An enjoyable and easy read. The characters took a bit to get “into” and I sometimes found Liz to be a bit self-centered, but eventually I found them to be relatable and true to life. Liz and Tobin are separated. Liz wants a crash course in confidence so takes an improv comedy class. 3 stars from me because it was enjoyable, but wouldn't be the first I'd put on my recommendation list for this year. If you’re looking for something that will bring you to a colder temperature and want a “back in love” story-line, check it out! Thank you to St. Martin’s Press, Maggie North, and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of the book. All opinions are my own.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and Maggie North for this ARC.

“Rules for Second Chances” surprised me and made me extremely uncomfortable. As an introvert, I have been in situations where my spouse (who can talk to anyone and make them their BFF within minutes) completely outshines me. I have been in workplaces where my quietness was equated to me not having a personality. Seeing these very personal parts of myself being reflected in Liz, the FMC, was uncomfortable but cathartic at the same time.

It’s hard for me to pick my favorite thing about a book that I felt so strongly about. At the end of the day, like Liz, I agree that self-love is the most important thing in this life. I loved seeing her journey as a woman outside of society's labels (wife, worker bee, spreadsheet nerd). I also loved that she found a new hobby for herself that was outside of her normal relationships. It was a testament that it is never too late to discover new parts of yourself.

This book’s romance plot centers on rebuilding a marriage. It is a tough subject that certainly is not light and fluffy. However, North somehow created hilarious scenes that forced communication using improv as a plot device. It was hilarious at times, cringe at others, but overall, North created a sweet story about how to readjust when you change within the confines of a monogamous relationship.

I don’t think anything is more beautiful than someone finding their voice and worth outside of relationships and societal structures. This definitely will not be the book for everyone, but overall, I truly enjoyed stepping into this world and meeting Liz.

This romance novel is set in an idyllic Canadian mountain town that survives on tourism. I liked the way the townsfolk of Grey Tusk were so influenced by their surroundings. I love the idea of Liz and Tobin meeting as young tour guides, falling in love, and rising through the ranks of the same tour company. I know marriage-in-crisis books aren’t for everyone, but personally I appreciate when romance authors acknowledge that life after “I do” isn’t all sunshine and daisies. Liz and Tobin have begun drifting apart and need to reset their relationship. I respect that.

I hadn’t really thought much about improv before reading this book, but now I’m really interested in learning more. It felt like the perfect way for Liz to build confidence and communication skills. I’m also intrigued by the idea of using improv as a form of marriage counseling.

I appreciated the way both neurodiverse and bisexual characters were included. The story acknowledged several challenges that neurodiverse people may face, but also refused to treat them as lesser (despite the opinions of certain characters). There are also multiple bisexual characters. No one makes a big deal about it. They don’t have to defend themselves, they aren’t judged about their romantic preferences. No one questions whether a person in a male/female relationship is truly queer. It’s just a fact about those characters. I found this take refreshing.

I’m not sure if this is a standalone or the beginning of a series. Personally, I hope there are more books. Fingers crossed for Stellar and McHuge!

One, this cover is just gorgeous!
Two, Rules for Second Chances by Maggie North was just as beautiful on the inside as it is on the outside!

This amazing debut I just couldn’t get enough of. And I devoured it in one day!
North’s writing is outrageously witty and this book is thought-provoking and fun and beautiful.
The characters will pull you in so quickly. They are so real and raw and so dang lovable.

I don’t have the right words to describe just how beautiful this story truly is!
Just do yourself a favor and pick it up.

Thank You NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

I liked this one! I’m not always the biggest fan of marriage in trouble/second chance. I think the side characters added a lot to the book and I liked Liz’s journey of finding her own way and finding her confidence. Definitely will read what North puts out next!

I loved the concept of using improv to save your marriage but it didn’t seem worth saving. Tobin was likeable but Liz was not. Neither were the other characters. I couldn’t connect with any of them and found this book confusing. This one just was not for me.

Thank you to @netgalley and @stmartinspress for the #gifted copy of this book.

"Maybe true love only happens once in a lifetime. But what if it happened again with the same person?"

Summary: Liz Lewis has always been labeled as different despite trying her best to be exactly what everyone wants from her. After being mistaken for a waiter at her 30th birthday party, Liz vows to stop being a side character in her own life. She decides to try improv at the local community center to help her achieve her life and career goals. Along the way, after being separated from her husband Tobin, they decide to work on their relationship using an improv-inspired relationship advice book.

