“The Second Chance Hotel" by Sierra Godfrey is a funny and heartwarming work that will entertain all fans of chick-lit and quick read romance books. It made me laugh, it entertained me while on holiday, but I’m not sure I will remember it for a long time. But sometimes our minds just need to take a break with funny books like this, so thank you Sierra Godfrey for helping me disconnect from reality for some hours!

Such a cute, feel good book. This is a quick, fun read and just what I needed! I will definitely be recommending this to my friends!

This was a fun and entertaining Summer book set in a small hotel in beautiful Greece!

The story follows Amelia who leaves for a three-months long trip to Europe after getting fired in her company for throwing a mug at her ex-boyfriend's head. In Amelia's defense, she actually missed it but she also had a valid reason for being mad at him. 🙃

After traveling through Europe, her final destination is very specific: the Ria Hotel at a tiny island in Greece. To Amelia's surprise, the hotel is quite deserted and the only guests there are Amelia and James - a fellow Swedish-American who is also traveling, and they decide to spend some time together to enjoy the last days in a nice company.

Their lives take a 180° degree turn after they are invited by hotel's owner to attend his niece's wedding, where they get crazy drunk, and end up not only married, but also inheriting the Ria Hotel. Yup, this is it. Very unexpected. A teeny-tiny bit insane. But it is what it is, and both Amelia and James embrace their new role and decide to work together with the small community. Not that they have much of a choice, to be honest.

The idea of inheriting the hotel with a complete stranger on a beautiful island and having to somehow work through all the challenges together was so lighthearted and entertaining. Amelia and James shared both tough situations and cute moments together - and being a romantic at heart, in those cute moments of theirs it was so easy to feel smitten.

The side characters in this book were hilarious! They truly gave life to this story and made this book such enjoyable, hilarious and delightful ride! 🥳

Despite all this, I unfortunately couldn't connect with any of them. I wasn't particularly fond of Amelia either, and the whole relationship with James was rather confusing. The fact that Amelia made a major life-changing decision in a matter of a blink of an eye didn't help either.

Still, The Second Chance Hotel is an amusing read with Summer vibes and beautiful Greek island which kind of makes you want to visit it yourself and have the best time ever.

Thank you so much NetGalley and Sierra Godfrey for the ARC of this book!

Really enjoyed A very typical family by this author so was delighted when I was given an ARC of her new novel and it did not disappoint!!

Such a heart warming, slow burn romance that is set in beautiful Greece!! Scenery is described adequately but not overdone. Amelia prefers to run from her problems and ends up on the last of her backpacking journey at the hotel Ria after it is recommended to her by her mother. There she meets the owner Takis and a guest by the name of James.

Characters are developed well, each have their flaws which makes them more relatable. Writing flows well. Enjoyed the story, slightly wordy for me but overall enjoyed.

Thanks to Netgalley and Sourcebooks for my advanced electronic reader copy in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

This book was all around cute! This is a romance about a woman who finds herself in Greece when her life falls apart. I liked that the second chance wasn't just in the romance department but also about her life.

If you love the vibes of Mamma Mia, this cute rom com is for you! Thanks @netgalley for a copy of this book! Happy publication day!!

I'm not typically a romance reader, but this one is a fun exception! The whole premise is a little ridiculous, but it's easy to let go of the realistic part of your brain and just lean into the silliness of it all. I really enjoyed the character development, as I did not like the MC at all at the beginning, but ultimately ended up relating to and rooting for her by the end! I wish there was more to show the connection between Amelia and James besides the physical attraction, as that was the one part I was still unconvinced on by the end.

This book was such a delight! I throughly enjoyed it! Amelia’s wandering soul was relatable. The writing style of this book was great. It was a fast paced quick read for me. Sweet little romcom with a dash or traveling thrown in!

I received this free book from NetGalley. This review is honest, unbiased, and completely my own.

To sum up this book, it was Amelia's trip turned into an accidental marriage after she meets James and gets drunk at the altar. To top it off, they gifted the very hotel they’re staying in.

