This was a fast-moving entertaining romance, perfect for a new year's read. It's inherently far-fetched, of course, with its inclusion of a time loop, but no less enjoyable because of it.

Sadie Thatcher, a rising star in the pastry cooking world, has found her once-promising life shattered. She's lost her job at a prestigious restaurant. Her boyfriend has moved on from their romance, and she's now without an apartment as a result. She begins to suspect the problem is her — more specifically, her big mouth and big opinions. She attends a party on New Years' Eve in an attempt to cheer herself, and there she meets a fortune teller who grants her a single wish: to have a do-over for the last year, so that she can exercise more self-restraint and keep her life on track. She wakes the next morning back with her boyfriend and job, a year in the past and determined to succeed. But as she navigates the year for a second time, she begins to wonder if it's really the best fit for her after all, and if her brother's best friend Jacob might be the perfect fit she's been hoping for all along.

Melissa Wiesner did a great job of capturing my attention immediately, with likable characters that I wanted to root for. One of my pet peeves in romance is the miscommunication trope, where just a drop of maturity would resolve the miscommunication in a second. Thankfully, that wasn't the case here. I felt the missed opportunities between Sadie and Jacob were understandable and believable. Helen Laser did a great job of narrating the book, with an animated and engaging voice that didn't pull my attention from the plot.

Thank you Hachette Audio, Forever and NetGalley for the ARC.

Sadie finds herself like so many of us ringing in the New Year with a less than ideal year behind her.
She lost her boyfriend, her job, and her dream apartment and is now roommates with/crying on the couch of her brother's best friend. She feels pathetic, lonely, and unable to see the glimmers of good that have gotten her through the last year so when she finds an fortune teller at a NYE party who apparently can also turn back time, she jumps on the chance.

I listened to the audio book narrated by Helen Laser and let me first say that she did a PHENOMENAL job delivering this book. Oftentimes with audio books I have a hard time staying engaged and spend most of my mental energy judging the way they say things and cringing over some pretty weird voices (looking at you Vero from the Finlay Donovan series). but I truly loved every choice Helen made here.

The story was sweet, but the love story felt a little forced in places. I am SUCH a sucker for a "it was always you" trope but this one didn't hit home like I thought it would. All in all I did really enjoy listening to this one. Loved the lessons laid out in this book about looking around to see the beauty in the people who surround you even when circumstances aren't ideal, as well as the whole "whats meant to be will be you just have to let it be" lesson.

Looking forward to more fun reads from Melissa Wiesner in the future!

This book was so cute! I loved it so much! This was a contemporary romance, which is the type that I prefer. Also, the characters were so great! I liked our MCs, Sadie and Jacob, a lot, but I also liked the side characters too. Owen, Kazumi, all the people at the coffee shop, Mrs Kaminsky, were side characters that made the book feel more flushed out while adding the depth and comic relief needed in a good romance book. I love books that have fully developed characters all the way around. I will definitely start looking for more books by this author as soon as I hit post.

My ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This was a sweet romance where the main character struggles in her career and love life and gets a chance at a do-over from a fortune teller. It was an enjoyable, low pressure read.

Thanks NetGalley for the ARC of this audiobook. I liked the story of this book. The characters were fun and relatable. I just wasn’t a fan of how repetitive the dialogue was. The main character repeated herself so much it became annoying. Other than that I thought it was a cute quirky story.

The Second Chance Year-a standalone
by Melissa Wesner-1st time author for me
Narrated by Helen Laser-Does all the characters, kept me interested the whole time.
Run time: 7:21
Publication date: 12-5-23
Rating: 5/5

WHAT TO EXPECT:
✨ 2nd chance, slow burn romance
✨ time travel/fortune telling
✨ opposites attract
✨ found family/friends to lovers
✨ brother's best friend/roommate
✨ TW: sexual harassment in the workplace

Summary: I felt for Sadie going through a rough patch during her "very bad year." No job, no apt, no boyfriend. She lives with her brother's BFF Jacob. Her parents want her to go to college and marry her rich boyfriend, Alex. Sadie visits a fortune teller on New Years Eve and wishes for a 2nd chance. She wakes up the next morning next to her ex-boyfriend. During the "second chance" year, Sadie befriends Jacob who is sweet, drama free, and just wants her to be happy.

