The Second You're Single by Cara Tanamachi was a really cute read and I thought it was very enjoyable! This is another book where I was really surprised by the low average on Goodreads, and while Sora professes her love for bacon pretty heavily throughout the story, there is nothing wrong with that in my eyes. The #gosolo thing she did was an interesting concept and through it, she was able to figure out what she truly wanted for herself. Surprise, what she really wanted was a relationship that fulfilled her, and the answer to that came in the form of Jack. I loved that the book alternated between their 2 viewpoints, and the best part was probably Sora's dog. The humor between her pup and the neighbor got me laughing, and I thought the romance ended up being really sweet as well.

I'm not sure if this will be something that will stick with me for a particularly long time, but that doesn't really mean anything considering how many books I actually remember (hint, not many). It flowed really well, and I loved the audiobook which is narrated by Michael Braun & Cindy Kay. They were awesome to listen to and I was very happy with them as narrators, so I would highly recommend it. I didn't have the same issues that others did with the constant mentions of bacon, or Sora's concern over others' eating habits, and I was just able to immerse myself and really enjoy the funny parts as well as the romance and general storyline. The Second You're Single worked out really well for me, and if you are a fan of romances and think it sounds good, I would recommend giving it a shot.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Really enjoyed reading this book. It was so different from all the books I usually read.. And Sora and Jack had so much chemistry.

I thought this book was cute and a fast read. I laughed quite a few times at Sora’s self depreciating humor. Yes bacon is mentioned A LOT and there were some other repetitive aspects but it didn’t bother me. I finished a fantasy before this where the writing was trying way too hard, so the easy flow of this one was a win for me. It is a closed door romance so anyone looking for smut will be disappointed.

Thank you @stmartinspress and @netgalley for an e-arc of in exchange for an honest review!

I went into this book blind, and I really enjoyed it! I listened to parts of it, and loved the audio. This book is fun, lighthearted -would make a perfect palate cleanser type book, and a quick read! There is a little bit of steam, and a whole lot of self care/love and figuring out it’s okay to be single/in a relationship no matter what stage of life you are in, as long as you are happy. This book takes place primarily in the month of February, with lots of focus on Valentine’s Day!

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?

A cute, modern romance, I couldn’t put it down. The characters were quirky and it was a fun escape from the real world. I can’t wait to read what the author puts out next.

I was a bit conflicted with this book - I liked the promise of having different orientations, sizes, ethnicities, etc. being represented but while getting all of that in - it just seemed to fall a bit flat for me. I found it hard to relate to the characters. I also didn't really believe that someone from elementary school is still gushing over their crush into their adult years. I just struggled too much throughout this book to really get a good grasp on it.

This was cute in places but I had to DNF it because the endless body comments were triggering. I've always been a very big girl and I don't read books to think about body size, eating habits, or weight. Also, the MC has a stupidly weird obsession with bacon...she mentions it almost 50x in the 1st half of the book that I read! It's supposed to be funny, but it was ridiculous after the first few times. Sadly this book just doesn't have the kind of writing I find funny.

Thanks NetGalley and St Martin's Press for the ARC in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

This was a cute, quick read that had its moments. It was almost a little too fast paced. It didn't feel like we got to feet Sora and Jack's struggles enough. Everything kind of resolved too quickly and the characters seemed a bit immature.
The writing was nice and I really enjoyed the side characters. Overall this book was okay, but not great.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I liked this book, it has a lot of funny moments.
Sora Reid is a freelance writer who hates Valentine’s Day. It’s become too commercialized and she doesn’t think there should be a single day to express love. Sora decides to write about staying single during February, #gosolo. It shouldn’t be too hard, all her relationships ended badly anyway. She’s thrilled (and vindicated) when her hashtag goes viral.

Unfortunately for her #gosolo project, she runs into Jack, a guy she had a crush on in elementary school, and he’s grown up into a gorgeous hunk with muscles in all the right places. Plus, he’s a baker.
How can she write about how fortunate she is to be alone when all she wants is to date Jack?
I appreciated the representation in this book, Sora is plus sized and Asian. 3.5 stars rounded up to 4 stars.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed as in this review are completely my

A charming, witty story. I didn’t like the body image references but it was an interesting read.
Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Lemme start with the majority of the side characters pissed me TF off! Sora’s mom. Sora’s sister. Sora’s exes. Jack’s ex. They had me seeing red and I wanted to strangle them bc they both deserved so much more. But that makes sense as we see their character growth (which is done super well, btw).

Sora is a freelance writer who ends up starting “GoSolo” for the month of February to put off men and dating and to work on herself. She does daily posts to empower others… that is until she runs into a hot ass baker who just so happens to be someone she was friends with in elementary school. And he had the cutest crush on her back then. He’s working towards opening his own bakery, but his devil of an ex-girlfriend makes things difficult. BUT, regardless of reconnecting with Sora and her “gosolofeb”, he’s willing to wait for her *enter swooooon*.

This was well written and hit me in the feels and made me feel too seen with some of it. Sora and Jack definitely needed to learn boundaries (which I’m also guilty of). Definitely a great romcom that warmed my heart!

Thank you to @netgalley and @stmartinspress for a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion. Thank you to RB Media for a free copy of the audiobook.

As a lover of the movie How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days, I knew I had to read The Second You’re Single. The premise is similar except that Sora Reid has to stay single for the month of February. Sora is writing a column and posting on social media how great it is to #gosolo and empowers her readers to do the same. Of course…when you least expect to find love…you do.

