The Second Change Year is a perfect book for fans of Sophie Kinsella or Lianne Moriarty. It has time travel (always my favourite) and it a story about discovering and being true to yourself. A great, fun, light read.

Who doesn’t wish that they could have the option of a do over, or a chance to see what would have happened if we had just made a different choice. In this story Alex is miserable on New Years Eve because she has lost her job, and her boyfriend, and her apartment and is living at her brothers friends house. At a party she gets dragged to she meets a fortune teller and systems she could go back and “fix her life”. Much to her great surprise she gets a chance at a do over of the last year of her life. She goes back and changes all the things she thought would make her life better, but things don’t exactly turn out like she’d expect. A sweet romantic comedy with amazing side characters, and so much charm. Do pay attention to the author note at the beginning that there is sexual harassment in this story. A touching story with so much heart. I received an ARC, and this is my honest review.

I love a second chance romance so the title hooked me right away. The idea of being able to replay a year in your life knowing what you know and being able to change it. It’s a very promising idea and this book shows the good and the bad that come along with it.

Sadie has been dumbed, fired and been staying on the couch of her brother’s friends. When a fortune teller grants a wish of letting her relive her year, after just kissing Jacob, her brother’s friend Sadie is at first excited. She now knows how to react and not react to life events around her. She can get the promotion and stay with the guy she thought she wanted. However, knowing how the past year went she can’t let go of something’s or someone’s.

I really liked Sadie and Jacob was a total sweetheart. I loved both of their journeys and how the book didn’t exactly make it easy for them, but none of it was over the top in obstacles. The pace was great and I really liked this book.

Thank you NetGalley and Forever publishing for the ARC.

It's New Year's Eve, and Sadie has had a "very bad year." She's lost her job, her boyfriend, and is currently living in the spare room of her little brother's best friend's apartment. When she meets a fortune teller who can give her a do-over of the last year, she jumps at the chance, and wakes up the morning of January 1st...of the previous year. The more Sadie tries to change her past, the more things go wrong, and soon, it's the end of the year again, and Sadie's right back where she started.

Watching Sadie's journey through the past was both heartbreaking and enlightening, as she tried so hard to please everyone around her, that she lost herself in the process. Her parents were the actual worst, and her boyfriend Alex was a bit of a coward, so I was happy when she created her found family at the coffee shop, along with her dream job. I was cheering Sadie and Jacob on the whole time. and I only wish we could have gotten a few chapters from his point of view, just to get to know him a little better.

If you could redo something would you? That is exactly what Sadie wants to do after the year she has had. Her boyfriend broke up with her. She was fired and no longer can get a job in her industry. She takes a chance after meeting with a fortune teller but as she is redoing her year. She is starting to see the red flags that were raised, and how changing her year can also change the future.

I really loved this one! It felt like a 2000s romcom— it was so sweet and I loved that the main character had multiple points of conflict in her life, not just the romance. Jacob’s character was just absolutely everything— I loved him!! I also really enjoyed the world building that was done at Higher Grounds. Overall, a wonderful read I would highly recommend if you’re in the market for a feel good, happy read.

I’m a sucker for books that play with time in some way, so I was excited to pick this book up.

It follows Sadie, a young woman who finds herself on New Year’s Eve lamenting that everything has fallen apart for her in the last year. She finds a fortune teller and asks for a do over of the prior year. Her wish is granted, and she works to fix everything that she did wrong in her life.

I enjoyed following Sadie as a character. She’s a pastry chef and so many of the desserts that she was making made me hungry. The book was an interesting study of Sadie’s character as well, since she changes herself quite a bit to keep the status quo.

The romance was super swoony and my main complaint about the book is that I wanted more of him. They were great together and I loved all their scenes. I could have used more.

The message of the book was really great as well, and though it does handle some difficult topics, the book didn’t get overly heavy or bogged down.

Definitely a cute story that I would recommend.

I absolutely adored this book and often wonder, if I could do things over. This is the perfect book to show you, this is not the best choice. I adored Sadie and her wit. She had such a closeness with her brother that it made me cry. Something I wish I had. I loved Jacob. He was such a good guy. A side character, Mrs. Kaminski was also a favorite of mine. This is a quick read and one you don't want to miss if you ever think of a "do over".

Oh, so fun!! This was charming and I loved every single minute of it. I couldn’t’ get enough of the characters! The were absolutely lovely. This was a beautiful exploration with witty banter and antics galore. Loved my time with this one!

