Alternate Endings by Ali Rosen gives us an interesting take on second chance romance. Bea and Jack meet after a long time in a weird situation and their lives have changed a lot through years. Bea has a son, a messy work life, a complicated divorce and then comes Jack. Irish castle, quirky boss and forced proximity are not the best combination but it sure did provide a different kind of backdrop.

Bea is a bit all over the place. Her ex is so closed minded and controlling and she is under severe stress about her beautiful son's custody. Her boss is supportive but has a quirky sense of running business. Bea was reluctant to leave her son with her ex husband to attend the meetings in the Irish castle her boss has moved to but she is promised a promotion and it would help immensely in the impending custody battle. She is a great mother. She is witty and hard working. She has been thtough some heartbreaking timea but she is a fighter.Jack is a blast from the past she didn't expect to be their new CTO. They have been best friends and almost lovers when they were young. The past feelings are still buried deep somewhere. Jack is not your prototype alpha. He has worked hard to make his own career away from his toxic family so he is definitely confident and charismatic but the underlying vulnerability made him relatable. They had a friends aka coworkers with benefits situation going on when in Ireland but it soon overflowed into New York. Jack is the supportive partner Bea needed to put all the pieces of her life together and Jack found his old best friend and soulmate again.

I feel the secondary characters took too much space in the book. Specially Bea's friends. I wanted Bea to talk out her feelings out with Jack but there were so many long chapters where Bea talked about her feelings with her friends. Their relationship built up was lacking. I was distracted by so many things other than the romance part.

I reviewed an early copy voluntarily

I absolutely adored Ali Rosen's sophomore novel. I am a sucker for a second chance romance and Bea and Jack were truly a couple I could root for. It's nice to see a heroine my age (36) represented as well, as a lot of romances tend to focus on twenty somethings and I really liked the relatable aspects of these characters. I enjoyed that this book took place between Ireland and NYC - as a NYC resident, I love to read about local places and the chapters in Ireland added a nice balance to the story.

4.25 stars!

It started a bit meh as i do feel like we could have benefited from an introduction earlier to the Lucas relationship, so the emotional stakes were higher.

That said it did have a second chance and grumpy x sunshine trope, which are my kryptonite.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice: 🌶️🌶️

Rapid Review: This sweet, quick read is chocked full of second chances and will leave you content and hope-filled!

My thoughts: Aptly named, this book was full of ways we screw up different parts of our lives and then how those messes can somehow be redeemed on ways we could never have planned. The MMC Jack is such a sweet introverted, tech master who is beautifully, silently supportive. Our FMC Beatrice represented imposter syndrome so relatably. She is all of us - struggling to perfectly balance career, motherhood, womanhood etc. (cue Barbie monologue 💞). Her attempts to balance it all and then struggle to put herself first for a change hit home. I appreciated the representation of infertility and how much strain and hurt loving through that can put on all the individuals involved as well as their relationship. It’s something that is not often discussed and usually not well when it is. I really loved the dichotomous dynamic in the alternate settings of New York City 🏙️ and the Irish ☘️ countryside. It was written in such a way that you could feel through the writing the tension and hustle of the city whem the setting was there just as you could feel the slower pace and casual, comfortable essence of Ireland when we shifted. There was a beautiful growth and maturity in both of our main characters as well as some of the side characters as well which made this feel like such a satisfying completed story by the end. Themes of grace, forgiveness, understanding, and love are woven together masterfully. This book defines a feel-good story.

What to expect:
✨2nd Chance
✨Forced Proximity
✨Workplace romance
✨Infertility representation
✨NYC 🏙️ ✈️🇮🇪
✨HEA

Thank you Montlake for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Alternate Endings by Ali Rosen was such a fun rom-com.
This was such a fun read! The witty banter and the dynamic of the characters kept me engaged. I genuinely enjoyed this story.
I loved Bea and Jack! They were engaging and I adored their personalities.
Ali Rosen’s books are incredible and her style of writing is truly amazing.
This was a great second chance romance story.

Thank You NetGalley and Publisher for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

I received this arc in exchange for an honest review. 🤍

this was such a cute and easy read. it follows beatrice who is a single mum trying to sort out custody arrangements with her ex-husband while her boss insists on biweekly trips to Ireland for work — where she is reunited with her high school sweetheart.

i was slightly hesitant when i first began reading this but i quickly fell in love with all of the characters and the writing style. it was so easy to follow and the pacing was perfect. the main character’s friends added another layer to this story too.

definitely recommend!!