Thoughts: I'm so pleasantly surprised by this book!! I was blown away by the message and growth throughout this book with Liz and her relationship with Tobin. As someone who has social anxiety as well, I could relate to Liz's fear of being in certain social situations. I love that she jumped with two feet into the world of improv despite all the chaos in her personal life. Liz didn't realize how much she was stretching herself outside her comfort zone until Tobin brought it to her attention. Also, Tobin.... I mean he was such a sweet man who loved Liz for her. But he had to work through some areas of his life to help their marriage grow as well. I loved that he took the initiative to find them counseling, even seeking the help of his friend who wrote a book featuring improv to help with relationships. The fact that he wanted to help work on their relationship made me love him more. This book was so much more than a marriage in-crisis book, it was also about Liz liking and embracing the person she is, rather than molding herself to fit a certain shape.

3.5/5 stars

This book was unexpected and lovely.

RULES FOR SECOND CHANCES is the story of married couple Liz and Tobin, who both work at a wilderness guide company, but in vastly different roles: Tobin as a charming and outgoing guide, and Liz, who has been relegated to the behind-the-scenes analytical work. Liz feels invisible, unappreciated, and missing that “magic” she wants in herself and in her life. Separating from Tobin, Liz goes on a journey of self-discovery aided by, of all things: improv. As she nurtures new friendships, steps out of her comfort zone in new scenarios, and prepares for an upcoming pitch competition, she discovers who she is—and who she loves.

I loved this book purely because I don’t think we get enough marriage-in-trouble books. It’s often all fade-to-black HEAs or HFNs, and I love that we get to see AFTER the falling-in-love, and ultimately, the falling-back-in-love. It’s tender and heart-wrenching, and overall, a beautifully done and important book.

Being at the finish line of a rough (but necessary) divorce, though, I’m not sure this book hit me quite in the right emotional ways. However, that being a purely ME problem, I know this book has—and will continue to—find its audience.

The book definitely gas a unique voice, premise (the mermaid scene alone LOL), and writing style that felt a bit too offbeat to me at times, but I think Maggie North is talented and I look forward to seeing her future work.

Thank you to St. Martins Press and Netgalley for the e-ARC in exchange for my honest, unbiased review. RULES FOR SECOND CHANCES is out 6/25/24.

This book was a little hard for me to get into. But once I started I actually quite enjoyed it. It’s so different from what I’ve typically read! At first I wasn’t sure how I felt about the FMC but I grew to enjoy her quirky and maybe a little crazy mindset!

Rules for Second Chances by Maggie North is a second chance romance. Liz Lewis is an introvert in an extroverted world. In the world of wilderness expeditions, her husband, Tobin Renner-Lewis, is popular and well-liked. When she gets mistaken for a server at her own thirtieth birthday party, she vows to be a passive actor in her own life. Her plan? To gain confidence through an improv comedy class. The problem? She is bad and the only person willing to help her practice is a certain wilderness guide who is determined to save their marriage. As Liz and Tobin get close once again, she is forced to confront what didn’t work the first time and the deeper reasons for her social awkwardness. Liz is faced with a choice: the love she always wanted or chase the dreams she let get away.
I loved the idea of a second chance romance with a married couple. However, from the opening chapter, I did not connect with Liz and it didn’t improve. As someone who is introverted and married to an extrovert, I couldn’t relate with Liz. Someone asks her if there was a particular food left and she immediately assumes the person thought she was the caterer? Really? It seemed an odd thing to assume that’s what the person thought. I expected a heartwarming second chance romance and I got a confusing story with way too many moving parts. The plot was confusing. It was hard to follow who was who and what was going on and why it was going on. The improv seemed out of place and unnecessary. Overall, I did not enjoy this story. I do not recommend Rules for Second Chances.

Rules for Second Chances will be available
in paperback, eBook and audiobook on June 25, 2024

I couldn’t get into the story just as I thought. Not disappointed but need more depth, I think. I can't remember when was the last time when I read a book in which the whole plot was 100% equal to what was written in the blurb and nothing more. There was no surprise there, no resolution to any of the plot threads and the whole story was blatantly predictable and painfully dull.

So I have very mixed feelings on this one. Overall, I absolutely loved it. I am a sucker for marriage in crisis books. I loved the concept of using improv and the scenarios. The humor was well thought out and being a Canadian I loved all the Canadian aspects of it. But it was the ending made the whole book for me. Her Mr Darcying him are you freaking kidding me?? Him going to the football field cause they needed a field! The speaker! The clover! All of it…so freaking obsessed! I was beyond giddy!

