Jackie Fraser has written an entertaining, witty, wise, and unconventional love story. Thea has been blindsided by her husband’s infidelity and being made redundant. An unexpected legacy from an uncle she barely knew makes a trip to Scotland a necessity that slowly but surely turns into the next best step Thea can take to put her life back on track. Her relationship with the curmudgeonly Edward has its ups and downs as Edward is grappling, not always maturely, with demons of his own. Readers will no doubt enjoy the atmospheric descriptions of life in a small Scottish town, and Thea’s strong, clearly voiced opinion of that life. Bibliophiles will love the literary details and references (Edward owns an antiquarian bookshop). Americans will also no doubt get a kick out of the British vernacular. Although, beware, there is swearing.

I received a free advance copy of this book in return for an honest review.

I liked the premise of this book because when I first read the description, it reminded me of the movie "You've Got Mail." It was a quick read; I didn't want to put it down, so I read it in about a day. It's light, and I got the ending I wanted. I enjoy the humor in this book, and I also like the strong female character in Thea. I don't read a lot of books with middle-aged women, but I loved her independence and her willingness to express her feelings and worries. I would highly recommend this book.

What happens when Evvie Drake lands in a Jenny Colgan novel? This book. A recently divorced middle-aged woman finds herself in a tiny Scotland town where she has inherited a house and starts working in a bookshop. It was a cozy read I devoured in a few days. I love sinking in to a small town British setting like this book has. On paper it has everything I like in a book!

But I had a couple of fairly major issues with it that ultimately bring down the rating. First, everything happens far too fast in the first chapter. The pacing was off. Come to find out, the first chapter was submitted to publishers as part of a contest, and once I knew that it made perfect sense. That uneven feeling carried through the book. I wanted more emotion and background about the main character's relationship with her ex-husband, more about her sorting through her feelings rather than brushing them off. Her response to his cheating and suddenly dumping her after decades largely comes across as 'Eh, I wasn't happy about it but I didn't want to be a jerk to him.' ?!?! And then, finally, and the reason I can't give this more than three stars even though there was a lot of it I enjoyed, is that the reader is asked to not only overlook abusive and discriminatory behavior from a character who literally forbids women working for him, but to ultimately somehow find it charming and fall in love with him a little. I am very over giving hateful men a pass. We can understand the reasons for this behavior without condoning it or needing it in our life. And the thing is, at times he was very charming and I did like him! So this aspect of his character just seemed like an unnecessary plot device.

All of which is to say, I read fast because I like the setting and the concept and I couldn’t figure out how I felt about the book. Ultimately, the character development was uneven and at times frustrating, and I ended the book with a lot of questions and some irritation. I think with sharper editing, tightened pacing, and cutting out some of the unnecessary extreme behavior, this book could be great.

Thank you, NetGalley and Random House Ballantine for the ARC!

Thea Mottram is going through a rough spell. Her husband is having an affair and they are divorcing. At this time she inherits a house in Scotland filled with a large antique book collection. She retreats to Scotland and likes the cottage and learns to appreciate this small town. She decides to sell the books to the local antiquarian bookseller, Edward Maltravers. Edward is feuding with his brother, Thea’s neighbor. Thea can’t decide whether to stay in Scotland or return back to her home in Sussex. Of course, as you might imagine, the quirky and difficult Edward and Thea fall for each other., and Scotland is her new home. Sweet story, but predictable. You are rooting for Thea and Edward throughout the story.

First of all... SCOTLAND! I’ve always loved Scotland, I’ve always wanted to go there but have never had the chance... until this book anyway! It was so easy to get into this read and the main character is funny and easy to like. And what romantic book nerd doesn’t want to read a love story that takes place in a book store? I think the author did an amazing job with this story and I’d definitely recommend it.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for my copy of this book. This review is my own opinion.

This book turned out to be just ok for me. It started out fantastic!
Setting in a bookstore- yes please!
However, there turned out to be soo much dialogue and a lot of characters.

It was still a very cute, quick and charming read but I didn't connect to the story the way I was hoping.
Thanks to Netgalley for my advanced ebook copy.

Well, what book lover wouldn’t like a book about a bookstore and it’s quirky inhabitants? I absolutely adore this one. This is the kind of book that when you finish it you have a book hangover which to me means a kind of depression where you know it will be hard to start another book because nothing will come close to how amazing this one was. My husband noticed my crankiness and I told him how I just finished an awesome book and it’s left me empty because what do I do now??? I’ve started four new ones but nothing is grabbing me like Thea’s story did. Ugh, I will keep trying.... anyway, this is a lovely read.

Thank you net galley for a copy of this book to review.

So first of all how can you really dislike a book set in Scotland and in a bookstore. Talk about day dream fuel! The location of this story added to it's charm and had me wishing I could book a ticket right now.

The story itself was such a feel good and uplifting tale. I liked the romance without it being too overbearing. I love that the main character was so relatable and how badly I wanted her to find all she was looking for. I also loved watching the growth of the relationships around her. Overall a great cozy read!!

This book was everything I needed at the moment. I have to admit I was not expecting to like it as much as I did. Such a light and easy read and the characters... I love them. Definitely recommend this one.

