The Second Chance Year by 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.

It was okay. An easy, quick read. Clean contemporary romance isn???t my favourite genre but I picked this up on the strength of the premise.Unfortunately, the whole do-over of a bad year was more of a gimmick that could easily have been omitted, leaving it as a story of a woman who gets perved on by almost every man she meets and eventually stands up for herself and all the other women who haven???t been standing up for themselves. The romance felt like more of a subplot which is a shame because cinnamon roll hero (just warning you up for the bazillion baking puns) Jacob was by far the best thing about the book.

Scattered Tale Tries To Be Both RomCom And Women's Fiction. Straight up, I'm fully aware that this is one of those reviews where many will rate this book at 5* for the exact reason I'm deducting a star here (though as you'll see if you too peruse the reviews, at least some of my commentary will also mirror many of the existing 2* reviews as I write this review early in the morning on the US East Coast on release day for this book). Namely, the preachy hyper-focus on workplace discrimination and outright sexual harassment and even sexual assault... in what is ostensibly trying to be a romcom. If you approach this as a romcom - and perhaps that was my failing here, approaching it in such a way... these issues are far too heavy and completely drag the story down.

However, for those that approach this tale perhaps *wanting* the more Women's Fiction side of it, where such heavy issues may be more expected, there you'll get the heaviness the same, but also with the levity that the attempt at also being a romcom brings to the table. So the tale is still scattered, but when approached in such a manner, it likely won't feel as off-putting. Hell, it may even feel quite a bit refreshing.

And of course my other failing here that must be mentioned is my love of The Family Man, the late 90s/ early 2000s movie with Nic Cage and Tea Leoni. It is my go-to reference for "glimpse" type tales such as this, where the main character is allowed to relive some portion of their life over. And while also a somewhat serious drama itself (with quite a bit of comedy), it was nowhere near as heavy as this book was fairly often. Also having this tale set in the end of year season - as that movie was - didn't help me completely separate the two, but again, this is likely a failing of mine that perhaps some other readers may share.

Overall, the book actually does both of its scattered foci quite well... it simply fails in the combination, at least when one is expecting more of a "glimpse" based romcom. As mentioned previously, if approached from more of a Women's Fiction tale, it works rather well.

For those potentially concerned that it doesn't meet the full requirements of a "romance"... it does, actually - at least every rule I'm personally aware of. And for those concerned about spice level... this one will satisfy the "clean" crowd (while perhaps being too heavy for the "sweet" crowd, though perhaps not) in that the closest anything gets to any "action" - other than the sexual assault(s) - is heavy kissing and waking up in the same bed.

Ultimately one of those tales that will likely be at least somewhat divisive due to the dichotomies I've discussed here, it could also do quite well in certain circles and when approached from a certain direction. Recommended.