Sadie Thatcher gets the chance to relive a rough year through the magic of a fortune teller. She thinks by not being her loud, reactive self she may not lose her boyfriend and job. The story follows her month by month through the year as she chooses a different response to situations she encountered previously. A constant through the year is her brother’s best friend Jacob. He is there as a sounding board and a friend whenever she needs him.

Who hasn’t wished for a do over moment? But as this book shows maybe do overs aren’t a magical fix. It is also a feminist book as much of the drama comes in the form of workplace harassment. Examples come from her workplace, hiring practices in finance where her boyfriend works and more. She also has issues with her parents who don’t value her job compared to education and more traditional options.

This is a quick and easy story to read. It leans towards general (women’s) fiction to me as the focus is on Sadie and not on the romance itself. (It is appropriately labeled this way.) It is also closed door for intimacy and gets around the awkwardness of waking up next to the boyfriend with whom she is no longer involved. With such a cute cover I wasn’t expecting the main topic to be such a heavy focus of the story. I enjoyed the book and like the idea that it may be more important to focus on the present and future than on the past.

Thank you to NetGalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for the ARC and I leaving a voluntary review.

4/5 ⭐️ So, I binged this book in a day. I am such a sucker for a good time traveling romance.

What to Expect
✨ Time travel
✨ Brother's best friend
✨ Friends to lovers
✨ Slow burn
✨ He falls first
✨ Single POV
✨ Found family
✨ Be careful what you wish for

Synopsis
Sadie has had a VERY BAD YEAR. She lost her job, her apartment, and her boyfriend of 3 years and spent half the year wallowing and reflecting on her mistakes. The cherry on the top of her awful year is kissing her brother's best friend on New Year's Eve, which he definitely seems to regret. There's a wish from a fortune teller in there somewhere and what do you know? Sadie wakes up the next morning on Jan 1st of the year she just finished! She gets to do it all over again and has the opportunity to fix all of her mistakes.

What I Liked
I loved the time travel aspect of this book and the fact that it takes place over an entire year! I've read other plots like this that only cover a few weeks or months. There are a few chapters dedicated to each month, which moves the story along quickly while also conveying that the main character isn't making rash decisions with her do-over. She's really trying, for months, to make things better. There are a few times where she recalls events that she has been through before, but also plenty of new situations brought on by the consequences of her altered decisions.

I adored the side characters in this book. There is a small cast of quirky characters that Sadie comes to know and love, and they are all great. This includes Jacob, her brother's best friend. While he is a love interest, I would consider him mostly a side character in this story. The romance takes a backseat to the other lessons Sadie needs to learn. I think it was done very well. We get little glimpses of romance throughout (enough to keep you wanting more), but it isn't always what matters most in this book, it's about Sadie accepting who she is. That being said, I did enjoy the slow-burn, friends to lovers. I was downright giddy in the last few chapters.

What I Didn't Like
Like I said, the romance takes a backseat, so you don't get a lot of conversations, banter, or fundamental moments that may get you more invested in the couple. He shows up for her, so cute, but that's not all someone falls in love with. I would have loved to see more sides of Jacob's personality.

I do support the themes in this book, like speaking out against sexual harassment. However... you get bombarded with conversations about sexism and how misogynistic nearly every line of work can be. I personally work in one of the industries mentioned in this book (not in NYC, but that shouldn't matter). I feel like things were overdone to make a point, women are respected way more than what this book portrays.

Overall, this is a fun, quick read. This comes out in December, but it's the perfect book to start out your 2024!

Thank you to NetGalley for sending me this ARC in exchange for an honest review. This review is posted to Goodreads, Barnes & Noble and my Instagram (_bookish.brittany). It will also be posted to Amazon on release day.

