I’m keeping this review short because I don’t want to speak negatively about it needlessly; this book might be other’s cup of tea but it was not mine.The whole premise, while sounding good in theory, but the execution was very lacking. Sadly, this one just wasn't for me and I considered not finishing on multiple occasions

Thank you to St. Martin's Press, St. Martin's Griffin & NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this digital arc

This was a very cute book. Sora, on the heels of a failed marriage and looking for article inspiration, begins an online movement to take the month off from dating to work on yourself. Overall I liked the characters and loved Sora's family, as well as Jack's. Everyone felt real and the story progressed naturally, with near perfect pacing. There were times Sora lost track of the point of #solofebruary, which felt like it devolved a bit into misandry. That felt in keeping with her struggles with being single throughout the book, so that's a minor criticism.

I felt that this book was wonderful. It should be categorized as a romance/self help book. I loved the story, and finished feeling like I'd learned something about myself. I have seen a lot of reviews that are harsh because of the fat-phobia and, while I get that, I also really relate to Sora. I have a twisted relationship with food - not just bacon, haha - and my mother is very much tied into my disordered eating and messed up body image. This is part of why I feel like it's part self-help; I may possibly be able to move forward in a healthier way having read this story.

Sora was hilarious. Reading this felt like I was having a conversation with the characters. The sarcasm, wit, and humor was fun to read, and the introspective personal growth bits were truly helpful for me. I feel like Sora is a real person, with whom I have much in common. Jack is a yummy lumberjack baker, sweet and sexy with lots of heart. I may just re-read this one so I can make sure to pick up any little details I might have missed the first time around. And so I can spend more time with Jack and Sora. I definitely recommend this book, and will look for anything else I can read from this author.

*I received a digital ARC from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review

After reading the premise of this story, I thought it would be worth a shot. I, like Sora have some feelings about Valentines Day, so I thought I would be right there with her.

Sora is a freelance writer, but seems stuck in her life. With a family that is constantly wanting her to do whatever she is NOT doing (exercising, eating healthy, etc), being unlucky in love, and having the worst neighbor ever that hates her dog, Sora is basically down on her luck when she comes up with a great story idea. Instead of looking down on people without partners, Sora is going to show it's ok to be alone and GO SOLO for February/Valentines. This idea turns bigger than she imagined and #SoloForFebruary is born. Only problem? After a run-in with an ex and many packages of bacon, Sora runs into a grade school friend that just may be who she has always been looking for. But she can't let down her followers on the #gosolo mission can she?

The idea of The Second You're Single started out with a great premise and I actually liked the two characters, Sora and Jack. Both of them just had some bad luck in life, but they had a second chance with each other. I liked their backstory and the fact that their beginning started way back in elementary school and they both still had a strong connection. Unfortunately they ran into each other during Sora's Solo time. But doesn't that always happen? Love happens when you least expect it.
But more than love, these two had some issues that kind of bugged me. Jack was way too much of a pushover and Sora had some issues being a pushover too. With work, her ex, her family. It's just kind of got to be a lot and it bugged me. Fortunately, these two worked some bugs out and they did get to their HEA.

Overall, this was a story that had potential and I still liked it, just wish the characters weren't so light. I wanted more to them than they gave me. Still a cute read. 3+ stars

Unfortunately, from the very first page alone, I kind of felt I wasn't going to like this. It definitely was an early instinct that I had going into the rest of the book, but I wanted to like it because I liked the premise. I was basically immediately turned off by Sora as a main character and she never improved for me. I do get that it's a sometimes fun thing to follow a character who's super cynical about love. But when someone says in the opening chapter, "Answer me this: If love’s so great, then how come I’ve got so many exes?" sorry, but the answer is usually: <b>you</b>. 🥲

I'm NOT going to judge this girl for who she chooses to date, but to not be over your latest ex despite how he was a married man with a family and also to not find out basic info about who you're dating? That, I will absolutely judge. I'm not saying shitty guys can't pretend to be good guys or anything, but the way she talks about her exes is just so frustrating to me. Look, I've already written up two paragraphs and this was on the opening chapter ALONE.

