Actress Birdie Robinson flees Hollywood under a cloud after her usually adoring public turn against her after an on-set feud with a sleazy director.
Back home, she finds an anonymous love letter that she never opened, sent from someone wanting another chance with her. With the help of her best friend’s brother, reporter Elliot, she takes off in an RV to track down her former beaus to ask if they are the secret admirer.
She is hoping an enchanting love story, as reported by Elliot, will restore her status as America’s sweetheart. But hanging with Elliot again is raising all sorts of feelings.
This started strong with Birdie retreating with her reputation in ruins and then heading off on a road trip with her repressed crush. But I wasn’t particularly enamoured with either main character and the wheels truly fell off for me well before the end.

Birdie Robinson is one of Hollywood's biggest rom com stars. In an attempt to repair her reputation, she heads home to get away from Hollywood. While at home, she finds an anonymous love letter sent to her years ago. She immediately runs to her best friend Mona, who is working at the bar she owns, for advice. Shortly after, Mona’s brother, Elliot arrives. Elliot is a news reporter who travels to the world for work. Mona immediately decides that Elliot needs to follow Birdie around sharing the story of Birdie finding out who sent her the letter, and who her true love is.

I liked how Birdie ran to her hometown after her Hollywood downfall. Although that is common in books, I don't think I've ever seen that with a Hollywood star, who I feel like should have so many other options to look to. One of my favorite parts was when Birdie and Elliot had to stay on the side of the road in the RV. I also felt like this book has a more in depth backstory than probably any other best friend sibling second chance trope I've read, which I enjoyed. Even without getting her ex's involved, I feel that way. I absolutely LOVED the ending! It's what pushed this book from four stars to five stars for me!

THIS BOOK IS FOR YOU IF: You're looking for a fun read with a lot of history that's light on the romance.

Take Two Birdie Maxwell by Allison Winn Scotch is a friends to lovers, second chance romance that involved the mystery of an anonymous love letter.
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Birdie is America’s Sweetheart, an actress who has been dearly loved for years, until she has a temper tantrum on set and flees back to her hometown. Now her management team, the paparazzi, and every fan she ever had is on the look out for her to watch the train wreck her career has quickly become. In the safe place her best friend Mona and Mona’s twin brother, Elliot, provide, Birdie comes up with an idea to get her life back on track and her fans adoring her once again.
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She found a love letter from an ex, unsigned, in a stack of mail at her parent’s house and decides to revisit her ex-boyfriends to see who wrote the letter, hopefully rekindling a romance and live out her own romcom adventure along the way. Elliot is a popular reporter and agrees to write the story of Birdie’s search, while keeping an eye out for her.
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The two have a history and each secretly wish they had a future too. The grand gesture in this one is unique and a great ending to the story. The letter writer did surprise me. I love getting surprised in a romcom.

“The dichotomy of celebrity is that you are at once completely familiar with someone, and yet you are acutely aware that you know very little in actuality.”

“Why ruin something beautiful with reality?”
🤣👏🏻🤷🏼‍♀️

Birdie Birdie Birdie. Birdie is Hollywood’s biggest rom-com star and, after a mishandled situation that is now the latest viral video, she feels she’s being “cancelled”. In her panicked state she decides to escape to her childhood home. When she meets up with her childhood crush, who is also her bff’s twin brother and a news reporter, they decide to stage their own rom-com by visiting her exes to find out which one sent her a love letter full of regret about their failed relationship.

This was the cutest story! I was immediately sucked into Birdies crazy world and the struggle she felt to be both the Birdie that is a celebrity and the Birdie that has true and real relationships from before she was famous. I loved being on this ride with her as she found her way.

But my biggest take from this book is THANK GOD I’M OLD AND MY MISTAKES AREN’T ON THE INTERNET FOR ETERNITY 😰. Wow. I feel bad for this generation.

The audiobook has dual narrators and I loved this aspect as you were truly immersed in both Birdie and Elliot’s storyline. This is a sweet, feel good, forgive others for their mistakes story that has you believing in second chances, the art of communication, and love. It always comes down to the love.

Thanks for the free #audiobook @PRHAudio #PRHAudioPartner and to Netgalley, Berkley Publishing, and the author for the gifted copy.

(4.5 Stars) Thank you to Berkley Romance and PRH audio for the free digital and audio advanced copies, below is my honest review.