Sadie is having a terrible year, she broke up with her boyfriend, lost her job and her apartment. At a New Years party she speaks to a fortune teller who gives her the chance to relive her terrible year to try and make it better.
This book was really cute! I loved the do over story line, and fell in love with the characters. Melissa Wiesner shows that you might need to go through tough times in order to get to where you are supposed to be.
Looking forward to more from the author in 2024.
Thank you to Melissa Wiesner, Forever(Grand Central) and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was such a fun read! I hadn’t really heard much about this book until I picked it up, and I was so pleasantly surprised! To me, this is a love story in two parts, one part of two characters falling for eachother, and one part the protagonist falling in love with herself despite the ways people have made her feel as if she’s not enough or too much. I’ve read a lot of romance books that end up reading a lot more like women’s fiction with romance as more of an afterthought, but I think that Wiesner manages to balance the character growth with a steady building of romantic tension so well. The character writing in this book, even outside the protagonist, was really strong for me. I was so genuinely invested in Sadie and Jacob’s falling for one another, and I think this book works really well as an example of great romance books that are fade-to-black. If you’re looking for an enjoyable romance with characters you’ll want to root for as they grow, I would definitely recommend picking this one up!

I’m always a fan of a second chance romance, and this book definitely gives that concept a new look. Sadie is so unsatisfied with how her life has turned out that she asks a psychic to go back and redo everything, not expecting it to actually work. When it does, she’s left with the memories of a year gone wrong and a desire to fix everything. So she does, while thinking about the New Year’s Kiss (and 10/10 cockblock by her brother tbh) and beginning to wonder if the second chance isn’t exactly all she chalked it up to be. Sadie’s character was interesting from the beginning, but it was such a joy to watch her learn and grow over the course of her second chance year, not to become perfect but to be more aware of what’s going on around her. And, there’s something beautiful about two characters who like each other just as much even when all the circumstances change.

Truly, both Sadie’s character growth and the satisfaction of watching shitty men get what’s coming to them are stunning to watch happen. Melissa Wiesner weaves together a realistic landscape for the real world in this romance, while still giving it that tinge of hope I’ve come to expect in a romance where maybe not everything works out, but we still get to see the main characters win. The romance itself fits perfectly into all of it, where we can see what the best choice is from the beginning, but the second chance year becomes the place where the romance grows from a crush into something real. It was a joy, and leaves me with a little hope for whatever may come next, psychic to turn back time or not.

This is a fun romance that leaves you thinking about your own regrets in life. When Sadie gets a second chance to redo her horrible, no good year, she jumps at it, but will her new year live up to her expectations?

I enjoyed the thoughtful premise and love any book that involved time slips. Sadie is an easy character to root for, and I loved her relationship with her brother, best friend, and her found family at the coffee shop. And the love story she is involved in was so sweet and nostalgic.

This is a cute romance that everyone will enjoy. It makes you think about the times you’d like a do over and if that would really be for the best. This is a great read for end-of-year introspection as we plan a crisp new year!

This book was perfection!! Ohhhh my gosh, I’m obsessed! I loved everything about it. I was rooting for Sadie the entire time and when the book I ended I literally yelled
out loud “yess!” The characters, the plot, the pacing, the writing, the friendships, the found family and everything in between was so well done. If you’re looking for a book that will make you feel all the feels and leave you smiling from ear to ear then I definitely recommend this one! I need another book by this author immediately!!

Sadie had a Very Bad Year and on a New Year's day party she finds a fortune teller that lets her relive her Very Bad Year again and change it to make it her best year. She thinks that by changing herself, she will get the promotion she wants at her job, get recognition from her parents (where the definition of successful is staying with her boyfriend, lower her head and go back to school cause cooking is not a real job), and stay with her Wall Street boyfriend that wants to shape her to be the perfect Wall Street wife. In reality, she realizes that she has lost her essence, her voice and the real love of her life and at the end her Very Bad Year was in fact a year of liberation from the chains imposed by herself, her parents and what a macho society demands from a woman. I loved this book so much! It is a Rom-Com for the ages! with an amazing message: We should not change to please others, we should be who we are and fight for what we want.

