decides to start no date February. As she makes this commitment and starts writing about what she is learning as she takes this vow she meets someone. Jack Mann could be her one! Yet she wants to keep her vow and keep her job. As she continues to get to Jack she realizes that maybe she doesn't want to write about being single all the time. Sora realizes there is more to her life and relationships than what she has given them.

Read if you enjoy
Character development
Attract at first meet
Romance
Anti-Valentines day
Dual POV

I was so bored that i just couldn't finish it. This book was so cringy.
I do not recommend this book.

Fast paced and fun!

I loved the Asian culture and LBGTQIA references. I thought it was done well. I also loved that our main character is of a midsize diva! We really need more of them. Loved that the guy fell first.

However, I felt like their chemistry and love story was slightly rushed because of Jacks long standing infatuation with Sora.

***4 Stars***

Is it weird that I felt like I was reading a manuscript of my life with my own family? Not all of it, but there were quite a few moments where I was like “Yup. Know that feeling” “Yup, I know people that happened to” So, I did connect to Sora and why she thought the things that she did because I’ve been there. Were there eye-rolling moments? Yes. Many. But, overall, I enjoyed the read. Sora and Jack are like many people out there trying to figure out what they want, don’t want, who they want and many times we have crazy conversations in our heads with ourselves. But I really liked Jack and Sora. Both are good humans who just need to follow their own hearts and guts.

Now there were people I wanted to reach into my Kindle and Gibbs smack, there were actually quite a few and there were times when I wanted to do that to Sora and Jack, but they definitely kept things interesting, even if my eyes ended up hurting in the end.

I loved this sweet rom-com book! I didn't want to put it down once I started reading it. I would definitely recommend this book.

I adored the romance, the chemistry, and the sweetness of the novel. Sora and Jack were a perfect match, and I loved their banter, their support, and their passion.

I tried *really* hard to get into the book but I couldn’t. I feel like the book was entirely too long and the female main character was not relatable to me!

The Second You're Single is a fun rom com by Cara Tanamachi about what it's like to find the right person at the wrong time.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for sharing this book with me. All thoughts are my own.

How fun is this one?! This one is all about love, but not quite what you think. Sora hates Valentine’s Day with a burning passion. When she vows to #gosolo and fans start jumping on board she is committed, but Jack has come into her life and will she really stay solo forever ?
Thank you #StMartinsPress and #NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review

I really wanted to enjoy this but unfortunately it just wasn't my style of book or story. I couldn't get the motivation to read it.

I love childhood friends to lovers, however in the case of this book, we do not get to see much of why Jack is enamored with Sora in the present. With that being said, I felt like the chemistry between the two was lacking.

I did not finish this one, it was not for me, I couldn't relate to the characters, and just did not care for the story.

The blurb for this book sounded adorable. I'm pretty much always a sucker for an MC that's a baker. And while that aspect was nice, the rest of the book...not so much.
This story has some issues. It seems the reader is supposed to celebrate that MC Sora is curvy (or at least bigger than her sister who is apparently a size 00), but also be happy that MC Jack grew up and got muscular and was no longer "the chubby kid". Also, Sora liking bacon is about 95% of her personality in this book, and that's just lazy writing. She's also absolute shit about sex and relationships. At the start of the story she has just ended a relationship with a man who is married, and decides to take one month to be on her own. THEN SHE CAN 'T EVEN DO THAT. FFS. It is ridiculous. On top of that Jack's apparently terrible ex-fiancee is named Mal. All *I could think about was Disney's Descendants, and once again, it just seemed a bit too on the nose with the naming.
The icing on the cake was that the sex scenes were closed door/ fade to black. I think some sexy baker banging scenes could have gotten this book another star, but here we are. Overall annoying and disappointing.

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Thanks to NetGalley and St Martin's Press for the ARC! This is my first book by this author and will be looking forward to more by her.
What a fun, witty and heart warming story. Loved all the characters. Highly recommend

In a take on the movie How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Sora writes a scathing piece on Valentine's Day and why she's #GoingSolo this year. Her editor decides to turn it into a series about Sora's experience going solo for February. So, of course, that's the exact time she reconnects with a school friend who grew up to be hot and kind and she's immediately regretting going solo.

While this one has a leg up on How to Lose a Guy in the fact there is no deception and Jack knows from the beginning about Sora's solo plans, the stakes are fully contrived by the character and she does very little critical thinking throughout the whole book about how to make the fact she's falling in love with the guy mesh with the going solo plan. While on some levels I found Sora very relatable (hating everything about her apartment but not wanting to put on real pants to go somewhere else), I mostly just wanted to shake her and tell her to stop being dumb. This one will not find it's way onto my reread list but it was still a quick, low-stakes story about a woman who just needed to get out of her own way.

The Second You're Single is such a fun, sweet, romcom. I loved this book and the characters. There was a little miscommunication but overall this book was so good and it still lives rent free in my head months after I read it :)

This had a wonderful rpemise and beachy reads are typically a hit. This book just didn't hit the mark. Unfortunately it was very hard to read and find relateable.