I just couldn’t get into this book. Gave it multiple tries. Why is she leaving her husband? Seems like unnecessary drama. Was really intrigued after reading the description.

Rules for Second Chances by Maggie North
3.5

Thank you to Netgalley and St Martin's Press for the advance copy of this book!

Things I liked:
-British Columbia setting
-Autism representation
-Character growth
-Strong side character development & likeability

Things I didn't love:
-pace was a bit too slow
-plot took a while to really take off
-major family issues for both Liz and Tobin, felt a little bit overkill

All in all, this wasn't a bad debut novel! There were some things I really enjoyed, but I ultimately ended up rating this 3.5 stars.

Liz Lewis aspires to get back to leading tours for the luxury alpine adventure company she works for–it’s where she met her charismatic husband, Tobin, but instead of growing together, they seem to have grown apart, with Tobin as a lead guide while Liz is relegated to logistics, on call. She never met a spreadsheet she didn’t like, but that isn’t her only skillset. Used to always being a naysayer and feeling herself diminishing in all aspects of her life and marriage, things come to a head when she is mistaken by a server at her own birthday party. Tired of not feeling seen, Liz calls for a break, and moves back to her childhood home where her older sister and niece reside. She decides to throw her hat in the ring for her company’s pitch competition, and a higher-up recommends she take an improv class. Liz leans into her discomfort zone to discover “yes, and.” The improv instructor is another guide with her company, AND an author of a relationship self-help book, based on improv concepts. When Tobin brings a galley edition to Liz and suggests this might be the blueprint for working on their marriage, she agrees. Will it be a key to undoing their bad habits and allow them to move forward and heal?

Tidbits from McHuge’s fictional book and from the improv bible Truth in Comedy preface each chapter, hinting at the scene to follow. Liz is able to not only establish an identity for herself separate from Tobin, but also makes new friends, sets more boundaries, manages expectations, and starts to understand she herself may be as neurodivergent as her niece Eleanor. The romance and it’s challenges are real, raw, and wholly believeable with pain and heat and chemistry and forgiveness and baggage. The improv is also real, raw and wholly believable, and the interwoven themes of working with an romantic partner and improv partner are beautifully parallelled.

I read this a few months ago, then requested the audio. Gail Shalan’s narration is just perfect for the story, capturing Liz’s range of emotions, Tobin’s baritone, his parent’s Scandavian accent, Liz’s best friend Skellar’s voice, mentor Sharon’s no-nonsense nurturing, Amber’s big sisterly force, and Eleanor’s charm. The Canadian accent is subtle and spot on.

I received a free advance reader’s review copy of #RulesForSecondChances via #NEtGalley, courtesy of #MacMillan.

Really not for me.

I didn’t buy the romance at all, so rooting for a second chance was basically impossible. I’m also not sure the neurodivergence angle works either. It’s a nice attempt and the Autism behavior analysis is interesting but it also doesn’t make sense and feels so forced.

Also, the audio is not great. The MMC voice is terribly done by the female narrator.

I received an advance audio and e-galley. All thoughts are my own.

Rules for second chances
Thank you Macmillan audio and St Martin’s Press for my gifted copies. All opinions are my own.

I’ve seen several friends rave about this and I couldn’t wait to pick it up. It was a unique mix of women’s fiction and romance.

Liz is struggling in her marriage and tired of not being seen because she’s different. She wants to be seen as an individual without her husband Tobin, and win her company’s pitch contest.
There is more romance as Liz gets further into her personal journey, but a lot of her is Liz finding herself. She makes new friends, participates in improve, and learns so much about herself. I loved her learn so much about herself. There was obviously love between her and Tobin and lots of chemistry, but they both stopped putting in the work. There aren’t a lot of marriage in trouble romances and I really appreciated this one.

The narration was well done by Gail Shalan.
I look forward to more books from Maggie North!

I really, really wanted to love this one- but it ultimately fell a bit flat. Firstly, I think I was a little put off by the culture or location.. perhaps. Not sure if it's just because I'm American but it took me a while to understand what it was that the characters do for a living like with the tourism in Canada. It felt like a huge part about what the main character was unhappy about that I just couldn't grasp...I also found that not only the FMC but her sister and mother-in-law were unnecessarily cruel for a majority of the book. I felt the most empathetic for Tobin (the husband), who unfortunately didn't have a POV in this book. I deeply wish he did.