Thank you. Negalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for this ARC in exchange of my honest review.

After a terrible year, Sadie makes a wish with a fortune teller for a redo on New Year’s Eve, and wakes up in the past with an opportunity to fix her mistakes.

This was a charming story that reminds us that everything happens for a reason. When Sadie gets a second chance at fixing her life, she risks ruining some of the things that were going well for her.

Over the course of a year, we see her try to keep her relationship on track and not rock the boat with her sexist boss at her job. Along the way she keeps running into her brother’s best friend Jacob, creates a community among the local coffee shop, and determines her career aspirations.

I really enjoyed this one overall and recommend if you need a feel good story around the new year. I liked the found family elements and connection with Jacob (though I would have cranked the tension up further).

4 stars

what a sweeet feel good romance! perfect to pick up on one of those slow nebulous holiday nights~

a pastry chef who wishes to re-do her terrible year, one where she lost her job, her boyfriend, her cute house.. making different decisions will surely create a better outcome, right?

- NYC setting
- brother’s best friend trope
- story moves quick! filled with lots of lovable side characters and found family
- this will be a dessert + pastry lovers dream! so many cute and apt food comparisons hahah a lil overboard but sure I can always relate food to my feelings

this was a heartfelt romance and I definitely will be looking out for Wiesner’s next book in 2024!!

The Second Chance Year is a delightful story that asks, what if you could have a do-over? Melissa Wiesner creates realistic characters who sometimes misstep while trying to get what they think they want.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Pastry chef Sadie thinks everything in her life during the last year has been a disaster. She lost her job, broke up with her boyfriend, moved out of her apartment, and is at loose ends. So when she meets a fortune teller at a New Year’s Eve party, she wishes for a do-over. She takes it in stride when she wakes up to January 1 of the previous year. If she makes changes to her decisions and behavior, will she end the year in a better place? Or will she end up where she was supposed to be all along?

The Second Chance Year is written in Sadie’s single POV, which makes sense, since it’s really her story. This book straddles the line between women’s fiction and romance, and the romance isn’t front and center. I found myself completely drawn into Sadie’s story, though, when in other books I just lose patience when the romance is secondary.

That said, Sadie’s brother’s BFF Jacob is a sweetheart. There is plenty of evidence Jacob has crushed on her forever, even if Sadie’s been too self absorbed to notice. I also like the way the story dives right into the do-over year, and doesn’t spend too much time dwelling on the bad present. Another plus for me was the way the plot completely skips over the magical specifics, which keeps it from getting bogged down in justifying the premise.

During her second chance, Sadie spots the abundant red flags that she missed during her first try. It’s tough to make readers root for someone can be difficult with the people and situations around them, but Wiesner pulls it off. Even while she’s struggling with things not turning out the way she expected, Sadie remains completely likable.

I really enjoyed The Second Chance Year. In this engaging novel, Melissa Wiesner shows that that sometimes you actually do have to go through crappy things to get to where you are supposed to be.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I love a good "what if" storyline and this one did not disappoint! After pastry chef Sadie's Very Bad Year, she gets a chance at a do-over to live that year over again. I liked seeing her consciously change her reactions to things and seeing how it played out. I think all of the characters added a little something to the storyline, and I loved them all! Would definitely be interested in reading more from this author! I was able to read this advanced copy thanks to NetGalley.

My full review: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This book is exactly what I needed at the exact right time. I loved it so much and I even got a little teary eyed at the end as I had become so attached to the characters.

Sadie is a little lost after a rough year where she has made a mess of her life. She lost her promising job as a pastry chef, her boyfriend has broken up with her, and she's living in her little brother's best friend's guest room until she can get it together. Most of this she blames on her loud mouth. She is opinionated and stands up for what she believes in, even when it gets her in trouble. When she gets a chance to redo the past year again, she is skeptical but goes for it anyway, hoping to correct the mistakes she made.

