I just didn't like this book. I found it to be boring. Amelia makes very bad decisions and is not a character that I want to read about. Everyone else in the story felt characterless, I couldn't tell one from another.

This is such a cute and happy summer read! I loved the vibes of the Greeks islands which provided all the fun Mamma Mia feels!
Our main character was very relatable and quirky and I actually really enjoyed her journey. If you love a slow burn with all the flirty tension, you’ll definitely love this one!

"The Second Chance Hotel" by Sierra Godfrey is a heartwarming tale of renewal and hope. The story follows Lainey, who inherits a dilapidated hotel, and through hard work and unexpected friendships, she transforms it into a haven for second chances. Godfrey's storytelling is endearing, and the characters are relatable, each with their own path to redemption. This book is a comforting reminder that, sometimes, the most unexpected places can offer a fresh start and a new sense of belonging.

What happens when your ex boyfriend gets you fired and forgets about the trip you were planning to Paris? In Amelia's case, she change the dates and decide to make a trip through Europe the same day. Sure, her best friend will get super mad because she is not going to her wedding... but she needs to regroup, remember who she is and start all over. Everything is good until she gets to this little island in Greece and meets James... How the hell did they end up married and owners of the hotel they were staying at? Read this book to find out! I hope you keep writing like this! I would love to read more form you.

I don’t know about you but I really struggle when it starts getting super cold. I love the summer and fall months so much and while snow is so pretty I am always cold throughout the winter and wish for warmer temperatures. It has been rainy and colder here and I decided to read The Second Chance Hotel to get a little taste of summer back. This is the PERFECT escapist, beachy, summer-y read and I loved it!

The writing is lighthearted and funny, the characters are sweet and the setting! I have always wanted to go to Greece and now I definitely need to!

I really loved the themes of starting over and taking chances. Amelia’s character is truly delightful and I loved being along on her journey. James is also really heartfelt and I also loved the Ria hotel!

There are so many hilarious, entertaining moments and so much heart in this story. I really think you’ll enjoy it too!

4 stars

This was a DNF for me. I didn't like the protagonist at all, I felt she was very selfish especially when one second, she didn't want a relationship and the next second, she was mad some guy didn't hit on her.

Something happes at Amelia's job and she is fired. She decides to go to Europe for three months until she only has 2 weeks left before she goes back to the US and find a new job. So, she decides to go to a small island in Greece in order to figure out what's next. There she is tricked into marrying another hotel guest, James.

The problem I had with this book is the same that Amelia has with James in the beginning: it's bland. It's not a bad book, but it didn't engage me at any point and I didn't care about the characters or their stories.

It was just an ok book.

Thank you Netgalley, author, and publisher for the ARC.

Amelia didn't regret throwing the mug at her ex-boyfriend's head. What she did regret was that he also happened to be her co-worker and that mug was her favorite. Now out of a job and definitely single Amelia decides to act on impulse and heads straight for the airport. After three months away and many European countries crossed off her bucket list Amelia's trip is at its conclusion. She promised her mother she wouldn't come home without a visit to the tiny Greek island of her mom's youth and a hotel she had such vivid memories of. The owner's inspired Amelia's parents to get married even if it turned out to be a horrible idea in the long run. The almost vacant hotel was just what she needed before re-entry back into reality. But after a wild celebration with the owner's family and the only other guest in the hotel turned into a blurry night of bad choices Amelia now finds herself married and the co-owner of the hotel. Now Amelia is left holding the keys to a business that the island depends on when her only goal is to get back to the life she once knew or could this be the second chance at a life she never knew she needed? Author Sierra Godfrey has written the perfect book for escapists who dream of giving it all up and running away to a new life. Though predictable at times I found the story really enjoyable. The kind of rom-com we all need from time to time. Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

A cute and fun RomCom that mostly stays away from
insufferable Romance tropes.

This is a sweet story about starting over and finding your place in the world, and I loved the Greek Isles setting. It left me eager to visit the area again, long a favorite vacation spot of mine.