This is a marvelous and amusing story chock full of humorous dialog and quirky characters.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

First I want to thank NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for allowing me the pleasure to read this book and give an honest opinion. I have to say other than this book being about 100 pages too long, I absolutely LOVED the book. This book is centered around Thea, a recently separated woman from her husband who had an affair with one of my friends. Thea is emptying her stuff from her former house and her soon to be ex gives her a letter from an attorney. Apparently her Great Uncle Andrew has passed away and left her his house and the contents (and some money). She decides to go to the house to see if she can sell the house or what she wants to do. She gets there and meets Allistar who is the attorney/solicitor who tells her about Andrew's extensive book collection. In walks Edward, a broody and clueless man who owns a book shop in town. Thea decides to stay in town since she doesn't have anything to go back to (lost her job the day after her husband). Thea applies at the book shop and Edward begrudgingly hires her. Edward's brother, a lord (interesting story there), Charles, becomes friendly with Thea which infuriates Edward. A lovely story on opening doors that were closed and love follows. I would highly recommend this book!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for letting me read an E-Arc for a review!

My Review:
Scotland, a bookstore, coping with changes life and finding romance slowly is a great combination in this story. I loved the story. It took me a while to read it because once again life has been throwing me some curveballs. The writing for me was a bit different but not in a bad way, it was amusing.

Thea is the main character in this book who I could identify with a bit. She finds out her husband leaves her for another woman which all the emotions hit her. While she is dealing with this, she finds out she has to deal with her Great Uncle cottage in Scotland. Off she goes! I love how she adjusts to the life there. How she tries to figure things out for herself.

While being up there she meets Edward who is such a grumpy character that owns a bookstore. He has his own baggage that he is dealing with too. You'll learn more of that as the time goes on. Anyways, Thea's interaction with Edward is hilarious. They throw comments to each other and yet they do talk to each other. I could see a communication between them. It was totally different and strange at the same time but they click. It was like a slow connection to each other, that's how I saw it.

It is an up and down story but at a slow pace which was really nice. There was tons of drama, detail of landscapes and even some swears from the characters which made it enjoyable too. Just when I think I knew what was going to happen next, I was wrong. That kept me interested in the story. You should definitely give this book a read if you wan to try for something different!

Right after Thea discovers that her husband has been cheating on her with a friend, she find out that her great uncle has passed away and left her his house in Scotland. She goes up to scope things out and ends up staying quite a while and getting a job at a used/rare bookstore. She gets along with her cranky boss and might even be developing feelings for her. I liked Thea's journey as well as her candid and quick responses to people. A bit predictable but an enjoyable read.

The Bookshop of Second Chances was an absolute JOY to read. Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for gifting me a copy in exchange for my honest review.

This story takes place mostly in Scotland... and boy am I glad it does. It’s such a fun escape, especially when times are a bit tough right now. The author Jackie Fraser gives the reader fine details about the landscape, the accents, and the culture sprinkled through the lines of the book that complete the plot.
This is about Thea, a woman in her early 40’s that recently left her husband because her friend and husband decided to have an affair after 19 years of marriage. She learns that she inherits a home in Scotland from an Uncle she barely knew. She takes this opportunity to escape and recalibrate her life for a few weeks. While there she stumbles into the local bookstore where she meets the shopkeeper who is a GRUMPY man. He happens to be the brother of the Lord that owns the land that her inherited home is on.
She takes a job a the bookstore and from there things begin to change for her. This story is filled with relationships, drama both past and present, gumption, and grace. I very much enjoyed this book and would highly Recommend it to anyone in need of a good “ snuggle in with a warm cup of coffee Book”

I started out really liking this book. The writing was engaging, I loved where the plot was going, and Thea's inner dialogue was witty and funny. However, the further I got into the book the more I struggled to enjoy it. The amount of language in the book was distracting and unnecessary and the main characters, who are in their late forties, behave like children. Overall, it was an ok read for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for access to this ARC.

This is a cute book and a good fit for someone looking for a light, entertaining read. People who are middle-aged or going through a divorce or similar life change will likely connect with this book. The physical descriptions of Scotland will also likely appeal to readers who are interested in history. Overall, I found this book charming, but I was not overly invested in the plot or any of the characters. I also felt that it read as very long for the material; it felt easy to see where things were going before they actually happened in the book, which made it uneven to read and stay focused on.

The love of the highlands ran deep for me throughout this book. I couldn't identify with why but we've all wanted to run away from our lives at one point or another and Fraser really captured the ideal of what that adventure would look like. I was surprisingly delighted to find that Thea, while having gone through a ton, wasn't overly whiny or unlikable. She was grieving and angry and that was okay.
The plot of this book isn't a mystery and it lands exactly the way i wanted it to. This is going on the recommend list for anyone looking to have an adventure while still at their desk.

This is another one of those stories where the protagonist unexpectedly inherits a house/shop/parcel of land. In this case, it's a house in rural Scotland. The timing is perfect, because her life has kind of imploded. As the title indicates, there IS a shop in town, with a curmudgeonly owner. And it's here that Thea gets a second chance to reinvent her life.

Thank you to Penguin Random House and NetGalley for the ARC.

This was cute! nothing spectacular but definitely heartwarming and sweet...I enjoyed it but not sure I would go out of my way to recommend.

This was a really cute read. It honestly felt like a hallmark movie in book form. Thea’s life is falling apart, she’s lost her job, her husband and doesn’t know what she wants to do with herself, when she finds out she’s inherited an old property in Scotland. Picking up her life and moving gives Thea the happiness she never expected to find.