What I liked:

- FMC Sadie 31, a pastry chef. Defied parents and went to culinary school instead of college. Both her parents are professors.

-MMC Jacob 30, an introverted music prodigy who plays piano. Owen's BFF since childhood. He works in AI computer vision.

-The 2nd chance trope. Being given another opportunity to respond differently and right wrongs is what a lot of people wish for. I'm not sure it helped in Sadie's case, but she does get a HEA.

- Sadie gets to know her mother a little better with a talk about women in the workplace. Sadie always felt her parents didn't support her but her mom's revelations about academia show she's not supported either.

- Being able to stick it to someone who broke up with you is the best revenge. Sadie stays with her boyfriend Alex the second time around but decides that he's not the man for her. He doesn't fight the misogyny of his coworker and in his workplace (investment banker).

-I love the found family Sadie has with Alex and the Higher Grounds Cafe patrons. She even inherits a rescue cat named Gio.


What I didn't like:

- Sadie doesn't confront her parents about how they treat her.
-Her brother Owen doesn't stand up for her.
-Her BFF Kasumi gets angry at her for not standing up to their boss Xavier.

*Thank you NetGalley and Hachette Audio (Forever) for providing this ALC! I voluntarily give an honest review and all opinions are my own. *

This was a sweet romance/fiction story. I enjoyed seeing how Sadie made changes to her life to try to fix her “bad year”. I liked seeing how she realized that she didn’t want what she had in the past and fitting herself to keep those things was changing her too much.

I kinda wish there was a bit more romance between Sadie and Jacob. But what we got was nice. It is definitely a low steam (no open door anything).

This is a great one for the end of the year/beginning of a new one.

“I wish you could see yourself the way I do.”

Sighs. I wanted to like this more. The male love interest is adorable…. And it worked well that their scenes were short but frequent enough to root for him. The cast and vibe at Higher Grounds was great. I really would have liked to have spent more time with them, a real found family! It was a relief every time we went back there. And the narrator of the audiobook did a fabulous job…very positive, high energy throughout. And did a good job of quickly changing energy with the tone of the book in a way that caught my attention and made me pause.
Unfortunately, I really didn’t like the main character. I didn’t like her decisions in her second chance year and she often came across kind of dumb. Then again, maybe you can’t blame her when she is cursed with the worst parents ever. The jumping between a sweet rom com feel to a serious story with heavy issues (sexual harassment, gender inequality) was confusing. And I literally was exhausted with the repetition….the constant food/baking similes were annoying but not nearly as annoying as the repeated phrase “my very bad year”. If I read the ebook I would have searched and counted the number of times that phrase was used. It was a distraction.
I liked the concept of having a second chance and realizing you just needed to live things out without the do-over. I wanted to like it more, but it didn’t work. I stuck with it though because I wanted to see the obvious happy ending come to fruition.
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

When a magical New Year’s Eve wish sends Sadie Thatcher back in time one year, she vows to do things differently. This will no longer be the year that she lost her job; it will no longer be the year she lost her apartment; and it will no longer be the year she lost her longtime boyfriend. But here’s the catch: maybe some good things did happen in that original year—like her job at a local coffee shop, her time at her brother’s best friend’s apartment, and that searing kiss she had with him on New Year’s Eve before she was sent back in time.

As Sadie learns during that time loop, though, it’s best to be true to yourself and to live up to your own expectations, not those imposed by others. Even when things don’t go as planned, maybe they still happen the way that they are supposed to.

What a cozy read! There are aspects of misogyny, gaslighting, and harassment portrayed, but those are countered with true friendship, found family, and the love of someone who cares for you just the way you are. Sadie learns some life lessons in this one, but they are handled in such an affirming way.

Jacob is a shy, sweet, cinnamon roll of a hero that any reader would love to cozy up with, and the food and drink descriptions make me want to park myself at a table at Higher Grounds.

Helen Laser’s narration kept me engaged throughout the story. I adored her vocal choices for Jacob and how she inflected emotion into her performance.

4 stars for the story
4.5 stars for the audiobook

I received an advance copy of the audiobook from Hachette Audio and NetGalley. All review opinions are my own.

4 stars!