I like seeing a heroine who is lost rather than a tragic victim lead these types of stories, and I appreciated that there was plenty of humor and hijinks to offset the romance. It makes the story more fun, less maudlin, and less cringey than many books in the genre. I also appreciated that the love interest was also more lost soul than tortured one.

The story does have some frustrating tropey aspects and the ending definitely veers unnecessarily into schlocky romance, but you’re certainly rooting for the happily ever after here, and there’s more than enough good stuff to offset the few hokey aspects of the story .

The Second Chance Hotel is great read and I thoroughly enjoyed the characters in the book. It is a well written book like her first novel and I can’t wait to read her next novel. Bravo Sierra and a special thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a early E-arc copy of this entertaining read.🙋‍♀️🇨🇦👏📚🙏💐

I wanted to enjoy this book, but forced arranged marriage isn’t for me. The characters were well written, but I do not enjoy this trope. Others who do like this trope will enjoy it.

Unfortunately this book wasn't really for me. Originally, the premise sounded great, but once I realized it was a forced marriage trope I wasn't interested in. Arranged-marriage where they both agree to it? Sure! But, a marriage where someone tricks them in a foreign country? Hell no.

I tried to get further into it as they continued to navigate their new future, but ultimately I just really didn't like it.

I received a complimentary copy of this book "The Second Chance Hotel" and all opinions expressed are my own. The was a really fun book to read. The characters were great and believe me there were a lot of "characters" in this book. So much fun! You get lost in the book set in the Greek Island of Asteri. I enjoyed reading it and couldn't wait to see what kind of crazy thing would happen next.

Thank you NetGallery for the arc! I absolutely loved this book. I am a huge fan of Mamma Mia and obsessed with books set in Greece. This was such a fun read, it was just the escape I needed from hectic life!

I loved this story and thought the concept was amazing. It was a surprisingly deep story but I really didn’t like the main character which is why it is only a 3 star read for me, but I would still recommend

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The Second Chance Hotel is a book that has it all: the romance, the drama, and the magical beauty of a Greek island. The book follows Amelia and James–two people who need a break from their current realities and end up on a small Greek island. However, the real story starts when they find themselves unable to leave.

I was drawn into this book when I saw the title. Now that I’ve finished it, I can say that it has one of the most unique scenarios I’ve read in a romance novel. Two strangers meet at a once glorious hotel and are stuck with the hotel after the hotel’s owner suddenly dies and leaves the hotel to them. And that’s not all of it: they get married (accidentally). It was so entertaining to watch Amelia and James turn from strangers to friends to co-owners to lovers.

While reading this book, I tried to imagine how the characters must have felt when they suddenly ended up being hotel owners. Reading their journey was like watching a movie, everything was so detailed and movie-like. But what I loved the most was that all of it was so real despite the one-in-a-million scenario. Amelia was not a perfect character in any aspect, she was real, she was human, she made mistakes and learned from them. Just like Ella, Amelia’s best friend, I was very mad at Amelia for missing Ella’s wedding, but as I read the book I understood that if she had stayed, she would’ve never been able to move on. Amelia’s family relationships were very complicated, with a narcissistic mother, and a newly married father. I loved her relationship with her brother though. With everything going on in her life, her parent’s divorce, and her ex sabotaging her at work and causing her to get fired, I understood her urge to leave. I also understood James needing some space after recently being engaged and not going through with it.

The island. Total Mamma Mia vibes (Amelia hating Mamma Mia is a red flag by the way). I loved how supportive everyone was on the island. The side characters were adorable and unique. I loved Birgitte soooo much, and Alexandra. Birgitte and Amelia had a rather interesting start, but in the end, their friendship was so heartwarming. Everyone on the island became a family, and everyone’s reaction to Amelia returning was the sweetest thing.

Amelia and James. I loved every second of them. I loved James even when Amelia thought he was boring. He was the sweetest character for most of the book (except his jealous moments, which were very funny). I loved how even though Amelia left, he chose to stay and run the hotel. It was clear how much he cared about Amelia and the hotel, and how he was hoping she would come back. The reunion scene. Everything about that scene was perfect. Throughout the book, Amelia and James have the perfect amount of banter and fluff. I loved how Ella and Celia helped Amelia with her feelings–also Celia was an amazing character. She didn’t tolerate the blatant misogyny in her old workspace and created her own company. I would love to read more about her. Every single relationship in this book–whether romantic or platonic– felt very real.