Beatrice’s boss at a data company announces that she is getting divorced and moving to an Irish castle. And her New York executive team is expected to meet up with her there every fortnight.
That’s a tough ask for Beatrice, who shares custody of young son Bash with her ex-husband.
And when the new chief technology officer is revealed as her former high school boyfriend Jack, things get even more complicated.
Soon Beatrice is living two separate lives - ambitious exec having a no-strings work fling in Ireland, and busy working mum with a disgruntled ex back in New York.
This was a story about finding the right fit between co-parenting and work, with a second-chance romance based around the concept of ‘what happens in Ireland stays in Ireland’. There were plenty of great moments but overall, the pace was a little slow for me.

I’m impressed with Ali Rosen’s sophomore contemporary romance. I enjoyed her previous book Recipe for Second Chances (Nov 2023) and this is also a second chance romance. Beatrice's Leal’s life is a balancing act. She is in the middle of a divorce, raising and co-parenting Bash, her six year old son, while working in a demanding job she loves. Her respite and wonderful support group include her beloved soon to be ex sister in law and a couple of long time friends. Bea’s life gets more complicated when the CEO of her company decides to move to a Scottish castle and demands the management team come for meetings twice a month. And on the first visit she meets the new CTO, Jack Sander. He was her childhood crush, her first love and he broke her heart.

The set up is good and I like that Rosen doesn’t rely on formulaic storytelling. The chapters often jump time to the next corporate meeting. The initial anger at seeing Jack again gets quickly replaced with catching up, understanding their present and finally learning more about each other's feelings in the past. They also surprisingly fall into a FWB relationship fairly early on. This is a refreshing book with two people who are smart and good at their jobs. Bea is still healing from the breakup of her marriage and I like the author bringing in the difficulties of fertility issues. Jack has family problems of his own. I love that there isn’t a last minute miscommunication or fake angst. Instead there is healing and moving forward. This isn’t a romcom but more of a women’s fiction romance and I enjoyed it very much. Thank you to NetGalley and Montlake for the ARC and I am leaving an honest review. (4.5 Stars)

This was a wonderful second chance romance!
Ali tells a beautiful story of love after divorced. Of finding yourself anew with someone you’ve known before. Of how women can truly have everything they want.

I liked this! I think any setting in Ireland truly captures my heart, but I found the story to be fresh, the writing really well done and I felt very emotionally invested in our characters, which is a true testament to the author's abilities.

This is Ali Rosen’s second novel and the first for me. I absolutely loved it. The setting was in NYC and Ireland, which is my favorite country in the world. I really enjoyed this second chance romance, but check TW as there’s a lot of discussion about infertility. Bea and Jack secretly dated in high school and as many high school relationships, it did not end well. Twenty years later, Jack is brought on as the CTO at the company Bea is working at. They are required to travel to Ireland every other week for one night to meet with the whole team after the CEO moves there. They have so much sexual tension, they decide to do a “sex friends” situation only when in Ireland. Obviously, this moves further past Ireland and into NYC where their relationship strengthens. I loved that they started relying on each other and being there when the other was in need. The side characters, Mona, Rika, Clem, and Brigid were some of my favorites. I can’t wait to go back and read Ali Rosen’s debut.

I really enjoyed this quite mature, slow ambling romance. I think the background between Bea and Jack was well done, as there is emotion behind their past parting, but they've both changed and appreciate that they were kids in the past and did the best they could at the time. Bea is messy and confused and has so much on her plate, and as a working mother myself I found this really relatable. I think the interactions with Bash did a good job of throwing in some comedic moments, and the interactions with her ex were well done too. I think if you enjoy a romance that has lots of personal growth, great friendships, and a more mature character you'd really enjoy this. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to provide my honest review.

Ali Rosen clearly likes three things: food, travel, and second chance romance. But to be fair, that’s really all this novel has in common with her first, she tells a different story in Alternate Endings.

Bea is a career-driven mom in the throes of negotiating her divorce when life throws her two curveballs. She’ll be expected to regularly travel to Ireland where her boss has recently relocated, and she’ll be working with a new hire who happens to be her high school boyfriend, Jack. Bea and Jack start a “when in Ireland fling” that grows into something more.

The story is told in Bea’s first person narrative, with only one flashback to their high school days. On the one hand, if there had been more flashbacks the book would have felt too much like a revamped version of Rosen’s previous novel, but on the other hand, the characters relationship felt underdeveloped because those details weren’t revealed until about the 80% mark.

Overall, it was a fun, fluffy romance. There’s talk of miscarriage and secondary infertility that is handled respectfully and truthfully.

