Thank you to NetGalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for my ARC copy! This review contains my personal thoughts and opinions.

I enjoyed The Second Chance Year! I was intrigued by the story's premise because, obviously, we don't get the chance to redo life in real life. I was curious to see what Sadie would do with her new chance at her most awful year. What I loved most about the book was the main characters. They were all likable to me, even most of the supporting characters.

I could relate to Sadie with speaking before thinking sometimes. This story made me think about how I would do things differently if given a second chance. I appreciate when books are relatable and make me think about how I would go about a situation. This story isn't a deep think piece but presents some great lessons.

Overall, I liked the story and recommend it to someone looking for a quick, light read!

Rating: 4/5

This charming second-chance romance was a great vacation read and perfect for New Years. Sadie has just had what she considers the worst year of her life. She’s lost her job, broken up with her boyfriend, and can no longer afford her studio New York apartment and has moved into the spare room of her younger brother’s best friend. So when she meets a fortune teller at a New Year’s party, she wishes for a do-over. And her wish is granted! Suddenly she has the opportunity to make everything right.

This was a lovely, whimsical romcom with some serious undertones, as it discusses patriarchy and workplace sexual harassment. I feel like the author balanced the mature themes with the fantasy elements well, and nothing felt out of place or forced.

Perfect for fans of:
⏱️ - Groundhog Day-style do-overs
💪 - Fighting the patriarchy
❤️ - Friends to Lovers
🍽️ - Culinary Arts settings
💕 - Found family
🧽 - Clean romance (fade to black)

What a delightful debut. I can’t wait to see what Melissa Wiesner writes next.

If you had the chance to redo a bad year, would you take the chance? Sadie is stuck on New Years Eve of what she is deeming a Very Bad Year when she is faced with the opportunity to potentially redo the past year. That means she might not get fired or be dumped again? Sounds almost too good to be true. Especially when she accidentally maybe makes out with her brothers best friend and guy that she's been crashing with since her life fell apart.

I found this book to be a quick cute read. It was entertaining and charming at times. I found a lot of myself in Sadie, a strong willed independent woman who sometimes has to walk a fine line between what is wrong and what is right. I enjoyed getting to know her over the redo year, and loved that she found herself at the end of it. I enjoyed this book, and look forward to reading more from this author in the future.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced copy of this book. All opinions within this review are my own.

At the start of this novel, it’s New Year’s Eve and main character Sadie has just been through a horrible year that included losing her job as a pastry chef at a fancy NYC restaurant, losing her apartment, and getting dumped by her boyfriend. When she sees a fortune teller at a carnival-themed NYE party, she makes a wish to get to re-do the whole horrible year. Can she avoid the mistakes she made that led to all those things happening her? Or will she make different mistakes in pursuing a different outcome?

Time loops/skips have definitely been a big theme in fiction this year, but this book was one of my favorites of them. Because we didn’t have to see Sadie live the first year but just get told about it in the course of the redo year, it doesn’t get boring or repetitive. And I loved how it was primarily focused on Sadie figuring out who she is and what she really wants, though there is also a very sweet slow burn romance. And a perfect read for this time of year since it starts and ends on New Year’s Eve!

This was a cute story about second chances. I enjoyed the fantasy aspects and how Sadie handled her do-over year. A nice read for sure.

I’m not the kind of person who tells off people when they’ve wronged me. Instead, I hold my tongue, worried about burning bridges and missing opportunities. Sometimes I wonder if this makes me mature or just a pushover.

Not so for Sadie Thatcher, heroine of Melissa Wiesner’s latest novel, The Second Chance Year. It’s New Year’s Eve and she’s on the couch in the NYC apartment of her brother’s best friend Jacob, where she’s been living since she lost her boyfriend and then her job, all due to her big mouth. When a friend drags her to a carnival-themed NYE party, she finds a fortune teller and wishes for a chance to do the year over. Then she goes home and kisses Jacob, the only good thing to happen the entire year. When she wakes up on New Year’s Day, she’s in her old apartment and sleeping next to her ex-boyfriend. Sadie’s wish for a second chance has come true! Will she use it to make the same mistakes that she did last year… or will this be the year that all her dreams come true? And what about Jacob?

Romantic comedies are not my top genre, but I have a soft spot for ones with magic—the body switching, the years-skipping, the ending up in the past. The Second Chance Year really stands out, because it’s not only about what a character does, it’s about who she is, and how that impacts and affects the people around her. Unlike a Sliding Doors type of story, Sadie knows it isn’t about turning right instead of left or catching an earlier train. She decides to keep her mouth shut—changing an essential part of her personality, which had always been about standing up for herself and others—in order to keep the job and the boyfriend. As the year goes on, she has to decide whether it’s worth it to transform herself into something she’s not, and to examine what those choices cost her. While most readers rarely find themselves magically transported back or forward in time (and if you have, please reach out because I’d love to hear all about it), almost all of us have questioned our reactions and choices, and wished for a do-over in certain tricky situations.