Can I just say no wonder they were having marriage problems with how close the families all were!! I could not imagine living that close to not only my parents but my in laws as well! But at the same time the concept of her always being there for her niece and the closeness Tobin had with his mom was nice. I found there marital problems refreshing to read about and incredibly relatable. And I really appreciated how she felt that Tobin didn’t know her, however, at the end of the book she ended up not really knowing Tobin and learned just as much about him.

At times I did struggle to follow what was going on. When they were doing the merman skit and they went from being in the bushes to inside I felt like things could have been flushed out a little bit better. I’m not sure if it’s because it was an arc and it’s just the way it was formatted but there were several moments…mostly during the improv scenes…where it was hard to keep up with what was going on.

Overall, it was an incredibly enjoyable book!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this eARC in exchange for an honest reviews. All opinions are my own.

Marriage in trouble at its finest!

I usually like a marriage in crisis romance, but this one didn’t work for me. I feel like there was too much going on here in Liz’s head. She wanted improv to find herself but it ended up being too much to use it to save the marriage, too. I wish we had gotten Tobin’s POV because that would’ve helped balance out the feelings about this marriage. I also wasn’t a fan of the narrators male voice. While this was a miss for me, I hope it finds the people who enjoy improv and this trope.

I wanted to like this so much more than I did. Rules for Second Chances follows Liz as she tries to become a main character and repair her relationship through an improv-based self-help book, hopefully saving her marriage as well. I LOVED the autism realization later in life and the setting, but even so, I never really felt invested in the characters. And the writing didn’t work well for me either, it almost felt like literary cosplaying as romance? Despite not loving it, I’m glad I read it, and am eager to check out Maggie North’s future work. Hopefully, it will be a better fit for me.

Second chance romance is not really a trope I enjoy much but I read a few last year which were really good so I thought I would give this a try. It was not really what I was expecting and I did struggle to get into it. Not bad writing style but story was not for me. Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martins Press for the chance to read this title. 2 🌟

This was definitely not for me, which sucks because I think it had so much going for it! I wish I had liked it more, but I just couldn’t connect with it

This story of a complicated marriage between two wounded, unusual people took some time to come together, but once it got going it packed an unexpectedly powerful punch.

Rules for Second Chances drew me in right away with Liz's delightful personality and voice. At the start, she feels invisible in her own life: overlooked at work, unappreciated in her marriage, and condescended to by her sister. After a disastrous 30th birthday party, Liz leaves her husband, Tobin, puts herself up for a possible promotion at work, and begins taking improv classes. These changes push her into a period of self-discovery and personal growth and, since neither she nor Tobin really want to end their marriage, relationship growth.

I loved Liz and Tobin's relationship, which was complex and shaded, neither all good nor all bad - like a marriage would be in real life. And the conceit of using improv techniques to address relationship problems was unique and led to both funny and powerful moments. But the story felt slow sometimes in this middle section; Liz and Tobin had no urgent reason to either improve their relationship or end it, and sometimes it seemed like Tobin's primary contribution to the marriage was sex appeal.

Fortunately, this lull didn't last long before the novel's subplots began to escalate and intertwine, and as their individual issues intensified I began to better see the strength and value of Tobin and Liz's marriage. I loved how Liz's story developed more layers as the story drew toward its conclusion; it felt like I was reading one part of the multifaceted saga of these characters' lives. In fact, although this is the author's first novel, there is definitely series potential here, and I would be delighted to see Maggie North bring her powerful writing and keen observation to the lives of Liz's family and friends.

3.5/This is a unique take on the second chance romance trope. It didn't entirely hook me, because I had trouble really buying some of the conflict. Lots of references to improv and ties to making relationships work that any theatre nerd might enjoy, though.

☝️Single POV
✌️Second Chance Romance
🖇️ Workplace romance (ish)
💔 3rd Act Breakup
🎭 Improv quotes and rules
❗Autism representation
🏳️‍🌈 LGBTQ representation
Publishing June 24th!

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the eARC.

As a fan of improv, wilderness travel, and love, I was quite excited to get access to this one. Rules for Second Chances uses improv as an allegory for romantic relationships, and I think many of us could learn a lot from the rules of improv in how we relate with our significant others. This is a solid 3.5-3.75 star read for me. I think the second half is much stronger than the first half, and I'm glad I pushed through. In the beginning, I found it hard to side with Liz after leaving such a wonderful partner - I think this book could've benefitted greatly from Tobin's point of view and whether or not this came as a complete surprise to him. By about halfway, I understood Liz a lot better and was fully on board with their crazy i8mprov journey and her journey to self-discovery. With the lack of Tobin's POV, this sits somewhere between women's fiction and romance, as it's much more about Liz. A solid debut from the author and I look forward to reading more in the future.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review!