If my husband cheated on me, I would love to have an uncle leave me a house in a remote area of Scotland to escape to. Even better if that house was near a village with a bookshop, was on property adjacent to a handsome (currently unmarried) lord, and included people I could become friends with. Sadly, I doubt that will ever be my life. Oh, did I mention the love/hate/love relationship I could develop with the good-looking owner of that bookshop? Sigh. At least I got to live vicariously through Thea.

The perfect long weekend/vacation read.

eARC provided by publisher via Netgalley.

I started this and while I initially enjoyed the first couple pages, I just couldn't get into it. I think I will give it another chance someday, but it just seemed sort of over-the-top and juvenile. Like a screenplay that's meant to be acted out, but all we see is what's on the page and it's just a bit much.

i super enjoyed this book. it was sweet and precious and full of heart. i hope you enjoy it as well and i' so thankful to netgallye for the review copy!

Books that take place in bookshops are always iffy to dive into. You just never know what you’re getting and when they fall flat, it’s just disappointing. Unfortunately, this book fell a little flat for me. The plot moved a little too slow and I wanted so much more from the side characters. The bookshop however did seem pretty cool and if it was real, I would love to visit it.

The Bookshop of Second Chances by Jackie Fraser seemed to be more of a chic lit type of book rather than a romance. Ms. Fraser's writing brought the small Scottish community and some of the residents to life.

I confess that I didn't connect well to Thea or Edward. I often thought Thea to be "wishy washy" about her life. She seemed to be running away from her old life after losing her job and her husband's betrayal rather than running toward a new life in Scotland as she kept telling everyone that she was only staying for a short time but then she stayed longer. The characters were well developed and I admired Thea's blunt forthright manner in dealing with both Edward and Charles. Unfortunately, I found both Edward and Charles to be extremely immature in their behavior towards each other so their appearances on the pages made for slow reading for me. The book seemed to slow down toward the middle and never really picked up momentum again. All in all, it's an interesting read about people who are offered second chances in life and what they make of them.

Okay wow I really loved this! It was pretty slow to start but then it got going and got really good. I absolutely loved Edward and how he was just all in from the moment they decided to give it a go. I was gutted when Chris came to visit and they had coffee, reading it made me so anxious, knowing what was coming.

After losing her job and husband, Thea finds out her great uncle has passed away and left her his house in Ireland. Thea goes to Ireland in order to sorry through her uncle's house and sell some of his first edition books. What Thea wasn't planning on was falling in love with the handsome bookshop owner or Ireland.

This was a fun fast read. I will admit I sometimes thought Thea talked too much but the Bookshop and Ireland made up for that.

3.5 stars. I really enjoyed this book. It’s a sweet and fun romance. Set in Scotland and set in a bookshop, yes please! The main character goes through some tough situations and moves out to Scotland for a fresh start. She meets a bookshop owner who is described as tall with curly hair and Colin Firth immediately came to mind...so thanks for that! The romance is a slow burn and completely adorable.

I struggle with a couple of things. First, there was a love scene. It was a closed door scene, but leading up to it was really awkward. The main character wouldn’t stop talking and I wanted her to shut up and let things happen already. Another struggle was some of the dialogue. There were a ton of open ended sentences that included (...) or (-) indicating that their sentence had paused or run off. It was a big difficult to keep a good flow while reading. I felt that their conversations were stilted.

Overall I really enjoyed reading this and I really liked all of the characters.

Content Warnings: adultery, miscarriage

*Huge thanks to the publisher and Netgally for an early eArc of this book!

Thank you, NetGalley and Ballantine Books for this ARC! In The Bookshop of Second Chances, Thea loses her job and then learns that her husband of more than 20 years has been cheating on her. Luckily, she's inherited a house in Scotland, which becomes her escape. While cleaning out her great uncle's house, she has to decide what to do with his book collection and connects with the grumpy local bookseller, Edward. Thea begins working at the bookshop, healing from the loss of her marriage, and finds herself growing closer to Edward.