Wiesner also digs into precisely what goads Sadie—injustice, especially when sexism is involved. Her boyfriend Alex is a Wall Street investment banker, and the men he works with are pigs. Sadie works in the restaurant industry, where women are routinely looked over and overlooked. In these situations, does speaking out help, or only make things worse?

With heavy subject matters and deep questions about what’s right, this romantic comedy is a little light on the humor. Most of the laughs come from the missed opportunities with Jacob, and some pratfalls. But this isn’t a book that needs belly laughs, and structurally, it’s very sound, with strong plot points and reversals. I also appreciated that, unlike other books with similar premises, Sadie doesn’t take chapters to figure out what happened. She wakes up, remembers her wish, realizes it came true, and gets on with her business. With this fast pace and the book’s short chapters, The Second Chance Year is a quick and engaging read.

Is it better to say what you feel, or keep your mouth shut and hope things get better? The Second Chance Year will make readers ask these questions, while entertaining them with a great story. Maybe next time I’ll tell off that friend who had me show her houses, but used another agent to make the offer. Maybe.

The Second Chance Year by Melissa Wiesner brings magic to the romance genre when struggling chef speaks to a fortune teller at a New Year’s Ever party & wishes for a redo after her worst year. Can she bring back her lost job, her apartment & her boyfriend that dumped her?! Or does the universe have other plans for her?

The Second Chance Year is great for fans of…
✨ Groundhogs Day-esque Year
✨Brother’s Best Friend
✨Second Chances

I love the Groundhog’s Day type trope & with the do over year, this one delivers on that. This dealt with some difficult topics & I recommend checking content warnings. I liked how everything came together at the end.

This was a beautiful reminder to treasure our present & the fact that things work themselves out.

If you’re looking to start the year off on an intriguing romance, I recommend The Second Chance Year!

Massive thanks to NetGalley & Forever Publishing for the gifted copy, which I voluntarily read & reviewed.

Sadie Thatcher gets a chance to redo a tumultuous year after a rough series of losses. The book's magical time-travel element offers a unique way for her to grapple with life lessons, but despite its year-spanning narrative and exploration of heavy themes like workplace toxicity, the romantic subplot felt lacking in emotional depth for this reader.

Sadie’s life has crashed and burned until she sees a fortune teller one day and is given the chance to go back in time and relive the past year. She tries to make different decisions to prevent the previous outcome but fate always has a hand! I thoroughly enjoyed this book!! I’m not a fan of miscommunication and lost patience a few times with Sadie and Jacob. But I trusted the process as it wasn’t as easy as having one conversation for everything to change. We needed the grand finale!! I definitely recommend this as the feel good contemporary/fantasy book we need. The narration was spot on as well!

Gahh! This book got me in all the feels.

So basically, Sadie has had a pretty shitty year. Her asshole boss Xavier fired her from her job as an assistant pastry chef, her boyfriend Alex broke up with her for putting his chauvinist coworker in his place, and now she’s basically living on her brother’s best friend’s couch.

When Sadie stumbles upon a fortune teller on New Year’s Eve with a spell to make one wish come true, Sadie does what any logical person would…shoots the vodka, spins around three times, wishes to redo her Very Bad Year, and throws the magic dust in the air.

The next morning, Sadie wakes up in her old apartment next to Alex with her Xavier’s chef coat hanging on the door. With her wish granted, Sadie gets a chance to do things differently this time around, but will that truly give her the outcome she wants?

I deeply felt so many things reading The Second Chance Year. Anger at how women are so often treated by men, particularly in professional fields. Pure warmth and joy in discovering your found family. Sadness that comes with loss and mourning of relationships and what could have been.

This thought provoking story is so well written with deep character development. Definitely a 5/5 for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Forever Publishing for this eARC of The Second Chance Year. All reviews are honest and my own.

Such a fun book and theme to kick off the new year. Loved the characters and pacing of the plot. Highly recommend for romance readers!

This was a cute read! I really enjoyed following Sadie through her journey of finding herself again!

Books that send you back in time usually annoy me, but this one proved to be an exception. I enjoyed the characters and cared about what was going to happen to not only to the main character but all the others. Great balance of humor and serious/reflective moments.

