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A review by greenteabookme
Rules for Second Chances by Maggie North
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Rules for Second Chances manages to teeter between a really deep and moving story of self-discovery and entering 30’s, and sillier lightheartedness and the unique premise and approach to a second-hand romance immediately caught my attention.
Liz and Tobin are in a marriage rut and really faced some large curveballs basically on their wedding day they never recovered from which I found so relatable and I think many others will. The idea of using a improv based completely different approach to working through their issues and starting to communicate as a couple was brilliant. I highlighted a ton of passages and thought the advice and strategies sounded so logical and fun even if they were entirely made up by the author?!?!
I’m probably always going to love an autistic representation and this one was done really well. I also really enjoyed the bisexual representation and how organically it was written. Liz was just generally a very cool character.
I tend to prefer one POV, but surprisingly found myself kind of wishing it was two POVs as I wanted to hear Tobins unfiltered thoughts, not the filtered ones through Liz. But part of the magic and discovery is sorting through her perception which is greatly impacted by her not yet diagnosed autism.
I rate it 4.5 stars rounded up! The only thing that knocked the book down a half star for me is that at times the pacing was a little slower than I like and I found my mind wandering, but it’s a super fantastic debut book and I really enjoyed it!
Thank you to Maggie North, NetGalley, St Martins Press for the arc.
Liz and Tobin are in a marriage rut and really faced some large curveballs basically on their wedding day they never recovered from which I found so relatable and I think many others will. The idea of using a improv based completely different approach to working through their issues and starting to communicate as a couple was brilliant. I highlighted a ton of passages and thought the advice and strategies sounded so logical and fun even if they were entirely made up by the author?!?!
I’m probably always going to love an autistic representation and this one was done really well. I also really enjoyed the bisexual representation and how organically it was written. Liz was just generally a very cool character.
I tend to prefer one POV, but surprisingly found myself kind of wishing it was two POVs as I wanted to hear Tobins unfiltered thoughts, not the filtered ones through Liz. But part of the magic and discovery is sorting through her perception which is greatly impacted by her not yet diagnosed autism.
I rate it 4.5 stars rounded up! The only thing that knocked the book down a half star for me is that at times the pacing was a little slower than I like and I found my mind wandering, but it’s a super fantastic debut book and I really enjoyed it!
Thank you to Maggie North, NetGalley, St Martins Press for the arc.