Birdie Maxwell was America's sweetheart until an on-set fight went viral, and her image imploded on the set of her most recent film. Her PR-planned mea culpa landed like a lead balloon, and now she is heading home for the first time in years to escape a media onslaught. But home isn't entirely what she'd anticipated. Her parents have rented out their house, and her sister is pissed about all the emails Birdie never answered. Birdie can only rely on her best friend, Mona, who has lived across the street since they were twelve. While cleaning out her childhood bedroom, Birdie finds an anonymous love letter from an ex written years ago. The letter sparks an idea…can she rehabilitate her image by starring in her own real-life rom-com?

Mona's twin brother, Elliot, is a war reporter back in the States and is skiing on thin ice with his editor. If he can bring in a popular puff-piece series about his sister's best friend finding the letter's author, he may return to the newsroom's good graces. Thus starts a chaotic road trip in a dilapidated camper, hiding from paparazzi and tracking down Birdie's exes. The only problem? No one has ever loved Birdie as much as Elliot…and Birdie's always secretly loved Elliot.

This book is fun, funny, and so adorable. All of the secret pining. The regret and hidden feelings. Elliot's pain as he meets all of Birdie's famous exes, Birdie just wishing the letter would be from Elliot. In many celebrity romances, you may be initially compelled to play a tiny violin for "famous people's problems"; however, Birdie is more real than many celebrity FMCs, genuinely reflects on her role in getting to her current situation, and manages a lot of really healthy personal growth. It is a slow-burn, road trip, sibling's best friend, childhood friends to lovers, celebrity romance with a pinch of enemies to lovers.

The audiobook narrators do a great job of bringing the story to life with the humor and frustration the characters navigate for most of the book.

This was a pretty cute read. The premise was interesting and I will literally try anything that has forced proximity so there was no way I was going to pass this up. It ended up being good, but not one of my favorite reads. I liked to dual POV, and the chemistry between Elliot and Birdie was great. I had a tough time with how often our two main characters had the chance to have a real conversation and talk things through and either fully ignored the opportunity and/or didn't tell the full truth. It happened so often it got a little frustrating because they both had such strong feelings for one another but it took forever for them to figure it out.

I thought examination of Birdie's previous relationships and realizing where she went wrong and some of the toxic situations she was in was well done. It was sometimes difficult to root for her because of how bull-headed she could be and there were times that I just wanted to throw the book due to the choices that were being made. Elliot was an interesting character - also someone who made a lot of questionable choices that really ended up hurting himself, but I could see that his heart was in the right place.

Overall, I'd recommend this book even though I didn't love every aspect. It was a fun quick read that had some very cute moments.

Read this if you like:
•Best friends brother
•Celebrity romance
•Road trips
•Second Chance romance

Birdie is in a bit of a PR disaster and it forces her to reexamine her life. It gives her a chance to figure out what matters to her and go back to her roots of things she’s lost touch with. Along the way Elliot (a ONS and her best friends brother) gets involved to write a story about her.

This was a fun one! Thank you PRH audio for the audiobook!

Actress Birdie Maxwell finds an old lost love letter and recruits her best friends brother to help her track down who sent it.

A fun romcom with heart - we see Birdie take time to rediscover herself and get a second chance at love in the process.

Funny, heartfelt, a satisfying love story..

Tropes to note:
- Actress x Writer
- Second chance romance
- Road Trip
- Some miscommunication

I mostly enjoyed this one. The premise (a sort of My Name is Earl or To All the Boys Ive Kissed Before adjacent plot) is that an America's Sweetheart actress (I kept picturing her as Jennifer Aniston) has an altercation on set and retreats to her hometown, where she discovers anonymous note written to her by a guy from her past.

She, accompanied by a real-life ex from her past, takes off on a road trip to track down her exes and figure out who wrote the note. Her ex, Elliot, is a famous TV journalism who is also somehow in disgrace and secretly writing a feature article about Birdie.

What I did like: the road trip and anonymous note were fun. Loved Birdie's exasperated publicist.
What I liked less: For a thirty-five year old, Birdie was a bit of a mess who had fibbed about her past and seemed completely unable to regulate her emotions.

I really enjoyed the book at the beginning, and loved the characters! The arguing, not getting along and quirks of Birdie started getting on my nerves, though. Along with the miscommunication between Birdie and Elliot, it became really frustrating. I was happy with the resolution, there were just a few hiccups along the way that I could have done without. I enjoyed The Rewind by this author, and I actually liked this one more! I read this as part of a #berkleybuddyread

Allison Winn Scotch's book In Twenty Years is one of my all-time favorite books, so I was excited to read Take Two, Birdie Maxwell, and I have mixed thoughts on it. There were parts I liked, I think the chapters from Elliot's perspective were my favorite. Birdie on the other hand, I wasn't the biggest fan of her's. It was a cute story as Birdie and Elliot reconnect years later as Birdie is down on her luck in her career and she tries to discover which of her ex's wrote a secret note to her. Birdie and Elliot have always liked each other, but never admitted it to the other as they were growing up. It's a bit of a second chance as they did have one night together a few years prior. I think if there was a little less miscommunication in this book, I would have loved it.

