i loved rosen's first book so much that i gave it 5 stars. that's a hard rating to get from me, and i was looking forward to her next book and the ones after that. this book is so different and is about nothing. i don't want to read about custody arrangements from an ex-husband that was probably a dick back then, too. i don't want the FMC, referring to her high school boyfriend by his full name 85% of the time she mentions him. it's also just a story about bea traveling back and forth, surface friendships and inner thoughts.

Thank you to the author and Montlake for the free copy of this ARC.

Unfortunately, I chose to DNF this one at 16%. The story starts out very slow to a point I wasn't racing to pick it up. I realize I stopped very early on, but I wasn't feeling connected enough to the characters to keep going. Really bummed!

I really enjoyed Rosen’s debut novel and was so excited to read Alternate Endings! I paired the digital arc with the audiobook and had a great time reading. I loved the NY/Ireland setting, I loved Bash, and I loved the slower pace. Ali Rosen is now an autoread author!

This gave me Emily Henry vibes
Lots of side characters involved and the story isn’t truly just about the love story
It’s also about the main character finding her voice

Although I will say it was a bit on the long side, I truly enjoyed the story. I loved the development of the main characters Beatrice and Jack. I really didn’t see it being a happy ending through out most of it. I was happily surprised by the ending.

Thank you NetGalley for the e-arc!

This was such a cute single parent romance! Loved the fact that it was also a second chance with a high school ex. Beatrice and Jack are strong characters from the get go and their development was well received.

I loved the little insights into their past and how certain events trigger a response. There is some spice in this but nothing too scandalous. Just a couple of no descriptive open door scenes. The banter is off the charts and it just works so well in the story. I did feel like there were some moments that were just really repetitive and not really necessary but it didn’t detract from the story.

I think my favorite scenes were Coney Island, the museum painting, and just all the little scrabble moments. Also the recipe at the end were such a nice little add on! I definitely recommend reading this.

Thanks to NetGalley and Montlake for the opportunity to read this book!

An enjoyable read, second chance romance with serious topics like motherhood, divorce and career advancement. Beatrice was a strong character, Jack her high school ex is back and she is working together with him. There wasn’t a lot of tension between the, it was very let’s just enjoy the benefits while in Ireland and that’s it.

Alternate ending is a wonderful romance they reminds you that not every ending is the the end of the story. Beatrice had the opportunity to find exactly what she wants in life if she releases herself from fear of so many things. I enjoyed the second chance love story of Jack and Beatrice, although unconventional, is was warm and interesting to read.

I really liked Bea's personal journey and the way her recognizing her skills, her feelings, her grief and her wants was handled. It really felt like the character was growing as the book was progressing. I didn’t feel connected to Jack for a long while. This is a slooooow burn when it comes to romantic feelings (they dated in high school—didn’t see each other for twenty years—and after reconnecting at work become friends with benefits) since both characters deal with kind of a fear of their feelings. I started to warm up to Jack when we got more of a look into his family life. I believe Bea and Jack's relationship came full circle at the end and was beautiful to watch!

I really liked the female friendships in this book. Especially the school-friend trio made me sappy and think of my own friends.

Rating this three (and a half) stars since it took me about 50% to get really into it and invested in the story. The pacing wasn’t ideal for me. I’m glad the book handled some important topics and had kind characters realizing their own strengths.

Beatrice is recently divorced, trying to balance her career and being a single mom to a six year old.
When her job requires her to travel to Ireland every other week, the last person she expects to see there is Jack Sander. Her high school fling who ghosted her twenty years ago.

Bea and Jack had an art class together in high school, and would spend after hours one on one together finishing up projects.
Their banter is full of sarcasm and playfully teasing each other. The sexual chemistry between these two is so strong throughout the book, in present time and high school flashbacks. Now as adults, spending a lot of time together in Ireland for work, Bea and Jack finds ways to make the job a little more enjoyable!

“This lure between us never went away, we just went away.“

Tropes: semi-friends/semi-enemies to lovers, second chance romance, close proximity

Thank you @netgalley for this early release!