I did still think the writing was beautiful. There were multiple quotes that tugged on my heartstrings, for sure. & the improv spin was fun & refreshing. It's a great second chance romance with neurodiverse/autism rep I'm sure others will enjoy.

Many thanks to Netgalley & SMG for the eARC. All thoughts are my own.

🏔️ Book Review 🏔️

Thank you to Netgalley and publisher for an arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

Publication: June 25, 2024

Rating: ❌ (Not for me)

I was initially drawn in with the whole “marriage in crisis” trope and a dash of second chance trope. The biggest things that didn’t work for me as a reader: the writing style and the main issue for the marriage.

The writing felt clunky and vague. I wish there were more details and maybe a dual timeline or dual POV. This would also solve what the crisis was about.

Perfect for fans:
🏔️ First person
🛶 Singular POV
🏔️ Introvert FMC
🛶 Extrovert MMC
🏔️ Marriage in crisis
🛶 Improv sprinkled in

3.5⭐️
1/5🌶️
This was an interesting take on the second chance romance (more like marriage reconciliation but it seems everyone is calling it a second chance romance). The author and main characters use improv and role playing to help find their way back to one another. The main character, Liz, signs up for improv under direction of her boss in order to gain some help and confidence for this pitch competition at her job. The improv group happens to be taught by Liz’s husbands best friend, who is also one of her colleagues and he wrote this Second Chance Handbook that uses improv scenarios to improve partnership. What’s wild to me is that this improv teacher has a PhD, wrote a marriage help book based on clinical psychology, and supposedly also works at this outdoor guide company Liz and her husband work at.

Anyway, Liz and her husband Tobin are having marital problems, mainly communication issues, and can’t get in with a couples therapist for 4+ months. Canadian healthcare is wild sometimes I guess? So they agree on trying the scenarios in this improv book Tobin’s friend wrote to see if it will help them towards the conversations they need to have. All the while, Liz is working on improving herself and ‘getting magic’ and working on her ideas for the pitch competition.
<blockquote>“I’d accept that some people are born with that special magic, and I’m not one of them, and the best thing to do is stop wanting things I can’t have. But I do want them. I want people to see me.”
</blockquote>
The improv scenarios are interesting, but there are various things about how they went about resolving their marriage that bugged me. I get having to wait to see a counselor but it was like they didn’t have or try to have any other conversations outside of these improv scenarios and just kept springing apart after arguments or sex. Listen, I GET IT. But I felt like Tobin and Liz could have worked on their marriage and talked outside of these improv scenarios. They didn’t really try to have hard conversations very much in the book and I wish they would just like come out and say what they wanted to say.
<blockquote>
“I have a stubborn, pointless wish not to be the only one who notices the broken things. Everyone glides by, not seeing the problems, not seeing the one who fixes them.”

“All I want is for him to let me in, and let himself out.”
</blockquote>

Overall I related the character Liz a lot with her social anxiety and a lot of her traits and also going through marital problems but I also found her character to be frustrating at times and make frustrating decisions that didn’t quite make sense to me. I don’t feel like we got to know enough about Tobin besides like how sexy he is. Some of the descriptions of Liz’s libido and hormones were…strange but that was a very small part of the book. In the end I’d rate this 3-3.5 stars.

<blockquote>
“Sometimes it feels safer to hold back your thoughts, rejecting your own ideas rather than risking the pain of rejections from others.”

“You may be tempted to self-edit so completely you end up saying nothing at all.”
</blockquote>

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

“The truest thing about me is how I’m so in love with you” says Liz to Tobin but also me to this book immediately after finishing it.

I loved it, as someone who is also very socially anxious and introverted I related a lot to the struggles that Liz has been and is going through. The sense that everyone around you has more instructions for every interaction, and knows all of the unwritten rules, not knowing how to fail joyfully, everything feels like an all or nothing situation. Maggie North did a fantastic job of depicting LIz’s struggles and showing her making mistakes and failing but still trying.

I really loved the relationship dynamic with her husband Tobin, it is clear how they've gotten to the place they're at even though both of them is trying to be what they think each other needs/wants. It felt very rewarding to be along side them on their journey of learning how to be better partners, and I really liked the role that improv played. I also really liked how present both of their families were in the story and how those relationships played into their struggles as a couple.

