A do over of a very bad year - that was done so good! I honestly enjoyed this one more than I was anticipating. The romance was really good and the storyline was captivating!

Obsessed with this book and this story! It was such a cute romance with a lot of tension. Highly recommend!

Thank you to the publisher for the review copy! I just couldn't get in the mood for this one, but I do love this author!

Man am I sorry I slept on this one or maybe it just hit me right when I needed it. Sadie gets a do-over of her Very Bad Year and learns more about herself then she ever bargains for.

I loved the characters in this one. Brother's shy best friend was the sweetest love interest. Although I wish there would have been some more reckoning with her parents. Their relationship was a bit rocky and there wasn't really closure on that part.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Short synopsis: Sadie had the worst year ever, her boyfriend broke up with her and she got fired from her job. She runs into a fortune teller who helps her go back for a second chance to redo the year.

My thoughts: I read this at the perfect time of year! Highly recommend reading at the end of December or beginning of January since this starts over New Years.

I loved the one year time slip, and I loved the lessons Sadie learned throughout that year, and the growth she experienced. I loved the way “fate” played a hand in a lot of things and especially enjoyed watching everything come together the way it did at the end.

There is some difficult topics that come up in this (one being sexual harassment) and I love the way the author empowered the woman to stand up for herself!

Read if you love:
- Time slips/ magical realism
- Brothers best friend
- Second chances
- Following your dreams
- NYC/New Years Eve setting

Thank you to NetGalley and Forever for a review copy of this book.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

“I can choose to stay stuck, to keep looking back at yesterday, at what could have been. Or I can move forward. To tomorrow.”

I read this via an e-ARC and audiobook from my library.

I requested this book because a niche trope that I love is romance with the brother's best friend/best friend's brother. I also thought this was a trapped in a time loop story like Groundhog's Day, but I was wrong about that one.

The Second Chance Year follows Sadie Thatcher, a woman who, in one fell swoop, manages to lose her long-term boyfriend, her job working for a renowned chef, and her nice apartment. Stuck single, living on her brother's best friend's couch, and working at a coffee shop, Sadie's life is nothing like what she wanted. It's terrible enough that after a few drinks on New Year's Eve, when a magic trick from a fortune teller can allegedly give her a second chance, what's to lose? Waking up a year earlier, Sadie now has the chance to save her job and her relationship and her apartment! Surely everything she'd dreamed of will be exactly what she wanted it to be, won't it?

I thought the characters in this book were great. I enjoyed Sadie and Jacob and felt they had hobbies outside the romance and that the minor characters had distinct personalities of their own as well. The atmosphere was enjoyable! Who doesn't love a local coffee shop with endearing employees? The writing was okay as well. I didn't really have any quotes, but I mostly listened on audiobook so that's perhaps why. I really struggled to enjoy the first chapter before I started the audiobook, so I'm unsure if I didn't like the writing, or if things just got better a few chapters in.

Plot-wise, this was decent. There was nothing particularly unique about the storyline, but it doesn't have to be unique to be enjoyable! It's reminiscent of 13 Going on 30. I wished that she'd <spoiler> told someone about the rewind</spoiler>, but I suppose it was an interesting twist that she didn't. My intrigue was quite high as I breezed through this and didn't want to read my other books. In terms of logic, I struggled on occasion, such as no one ever catching onto her lies about how she'd known things.

Overall, I had a great time in this book and found myself letting out a little squeal of delight as I did laundry and listened to the ending. I would recommend this book to people who enjoy brother's best friend romance, romcom style writing, and seasonal winter reads!

This book has been on my Netgalley for a bit and I haven’t picked it up. I haven’t been into romance in a minute, so I’m not the right person to review it anymore.

My last read of the year and I enjoyed this so much! It was such a charming rom-com - so heartfelt/emotional and had great character development!

Read if you love-
💫Brother’s best friend
💫NYC setting
💫F the patriarchy vibes
💫Found Family

I appreciate the opportunity to read this title and thank the publisher for providing me with an eARC, however as so much time has passed since this works publication date and my lack of urgency with this piece, I am unfortunately going to move on. I hope to one day read this work at a later time and if I do, I will adjust my review. Thank you again for the opportunity.

Reminded me a lot of that Christmas movie where the woman hit her head and got to relive the same day over and over again until she fixed the biggest mistake that would impact the rest of her story.. same kind of idea here! Only, this one was a cutesy story as it included some comedy, friends who became family, and romance with the boy of her dreams. I also really loved the side character of Mrs. Kaminski. Swore I wouldn't, but I did enjoy her antics! I will say, though, for a book I went into thinking it would be all fun and games and lighthearted, there were some heavy, heavy topics included. BUT don't worry - this is noted in the beginning. Way to go, Melissa! Thanks for the opportunity to read.

