This is a great February pick. It is a story that will help you learn about who you are as a single lady but also have you respecting romance. I am all for the main authors attempt at #februarysolochallenge and detoxing from the toxic dating world. There are many great life lessons that the reader can gain from this story including self-care. I would suggest this to anyone looking for a great rom-com in the month of love.

The Second You’re Single is a lighthearted duel POV rom com that is centered around Valentines Day. If you’re looking for a book that surrounds how much Valentine’s Day can suck, especially if dating apps have left you wanting more, then you might like this book.

The book uses the not like other girls trope like it’s 2010. I’m not into this trope, especially when it’s used to put down other women, which in my opinion this book does. Our heroine eats bacon (and covers things in grease), is a size 14, and is tired of placing her worth on whatever man she is seeing. Our hero likes that our heroine isn’t like the duck faced women he sees on dating apps because she eats more than salads and can hold a conversation.

The story is reminiscent of the movie How to Loose a Guy in 10 days, but it takes a lot longer than 2 hours to get through the story. Honestly, this story just wasn’t for me, but I think people looking for a lighthearted holiday romance where the heroine gets into ridiculous circumstances won’t be let down by the book. As long as they’re into the not like other girls trope anyway.

For my smut girlies, there is only one smutty scene, and its fade to black.

I think the narrators of this audiobook did a great job, and probably would have DNFed this book if I was reading it physically.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

So many things about this book didn’t work for me. The top being:

One: Sora might be the most unlikable female lead I have ever read. She so desperately wants to be “not like other women” that instead reads as bitter and mean. She is incredibly judgmental of everyone she meets and body shames very woman who crosses her path. She rants several times about how everyone around her doesn’t take responsibilities for their life/actions, but apparently has never looked in the mirror.

Two: The constant need to villianize the exs for both MCs. Exs are exes for a reason, but several times throughout the book the reader was alerted to yet another reason why each ex was the worst person on earth. It started to feel comical and over the top.

Three: I did not buy the love between Sora and Jack at all. The elementary school sweethearts who meet again after decades felt extremely forced. They didn’t take the time to get to know each other again and instead jumped into something as if they were the same people they were at age 10. The book takes place over the course of a month, but Sora and Jack only spend about a week of that time together.

As many reviewers have mentioned, the bacon gag was run into the ground. It wasn’t funny after the first chapter and yet bacon was mentioned more often than Sora’s beloved dog Larry.

TW: body shaming, cheating, miscarriage, childhood cancer

I had a really hard time getting into this book. It felt very Insta-infatuation and honestly the heroine just kinda bogged the whole thing down.

This book was so cute! And perfect for February/Valentine's Day. The characters were very well developed and I enjoyed the diversity. If you like a rom com, this is for you! I'll definitely be looking into other books by this author.

4/5 - Spice 1/5 

This was such a fun book! Yes a couple cliché miscommunication trope at times, but overall it was an enjoyable storyline. 

Brief Plot: Sora is a freelance journalist prepared to spend February single. Until she runs into her childhood crush Jack. Sora is torn between exploring her possible relationship with Jack, but staying loyal to her Solo February plan for the avid readers following her mission. 

Thank you NetGalley and RB Media for an eARC Audiobook copy of The Second You're Single by Cara Tanamachi, narrated by Michael Braun and Cindy Kay.

I didn't finish this because I did not enjoy the narrator or the plot line. I probably would have enjoyed it more had I read the physical book.

This book just wasn't for me. It started out cute, but I struggled to get through it. I just didn't connect with the characters. The author had a lot of just random character thoughts thrown into the story. This just wasn't for me. I thought both audiobook narrators did a fine job of narrating. Huge thanks to the audiobook publisher and Netgalley for allowing me to read and review this book.

Sora Reid is fed up with dating, romance and the entire month of February, so she decides to pitch the idea of solo February to her editor and creates a monthly #gosolo craze. And of course, the moment it takes off she runs into her grade school friend, Jack Mann, who has grown up since she last saw him into a huge piece of man candy. Torn between wanting to date Jack and her readers, Sora doesn’t know who to trust or what decision is best for her future.