Amelia & James must work together to determine how to get out of their situation–the hotel management + the strong spark of attraction between both of them. But Amelia still desires her normal life in San Fransico, despite her easy life in Asteria & quirky but comfortable neighbors. Is it time for Amelia to return home or could this be the second chance at a new life she didn’t know she wanted?

Sierra’s second book has enticed me to read it all in such a short time. For me, the heartwarming bond between the neighborhood & witty couple banter made me put this book on my favorite rom-com bookshelf! Not to mention the perfect portrayal of the beautiful island in Greece–in which I can imagine the view, scent, & taste of Greece in each scene (particularly fond of Birgitte’s Potato Moussaka) ❤️‍🔥

The story is fun and light but bears a meaningful value–the beauty of life in which you can be happy then sad, but still appreciate it as part of your life. Also, it made me realize that your life is a choice, and you can choose whichever that made you happy!

The vibe that somehow reminds me of the movie “Cars”–which I totally am a fan of. The pace is pretty enjoyable, although I did get frustrated by the slow pace in the middle. But the ending was worth it! If you enjoy an accidental marriage + stranger-to-lover vibe with a funny and holiday vibe, this book is for you!

Thank you for giving me a chance to read ARC of this beautiful book!

Great story, loved the imagery of a Greek island, but didn’t really enjoy the characters. 3.25 ⭐️

Thanks to #NetGalley and the publisher for early access to this book in exchange for an honest review.

Bσσƙ Rҽʋιҽɯ 🇬🇷💙🫒

ᴛʜᴇ ꜱᴇᴄᴏɴᴅ ᴄʜᴀɴᴄᴇ ʜᴏᴛᴇʟ
ʙʏ ꜱɪᴇʀʀᴀ ɢᴏᴅꜰʀᴇʏ
ᴘᴜʙʟɪᴄᴀᴛɪᴏɴ ᴅᴀᴛᴇ: ꜱᴇᴘᴛᴇᴍʙᴇʀ 12, 2023
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 5

If you need an escape, The Second Chance Hotel is the book for you!
:
In The Second Chance Hotel, we follow Amelia and James who both need an escape from the reality of their lives for different reasons. The two end up on a little island in Greece and one drunken night leads them to getting married and taking over the Ria Hotel! Godfrey’s details about the island were so vivid that I really could just imagine being there. Amelia was very relatable. James was super swoon-worthy and their slow-burn romance builds up at the perfect pace. This book had all the parts of being of a good rom-com.. laughter, quirky personalities of the characters, and delightful charm.

𝑻𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒌 𝒚𝒐𝒖 @netgalley & @sourcebooks 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝑨𝑹𝑪 𝒊𝒏 𝒆𝒙𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒂𝒏 𝒉𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒓𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒆𝒘

Amelia's life is imploding. Her solution? Head off to Europe in order to find herself. Months later, she finds herself at the same Greece hotel her parents spent time at. It's a place of dreams and it turns out...unwanted marriages? After a celebration with locals, Amelia finds herself married to fellow American, James, and the new owner of the hotel.

This was a cute romcom. The setting was perfect. Godfrey does a nice job describing the scenery and you really get a sense that you are there in this exotic local. The side characters are also extremely amusing. They help build out the setting and move the story along.

James I liked a lot. He's charming and easygoing. I liked how eager he is to run the hotel with Amelia. The book also did the surprise wedding really well. The only thing that put me off was Amelia. She was really unlikable for most of this. And it was a shame because I really did want to like her.

All in all, this was a cute romcom perfect for those that love exotic locales.

-surprise wedding
-Greece setting
-Quirky side characters

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the gifted copy. My reviews are always honest.

This book was a lovely easy read. I couldn’t put it down once the story got going and as a result I read it in one afternoon. Loved the secondary characters in the town and reading about the local cats. Very good writing and a perfect book to curl up with.