So I'll say some overall things now. The writing is easy to follow and very conversational, which is nice. But while it's supposed to be "witty", but I just got tired of it really quickly. Sora often have a very sarcastic and "quirky" cynical tone, and many of her jokes fell flat to me because when they were not just sex-related for no reason (I won't choke on a dessert because I have no gag reflex, haha!!), they were incredibly hypocritical and she also commented on people's bodies/appearances a LOT. For someone who acted so holier than thou, I just didn't get what was supposed to be her positive qualities. Jack... I mean, he's very nice, but I just felt bad that this hinged on the fact that he harbored a crush on her from elementary school, especially as their "meet-cute" was just so cringy. He ultimately proved he couldn't save the story either, lol. The drama, the writing, EVERYTHING was so tiresome and all of the side characters just made it this worse. Just a complete miss for me, unfortunately.

DNF'd this book due to the way that conversations were had about body shaming. Normally this might not bug me, but some of the phrasing such as "𝘌𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘯, 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." What constitutes "gross big" then? Now, I'm all for living healthy and working to better yourself, but this book just made me upset with the writing.

Loved Sora and her personality but something about the gen- z writing never sticks with me. The guy was so over the top.
Honestly, the story isn't that bad, but girl come on now, she literally could not stop drooling over him after vowing to be men-free the whole month. That did piss me off (not gonna lie).
These are the only things coming to my mind right now and I guess this is the only review of this book I’ll be uploading.

2.5/5 (rounded up to 3)

CW: extramarital affair, pediatric cancer (recounted), divorce, COVID-19 pandemic (recounted), miscarriage, death of a parent (mentioned), heart attack (mentioned)

I would like to thank NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing me with a free e-ARC of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Sora Reid has had enough with love. Having had strings of bad relationship to another, Sora decides to kick off a month-long #GoSolo journey in February and highlight those experiences at her freelancing gig. Sure, running into old childhood friend, Jack Mann, might make

The Second You’re Single isn’t necessarily bad. But it’s not great. When I first heard about the book, I thought that it would be a really cool concept. Though, when I got deep into the book, I don’t think Tanamachi really met my expectations.

One of the things I’ve noticed is that a lot of the characters seem to be the “pick me” type. Sure, there were some exceptions (i.e. Stella) and even Sora at times didn’t fall into the “pick me” trope. But there were too many “pick me” characters to the point where they just sounded annoying or desperate. Worst of all of them were Mal, and I really didn’t like her as a character.

Also, most of the dialogue felt either forced and/or over exaggerated. I get with rom-coms that some things have to go a certain way to fit a particular trope. But Tanamachi writes characters saying things that I don’t feel like most people would actually say. Again, I think this goes into characters either sounding annoying or desperate complaints I mentioned earlier.

Though, there were some things that Tanamachi gets right in this book. One, this book is VERY witty/funny. I think because of Sora's blunt and sometimes sarcastic take on things really helps get this to be a decent read. I also think Sora does go through a really good character development and how she ultimately finds herself. Also, no one can tell me that the epilogue was NOT adorable.

Overall, I don’t think The Second You’re Single is a bad read, but I don’t know if I would read it again either. I think that there were less “pick me” characters and somewhat realistic dialogue, I think would have rated this book higher. Though, if you like books with a sarcastic MC trying to somehow find herself, maybe you can get something out of this book.

I really enjoyed 'The Second You're Single'. It hit home for me a few times in challenging the role we play in our relationships and lives. I felt connected to Sora and her story so it was nice to see that she worked on herself and fought against the fear holding her back. It was also good to see Jack have to also overcome his own past and fear.

⭐️Rating: 3/5
⚠️TW: Body/Weight Shaming, Cheating, Miscarriage, Cancer
❣️Tropes: Guy Falls First, Childhood Friends to Lovers
Would I recommend this book?: Maybe, if you can look past the focus on weight/body image


Disclaimer: I received this book from Netgalley im exchange for an honest opinion. Thank you Netgalley for the ARC!