This story is about love but it's also about found families, acceptance from others as well as acceptance of one's self. So many people live their lives with regrets and what-ifs, and this book explores what could happen if we could go back and change the mistakes we made in the past.

I could relate a lot to Sadie with the golden boy successful brother and the parents that seem to only celebrate and acknowledge his accomplishments, the obliviousness she has that people are crushing on her, and the insecure feelings of low self-worth when her life seems to be going nowhere. And the pastries, oh the pastries, all I wanted to do was eat the cakes and treats she created throughout the book!

Overall a heartwarming and funny read and I'll definitely read more of Wiesner's books. Thank you NetGalley and Forever Publishing for the ARC! The book releases on December 5, 2023.
5⭐️
1 🌶

After Sadie loses her job, apartment, and boyfriend due to her outspoken nature, a New Year’s Eve fortune-teller grants her a do-over of the disastrous year. She wakes up the next day in the bed of her ex, with her former boss expecting her at work. Sadie slots back into her old life but sees warning signs she overlooked before. As doubts surface about her wish, she keeps encountering Jacob, her brother’s best friend. He doesn’t remember the secret kiss they shared, but she can’t forget it. Was redoing her terrible year a mistake after all?

This book is heartwarming and fun, a reminder that what we want and what we need aren’t always the same things. Sadie and Jake are adorable together. I loved how the story played out to a satisfying conclusion.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

This is such a cute and light read, especially for this time of year. Not only is the character relatable but the story discusses harassment in the workplace, which is also a relatable issue for many female readers.

I like this, didn’t love it.


The beginning started strong, but I found this a struggle to finish. The characters were lacklustre and I didn’t find them easy to root for. I just think this authors writing isn’t for me

Cute romance that definitely kept me engaged. Great premise, but the plot was all over the place and I almost gave up ~30 pages in because it was getting a bit too *whimscal* and not in a good way.

I thought the character development overshadowed the love story, which was maybe the point.

Honestly, great for those who like Katherine Center (cute love stories) and for those who enjoy reading about baking. 2.5 stars for me. Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Second Chance Year may be one of my top favorite debut novels this year. Melissa Wiesner is officially on my auto-read, auto-buy, auto-devour every book that she writes.

The idea of reliving one of the worst years of your life in the hopes of changing things to make it better? I feel like it’s something that we all have wanted to do at one point of our lives. What I loved most about this book is that along the way, you learn a lesson that changing yourself for the worst is not how you turn a bad year into a good year.

I adored Sadie (the cat lady) and I adored Jacob. The side characters were FANTASTIC. They were very memorable in the story and I loved the chemistry that they had with each other.

Give me more books like this and my whole reading shelf will be full of 5 star reads.

Thank you to Forever and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I received early access to this book from netgalley. Overall I enjoyed this book. It was a quick and cute read perfect for the holiday and this time of year. In this novel, Sadie has the worst year ever. Finding herself in front of a fortune teller at a NYE she wishes for a do over. The next morning she finds herself waking up to a time before her year took a turn for the worse. She is determined to change the outcome this time. In the process she comes to find that what she thought she wanted, the man and the job, was not right for her. I think we can all relate to Sadie in wanting a do over during some part of our lives. Would recommend reading this book!

Thanks to NetGalley and Forever for an Advanced Reader Copy - pub date 12/5/2023. Wow. Thank you so much, Melissa Wiesner, for giving me such a lovely, feelings driven, “contains important issues and messiness but does not make its entire personality about them” book that tickles all of the modern romance happy places I sometimes forget I have. I know. That was a very long sentence with words that aren’t adjectives being used as adjectives. If you read this book, though, you will forgive me. Seriously. There are so many Good Things going for it.

