I loved Karl and Molly! I always love a second chance or friends-to-lovers romance and this one delivered well on both counts! The story was well-paced, dealt with real-life issues and had great representation in the characters. Recommend!

I LOVED this book. Olivia Dade's character work is unparalleled, and Second Chance Romance is no exception. Pick for the hero? Excellent. Pick for the heroine? Familiar in her vulnerability, but aspirational in her resilience. Reading Second Chance Romance felt like going to a restaurant I know I'll love (Harlot's Bay), then getting not the dish I ordered, but dish I actually WANTED. Can't wait for the audio book to come out so random strangers can see me crying in my car on the 134 and drive away with recommendations...

I’m so happy to be back in Harlot’s Bay and for Karl’s story at that. Olivia absolutely hooked me with At First Spite and I was thrilled to dive in Second Chance Romance. I really liked Karl and Molly, I loved their love. This story deals with a lot of misunderstandings and it’s not one of my favorite things in romance so for a second I thought “Mh, maybe this isn’t for me” but I powered through because I was so hooked to these characters and loved it. This was a beautiful romance full of passion and an incredible cast of characters!

Thanks to Avon and NetGalley for this eARC!

This was one of my most anticipated fall romances. I love Olivia Dade, and loved the first Harlot's Bay book, but unfortunately this wasn't my favorite of her books. I still liked Karl for the most part, but he and the FMC Molly had this thing where Karl (a bark worse than his bite guy) would make a very specific threat and then Molly would nitpick it. I didn't enjoy this repeated character detail (repeated like A LOT). In fact, I felt there were a lot of repetitive things that grated a bit. There were still some really shiny moments and big hearts in this book, but for me it didn't rise to the heights of Olivia's other titles.

Though this one didn't quite work for me, I still LOVE Olivia and am in for her future books!

I really enjoyed seeing the characters progress in this story. The story was well paced and well written. I was hooked from the beginning and devoured it in just a few sittings.

I love a romance where not everyone is rail thin!! Tell me about round bellies and thighs!! Thank you Olivia Dade for giving the people what we need. I love Karl and Molly. I love how sweet he is but also how grumpy. I love that this isn't a grumpy/sunshine but kind of grumpy/grumpy. I'm happy to be back in Harlot's Bay (I wish I remembered more from the first book). I regularly recommend Dade's books, and am excited to start recommending this one in the fall. Thank you NetGalley and Avon for this ARC!

Thanks to NetGalley, Avon, and Olivia Dade for the eARC!!

I LOVED this book! It's everything I didn't know I needed in a romance story. I loved that both Karl and Molly tend to be more closed off and isolated; watching them fall in love was just so beautiful.
I loved seeing Matthew and Athena again, and I loved meeting Sadie Brazen. I loved watching the Harlot's Bay community rise up around Karl and support them both. I also loved how many more names of places in and around harlot's Bay we got!!! Olivia is hilarious and was obviously having so much fun!

I honestly think this might be my new favorite book!!

Once again we get another zwaftig heroine from Olivia Dade. This time, the romance is that of Karl, the baker that was introduced in the first book in the Harlot’s Bay series. It is not necessary to read the first book.

In this novel, Molly, who is the one who narrates the audio books that Karl listens to non-stop, while he bakes, has come back to Harlot’s Bay because she thinks that Karl has died. Karl had been sick, and being the gruff sort of man that he is, didn’t want to talk about it. Didn’t want any sympathy, and was hiding out from the public. Because of this, what was supposed to be a joke about where he really was, gets mistaken as truth, that he had died.

When Molly discovers that this man who she had always loved, but went after is alive, she figures she can just go back to L.A. But Karl doesn’t want her to go back. He wants that woman, as he always has.
And that is the set up. Molly says she has to trust him. Karl who swears like a drunken sailor doesn’t know how he can show her that he would give his life for her.


Again, as in the first book in the series, the spice level is rather high here. Although they don’t finally fall into bed together until about half way through the book, from their first meeting, she notices that he has a been aroused, and asks him if he would like help with that.
I like this book just fine. I had to suspend my belief a little that Molly would fall for a gruff, swearing baker who doesn’t like to talk much, and certainly not about feelings, but to each their own. I still enjoyed the altering points of view, how he saw her large body as being very enticing. We need more of that. 🙂

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review. This book is coming out on the 25th of November 2025.

Olivia Dade has simply outdone herself. I did not think it possible for her to up-end Rose and Martin (Teach Me) as my favorite Olivia Dade couple yet she's managed to do just that with Molly & Karl in Second Chance Romance. This book has Dade's signature wit and is full of heart. Set against a quirky Harlot's Bay backdrop, we get two characters that are beyond smitten, but so emotionally dammed up and scared to be vulnerable they risk losing something real. If you like, "let's just get it out of our system", 'grumpy/sunshine(ish?), and ALL THE BANTER - please read this one. Also, there is a recurring nod the monster-romances will enjoy.

Olivia Dade has my heart on a platter. I have read all of her books, and I love them all equally. They are sexy, funny, light hearted by not empty, with well rounded characters who I am swinging my feet for when they're finding love. I really recommend this book, but I recommend all of Olivia Dade's books because she's an icon!

