Second Chance Romance – 2/5 ✩
Second Chance Romance follows Moira, a mother who is grappling with her daughter getting older and the possibility of her marriage being over. In an effort to keep her daughter from making what she believes to be a huge mistake, she teams up with Frank, her daughter’s boyfriend’s father whom she immediately hates, to break the couple up. Along the way, Moira realizes Frank may not be as bad as she’d initially thought.
I really, really love the cover of this book! The cover and the title immediately reeled me in; it’s so bright and inviting and it looks like the perfect beach read.
I will be honest though, this was not my favorite book. I did enjoy the travel aspect of the book and I did enjoy seeing how characters seemed to grow throughout the novel. But I will be honest in saying that I struggled at times to stay engaged and I had a lot of trouble connecting with the characters.
I found both Moira and Frank to be insufferable; I didn’t think either of them had a whole lot of empathy for others and it made it difficult for me to root for either of them as individuals or as a couple. Their lack of communication was frustrating and I didn’t feel their relationship shifting from enemies to lovers; it felt like their feelings changed overnight and without warning and I didn’t understand how this could happen.
Moira’s relationship with her daughter was also troubling to me. Her daughter is a young adult and appears to be very mature, yet Moira treats her as anything but. Moira’s relationship with her husband was also troubling because the communication was nonexistent. I understand she was blindsided by her him, but her behavior following the revelation was childish and frustrating as a reader.
I also really wanted to explore more of the LA and Greek landscapes. A lot of the writing thoughout the novel as a whole felt like I was being told things, not shown, making it feel a bit mundane to me.
I do think this would be a good read for someone who is looking for a protagonist who is a little bit older. I wondered while I was reading if maybe I was having trouble with the characters because I’m used to reading novels with main characters who are in their twenties or thirties, so having a character who was a mom to a young adult isn’t something I typically read.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this arc in exchange for my honest review.
Anchored Musings 