If you’re looking for an escape from the real world, get lost on a Greek island (without the singing), and learn what to do if you end up owning a hotel with a complete (but hot) stranger, this book is for you.

Amelia is firmly on the hot mess express, living at home with her manipulative mother, working with her ex in a tech bro firm, who sets her up to fail, getting fired from said job after losing her temper, and deciding to leave the country to europe and missing her best friend's wedding, where she is supposed to be the maid of honour.

After 3 months are living free of responsibility and drama, she is ready for one last stop, a small island in greece, where her parents spent their honeymoon. She is going to buckle down and organize her life for her return. What she does not expect is for her accommodations to be stuck in the past, and even more to accidentally marry fellow guest James, have the owner die and leave the both of them the hotel. They struggle to figure out what they want to do and settle on keepong the hotel open until the end of the busy season, and then getting back to their real lives.

Fate has a way of interfering in their plans, and they both may come to find the hotel may be their second chance in life and maybe in love.

This was a good time of a book. There was a lot of humor, the cast of characters were the strong point in this novel. The setting was stunning, and even with some tougher themes it was overall a very lighthearted read. The miscommunication between the 2 characters really got to me, and brought down my enjoyment.

*thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for access to this eARC*

This novel was really cute concept wise, with the setting and the holiday romance vibes. Definitely a cliche but still a cute one at that!

Two things that could have been worked on however would be in adding more to showing Amelia and James’ struggles as they learned to run the hotel and also developing their romance.

The hotel industry and hospitality in general is such a hard business to get into and more importantly, to get right. Turning a hotel that wasn’t doing that great into a success is a hard task for any professional, much more for people who don’t have any experience. So personally, it would have been nice to see them more grapple with understanding how to manage customers and also learning how to create and maintain standards.

As for the romance, as much as I saw their romance initially, towards the middle section of the book, it got a bit stagnant and then it started to feel as though they were just telling the reader they were in love without much signs showing that.

I’m always a sucker for a travel romance, even better when it’s giving Mamma Mia vibes, but I do think the things mentioned could have been made better,

Amelia Lang is having an early mid-life crisis. Her horrible ex-boyfriend finally drives her to her breaking point and she throws a coffee mug at his head in a meeting at work, gets herself fired, and decides it’s time to take a break from life. She runs away to Europe, knowing she is going to miss her best friend’s wedding and ruin their friendship.

I discovered this book after being slightly obsessed with blue zones and wanting to immerse myself in all things Greek culture. This was the perfect book to pick up! A small Greek island, the local food, the local community and traditions, and a love story to boot. It was exactly what I needed. Once Amelia lands in Greece, she learns that the owner of the hotel she is staying in leaves the hotel to her and another hotel guest, James, who she has formed a friendship with. Amelia and James try navigating the world of hospitality, neither of which have experience, with the help of a comical and quirky cast of characters from the Greek village on the island of Asteri.


This book had me all over the place with emotions, it made me crack-up, had tension you couldn’t help but feel, had moments where the main characters drove me crazy and I wanted to slap some sense into them, but it was also adorable and made me smile. I wasn’t really feeling the chemistry between Amelia and James until the end of the book, but all in all, It was a unique story set in a beautiful location that I couldn’t put down.



⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you Sourcebooks Landmark and @NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book!

Is it possible to like a book but not the main character? I was turned off from the beginning when Amelia ditched her best friend (SHE WAS MAID OF HONOR!!!) two weeks before the wedding. And then she couldn’t see she was in the wrong!!!! Everything else was great. I love anything set in Greece, and the accidental marriage/marriage of convenience trope is an A+ in my book. This book would have made a great romcom starring Matthew McConaughey & Kate Hudson in their romcom heyday.

(3.5 stars rounded up to 4)