What would you do if you were offered the chance to do-over a very bad year? After losing her job, her apartment, and her boyfriend, all thanks to her somewhat opinionated self, a fortune offers Sadie Thatcher with the gift (or misfortune?) of going back in time and trying to fix the very bad year she has just had. As Sadie re-does the year, trying to fix her past 'mistakes', she wonders if it was really worth getting a second chance at the past or if the present was where she belonged all along. If you're looking for a little romance, a little fantasy and some humour in between, you'll want to pick up Melissa Wiesner's latest novel, The second Chance Year.

In just a few weeks, Sadie’s life has fallen apart. Her boyfriend left her, she lost her job and her apartment, and is now sleeping at her brothers best friends apartment and doing all she can to become one with his couch. When her bestie drags her out to a new years party, she finds herself in front of the fortune teller asking to start the past year over. When she wakes up one year in the past, Sadie is determined to turn this bad year around.

I think we can all think of a time in our lives where we wish we could go back and do it over. I know I sure do! I loved this story and my heart went out so hard for Sadie. She was such a strong and confident character, and I hated seeing her put herself second and let people walk all over her, just to turn her year around. I adored the cast of characters at Higher Grounds, and wished I could hang out with them all. I also enjoyed the romance aspect of this book, but appreciated that it wasn’t the sole storyline in this book. We see Sadi grow so much and I loved every second.

Very cute romance, entertaining, and easy to read. Sadie gets the chance to relive "her very bad year" where she feels she made all the wrong choices and she knows she can do it right a second time. I enjoyed the writing in this book found the characters likeable and relatable and was rooting for all of them. I always enjoy a book with magical realism and little bit of an alternate timeline and I liked the way this book handled that. I would definitely read more by Melissa Wiesner and will recommend this one! 3.75 stars rounded up to 4. I want to thank NetGalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

Feel good book, but with substance. Well written. The author is very witty and funny. I'd love to read another book by her. Definitely recommend.

The Second Chance Year

3.75 ⭐️

What a cute New Year’s themed romance story!

Sadie has had a horrible year with a bad breakup, losing her job, and losing her apartment. At a New Year’s party she wishes to redo the year, but can’t stop thinking about a kiss with her brother’s best friend that happened in the previous timeline. As she goes back to correct her mistakes, she realizes that not all of them were mistakes.

I really liked Sadie and Jacob, but almost wanted even more time with them together in the story. Sadie was so good at learning in this, and I love a good character growth story.

Thanks to @netgalley for this eARC!

On the eve of a new year, we meet Sadie sitting on a sofa in an apartment that’s not hers contemplating how her life could have gone so wrong in just a year. With no job, no boyfriend and now living with Jacob, her brother’s best friend, things are not looking up. After being persuaded by her friend to go to a New Year’s party she meets a fortune teller and wishes to start the past year over again because she knows if given the chance, she can get it right this time. After coming back from the party close to midnight, she walks in on Jacob playing the piano, one thing leads to another, and they kiss and suddenly how is it that she’s never paid much attention to him before? How is it that she's never noticed how good looking he is?

When she wakes up the next day, she’s in her old apartment in bed with her ex-boyfriend and her job that she’s been fired from is calling to know what’s her ETA and she realizes she’s traveled to the start of her very bad year, and now with the knowledge of how to avoid the conflicts in her work and relationship she can get everything she’s wanted back.

But she can’t stop thinking about Jacob and the kiss and it doesn’t help that she keeps running into him.




It's hard to say where I stand with this book one hand, I liked the premise of the book, I’m not sure what it is but I’m really liking books that are about do over years/travel to the future, so I was very excited to get early access to this but on the other hand I had a hard time with some of the things in this book. For me the ending felt a little rushed and it felt that way because it takes the FMC almost the whole book to realize that if she sacrifices to much of herself for job that isn’t looking out for her and a relationship that has run its course, she loses the people that have always been in her corner, and she begins to lose sight of who she is as a person. I wanted more time on her working to rebuild the relationships she hurt on the road to get this life she thought she wanted.

Another thing is her parents, man are they a piece of work, the only time that they seem to like her was when she had “successful” boyfriend on her side, and it bothered me how much they always down played what she did for a living, I wish Sadie had told them something that finally made them see that the “successful” boyfriend wasn’t everything they thought he was because in the end I felt like we didn’t get a good conclusion on that, heck even the brother could have said something because if I’m being honest they value his opinion more than hers. Yeah, they’re that bad.