I really enjoyed this romance! If you’ve been reading my reviews, you know that I love second chances and I love a bit of complexity mixed in with romance. This had exactly what I was hoping for!

The main characters were incredible. Their self-development was really endearing and their relationship was one I was rooting hard for.

The side characters were helpful to drive the plot and to help with the self-development process. I loved all their different personalities.

A really fun read!

•

Thank you so much to Ali and NetGalley for this ARC!

Bea Leal is dealing with a lot. Raising her precocious son Bash while still living in the same house as her ex-husband is challenging, but now her eccentric boss needs her to fly to Ireland every two weeks. Bea's life becomes even more messy when her boss introduces their new CTO, Jack Sander--Bea's first love and first heartbreak.

This romance focuses on personal growth and is not too spicy, so I'd recommend it for fans of Emily Henry. Overall, a sweet second-chance romance with a mature protagonist and picturesque setting. Would recommend!

Bea’s life is complicated. She has a six year old son, an ex husband, and she lived with her ex sister in law. Luckily, her work life isn’t complicated at all. That is until her boss decides to move to Ireland and requires twice a month work retreats at her castle. And that’s not all, the boy who broke her heart in high school is their new CTO.

There were so many things I enjoyed about this book that I really can’t pinpoint why I didn’t like it more. I got very bored during the middle and I think I just wanted more to happen. I liked Bea, I liked Jack, I liked Ireland. I liked it all but I wanted a lot more to happen. It chugged along and then they go together and that was that.

Here’s a long list of things I did like though:
-Ireland!
-Bea’s hilarious, precocious son Bash
-Bea’s no nonsense boss
-the friend group
-second chance romance
-scrabble
-NYC

Thank you to Netgalley and the author for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Alternate Endings by Ali Rosen gives us an interesting take on second chance romance. Bea and Jack meet after a long time in a weird situation and their lives have changed a lot through years. Bea has a son, a messy work life, a complicated divorce and then comes Jack. Irish castle, quirky boss and forced proximity are not the best combination but it sure did provide a different kind of backdrop.

Bea is a bit all over the place. Her ex is so closed minded and controlling and she is under severe stress about her beautiful son's custody. Her boss is supportive but has a quirky sense of running business. Bea was reluctant to leave her son with her ex husband to attend the meetings in the Irish castle her boss has moved to but she is promised a promotion and it would help immensely in the impending custody battle. She is a great mother. She is witty and hard working. She has been thtough some heartbreaking timea but she is a fighter.Jack is a blast from the past she didn't expect to be their new CTO. They have been best friends and almost lovers when they were young. The past feelings are still buried deep somewhere. Jack is not your prototype alpha. He has worked hard to make his own career away from his toxic family so he is definitely confident and charismatic but the underlying vulnerability made him relatable. They had a friends aka coworkers with benefits situation going on when in Ireland but it soon overflowed into New York. Jack is the supportive partner Bea needed to put all the pieces of her life together and Jack found his old best friend and soulmate again.

I feel the secondary characters took too much space in the book. Specially Bea's friends. I wanted Bea to talk out her feelings out with Jack but there were so many long chapters where Bea talked about her feelings with her friends. Their relationship built up was lacking. I was distracted by so many things other than the romance part.

I reviewed an early copy voluntarily

I absolutely adored Ali Rosen's sophomore novel. I am a sucker for a second chance romance and Bea and Jack were truly a couple I could root for. It's nice to see a heroine my age (36) represented as well, as a lot of romances tend to focus on twenty somethings and I really liked the relatable aspects of these characters. I enjoyed that this book took place between Ireland and NYC - as a NYC resident, I love to read about local places and the chapters in Ireland added a nice balance to the story.

4.25 stars!

It started a bit meh as i do feel like we could have benefited from an introduction earlier to the Lucas relationship, so the emotional stakes were higher.

That said it did have a second chance and grumpy x sunshine trope, which are my kryptonite.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice: 🌶️🌶️

Rapid Review: This sweet, quick read is chocked full of second chances and will leave you content and hope-filled!