What a gem of a book! I really enjoyed "The Second Chance Year" by Melissa Wiesner. It's the perfect kind of feel-good book for the holidays. Sadie has had a Really Bad Year. She lost her job as a pastry chef, got dumped by her boyfriend, and had to move in with her brother's best friend who had a spare bedroom. At a New Year's Eve party, Sadie stumbles upon a fortune teller, and she wishes she could redo the last year of her life. When she gets home, she connects with and kisses her brother's best friend, Jacob, but wakes up the next morning one year in the past. She remembers everything that happened, but Jacob goes back to a time when the two of them never even spoke despite knowing each other for years. Sadie is back with her finance bro boyfriend and has her pastry chef job back, but is it enough for her? While some things immediately start to go better than they did a year ago, other things that weren't altered in any way begin to crumble. Sadie slowly realizes that what she had a year ago is not necessarily what she wants in the future. This story is so lighthearted, good-natured, and fun. I loved the characters here. I appreciate that Sadie is a total mess of a person when we meet her. I love that she is forced to examine what she wants from her work and her boyfriend, what she needs from those around her, and more importantly, who she wants to be. She makes some of the same decisions but also changes a lot of who she is to mold herself around the life she thought she wanted, which even brings her morals and ethics into question. This story never feels like it overstays its welcome. The prose flows very well from one month to the next as Sadie revisits and alters things about her Really Bad Year. Her chemistry with Jacob was so, so good! I loved them together and adored their friends-to-lovers vibes. TW: workplace harassment, sexual assault, sexual harassment; abuse of power. Overall, this is a wonderful book!

Helen Laser does an absolutely superb job narrating the audiobook. Her cadence and her tone of voice are perfect for all of the characters in this book. The way she changed her voice differentiated each character in a way that was subtle but noticeable. I will definitely seek out books narrated by her in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley, Melissa Wiesner, Hachette Audio, and Forever for the complimentary ALC of this book. All opinions are my own. I was not compensated for this review.

The Second Chance Year is such a sweet and fun rom com for the holiday season or really anytime. After a self-labelled Really Bad Year, Sadie wishes for a do-over. She gets it, but starts to figure out what is really important and that maybe the Really Bad Year wasn't so bad after all. I loved the magical realism and the contemporary setting. The magic somehow fit into the story without too much explanation, but also without feeling like it was completely out of place. Sadie was a great female main character. I enjoyed watching her grow as she figured out her life a bit more. I also really loved Jacob, the male main character, and all of the rest of the people in Sadie's life. It was a nice twist to be able to see everyone and the events of the story from the perspective of both the original year through Sadie's memories of it, and also as they were happening in the do-over year. It was fun to see what changed and what stayed the same. I do wish that there had been a bit more with Sadie and Jacob. They definitely had chemistry, but it felt like their interactions could have been a little more. That said, I really enjoyed them as a couple.

The narration of this audiobook was also wonderful. The narrator did a fantastic job of creating each character in a way that separated them audibly but didn't feel forced or out of place. She was very easy to listen to and did a great job with both the male and female characters, which is something I can sometimes be picky about.

This book was overall exactly what I wanted and even more than I expected. I am looking forward to more from both this author and this narrator.

The narration on this book was fantastic, though around the 34% mark, something odd happened and it kept skipping. That could be my device--I'm not sure.

I enjoyed the premise and the story. I didn't feel the romance between Jacob and Sadie at all, and while I like fitting comparisons, there were just too many in this book. Also, the go-to reaction is some variation of putting palms to their cheeks. These are all editing issues, really. Overall it was an enjoyable read.

Read if you like:
✨ Magical Realism
⏳ Time Travel
🥐 Baker FMC
💋 Brother’s Best Friend
❤️ He Falls First

What would you do when faced with a fortune teller telling you that you can have one wish, at the end of one of the worst years of your life?

For Sadie, she asks for a do-over and a second chance at her worst year where she lost her boyfriend, her job, and her apartment and ended up living with her brother’s best friend.

When she takes advantage of the wish offered she ends up a year prior on New Year’s Day and now gets a chance to redo her whole year and see if she can come out ahead with her second chance knowing the mistakes made and what she can do to avoid ending up in the same spot after her re-do year.

This story was fun, lighthearted, and heartwarming watching Sadie live through her second chance year and seeing how she made different decisions but how sometimes those decisions led her to just a different path that still led to similar outcomes despite her attempts to “get it right”. All in all, if you are looking for a lighthearted romance with some magical realism I recommend checking this one out!