The Second You’re Single is funny, sweet and romantic, but it started to lose my interest above 70% in. It eventually picked back up with a mediocre ending, but I still felt let down. I love character development in a book, but Sora goes almost overboard with her self searching and personal development, as it becomes whiney and redundant. Plus, Jack is just too forgiving and willing to take all the blame when she fails to trust him at all, so the ending isn’t as believable as it could be.

Okay…overall I enjoyed this one! Dual POV? Yes! Reconnected friends to lovers? Yes please!

I liked that the audio had two narrators, although, the majority of the chapters were all from the FMC.

I enjoyed seeing the characters reconnect and realize how much they liked each other.

I also liked the idea of the FMC running the Solo February challenge, but all the miscommunication about it with everyone was starting to drive me crazy.

A big TW thought is fat-shaming and food insecurity. The way her mom and sister treated her and we’re obsessed with her loosing weight and having a date we’re frustrating and I don’t feel like there was any resolution to it. No big moment where she actually stands up for herself and gets an apology from anyone for how poorly they treated her. She kinda had a moment with the sister, and then the mom, but not really one where she addressed how toxic they were. I just feel like it was all glossed over and would’ve liked to see a more satisfying conclusion.

My here were some miscommunication issues that got a bit annoying, but overall I still enjoyed this book. It was an easy read that I knocked out in two days.

Thank you to NetGalley, RB Media, and of course Cara Tanamachi for this audio ARC in exchange for my honest review.

When unlucky in love freelance writer, Sora, pitches a series of articles about staying single in February, it inspires a full movement. #GoSolo is really resonating with people, and helping them prioritize their own growth over romantic love. But when she runs into a boy(turned super hot man) from her past, her resolve starts to slip.

This was pretty cute! I love a childhood friends to lovers arc, and the fact that Jack had feelings for her over many years was kinda sweet.

I like Sora’s arc as well, as she figured out what she wanted. She was very indecisive (and understandably so - success at work vs the potential for love is a tough choice) and Jack pushing hard for a relationship made things all the more complicated.

I didn’t love how food and bodies were portrayed sometimes(I felt that it rode the line between diet culture bull crap and accepting and loving your own body - while we can all make healthier choices, I prefer the body neutrality and food as fuel approach)

And while we love a baker, and I appreciate that he still had insecurities from his days as a chubby kid, his “transformed hot body” wasn’t need to be an effective and still hot character. You know what’s hot? Vulnerability.

I found the toxic ex a bit much, but the one-eyed dog was enough to make up for that for me. Overall, it was a quick, fun read and the narrators were really suited to the characters.

I had high hopes for this book. I love the childhood friends to lovers, I love the idea of this book, but for me there are two things holding me back from LOVING this book

1. There’s a LOT of body shaming, I know that it’s in a way that they’re trying to point out that it doesn’t matter but it’s just very repetitive.

2. I feel like there is a lack of chemistry, I think that the idea that they new each other then so they just pick back up is a little unrealistic because.. it was 5th grade & now they’re grown adults. Just weird, I feel like the lead up was skipped

I think it was a cute idea for a book, I think that it could be a great read, but for me it just wasn’t anything that stands out

Rating : 2.5 round up to 3

Thank you to Netgally & record Books

Mmm… this book was the perfect example for a corny cute romance! I liked it! If you like cozy sweet reads this book is for you!

Also he fall first trope is one of my favourites!

I couldn’t resist picking up this Valentine’s Day themed book by a new author - and it was so good! It was surprising with some twists that I really didn’t expect, some big emotions tackled, and the standard romance couple conflict didn’t necessarily turn out how it normally does. 4.5-stars rounded up to 5. Great debut! Hit all the right points and exceeded my expectations!

The Second You’re Single follows Sora, a single gal who writes freelance for a magazine… and decides this year to write about Solo February - staying single over Valentine’s for yourself. Her editor takes to the idea and turns it into a regular feature to run the whole month, and it gets a huge following. Cut to running into a cute baker at the local grocery who she hits it off with, and help to save her when her terrible ex husband and his awful new girlfriend appear… and it turns out he was actually a friend of hers from elementary school! One who had a crush on her. Now he’s her pretend boyfriend (thanks, ex husband for causing that), and she’s not mad about the idea - especially when suddenly his ex girlfriend shows up, too. Win-win.