This closed door romance was a quick read and I loved the setting of this book. I also enjoyed reading a romance from the perspective of an older woman. So much of the romance category is dominated by younger characters, so this was a perspective I enjoyed. However, I had a hard time rooting for these characters to get together because I just did not like Edward. Thea learns early on in the book that the reason Edward does not speak to his brother Charles is because Edward has slept with almost every woman Charles has dated. This includes sleeping with both of Charles' ex-wives, one while they were still married. Now, don't get me wrong, I love a flawed character, but there are certain actions that are pretty despicable. While I think those characters should be written, I could not like Edward after learning this and was not rooting for this couple. Edward says he was motivated by Charles bullying him as a teenager, but to systematically sleep with every woman that your brother has cared for is beyond the pale for me.

It also felt like Thea herself was a bit ambiguous on whether she liked Edward. It may just be because this is closed door, but we don't spend much time with Thea thinking of Edward, being obviously attracted to him, or falling for him. Overall, this was not my favorite but if you're into very flawed characters being redeemed or idyllic settings (the setting really was very nice) this could be for you.

Since my review is less than positive, I'll be posting it on my Bookstagram and Goodreads, as well as Amazon after the book is published. I plan to post my reviews on May 12.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This is an incredibly sweet story about Thea, a middle aged woman who finds herself without a job, without a husband, and without a place to life. She deals with her husband’s infidelity with both strength and grace, beginning a new life in a small Scottish village in a home she inherited from her great uncle.
I enjoyed the enemies to lovers story between Thea and Edward. Parts of the story were quite slow to me, making it a more difficult read than I imagined, but overall it is a feel good, light read.

I stayed up late finishing this, so it must have been pretty good. However, I wish it had been a bit shorter or more concise so it didn't require the 1:26 am finish time. Not a lot happens, plot-wise, so it's mostly just a lot of dialogue (good dialogue--but just so much of it) and introspection. The protagonist, Thea, felt authentic in her characterization, although the sequence of events in her life seemed overly fortuitous--she gets fired, discovers her husband's affair, moves out, inherits a house, money, and rare book collection, and falls into fast friendships and employment in her new town, all with very little down time. The angst of aging Gen-Xers feels spot on though--and that's why the character of the love interest didn't bother me, because I kept picturing Ethan Hawke's character from Reality Bites turning 50. But really, who doesn't like bookstores, beach days, and stories set in Scotland?

Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to review a digital ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

I really enjoyed this book, finding it quirky and very readable. I loved how the main characters were unique and full of personality - especially the gruff lord who gave up his title.

The Bookshop of Second Chances is a rather quiet book about Thea, a woman who’s inherited a house from a great-uncle, at just the right time because she’s also currently separated from her husband who’s been cheating on her with one of her friends. Thea settles in to her new neighborhood, and it’s all very quaint and the writing style seems very British (if that’s a thing). I liked Thea’s characterization. She seems like a well-adjusted person with just the right humor. Edward provides a good balance, with a similar sense of humor. They were good together. There wasn’t really that much of a plot; this was more of a book where the characters settle into a new place and find acceptance from others and more importantly, themselves.

If you’re looking for a slow, cozy read, this book fits the bill.

Thanks to Ballantine, the publisher, for providing me with a digital ARC of this book via NetGalley!

The beginning of this book was extremely hard for me to get through. It felt more as a fan fiction than anything else. I think the author had a lot of heart into the book, which I understood. I think someone that lives a quintessential romance book will enjoy it a lot more than I did.

I thoroughly enjoyed this delightful book. It was an unabashedly romantic look at a forty-something woman whose life was rapidly falling apart around her. As the book opens, she’s just lost her job, her husband to a close friend and her house. When a distant relative leaves her his home and book collection, she heads to Scotland to check out her inheritance. It’s there that her new life begins. Is it all smooth sailing? Of course not. Is it predictable? Of course, but it is also fun, sweet, and, oh so, enjoyable. This is a book that made me happy and one I will read again, especially when I’m sad and need cheering up.