The plot is a fairly basic wish fulfillment trope - Doing a Bad Year Over While Knowing What You Know Now. You meet Sadie Thatcher at the start of the book, fully wallowing in her misery after Her Very Bad Year - lost her pastry chef job, lost her long-term boyfriend, lost her apartment and reduced to crashing at her brother’s best friend Jacob’s apartment, eating Ben & Jerry’s, and binging Golden Girls. (Let’s face it, as therapy goes, nothing beats calories and The Girls.) She has decided that all of these things have happened because she is herself - brash, confrontational, confident, and very willing to call out toxic status quos and behaviors. When she gets dragged to a New Year’s Eve party, she gets her wish for a do-over from a fortune teller. Before it kicks in, though, she and Jacob share a whopper of a moment.

I have to admit that, for the first bit, Sadie annoyed me a little. She was just so mopey and selfish and self-pitying. Then the prose pulled me further in and I started to sympathize with her. This was a woman who never before doubted her core self and how she faced the world but now a very rough 365 days left her confused and turning all of her anger inwards as she tried to figure out what she did wrong. It hurt to read her go through this. Unfortunately, I can all too clearly see how it happened, how she got so turned around, because a lot of us DO do that to ourselves, right? Hit me in the gut, why don’t you, Author? Once you meet her parents, her boss, her boyfriend… Well, it becomes even more painfully clear. Even the strongest of personalities can be twisted in on itself under near constant dismissal and losing what you love and want the most.

Or what you think you love and want the most, anyway. The entire Do Over Year proves to be exactly what Sadie needs and in a way she never could have expected. Even as a reader familiar with the trope, I found myself charmed by each slow moment of discovery and I wanted to shout whenever Sadie took a step back into a corner or refused to notice things.

Like, uh, the Statue of Liberty sized torch that Jacob’s been carrying around for her since elementary school. Like how she isn’t a disappointment but her parents sure are. Like how you need to be yourself in order to really find your people.

Through Sadie’s experiences, Wiesner deals with so many things that AFAB and female-presenting people face - patriarchy, sexual harassment, double standards for men and women, self worth and self doubt issues, the pressure to present in very certain ways. Of course these things affect all humans but, by seeing it through Sadie’s eyes and witnessing the repercussions, it is decidedly female slanted and, boy, does it suck. Hence the wanting to scream at Sadie sometimes.

Thankfully, Wiesner manages to include these all while still having a very real and very building romance at the heart of the story. Romance, after all, never happens in a vacuum and Sadie’s journey to her HEA feels like it really does take that whole year and faces outside influences as well as inside forces that keep her grasping at what she thought she wanted. But we should all be so lucky to have a Jacob in the wings, supporting and showing how friendship and love and true partnerships (both romantic and platonic) should be.

Seriously. Jacob is the best. Tall and handsome and musical and shy and smart and kind and a little old fashioned and definitely nerdy and awkward… And, most of all, accepting.

(On a different note, I never realized how mad I could get at a main character’s parents. Sadie’s are The Worst.)

So, basically, go and read this. Please. It will make you mad about society rules and expectations and the patriarchy without keeping you from enjoying a good organic romance and laughing at silly things and adoring a colorful supporting cast. It’s like a perfectly balanced lemon meringue pie - not too sweet, not too tart, and light with a feeling of gravity.

TW: Sexual harassment.

The Second Chance Year, by Melissa Wiesner combines a light dusting magic with a whole heap of trust the timing of your life. The premise of this book sees Sadie traveling back a year in her life, in an attempt to save her job and her relationship. As we travel with Sadie through her redo year we explore if sacrificing who you are is worth the trade-off of keeping what you think you want.

I really enjoyed this book. I found the characters, charming, relatable, and I was rooting for all of them. There were a few characters who served as antagonists in this book and they were believable adversaries without being cartoonish. While the book deals with an unbelievable premise of time travel - the characters situations, and challenges that Sadie faces are all too real. I got very invested in the characters and was worried about how it was going to end. I’m happy to report the ending was satisfying without being unbelievable or too convenient. Like a perfectly balanced dessert. This will probably be a re-read for me when I can get my hands on an audiobook version!

Thank you to Forever and NetGalley for letting me enjoy the ARC of this book!