Title: Rules for Second Chances
Author: Maggie North
Genre: Romance
Rating: 4.00
Pub Date: June 25, 2024

I received complimentary eARC and ALC copies from St. Martin's Press and Macmillan Audio via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. #Gifted

T H R E E • W O R D S

Refershing • Introspective • Bittersweet

📖 S Y N O P S I S

Liz Lewis has tried everything to be what people want. But she’s always been labeled different from everyone else in the boisterous world of wilderness expeditions—that is, if anyone notices her at all. Her marriage to popular adventure guide Tobin Renner-Lewis is a sinkhole of toxic positivity where she’s the only one saying no. In a mountain resort town built around excitement, introverted Liz gets…spreadsheets.

When she gets mistaken for a server at her own thirtieth birthday party and her last line of communication with Tobin finally snaps, Liz vows to stop playing a minor character in her own life. The (incredibly well-researched and scientific) plan? A crash course in confidence…via improv comedy class.

The catch? She’s terrible at it, and the only person willing to practice with her is a certain extroverted wilderness guide who seems dead set on saving their marriage one bonkers improv scenario at a time. But as Liz and Tobin get closer (again), she’s forced to confront all the reasons they didn’t work the first time, along with her growing suspicion that there might be more to her social awkwardness than anyone realized. Liz has just eight weeks to learn improv’s most important lesson—"yes, and"—or she’ll have to choose between the love she always wanted and the dreams that got away.

💭 T H O U G H T S

I always love discovering new authors, and it's always a bonus when the happen to be Canadian. I requested this book on a whim based solely on the cover while browsing upcoming releases on NetGalley. I did expect the wilderness and the setting to play a bigger role based on the cover, yet that may have been an overlook on my part.

Rules for Second Chances is a creative and unique narrative of a marriage in trouble set amongst the Canadian wilderness. While the first half is centered around Liz's self-discovery, it is the romance which is the star of the second half. Liz's complexity and how she learns to find her own voice after so many years of falling into the shadows and being walked over was an absolute breath of fresh air. Her dialogue did get a bit repetitive at times, yet I found her highly relatable and I think the miscommunication trope is justified here.

The improv aspect was the ideal tool to utilize as a metaphor for telling this story. Honestly, it was pure genius! There are so many laugh out loud moments during some of the scenes and it just added another layer to the story and showcased how Liz came to understand herself, her boundaries, and Tobin's needs.

A couple of things I really wish would have been done differently include, the author giving the readers Tobin's POV in addition to Liz's. There isn't a real explanation of Tobin's insecurities until around the two thirds mark. His perspective would have helped get this explanation sooner. Additionally, I really wish the tourism would have played an even larger role. Maybe they could have went on some adventures together. Maybe there could have been more tours. I simply love travel and adventure, so there definitely could have been more.

Gail Shalan does a wonderful job narrating the audiobook. Her performance was engaging and I thought her voice was a good match for Liz's character. She was also able to transform into the other characters smoothly offering distinct voices for each. Highly recommend!

Overall, Rules for Second Chances is a solid own voices debut novel. I can safely say I have never read a romance that utilized such unique elements. Seeing introverted characters in books always makes my heart happy. I will be keeping my eye on Maggie North's future projects as I am sure her writing will continue to mature the more she writes.

📚 R E A D • I F • Y O U • L I K E
• marriage in trouble trope
• neurodiverse MCs
• improv

⚠️ CW: sexism, misogyny, ableism, sexual content, toxic familial relationship, childhood neglect, abandonment

🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S

"Love is about making your own rules, and so is life."

I really enjoyed this one! The campy, adventurous setting was a great backdrop for the story. The characters were believable and their struggles were so well written, but the book certainly didn't feel like it took things lightly. Still, the story moved at a great pace and the characters waded through difficulty without the story feeling heavy or like a slog. The romance was believable and the character growth was too!

I really enjoyed this one!

This book was exceptional. Maybe it’s because I could find a lot of relevance to my own life at this moment in time in this story, but I really loved what Maggie did here. The story itself was so good, seeing Liz come into her own and decide to be more of a participant in her own life and relationship, and also learn to work with her autism. But, the advice and life lessons in this book, through improv no less, was top tier. I think that I was able to take away some of my own lessons from reading this, and to me that’s what makes a book excellent. The story touched my heart, but it also made me look at myself. Highly recommend!