Cute story. Amelia and James are suddenly left a hotel in Greece and accidentally get married. It was a cute love story, but moved a little too slow for my liking. Overall this was an enjoyable book.

Amelia's two weeks from going back to the US to face things and get a new job when she arrives at the Ria Hotel, site of her parents' honeymoon. It's not what she expected but it is charming, if basic. And then James, also taking time out in Europe, turns up and things change for everyone. A wedding, too much wine, and what they think is a blessing turns out to be their wedding-and they've inherited the hotel. Yikes. Some might have gone their separate ways and let the hotel be sold but these two feel an obligation of sorts to the people on the island and to those who have booked rooms. And then-Amelia gets the opportunity to get back in the game in San Francisco. What will she do? No spoilers. Godfrey does a great job with the atmospherics from the first tea mug throwing scene through, especially, a trip on the ferry and life on the island. And the characters- the characters are terrific (even her mother). This is less complex than Godfrey's debut but that didn't make it any less enjoyable. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. A very good read that became a page turner for me.

If you can suspend belief in reality for an afternoon… (Let's be real. Those of us who love romcoms, especially fake dating / accidental marriage type tropes do it all the time!)

Amelia's life is falling apart, and she decides to run away from it and go backpacking through Europe. She ends her trip at a small island resort in Greece and ends up drunk-marrying one of the other guests, another American. Through some (hard to believe, but just go with it!) interesting circumstances, the newlywed couple is gifted ownership of the hotel. They agree to keep it open for the busy summer season, but then she's going back to her old life. Right?

This is a delightful story with some of my favorite tropes (marriage / forced proximity), plus it's set on a beautiful little island in Greece, which is enough for me on its own. I liked the slow build relationship between Amelia and James, their working together in a way that gave Amelia something positive to focus on, and the setting was beautiful. Well-written, interesting characters, fun story!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced digital reader's copy (ARC) in exchange for an honest review!

PUB Date September 12, 2023

Thank you, @netgalley and @sourcebooks, for an advanced reader copy of The Second Chance Hotel.

This is in the lead for the best book of the year for me. I ADORED THIS BOOK!

This story had so many layers, and I was enraptured to peel them all back.

Here are a few of those layers:

🫒 Getting away for self-discovery

🫒 Losing an old life to find a new one

🫒 Finding new friends and new love

🫒 Dealing with family trauma/drama

🫒 Greece!

🫒 Marriage on convenience

🫒 Forced proximity

🫒 Only one bed

🫒 New endeavors and adventures

This author has a new number one fan and spoiler alert, its me. Both books by this author have been unputdownable, amazing, and introspective. I loved, loved, loved this book. Please check this book out or her other book, A Very Typical Family, as well. I will just be over her wishing I could start this book over from scratch and read it again for the first time again.

First of all thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley to give me the opportunity to read and rate the book before the official publication. It's the first time I am reading books from NetGalley and I was super excited when I read the synopsis of this book in particular.

For starters I liked the two main characters, James definitely is book boyfriend material! I liked that he was kind of nerdy and was actually sad when Amelia kind of "dismissed" him in the beginning because of this and thought he was boring. I felt like she was judging the man too fast.
They are both multidimensional and their flaws are right in the surface and I always like when characters are like that, because that makes them relatable. Amelia's character was indeed relatable and I understood her need to run, even tho it was really bad that she abandoned her friend before her wedding. In the end that ended being for the best of both.
Sometimes Amelia was a bit harsh to James and took it as a joke and I didn't like that. At some point she told him "That’s it? Did you drive most of your friends away because you’re super weird?" I thought that was an unnecessarily hurtful comment to make.

In general I liked the chaotic, silly energy of the plot! Getting married and inheriting a hotel when drunk, the aftermath of dealing with that and the feelings that they didn't want to admit - all that was super entertaining and funny and their tension was crazy good.