The romance, to say I wanted more is an understatement, now I love slow burn as much as the next girl but if you’re going to do a slow burn there has to be a big payoff at the end to make all the pining worth it and I just felt this didn’t deliver.

Now don’t get me wrong, I did like the book. I finished reading it in less than one day, and I recommend it to anyone that loves a Groundhog Day/year trope, slow burn trope, and he was always there why didn’t I see him before trope. I just wanted more.

Solid 3 stars



Thank you NetGalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

You know how the trope unfolds… a woman experiences a series of horrendous personal losses and so she makes a wish to have life return to the way it used to be. That’s the premise of this story. There is no new ground in the book, and you may feel deja vu here and there (and no, that isn’t a pin about repeating the year twice!). Despite this, the book is enjoyable- I read it in one evening, in fact. I can’t call it a slow burn because there isn’t much ‘burn’ in it, but it’s not a “closed door” title (close, though!).

Sadie lost her job, her boyfriend, and her apartment. What she has are good friends, but you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone (sorry, the song lyric popped in my head). In a moment of gloom and despair at a New Year’s Eve party, she meets the requisite fortune teller who gives her a weird incantation and voila’- the next morning, her new year begins.

There are some things I don’t understand with the book, including the cringy ending (SPOILERS) when the hero tells her he’s loved her since the 4th grade when she rescued him on the playground. That isn’t cute. That’s a cute story for how you met, or a laughing moment for how you initially had puppy love. That isn’t the basis of loving someone for 20 years as the character said.

So

Thank you Netgalley and forever for the free e-Arc in exchange for my honest review. I think this would make a great adaptation however on page there were too many stories going on at the same time, and for me too many characters to keep track of. I liked the idea of it.

3.5/5☆

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and author for a copy of this book. Readers should know there are described instances of sexual harassment and sexual assault without trigger warnings though the author does handle the situations carefully.

Sadie Thatcher is in need of a do-over. In the span of a few months she loses her job, her apartment, and her boyfriend due to speaking her mind a little too loudly. So, when a fortune teller offers her a chance to redo the entire year and prevent her heartache, she jumps at the opportunity. During her do over year, Sadie learns the importance of standing up for what she believes in, to never shrink herself or her self-worth (especially for men), and most importantly, that a do-over can cause more problems than help.

Overall, I enjoyed spending time in Sadie's world. I love the characters she interacted with and how they became a pseudo family to her. My biggest complaint about the book is that I wish everything was more fleshed out. The romance, though hinted at throughout the book, reaches the "I love you" stage extremely quickly. Some of the characters that we are supposed to love, we barely know. I can picture Zoe and Mrs. Kaminsky's vibes but don't really know them as a whole. I just wish the characters were more developed so that the relationships felt more fleshed out.

This was so good! I loved it! This is something that we all wish we could do, go back ibvtime to fix things. But would we really? This is a great book and I can't stop thinking about it.
I just reviewed The Second Chance Year by Melissa Wiesner. #NetGalley
[NetGalley URL]

Oh, what a delightful romance! This was my first book by Melissa Wiesner, and I'm sure it won't be the last. Sadie was a pastry chef in a high-end restaurant when she gets fired, dumped by her boyfriend, and has to live with her younger brother's best friend who owns his own apartment. Wallowing in self-pity on the couch, her best friend convinces her to go out for New Years, and while out, she connects with a fortune teller and wishes to start the year over. The next morning, she wakes up next to her old boyfriend and goes back to work at the high-end restaurant. But as the year progresses and she makes the changes that she thinks she should to keep all that she lost, she slowly but surely realizes that all that she lost was for the best.

While The Second Chance Year is a romance, the story is about so much more than that. Sadie's parents don't support her career and her boyfriend wants her to be someone she's not. She struggles with her identity of being someone who doesn't hesitate to stand up for those who can't do it themselves, and when she stops speaking up, she loses a key part of who she is. Sadie is looking around all the time for ways to change to she can fit in better, but it takes the whole book for her to realize that she's fine as she is--and the ones who love her just as she is are the ones she needs to hold onto.

There's a slow burn romance--her roommate/brother's best friend--is a painfully shy successful composer and it's pretty clear from the get-go that he adores her. But she doesn't see him until she does--and then it's crystal clear. Sadie and Jacob have a wonderful relationship because they accept each other for who they are and don't try to force them to be someone they're not. And that's the overarching message of this book--be true to yourself!

I usually like my romances a lot spicier, but this was a highly enjoyable read--an absolute treat. Highly recommend.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.