My copy of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to the the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review it.

Thanks for a Arc of this book so I enjoyed the writing and the atmosphere of the book I also enjoyed that it was a second chance for the main character since she is having a bad time in her marriage is over but other than that it mostly fell flat for me.

I loved the setting of The Bookshop of Second Chances and the idea of working and falling in love in a bookshop, but this novel fell kind of flat for me. This one was almost a did not finish for me, but I decided to stick it out. I did like that the characters were a bit older than your typical 20 something romance. * Spoiler alert* The plot line where one of the main characters Edward gets back at his brother for a prank ( albeit a mean one) pulled on him in high school by sleeping with his brother's wife and all his ex girlfriends really turned me off of this one. For characters that are supposed to be around 40 they seemed immature, and I just had a hard time connecting with this one.

The Bookshop of Second Chances was both a feel-good book and still had lots of substance! I really enjoyed the starting over plot after the main character leaves an unfaithful husband, as well as all the details of working in a small independent bookstore. What great description of places and food too!

3.75 stars rounded up

When Thea realizes her husband is having an affair with one of her friends and plans on leaving their marriage, she's left heartbroken, blind-sighted, and confused. Then, she gets a call about a distant relative, an Uncle who she never met, but who left her his home and extensive library collection. The need to go settle the estate allows her to escape her town, and her crumbling life, for a period. She plans to only stay for a short time, but soon she finds herself making a home for herself that she didn't expect.

This was a fast, cute romance that I stayed up late and woke up early to read. I appreciated Thea as a main character because she was intelligent, witty, and handled her heartbreak in a realistic way. She is in her forties and is starting over, learning who she is on her own after spending 20 years with someone who hurt her deeply. Thea let everyone in her uncle's town know she wasn't ready to jump into a new relationship and put boundaries around herself that were healthy. At times, I found myself still wondering why she reacted to certain things with what felt like self-loathing, but I think it illustrated that she was heartbroken and her confidence was shaken, if not broken.

The infidelity thread in this book was heartbreaking. You can feel Thea's emotions and sadness and anger. My stomach turned a few times when reading about it -- it's just so cruel and thoughtless and I really despised her husband and the woman he cheated on Thea with, which is the point.

I really enjoyed this one.

Thea Mottram is having a bad month. Her husband of nearly twenty years has just left her for one of her friends, and she is let go from her office job--on Valentine's Day, of all days. Bewildered and completely lost, Thea doesn't know what to do. But when she learns that a distant great uncle in Scotland has passed away, leaving her his home and a hefty antique book collection, she decides to leave Sussex for a few weeks. Escaping to a small coastal town where no one knows her seems to be exactly what she needs.

Almost instantly, Thea becomes enamored with the quaint cottage, comforted by its cozy rooms and shaggy, tulip-covered lawn. The locals in nearby Baldochrie are just as warm, quirky, and inviting. The only person she can't seem to win over is bookshop owner Edward Maltravers, to whom she hopes to sell her uncle's antique novel collection. His gruff attitude--fueled by an infamous, long-standing feud with his brother, a local lord--tests Thea's patience. But bickering with Edward proves oddly refreshing and exciting, leading Thea to develop feelings she hasn't felt in a long time. As she follows a thrilling yet terrifying impulse to stay in Scotland indefinitely, Thea realizes that her new life may quickly become just as complicated as the one she was running from.- Goodreads

Getting right down to it, the story is, the meat of it, the foundation, the premise of the story, is good. Which is why it was so disappointing. This book was boring and painstakingly slow. The characters, lacked personality and depth. I completely understand that this is a small rural town that takes this slow and loves their community gossip but. . . geeze it was boring.

In regards to the romance, it was just as boring to read but I thought it was cute. I liked the fact that they were older and had experiences to bring to the table. But I really liked was the fact that although there was some grey area/fears, they were adults about the whole situation and I loved it.

Overall, not exactly the romance book I thought it would be.

2 Pickles