Thank you to NetGalley and Montlake for the free eARC.

i have to start by saying that as a second chance trope supremacist first and foremost, this one felt so refreshing to me. i feel like this book used a different "formula" than what we're used to seeing when it comes to the trope and i really really loved that.

it's been a good while since a book got me truly hooked and made me feel as much as this one did. i'm a sucker for romance books that manage to make you truly care for other elements beside the main love story and let's just say that by the final chapters i had tears in my eyes because of bea's journey alone. loved loved loved. and the writing?!?!?! this was my first story by ali rosen, but definitely won't be my last.

like i previously mentioned, bea and jack were not what i was first expecting from a second chance couple, but i ate it up every second of their interactions and honestly i wish there were more! getting other glimpses into their past would've made this perfect for me — alongside adding more of bash and jack.

with that said, i couldn't recommend this book more. if you're like me that's always looking for romance stories that feel real and get you smiling like a fool, go read this one when you can!

A work place second chance romance. Jack broke Bea's heart and now, as adults, they have to work together. She's got so much on her plate-not only her son Bash but also her job, the job that requires her to cross the Atlantic repeatedly, that she isn't prepared for romance, I usually remind readers that workplace romances (at least these two are peers) aren't good idea but this is well handled. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A good read.

This book was an interesting one. I liked it, but it took me a while to get into it. I would put it firmly in the Gro-mance category. There was a romance there, but it was a bit overshadowed by the odd pacing and outside drama.

Bea's life is filled with issues at home. Her son is great, but her soon to be ex-husband is difficult and she's still working through the things that broke them up. When her job takes her to Ireland for a day and a half every other week, she reconnects with her high school boyfriend and they begin an Irish only fling that helps Bea find her true self again.

When I settled into this book, I really enjoyed it. The writing was great, I liked both of the main characters, and there was well developed cast of side characters. The pacing was just off for me. It took place over almost an entire year. This wasn't a slow burn situation; the couple gets together fairly early but it takes them a while to decide to be all in. Family and job issues are the bulk of the first 60%. It did give me an opportunity to really get to know the couple and their pasts, so that's a plus. There's a bit of a second chances trope here, but I thought it could have been taken out completely. Their past is not a barrier to them getting back together, so it just made the trope feel a bit shoehorned in.

I would read more from Ali Rosen. I liked her characters and story development.

Thank you to NetGalley and Montlake for the advanced e-book in exchange for my honest review.

The book focuses on Beatrice, who is recently separated, and is forced to work with the first boy who broke her heart 20 years later. Beatrice and Jack have such profound growth through the book and I really enjoyed watching their relationship blossom.
It was SOOO refreshing to read a female protagonist who is ambitious and values her career, while also being an amazing, dedicated mother. It is a slow burn romance, which I really enjoyed. I loved the female friendships in this book (Beatrice was constantly supported and called out on her BS by her best friends). I wish Jack had a little more personality (he was a little too quiet and stoic for me).

I wish I enjoyed this more. For one, it is partially set in Ireland. Woo! And two, because I really liked the intent behind this story. Beatrice was a great character! Struggling with the balance of her divorce, motherhood, and growing career, I was excited to see her find happiness.

But this was just too ... slow. It follows Beatrice as she travels back and forth from New York to Ireland for work (she's the VP of business development). While there she develops a friends-with-benefits situation with Jack, the newly appointed Chief Technology Officer—but more importantly, the man who broke her heart in high school twenty years ago.

There just wasn't a lot happening in this one. Beatrice would travel for work, have fun with Jack, return home, and repeat. I found myself wanting to skim over the repetitive scenarios. It's not that there wasn't any meaningful conversations between Beatrice and Jack, but overall the emotions and longing for a second-chance romance weren't quite there for me.

This book was so captivating, I could not put it down. From the dreamy Irish backdrop to the heart of the main character Bea, I simultaneously needed to keep reading but also never wanted it to end. The characters in this book felt like friends and I was instantly transported right into the story as if I were following my friends and colleagues along on this adventure. I cannot recommend this book enough.

I’m Alternate Endings, Ali Rosen gives the reader some of the most authentic and realistic characters found in the romance genre. Bea and Jack are living messy, complicated lives. Their shared history makes their unexpected reunion feel inevitable even as it makes life more challenging. The interactions and dialogue feel entirely plausible.

The real allure of this book lies with the supporting characters. Bash is pure joy. He is delightful in his innocence and exuberance. Bea’s support network of bubble bath taking while FaceTiming friends give her the kind of truthful, unfiltered advice all women need. The relationship between Bea and Lukas seems entirely genuine as they navigate the intricacies of co-parenting after divorce.

This book started slowly for me, but picked up after the first 25%. I’m glad I stuck with it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Montlake for the opportunity to read this advance copy in exchange for my honest review.