Read if you like:
🥈Second Chance Romances
💋 Childhood Crushes
🤳🏻 Viral Downfalls
🎥 Celebrities

This book was compared to a mash up of Notting Hill and The Proposal, but for me, neither of these comparisons quite worked as those are two of my fave romances and just didn’t get those vibes.

However, despite not feeling the comparisons it was an enjoyable story, with a predictable plot for a second chance romance with a celebrity that is trying to rehab their image.

Overall, it wasn’t my favorite read, but I think a lot of people will love it!

Thanks so much to Berkley for my ARC in exchange for my review.

This book worked for me because I am somehow a sucker for Hollywood romance and second chance/childhood crush. If those are not tropes you usually swoon for I am not sure this will be the book for you because honestly it is my love for those that propelled me through the story when it got slow or silly.

I have loved Allison Winn Scotch's other stories and this one started out strong. A disgraced actress receives an anonymous love letter and goes on a trip to try to figure out who it is from and redeem herself. Birdie was just not likeable. She was very selfish and at times whiny and grating. She commented A LOT on Elliot's past romantic history and it became too much after a while. I loved Elliot and Mona. They were very supportive of Birdie. I didn't feel the chemistry between Birdie and Elliot. Overall it was a good book that I was able to get through quickly.

Thanks to NetGalley and Berkley for my copy of this ARC.

This is a good book. The two main characters are Birdie and Elliot. They have known each other for all their lives. They have secretly loved each other. Birdie is an actress. Elliot is a journalist. Birdie comes home after a terrible director makes a move on her. While going through some boxes she finds a love letter to her from a mysterious previous lover. Elliot offers to help her find the person. They both realize they love each other.

If a novel's inciting incident is all about a main character's world imploding in a spectacular fashion, I'm automatically interested. Take Two, Birdie Maxwell features a well-developed cast of characters, lots of Hollywood drama, and tons of conflict. I was really into this because Birdie’s life just kept getting messier, which makes for great reading.
Here's the good news: I loved, loved, loved Birdie's decision to retreat to her hometown to find refuge.
The chemistry and tension between Elliot and Birdie are delicious. The quest to find the author of the anonymous love letter is also really fun.
The less-than-good news: I'm never a fan of using failure to communicate as a plot device. Birdie and Elliot could've had a meaningful conversation and resolved a lot of their issues. But they didn't so the plot slowed way down.
The ending is satisfying and enjoyable…just wish the characters had arrived there sooner.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions shared here are my own.

A celebrity second chance romance that manages to make Birdie seem like a relatable, charming character as she tries to figure out who might be the person among her exes that could have been "the one" and sent her an anonymous love letter. Great characters and interesting (if not entirely relatable) complications.

WOW!! I loved the twists and turns and LOVE in this book
And the RV omg!! and who knew that a lost letter by your twin could cause so much heartache.
The Vegas scenes made me laugh.
I am so glad they got there together in the end!!
GREAT BOOK!! T
Thanks so much

I enjoyed this wild adventure of a romance and the mystery that drives the storyline. Birdie and Elliott have a one night history and loads of chemistry, but dance around any talk of either. The wild ride in the camper may be a bit over the top, but it goes with the plot and the ridiculousness of the situation they find themselves in. Revisiting old flames doesn't seem like a great idea to me, but it made a fun novel that's a quick easy read.

Synopsis: Birdie Maxwell is the queen of rom-coms and America’s sweetheart, that is until a PR disaster sends her running to her hometown for the first time in years to hide from the paparazzi. There, she finds an anonymous love letter that sends her on a journey that could be the key to saving her career. With her sister, her best friend, and her best friend’s brother, Birdie sets out to find her past exes in hopes to reconnect with the author of the letter in her own real-life rom com.

Thoughts: I had a lot of fun reading this one! There were so many fun elements - Hollywood drama, road trip vibes, visiting past exes, second chance romance, childhood crushes, Vegas magic shows - would totally watch this as a movie. There were some deeper elements as well exploring sibling relationships, self-discovery, and the misogyny of Hollywood. If you’re looking for a rom com with realistic characters, laugh out loud moments, and really great writing, I highly recommend Birdie Maxwell!

Read this if you like:
🎬 Hollywood drama
🎬 second chance romance
🎬 rom coms
🎬 road trips
🎬 best friend’s brother