As Sora and Jack become friends again after all these years, and realize they do still like each other, Sora struggles with her work story and Solo February, and no longer wanting to be solo. It’s a unique and enjoyable plot, and I really loved it! I highly recommend picking this one up to see all the twists and turns as they navigate their friendship, their exes, her work story, and a whole lot more.

The audio was also great - I really enjoy everything I hear from Cindy Kay (she’s always brilliant), but Michael Braun was a new voice to me. He also did a great job!

I received an advance review and audio copy from NetGalley and St. Martin's Press, St. Martin's Griffin and audio from RB Media, Recorded Books, and this is my honest feedback.

I received this book from netgalley an Rb Media. This was a fun chicklit story to listen to. I enjoyed both the male and female voices. Would you do solo February and stay away from commercial Valentine’s Day stuff? Sora is writing an online column for the month of February called Solo February. It builds a lot of traction and of course she is reacquainted with her kindergarten friend Jack. Can she stick with Solo February? Should she? Will she miss her true love?

Where do I start with this? There’s a few things about this book that made it a miss for me. Sora started Solo February challenge after a series of bad dating experiences, where she swears off men for the entire month of February. Well, here is why I didn’t’ like the challenge. The first issue is that she decided she was tired of sleeping with her married boyfriend and thought solo February challenge was a brilliant pitch to her boss for an article to get paid more. The second, what ever happened to being independent women and not needing a man to define where our happiness lies and embracing a woman’s worth? I get where Sora is going with it, but it just felt icky.

Another issue I had was the amount of body shaming that the characters were spewing out of their mouth. Even from our main, Sora. We all come in different shapes and sizes. Sora is constantly under pressure to diet by her mom in order to look more like her sister who is a size 0. Man, the scene where Sora had to try on the bridesmaid’s dress had me squirming. But also what Sora doesn’t realize is she is also shaming the skinner body frames. She was very judgmental on people’s body type.

Then lastly, we have the relationship between the two mains, Sora and Jack. I would’ve really loved to see more development from them as a couple. Sora’s feelings for Jack seemed very surfaced and unauthentic. Here we have Sora swearing off men BUT the min that she finds out Jack has feelings for her, she was ready to jump his bone right then and there. Sora was a really hard character to root for.

I hate giving a debut author a not so hot review but there was just too many stereotypes that didn’t’ work out for me personally. But I would still suggest giving it a try b/c the writing style was great! I am definitely not writing off Cara Tanamachi yet. I look forward to what she has coming up next.

The main character is absolutely hilarious! This is more of a closed door romance, but I loved the chemistry between the two main characters. A fantastic Valentine's Day read!

I was given an advance audiobook for which I will b giving a review of my own opinions. This book took a departure from most romcoms in that the main character, Sora, has promoted taking February as a time to self evaluate what is important to each individual and to not celebrate Valentine’s Day she feels it is a holiday totally maewde up by big business only as a money maker day to celebrates love once a year but she takes abstaining from starting a new relationship for the entire month. She has promoted this on her social media and she must lead by example. However she runs into her grade school best friend, Jack, and he has been carrying a torch for her ever since so when they see each other in the local grocery store, where he works as their pastry chef and she shopping the sparks flew when they laid eyes on one another.Actually her exhusband and chippy wife intrude. Jack wisely took over the situation and set them in their place. No one was going to disparage his finally found, Sora. Jack and Sora, couldn’t wait for March and slept together before Valentine’s Day. A secret she will have to keep from her boss for a few weeks. Because of the buzz of her article, shehas been invited to a nationally syndicated talk show to hype her ever popular idea. If it goes well she gets a permanent job with her own column. Though she is still hiding this secret that she hasn’t lived what she is preaching. Causes a rift with Jack when he finds out. Normal rom/com will they or won’t they end up together? Thanks to the following for allowing me to review early:
#NetGalley
Publisher
#CaraTanamachi
#The secondYouAreSingle
Publication Date: 31 Jan2023
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I DNF'd this at 25%. I think it has potential, but it just felt too basic? Too many tropes, too many coincidences, and not unique enough. I'm sure I could have pushed through and given it three stars, but this was just not for me.

I am so sad to say that I could not get into this one. I'm not sure if it was the characters are the writing. I also didn't vibe with the narrator. I'm hoping this was just a me thing and not an everyone thing. Thank you for the gifted copy.