The only things that didn't sit right with me were first why the fuck did they leave Takis body in the church alone with the priest and went home? I thought the whole scene was gruesomely.
Then I was wondering why the author decided to place the setting on a Greek island that... doesn't exist. But then in the acknowledgments she explains why which makes it a bit better.

Also, as an European I hated this comment: "She had not expected a welcoming committee with a fruity cocktail pressed into her hands—this was Greece, not the Caribbean, but the port was desolate." It sounded so American to be honest ahah and it made me mad that she diminished Greece in a way. It is the reality, specially in small island but comparing it to the Caribbean was unnecessary in my opinion. I love that then she grows to love the quaint island life, but the beginning was turbulent for me as a reader.

To conclude I sometimes really didn't like the way she talked with her mother. I know the mother was playing the victim and was a bit overbearing, but once again I thought she was super harsh and not very empathetic towards her own mother and the hard situation she was living - either they had a good marriage or not, divorce is not easy on anyone. Her mother was gaslighting her at times but she totally did the same thing!

Towards the end of the book she said "Instead of pushing herself to see past her mother’s clinginess, Amelia had slid back into resistance and dislike. Shame washed over her. For the way she treated her mother and James and good friends like Birgitte and Ella." This admission made me change my opinion on her. I would give this read a review closer to the 3 stars than the 4 if not for the character development.

Overall it's a good book, with fluid writing, exciting plot and some place for introspection. And has the right vibe for exactly this late summer time of the year!

I so wanted to love this book. In theory, it has everything I love in a romance--forced proximity, marriage of convenience, and a stunning setting on a Greek Island. Unfortunately, it missed the mark for me.

Amelia was not a likeable character. I was shocked she decided to bail on her best friend's wedding, and then later discovered her friend called off her wedding. I didn't see many redeeming features for Ella in that friendship, all Amelia wanted to talk about were her problems when clearly Ella had some shit going on too.

I also felt really bad for her mother. She complains about her constantly, and I wasn't quite sure what the problem was. She said at one point she had a hard time seeing her mother "as human" which I thought was a bit much for a woman who had just been divorced, was struggling to pick up the pieces, and her two kids never want to see her. For someone who wants to run away, Amelia didn't seem very empathetic to her mother's very real problems, and took every chance to cut her down (oh no, she made me food and wants me to eat it!)

I loved the setting of the island of Asteri--it was really beautifully described and it made me yearn for a vacation on the Greek isles.

The chemistry between James and Amelia baffled me. I couldn't tell if she liked him or not. She went hot and cold in a way that wasn't believable to me. .

James was also very meh. He didn't know that you should always clean a bathroom between hotel guests? What the heck?? I'm supposed to believe this man can run a hotel? He also made Amelia do the stereotypically "female" chores at the hotel. Nope.

I did love a lot of the side characters--honestly, I wanted Amelia to end up with Kostos more than James! And Brigette was a great addition to the story. She was funny and added a lot of good context.

I wish I'd liked this one more, but there were too many things that rubbed me the wrong way, unfortunately.

Wonderful book, but I feel like the pacing was a little different from what I’m used to. Things I wanted to know more about were sometimes brief, and inconsequential details were abundant but it didn’t quite matter because it was such a lovely love story between Amelia and James!

I received an ARC from NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark. All opinions are my own, and I'm voluntarily leaving a review.

Genre: Contemporary Romance, Romance
Spice Level: High (sex on page)
Place: GREECE!

I've always wanted to go to Greece. THE SECOND CHANCE HOTEL is the perfect place—a bit shabby, isolated, and full of characters. It sounded like the perfect place to go on vacation.

Amelia is fed up with her former boyfriend and the way she's treated at work. So, she's off to the European vacation. The story really gets started once she hits Greece. I was instantly drawn to the food and atmosphere. And James, with his love of trees, was so charming. I guess I particularly love odd men who are handsome.

This was such a fun romance. I loved the premise and couldn't wait to see how it worked out. And I thought it was great to see the angst between the characters.

I recommend this book.

Happy reading!