My thoughts: Aptly named, this book was full of ways we screw up different parts of our lives and then how those messes can somehow be redeemed on ways we could never have planned. The MMC Jack is such a sweet introverted, tech master who is beautifully, silently supportive. Our FMC Beatrice represented imposter syndrome so relatably. She is all of us - struggling to perfectly balance career, motherhood, womanhood etc. (cue Barbie monologue 💞). Her attempts to balance it all and then struggle to put herself first for a change hit home. I appreciated the representation of infertility and how much strain and hurt loving through that can put on all the individuals involved as well as their relationship. It’s something that is not often discussed and usually not well when it is. I really loved the dichotomous dynamic in the alternate settings of New York City 🏙️ and the Irish ☘️ countryside. It was written in such a way that you could feel through the writing the tension and hustle of the city whem the setting was there just as you could feel the slower pace and casual, comfortable essence of Ireland when we shifted. There was a beautiful growth and maturity in both of our main characters as well as some of the side characters as well which made this feel like such a satisfying completed story by the end. Themes of grace, forgiveness, understanding, and love are woven together masterfully. This book defines a feel-good story.

What to expect:
✨2nd Chance
✨Forced Proximity
✨Workplace romance
✨Infertility representation
✨NYC 🏙️ ✈️🇮🇪
✨HEA

Thank you Montlake for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Alternate Endings by Ali Rosen was such a fun rom-com.
This was such a fun read! The witty banter and the dynamic of the characters kept me engaged. I genuinely enjoyed this story.
I loved Bea and Jack! They were engaging and I adored their personalities.
Ali Rosen’s books are incredible and her style of writing is truly amazing.
This was a great second chance romance story.

Thank You NetGalley and Publisher for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

I received this arc in exchange for an honest review. 🤍

this was such a cute and easy read. it follows beatrice who is a single mum trying to sort out custody arrangements with her ex-husband while her boss insists on biweekly trips to Ireland for work — where she is reunited with her high school sweetheart.

i was slightly hesitant when i first began reading this but i quickly fell in love with all of the characters and the writing style. it was so easy to follow and the pacing was perfect. the main character’s friends added another layer to this story too.

definitely recommend!!

Beatrice’s boss at a data company announces that she is getting divorced and moving to an Irish castle. And her New York executive team is expected to meet up with her there every fortnight.
That’s a tough ask for Beatrice, who shares custody of young son Bash with her ex-husband.
And when the new chief technology officer is revealed as her former high school boyfriend Jack, things get even more complicated.
Soon Beatrice is living two separate lives - ambitious exec having a no-strings work fling in Ireland, and busy working mum with a disgruntled ex back in New York.
This was a story about finding the right fit between co-parenting and work, with a second-chance romance based around the concept of ‘what happens in Ireland stays in Ireland’. There were plenty of great moments but overall, the pace was a little slow for me.

I’m impressed with Ali Rosen’s sophomore contemporary romance. I enjoyed her previous book Recipe for Second Chances (Nov 2023) and this is also a second chance romance. Beatrice's Leal’s life is a balancing act. She is in the middle of a divorce, raising and co-parenting Bash, her six year old son, while working in a demanding job she loves. Her respite and wonderful support group include her beloved soon to be ex sister in law and a couple of long time friends. Bea’s life gets more complicated when the CEO of her company decides to move to a Scottish castle and demands the management team come for meetings twice a month. And on the first visit she meets the new CTO, Jack Sander. He was her childhood crush, her first love and he broke her heart.

The set up is good and I like that Rosen doesn’t rely on formulaic storytelling. The chapters often jump time to the next corporate meeting. The initial anger at seeing Jack again gets quickly replaced with catching up, understanding their present and finally learning more about each other's feelings in the past. They also surprisingly fall into a FWB relationship fairly early on. This is a refreshing book with two people who are smart and good at their jobs. Bea is still healing from the breakup of her marriage and I like the author bringing in the difficulties of fertility issues. Jack has family problems of his own. I love that there isn’t a last minute miscommunication or fake angst. Instead there is healing and moving forward. This isn’t a romcom but more of a women’s fiction romance and I enjoyed it very much. Thank you to NetGalley and Montlake for the ARC and I am leaving an honest review. (4.5 Stars)