"Rules for Second Chances" is a beautifully crafted narrative that delves into the complexities of love, identity, and personal growth. From the outset, Liz and Tobin are on the brink of divorce, a poignant backdrop that immediately pulls you into their world. Liz, feeling like a background character in her own life, is tired of being overshadowed by her vibrant, social butterfly of a husband who seems oblivious to her dissatisfaction.

Determined to reclaim her sense of self and boost her confidence, Liz takes a leap of faith and joins an improv class. Her journey is fraught with awkwardness and second-hand discomfort, as she struggles to find her footing in an unfamiliar environment. Despite being really bad at it, she perseveres, driven by a desire to transform her career and, ultimately, her life. The scenes of Liz fumbling through improv are both cringe-worthy and endearing, a testament to her resilience and courage.

In a surprising twist, Liz finds herself needing Tobin's help to navigate the challenges of improv. This unlikely collaboration becomes a catalyst for rediscovery, not just for Liz but for their relationship as well. Through humor and heartfelt moments, they begin to reconnect, peeling back the layers of resentment and misunderstanding that had built up over the years.

The emotional depth of this story is beautifully balanced with dry humor and improv antics that provide much-needed levity. There were moments that made me laugh out loud and others that brought tears to my eyes. Liz's journey of self-discovery is profoundly relatable, and her struggles and triumphs resonated with me on many levels. Tobin, too, is a character that I found myself empathizing with, as he navigates his own path towards understanding and supporting Liz.

"Rules for Second Chances" is a testament to the power of perseverance, love, and the courage to step out of your comfort zone. It's a story that celebrates the messy, beautiful process of finding oneself and the importance of second chances. Maggie's writing captures the essence of human experience with wit, warmth, and emotional honesty. This book is a delightful mix of silly, beautiful, and painful moments that will stay with you long after you've turned the last page. I eagerly await to see what Maggie does next!

RULES FOR SECOND CHANCES is such a unique, heartfelt, and moving debut about a marriage in trouble and one woman’s experience of self-discovery.

I love the framework of the book — the fictional instructional manual at the beginning of each chapter and tying into the action on the page. It reminds me of Rosie Danan’s THE INTIMACY EXPERIMENT, which also employs an instructional intimacy course in its content and framework. Like that book, this one has some genuine nuggets of wisdom in its pages!

The line level writing and voice here are really lovely, easily switching from humor to lush and evocative description to tender admissions. This book achieves a lovely balance — that perfect sweet spot where rom-com meets women’s fiction. I want to laugh and cry and feel that I’ve learned something in a book like this, and RFSC one checks all those boxes for me.

I appreciate, too, that Liz and Tobin’s relationship occupies mostly a gray area — their problems are not so severe that they are bitter enemies but not so small or simple that they can easily fix them. Finding their way back together requires honesty and vulnerability, and when all seems lost near the end, I truly believed the complicated emotions both were feeling in that moment. It felt earned and real.

I’m so excited to see what Maggie North writes next! Thanks to St. Martin’s and NetGalley for the ARC.

RULES FOR SECOND CHANCES is unlike any other romance I've read recently. It's a romance but also so much more, and will be a completely inspiring read for anyone else feeling stuck in their life.

I commend this character Liz for doing the hard thing and taking steps to change what she was unhappy with in her life, instead of just going along with "fine" because it's easy. It's a joy to watch her change, grow, and find her happy again, both in her relationship and otherwise.

Liz's husband Tobin seems like such a sweetie, and I love that he would do anything to fix things with Liz. I would have loved to read his POV!

I'm excited to see what else Maggie North has up her sleeve. This debut was incredible, and I can't wait for more!

Great premise and Liz and Tobin are a couple you'll want to root for, but the overall story is a little light on hope throughout and heavy on doubt and misunderstanding/miscommunication between the characters. Liz is struggling in her life and in maintaining her marriage to socially outgoing husband Tobin. In her own words, she is playing a supporting role in her own life. She is socially awkward, has a strained relationship with her husband, has an overbearing mother-in-law, and struggles with an often-difficult relationship with sister who is unfortunately her main source of family support. Liz wants to be more noticeable and taken seriously, both personally and professionally. At her jerk boss's suggestion, she takes an improv class to build interpersonal skills ahead of a competition for a work promotion, and we get to watch as she learns more about herself and how she interacts with others. At the beginning of the book we also see Liz temporary split away from husband of 3 years. She has felt partially edged out of their marriage by the demands of their families who live in close proximity, and by Tobin's deferring to his parents' wants and needs rather than valuing his marriage. Liz has an autistic niece, who not only plays a large part in her life but also in her journey of self-identity.