Thank you so much to the publisher for my ALC in exchange for my honest review of this great audiobook!

This was a very cute, fun story that was mostly women’s literature with some contemporary romance and magical realism. For the romance, there was no spice, but lots of tension, and almost even a friends-to-lovers vibe. The audiobook was done very well, and the narrator switched between characters flawlessly.

As the book started, I didn’t think I’d like Sadie, but she grew on me as she grew as a person. Would I make her decisions? No. But can I understand her dilemma? Yes. The plot follows mostly her, as she essentially travels back in time for a do-over of the previous year. Chaos and life lessons ensue, naturally. There is a very heavy theme of sexism and abuse of power in the workplace, which struck a cord with me, as I look back on those experiences and think of what I could have done differently. Mostly I think it was handled well, or at least alluded to, but those things can be a trigger for some. It’s interesting how a (mostly) lighthearted romance novel can make you think about serious topics like that. Well done on that front.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this book and listened to it in one day. 4 stars, easily. Nothing groundbreaking, slightly predictable, but in a good way that sometimes a romance novel just needs to be.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hatchette Audio for the audio ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced audio copy of Melissa Wiesner’s THE SECOND CHANCE YEAR.

Sadie Thatcher has had a very bad year. Her boyfriend dumped her, she lost her job, and she’s forced to squat on her brother’s best friend’s couch. On New Years Eve, she attends a party and asks a fortune teller to help her have a do over to make right all the things that went wrong.

Sadie wakes up on January 1st right back where she was…. the previous year!!!

I’d love to list the things I really liked about this book, but too many of them would be spoilers. Generally, there were good characters, a well-flowing plot, and a believable ending.

What I didn’t like was the constant food metaphors… like, CONSTANT!! I also did not like the fact that Sadie kept referring to the previous year as her “very bad year.”

The narrator (Helen Laser) annoyed me at first, but she grew on me and eventually felt natural in the role.

I absolutely love this audiobook! It was so amazing when it came to the reading and the character acting!

4.5 ⭐️

The Second Chance Year is the perfect hug-worthy book. Sadie just had the worst year ever. She is given the chance for a redo and hopes she can right all of her wrong doings. Along the way, more mistakes are made and all hope feels lost. Still, with some introspection and wise words, Sadie is able to get on the right track, once she realizes what it is she truly wants.

A cute rom com from melissa Wiesner.

Sadie Thatcher’s life has fallen apart in spectacular fashion. In one fell swoop, she managed to lose her job, her apartment, and her boyfriend—all thanks to her big mouth. So when a fortune teller offers her one wish, Sadie jumps at the chance to redo her awful year. Deep down, she doesn’t believe magic will fix her life, but taking a leap of faith, Sadie makes her wish, opens her eyes, and . . . nothing has changed . And then, in perhaps her dumbest move yet, she kisses her brother’s best friend, Jacob.

When Sadie wakes up the next morning, she’s in her former apartment with her former boyfriend, and her former boss is expecting her at work. Checking the date, she realizes it's January 1 . . . of last year . As Sadie navigates her second-chance year, she begins to see the red flags she missed in her relationship and in her career. Plus, she keeps running into Jacob, and she can’t stop thinking about their kiss . . . the one he has no idea ever happened. Suddenly, Sadie begins to wonder if her only mistake was wishing for a second chance.

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. The narration on the audiobook by Helen Laser was also excellent, making this the perfect audiobook for me to listen to during a long weekend while still being engaged! 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.

I am a sucker for a time loop book and this lived up to my expectations. This is a story about Sadie and her chance to redo her "worst year". She has a second chance to live a year differently and hopefully correct the mistakes she made previously that cost her a job, her boyfriend, and possibly respect among her family and friends. When she starts over, she realizes maybe her "worst year" wasn't bad and that by her changing the "mistakes" she thought she made was changing who she was.

I loved this book! I loved the main characters; Sadie and Jacob, but the side characters were amazing too! I would love more books about these characters in the future!

I listened to the audiobook and I loved the narrator's voice and cadence. Her name is Helen Laser and I would listen to other audiobooks she records. She captured all of the emotions well and the audiobook was produced well.

4.5 stars but rounding up to 5 on Goodreads.

Thank you NetGalley and Hachette Audio for the ALC!