Review:
Right off the bat: this is a great concept. It’s built around two wonderful tropes: Childhood friends to lovers AND the guy falls first? The story also has just the right amount of cheesy or cliche moments that I’ve come to expect and love in a rom-com set up. Bonus points for Sora’s dog, Larry, being very endearing. There’s some steamy moments but everything is fade to black. More-so allusions to sex and foreplay than anything else but gets the point across well. We also get to see a lot of the different things about the characters instead of just being told about them! For example: Sora’s writing ability.

On the other side of things there are a few less than great aspects. The easy one is that there is a very quick jump from lust to love on both sides. It’s nothing out of place for a rom-com but the development does end up feeling a bit rushed.

Overall there was a poor execution of showing body image struggles and the external shaming that comes with that. Intentions may have been good but the way it was done was off putting. Sora is very aware and critical of everyone’s body, even her love interest. He can have a belly as long as it’s “just a bit” so it’s not “gross” in her eyes which feels sorta icky to read. So much of the prose and Sora’s internal monologue is genuinely witty and good so it sucks that it’s intertwined with constant reminders of such a poorly done aspect of body issues.

DNF

Too much fat shaming, bacon on every page and insta love almost as often. Just not the book for me.

I’m afraid this is not the book for me. While I like the premise and thought the dialogue and banter was funny at times, I really struggled with the FMC Sora. As much as I like her witty, sarcastic, and sometimes acerbic tone, Sora is judgmental and hypercritical. And she has an unhealthy obsession with food, especially bacon, and how people look. By chapter four, Sora mentions food over 15 times, and she even has a commentary on dog food. It was… a lot.
The fat phobia, fat shaming, insults directed toward people who are health conscious, and her overall attitude and preoccupation with food and body sizes did not appeal to me at all. I think that the story was trying to show the struggles people of all shapes and sizes go through, but the delivery was off.
People who like childhood friends turned lovers contemporary romances with witty, and sometimes inappropriate, banter might enjoy this one. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t for me. Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing me with a copy of the book. All thoughts are my own.

Enjoyed the development of the main character in this book, and her struggles as a mid age adult that are very relatable. The struggles to step out of your norm and to take risks is very hard, and yet she pushed her self forward. Would recommend to anyone who has or is struggling to read about a happy ending that we all deserve.

This was way to cheesy. And way too cliché. The internal monologue was a bit much and not at all entertaining.

I'm sorry. I really wanted to like this one but it's just not happening.

This book was very cute and will be perfect for Valentine’s Day. Sora and Jack were a cute match and I liked their history from grade school. It was hard to reconcile the way she described herself and the way he saw her - normally it isn’t so contrasting. There was tons of food talk, which makes sense with Jack, but it seemed overboard at times unless the author was trying to make it a point (felt like Jasmine Guillroy). Overall, I liked the characters, plot, and ending. I wish, personally, it was less closed door cause he seemed pretty steamy but still worth recommending to true romance lovers.

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘥 𝘠𝘰𝘶'𝘳𝘦 𝘚𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘭𝘦 follows Sora who's tired of being burned by men who don't even deserve a second glance, so she takes on a vow to refrain from dating for the month of February, especially during the Valentine extravaganza.
Enter Jack Mann. When the connection between the former classmates is re-established, Sora begins to question the legitimacy of her vow amidst stress from her workplace as well as the internet.

- ~ -

First off, Sora is such a pretty name?

I guess with the names comes the character, and honestly I didn't hate Sora. She was relatable and took things light-heartedly but I do believe she needs much more therapy than what was mentioned in the story to better understand self-care

Her love interest? Jack? Swoon.

He was a great addition to the story and while he may have messed up slightly, it was something that could be forgiven so I'm not holding that against him. Also, he was hot with all his baking.

"𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴?"
"𝘖𝘧 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦. 𝘐𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘦, 𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘰𝘯𝘦!"
"𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘯," 𝘐 𝘴𝘢𝘺. 𝘐 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘐 𝘢𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴, 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘧𝘢𝘪𝘭, 𝘭𝘦𝘵 𝘩𝘦𝘳.

Also, that epilogue? I want one for myself.

It took time for the story to gain momentum towards the self-care aspect of the plot but Sora did manage to reach there so all's well that ends well, I guess.

- ~ -

3.54 / 5✩

𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘚𝘵. 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘯'𝘴 𝘗𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘕𝘦𝘵𝘨𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘱𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬, 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘩 𝘐 𝘷𝘰𝘭𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘭𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥 & 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸𝘦𝘥. 𝘈𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘰𝘸𝘯.

I loved this book it was funny, and so cute, the characters were not dislikable and you could tell the 2 mains were going the distance it was just going to take a bit and i love the whole #solofebruary theme of the book i think it was very relatable to real life and we all should do a little self care

I am not a fan on insta love. This book was a great idea just wasn’t executed in a way that i would enjoy. I’m sadly left disappointed.

I wanted a light and fun rom com so I skipped a little ahead and read this one. Its set around Valentine’s Day and is coming out January 31st!

Sora has taken a vow to #gosolo for the month of February. She plans on writing about it for her magazine for the entire month. She’s decided that after her long history of bad relationships, she needs to be single a while. Unfortunately for Sora, shortly into the month she runs into hunky Jack Mann, a boy she knew from elementary school. Sora struggles with her newfound feeling, and how wonderfully perfect Jack seems – she’s supposed to be empowering her readers, not letting them down by falling in love. Will Sora go after her happily ever after at the expense of her professional career, or will she tell Jack not right now?

This one delivered in the light and fun rom-com area. It was such a pleasant read. While sometimes I felt the author got a tad over aggressive with the descriptions, and the kitschy euphemisms it was still fun. I laughed out loud several times. I loved that the characters met at such a young age and spent years together, then found each other in their 30’s and fell in love. I found this storyline incredibly catching and fun. I was a little bummed to see that the character on the cover wasn’t featured as plus size, when the book points out her body shape a lot. This was a quick and entertaining read so make sure to add it to your tbr today.

Thank you to @netgalley and the publisher Severn House, @severnhouseimprint, for my advanced copy in exchange for this honest review.

This book had a lot to like, and a few things to maybe not like - but in the end it's a sweet, romantic romp with a side of self-actualization.

The premise is cute: After a breakup, Sora invents #gosolo February as a way to boost her freelance writing paycheck while making peace with her perennial singledom, but when she meets hot baker Jack she's tempted to pursue a relationship. But I had a hard time getting on board with the stakes. February is only four weeks long; why not just wait? And because of the short time frame, it was hard to really feel invested in the characters' relationship - and, since it's a romance, their relationship is pretty important.

The writing is also very good. Sora's voice is witty and smart, and her wry commentary on her sister's wedding planning and her own breakups is the best part of the book. Jack also narrates several chapters, and I really enjoyed how well-developed his character was. I appreciated the attention paid to Sora's relationships with her sister and mother, and I thought the more serious emotional side of the story was very well-done.

Less developed was Sora and Jack's cadre of evil exes. These were pretty important to the story but very one-dimensional, written with a bit of a slapstick sensibility - which I also noticed in some of the lighter moments of the story. I think some people will find this very funny, others not so much.

... Which brings us to the bacon. Sora likes bacon. A lot. It's something of a running joke throughout the story, and I didn't mind it, but not everyone will appreciate it. She's also a size 14, and very aware of her size relative to other people's. I thought this was actually quite realistic and really appreciated reading about a woman whose size falls somewhere in between extremes, but I can see why some readers were bothered.

When I first started writing this review, I wasn't sure how I felt about the book, but now that I've thought about it, I've come out pretty positive! The Second You're Single was a funny, fast read with bacon, a cute dog, and some warm fuzzies at the end - an impressive feat for Chicago in February.