The supporting characters were well-written, and I was invested enough in Liz and Tobin's relationship to root for them (both individually and as a couple). Liz sees herself as boring and weird, afraid her dynamic husband will finally figure out that he should leave her (as we watch her growing realization that she may be more like her niece than she thought). Tobin is harder to read at first, but is clearly shaken when Liz seems to leave their marriage and as the story progresses we learn more about how his past is negatively impacting his relationships. I wondered initially if Liz mistook her general unhappiness with how her life is going with unhappiness with her marriage, but as the story goes on we see that both Tobin and Liz have been holding back in their relationship. Liz and Tobin were written as closed-off products of their upbringings, which worked well as a plot point. I really liked the premise of Liz using improv to change her life, although it was a little heart-breaking that she felt she needed to learn how to be someone else in order to be happy in her own life. I liked the story but it was a lot: some parts of the story moved well but I struggled in other parts to stay engaged. Both of their families felt selfish and unsupportive, which you'd think would make Liz and Tobin's bond with one another stronger but it didn't seem to have done that. It also made them really hard to like. Liz's understanding of how to fix things in her life felt vague and nebulous, but I guess that was realistic. Having a one-year-later epilogue at the end went a long way towards helping me feel happier with the story's resolution. But since the majority of the story was about putting in the work to make a relationship work, skipping ahead a year for their HEA and to tie up the loose ends felt like a writing cop-out and minimized the continued work we are forced to assume they did to make things better for themselves. When all is said and done, the thing I love most about romance books are their sense of hopefulness, and I just didn't see enough of it throughout this story to feel satisfied. While there was some hope in this story (albeit most of it concentrated towards the end), it didn't feel strong and was outweighed by too much doubt and character confusion throughout the book. I'm not sure if that's the story's flaw or a flaw in my interpretation of the author's words, but it definitely affected my enjoyment of the book. That said, I did like the story overall and was engaged with it enough that I would read this author again. Thank you to NetGalley for providing an eArc of this story in exchange for my honest and objective review.

Second chance romances are always a top trope of mine. This one didn't disappoint. Liz and Tobin, watching them work together to fix their relationship, was sweet and swoony. So so so good.

This book felt very frenetic all around - the plot, the pacing, the characters. I did not really enjoy the writing style, and there was a lot going on between the second chance romance, the workplace dynamics, the family drama, and the mental health angle. The improv focus gave an interesting spin to the story, but ultimately I just didn’t feel the chemistry between the two main characters and never really felt invested in them.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press for gifting me with an ARC to review! All opinions are my own.

Rules for Second Chances centers around Liz and her husband Tobin. When the book begins, they are on the brink of divorce. Liz is sick of being a background character in her own life and feels resentful towards her larger than life social butterfly of a husband who is apparently unable to recognize anything is wrong. Reluctantly but with determination, she decides to join an improv class to build her confidence in hopes that it will drive forward her career. But she’s really, really bad at it and needs Tobin’s help.

The level of second hand discomfort I had for poor Liz going through improv was something else. But she pushed through and really found herself in the process. This was a really beautiful story. For all the dry humor and improv antics, I also cried quite a bit. I related a lot to both Liz and Tobin for different reasons. This was silly and beautiful and painful. I cannot wait to see what Maggie does next!

Thank you to SMP and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I found the main female character Liz to be unlikeable in the way she treated her husband Tobin. It seems things started falling apart for them at their wedding when neither made the other their priority with the family drama (both sides) at the wedding. So, several years in, Liz is feeling like she just a side kick to Tobin and that he doesn't hear her anymore. Liz decides she needs space to find the magic to make herself a more likeable, outgoing person. I'm glad I stuck with the book because it gave insight to both of their family situations that shaped who they were. I enjoyed the intro to each chapter. Happy with the ending....except for the baby's name.