The Second Chance Year by Melissa Wiesner is a delightful book and recommended for readers who enjoy lighthearted and hopeful stories paired magical realism, friends-to-lovers romance, and the "brother's best friend" trope. It is a charming and uplifting tale of self-discovery, second chances, and the power of love.

The Second Chance Year by Melissa Wiesner is an emotionally resonant story about love, loss, and the power of new beginnings. When the protagonist returns to her small hometown after a painful breakup, she finds herself reconnecting with old friends and rediscovering forgotten dreams. Wiesner crafts a heartfelt narrative that beautifully explores the complexity of second chances—not just in love, but in life. The characters are rich and relatable, and the small-town setting adds a charming touch. With its perfect blend of romance, personal growth, and healing, The Second Chance Year by Melissa Wiesner is an emotionally resonant story about love, loss, and the power of new beginnings. When the protagonist returns to her small hometown after a painful breakup, she finds herself reconnecting with old friends and rediscovering forgotten dreams. Wiesner crafts a heartfelt narrative that beautifully explores the complexity of second chances—not just in love, but in life. The characters are rich and relatable, and the small-town setting adds a charming touch. With its perfect blend of romance, personal growth, and healing, The Second Chance Year is a must-read for fans of uplifting, transformative stories. The Second Chance Year is a must-read for fans of uplifting, transformative stories.

The Second Chance Year by Melissa Wiesner is a sweet, heartwarming story about second chances, love, and finding yourself again. The main character, Leah, is coming off a rough year—her life’s kind of in shambles, and she’s just trying to figure out how to move forward. When she gets the chance to return to her high school for a year of teaching, she’s forced to confront a lot of past regrets and relationships she thought she was over.

What I loved about this book is how real and relatable Leah feels. She’s not perfect, and her struggles with moving on from her past hit close to home. The story really focuses on personal growth, healing, and learning to love yourself again. The romance is slow-burn and not rushed, which makes it all the more meaningful when it does develop.

The pacing is just right, with a good balance of light moments and deeper emotional scenes that give you time to connect with the characters. There’s a mix of fun, awkward, and touching moments that make you root for Leah as she figures out what she really wants.

I have decided to purchase this book instead from my Book of the Month subscription 🩷 I will leave my review on Goodreads/Amazon when I have finished 😁

This is a solid 3.5. The writing is good, the story was well done, and I enjoyed the character arc. However, I found the incessant baking similes made it seem as if the writer was trying too hard to make the FMC/narrator sound like a baker and it really just came off as very unnatural and took away away from the otherwise witty writing. I didn’t think I would like that at the end she couldn’t return to the original timeline, but I actually did. It helped Sadie regain her voice and her agency.

I felt like this had so much potential for be amazing but I didn’t connect to it as much as I thought I would. Still cute, still would recommend but didn’t love and sadly will probably forget about.

i was so pleasantly surprised to read this book! i’ve never heard of this author before, but the synopsis stood out to me. it’s a perfect holiday season read - i couldn’t put it down and read it all in one day!

Thank you to Forever, Grand Central Publishing, and NetGalley for the advanced copy. All thoughts are my own!

I read this right before I dove into Melissa's 2024 release Wish I Were Here and even though I wasn't exactly trying to compare the two, I didn't love this as much as the other.

Sadie has had a no-good, awful, terrible end to her year. She's now single, jobless and currently living out of her brother's best friend's guest room while she figures out her next move. But after making the wish to start things over, she wakes up on January 1 of last year. She now has a second chance to do things differently. But while navigating what she thought was her best life, she's realizing that maybe things weren't as good as she thought.

I love a bit of magical realism and I thought this was a fun concept, but a year felt like an awfully long time to be doing things over. I liked Sadie's character in small doses, but it was hard for me to root for her in the beginning when she kept making the wrong kinds of choices. Jacob was a cute love interest but I wished that we had more scenes in the beginning with him so we got to know him a little bit better.

Overall, some of the lessons Sadie learned were super important and it was nice to go along with that growth, but I felt a bit bored at times and craved a bit more chemistry between these leads.

I'm a big fan of a time-travel romance and this did not disappoint. I especially love the concept of a do-over!

Time travel tropes are some of my absolute favorites! In this story, we follow Sadie, a woman down on her luck, who gets the chance to relive a year of her life. Taking a leap of faith, she sets out to fix her past mistakes, only to discover that maybe things were meant to unfold the way they did. It’s a beautiful tale of self-discovery, showing how life often works out as it should. Sadie was a wonderfully relatable character, and the found family dynamic was heartwarming and unforgettable!