This was a fun book to read leading up to February. It was funny and full of romantic charm. Sora represents so many women who have been in bad relationships. The characters have great chemistry and banter making this book super cute and enjoyable.

The audiobook was narrated by both a male and a female. This made listening enjoyable.

4 Stars

#books #bookishlife #booklover #readingisfun #iowabookstagrammers #iowabookstagram #netgalley #stmartinspress #RBmedia #thesecondyouresingle #caratanamachi #smpinfluencer #smpromance

This book, while cute at some parts, was not my favorite. However, I did finish it, so I gave it 2 stars.

Things I liked:
- The meet cute was sweet, fun, and a little comical.
- The liquid gold analogy was really nice.

Things I did not like:
- The way bodies/body issues are addressed in the beginning in a very nonchalant way. I could see the causal treatment of body issues potentially being triggering for some people
- Villainizing women for doing “girly” things (wearing athleisure clothing, making “kissy” faces in pictures, “bridezilla” trope, etc.)
- Bacon as a personality trait. A super overdone cliche at this point.

Overall, definitely not my favorite, and probably not something I’m going to recommend. Some parts were enjoyable, but, in this case, the less enjoyable parts trumped.

Thank you St. Martins Press and NetGalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review!

This was a cute story that feel a little flat for me. This is about Sora who picks the worse men and decides for the month of February she is doing Solo February to focus on herself and not a relationship. But the moment this cute baker she knew from her childhood shows up she starts focusing on him and not what this journey could of been. She should of just told him what she was doing and if he wanted to go on a date with her to wait 28 days. They create some drama that could of been avoided.

I would of loved to actually see her focus on her wants and needs as a person.

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for the E-ARC in exchange of my honest review.

Such a fun book and absolutely relatable! Loved Jack's character and Sora was awesome! Loved the cover!

The Second You’re Single by Cara Tanamachi sounded like the perfect Valentine’s Day read based on the cover and overall synopsis. However; I was instantly turned off by the body shaming comments spread throughout and found this novel to be one that I couldn’t finish.

2.5/5

Thank you to St Martin's Press, Cara Tanamachi and Netgalley for gifting me a copy of The Second You're Single in return for my honest opinion.

This reminded me of a cookie cutter hallmark movie type plot and it wasn't bad but it wasn't good either. I feel like a lot of the points could have been executed better then they were done. For example, the weight/body image message it was trying to incorporate, it just missed the mark. Our main character Sora is midsize and we love to see it but between Sora herself and every other character in the book making comments about her weight/size it became too much. She is so worried about everyone else's weight/diets/size that it becomes overstated and i found myself rolling my eyes a few times. It was all just too much, and at points it left me feeling uncomfortable.

I did like the chemistry that she had with Jack but, with that said that was all I liked about them. Jack was not a likable character and he just seemed off to me. Also don't get me started on the stupid third act break up like really it was so predictable it was almost comical. I'm not a fan of third act breakups in general but this one was just bad.

The reason I finished this is that I enjoyed the narrators, guy and a girl, who read/acted out the book. They made listening to it enjoyable other wise it would have been a DNF for me.

How do I say, without saying, that this was one of the strangest books I have ever read...?

Sora and her obsession with bacon had to be one of the strangest things I have seen. If I had made tally marks for every time the word bacon was used in the book, there would have easily been over 100 in the first half of the book. I love bacon like the rest of the world, but I think I am turned off from eating it for the forseeable future because of how many times I had to read about it in this book.

Also I am a huge fan of representation of all sorts being in books. All races, body sizes, religions, etc should have a place in the books we read everyday, but in this book we got a long and rambling description of every. single. characters genetic makeup and lineage. It was way too much.

And we haven't even gotten to Jack. Oh Jack, the supposed cinnamon roll of a man. He seemed loveable.....at first. That is until he was weird AF (jk if he used this term one more time I was going to implode) about his relationship with Mal, and the role he played in her comeback.

Oh and why did the ENITIRE book revolve around weight. As a bigger girl myself, I understand how weight can have an impact on all parts of your life, but why did we have to focus on Sora's weight, Jack being chubby as a kid, the dogs weight, how little Mal is, etc. ITS TOO MUCH.

Thank you St. Martin’s Press for allowing me to access an advanced copy of this title.

I wasn’t sold from the beginning, so it was hard for me to actually follow the narrative and the characters and try to follow on their narratives. Mainly, I think the book was just too fast paced, and not enough detail. We don’t wallow with Sora on her struggles, and neither do we with Jack. We meet them, get to know their struggles, and just start resolving them. The conflict also felt a bit juvenile, from the perspective of the adults in their late 20s, early 30s. It just didn’t capture me how I thought it would. I tried to root for Jack and Nora, but the premise for their relationship working being that they know each other from grade school is just... weak. Did not bind me to the characters and show me that they actually have a strong foundation for a relationship because they were literal children. It happened before puberty, and they didn’t even date or keep in touch throughout the years. Since the “discovery” part of the book is brushed through, it’s hard to get attached and see how their relationship can work.

The one thing that made me keep going was the writing. I think the author took the serious moments seriously, but managed to keep an air of levity in the narrative still. This silly style, combined with the deeper moments, added to the narrative and the characters.

Overall, I think this was a good middle-of-the-road book. If you don’t know what you want to read next or just want a short read to pass the time, this is a book for you.