5 ⭐️

wow this one really surprised me!!! this was such a cute and meaningful book that really emphasizes the importance of standing up for what’s right, living your own life, and making the best of a situation.

in this book, we are following sadie who just lived through the worst year of her life. she lost her job, her boyfriend, and is living with her brother’s best friend because of it. she would do anything to undo the last year. so she ends up doing exactly that! on new year’s eve, she makes a wish to a mysterious fortune teller to undo her last year. and her wishes come true and she wakes up at the beginning of the year she just lived! along the way, lots of shenanigans ensue and a lot of lessons are learned to not try and change the past.

i really didn’t expect to love this so much but i just loved the journey sadie went through and thought it was really powerful. sadie was such a strong person and her journey helped her find that again. and her romance with jacob (her brother’s best friend) was super cute!!

also, if you don’t like spice in a book, this is definitely a good one for you as there is little to no spice!!

thank you so much to netgalley and forever for the eARC in exchange for an honest review! this book is out now!

I absolutely adored The Second Chance Year and will be adding Melissa Wiesner to my list of auto buy authors! I loved the premise of the book as well as Sadie and Jacob and the supporting cast of characters. As someone who related to Sadie for being too outspoken and loud I really loved seeing her journey and finding her way back to who she really was. I also loved the slow burn between her and Jacob and was literally giggling and kicking my feet at the end. This is a must read!

The Second Chance Year is a great New Year’s read. However I feel like this story has been done before and nothing new was brought to this idea. I would recommend this book to people who like second chance romance, second chance at life books, or women’s fiction.

Sadie had a really bad year, she lost her job, boyfriend and place to live. Now she's wallowing at her brother's best friends apartment. On new years Eve, she ends up meeting a fortune teller and wishes to redo the previous year. This is that story, a great read about being your true self.

I read this and Sarah Adler's newest, Happy Medium, back-to-back, and now I'm on a magical realism romance high.

Sadie has had the worst year of her life. When she meets a fortune teller at an over-the-top party on New Year's Eve, she wishes to relive it again to make different decisions....right before she drunkenly kisses her brother's best friend Jacob at midnight, which leaves her reeling. When she wakes up on New Year's Day and discovers that fortune teller wasn't a fraud, and she actually *has* been transported back in time a year, she pledges to do everything differently. She won't yell at her boyfriend's coworker for being a sexist jerk, so her boyfriend won't break up with her. She won't tell off her abusive boss, so she won't get fired and lose her beloved apartment. But the fact that she's reliving her last year means that kiss at midnight didn't actually happen, and she's thinking about it more than she's comfortable with.

Throughout Sadie's second chance year, she resists her impulse to be all the things that got her dumped and fired -- loud, opinionated, impulsive -- and slowly realizes that just because the horrible things that happened to her last year aren't happening this year, she somehow doesn't feel any better. Meanwhile, she's lost a bit of herself along the way, and she keeps running into Jacob, who has no idea about the kiss that is haunting Sadie (because for him, it never happened).

Melissa Wiesner's written a book that is both romantic and heartwarming, but is also an extremely insightful read at the beginning of a new year. It gives the reader a lot to think about -- if you could relive a year of your life, would you? And if you did things differently -- would you actually be better off?

I loved this book so much. SO much.

Sadie has the worst year of her life. On New Years Eve, she gets the chance to live that year again.

This book was pure joy. Sadie tries to correct the mistakes of her previous year, but instead comes to see that everything happens for a reason. I laughed, I cried, I wanted to cuddle up with this book when I was done.

Jacob and Sadie are such a dream. And their friendship develops so organically. I love nothing more than a book where someone who is hurt gets everything back and more.

Thank you Forever and NetGalley for the copy of this book in exchange for a review.

This book was the PERFECT read to kick off the new year and it left me filled to the brim with joy and hope. Our FMC, Sadie, was a badass who let the disappointed voices of her ex, her parents, and her boss echo in her head and heart and get the better of her. After her dumpster-fire year, all she wants is the chance to go back and do the year over...and better. She knows what went wrong now, so she can correct all her mistakes and maintain her dream life. But, when her wish comes true, she is surprised by what she learns.
Y'all --- this book is just SO delicous. I fell in love with Kasumi, Zoe, Mrs. Kaminski, Jose Luis, and Owen. Sadie's life is so full of love and community and acceptance. There are, of course, the less lovable supporting characters that also have a role in Sadie's story, but the good ones were pure joy. And I do not have enough words for Jacob! He was *chef's kiss*, book-boyfriend goals, and he had my heart from the very beginning.
The stats: There are scenes of workplace sexual harassment - so if this is a trigger for you - please read with care. This is closed door and it straddles the line between women's fiction and romance. If you have a sweet tooth: be warned to have sweet snacks handy. Sadie is a pastry chef in the book, and the myriad of delicious-sounding desserts constantly had me salivating.
Thanks to Melissa for writing this beautiful novel and thanks to the team at Forever Publishing for the review copy. All opinions are my own.