I really, really wanted to love Second Chance Romance. I love it in theory - body positivity romance, 2nd chances, cute bakery, quirky small town. But, I just found both Karl and Molly so off-putting and unlikeable as characters, I really never cared about them getting their happy ending. Something about the way they interacted just made me grit my teeth every time. The misunderstandings weren't just cute anachronisms, they seemed to reveal serious issues with both of our protagonists, and it just made me sad that they were both nearly 40, and hadn't grown in any significant way. I don't know - maybe this one was just me, but I didn't think they worked. I'll definitely still be buying a copy for my library, as I know Olivia Dade has a solid fanbase, and I fully acknowledge that maybe, this one is just a personal taste issue. I'll also be checking out other titles by this author, because I did enjoy the the premise, and the tropes, and I think she's got other, more likeable characters in her.

This is such a fabulous series of funny, steamy contemporary romances full of heart and big emotions. I loved watching foul-mouthed but intensely kind and loyal baker Karl (a side-character in Love at First Spite) find his happy-ever-after with the whip-smart, pedantic, and hilarious woman he first fell for back in high school, when they messed up their first chance due to very realistic teenage awkwardness/lack of social sikills. Their adult reconnection is also full of relatably awkward moments but also SUCH an intense feeling of real emotional (and also physical) connection - these people really were made for each other. And I loved that, for once, both characters in a romance are plus-sized - I can't remember the last time I read a romance where the hero was, as well as the heroine! And the community around them is fantastic. So much fun throughout!

(And I really hope that the real-life "Sadie Brazen," whose popular monster romances run as a connecting thread throughout the series, will get her own romance next!)

Ok first of all, I love Olivia Dade. Her characters always feel like friends, and I love the size representation. This one, though, really did something that's a challenge: a grumpy/grumpy romance where neither felt like a jerk and neither seemed like they were changed by magic just for plot.

I am completely obsessed with this series! I want to move to Harlot's Bay and join the book club. I loved seeing more of Athena and Matthew whose story I absolutely adored and I am so excited for the stories this one set up!

I adored Karl and Molly as individuals and as a couple. Their chemistry was palpable and I loved how hard they each worked to be what the other needed. They both had things to work on and they stepped up and did it. Karl was so gone for her immediately and I loved it so much. If you are a fan of he falls first you'll love this and the second chance aspect is a fun twist.

This book was described as grumpy/grumpy and in some ways it is. Karl wins the grumpy award but Molly is also reserved just in a friendlier way. Their banter was so amazing. I was obsessed with Karl threatening to murder people and Molly explaining why his murder threats were unreasonable. Especially since absolutely no one took them seriously.

I cannot recommend this series highly enough. A book has never made me feel more seen than At First Spite and this one gave me so much joy in a time that was really difficult.

Thanks to Avon for providing me with an Arc. All opinions are my own.

I regret that so many things came up in my life recently that I could not devour this funny, romantic book in one sitting. I teared up twice, including at 13%–what magic is that?? Olivia Dade has an amazing ability to get you on the same, um, page with characters so fast.

He's a foul-mouthed baker who never expressed a positive emotion in his life. She's the reserved, kind-not-nice friend from high school who left before he could sort himself out.

And now she's back in town–you'll never guess why–and it's like no time has passed. Except they still have the same baggage, and then some.

This is mostly a book about getting in your own way, whether you mean to or not.

Second chance romances aren't usually my thing, but the work Dade does in the beginning to show the reader who these characters were, and are, sets the foundation for the rest of the book.

If I have to come up with a complaint, it's the title. In a town that's so full of hilarious puns, I'd love it if this book got the same treatment. (The first book, reasonably, is called At First Spite.) I hate this growing trend of naming tropes in titles unless the publisher's doing something clever with it (When Grumpy Met Sunshine, Time Loops and Meet Cutes). If "Second Chance Romance" has layers, I'm missing them, especially since the author character in the series would never.

Can I say thank you from the bottom of my heart to Avon and Netgalley for the chance to ARC read this book. When I tell you At First Spite changed my life? I'm not exaggerating or being dramatic. I was so excited for the chance to read Karl and Molly's story. This review is about to be all over the place, so stick with me!

First, we get to meet Sadie Brazen, and I'm in LOVE. I want to read all of her books. OMG. Molly, I love her, and Karl? I want to be Karl's best friend, our sweet cadbury egg.

I loved the backstory, and then Karl's undying love over the next 20 years for the girl he never got a chance with. Now that she's back? SWOON.
Matthew and Athena's story makes me cry everytime, and I promise I giggled and loved every little second we got of their continuation. But Karl and Molly? Can I pick up and move to Harlot's Bay???? PLEASE!! I loved Karl in At First Spite, listening to the Sadie Brazen novels and helping Matthew with his Chicken Man story :)

When Molly hears of Karl's untimely demise via an obituary, she finds herself back in Harlot's Bay, heading to Karl's bakery to ask about funeral arrangements. The news of his 'death' is quickly resolved and Karl and Molly find themselves face to face after many many years apart. Over the next few weeks, as Molly agrees to stay in town until their high school reunion, we get several heart warming trust sessions and a blossoming love story. They discover more about themselves, overcoming trust and insecurities, and just makes a beautiful second chance love story.

The way this book made me smile, laugh, cry, kick my feet, and just absolutely love every moment of it?! I couldn't and wouldn't put it down. I loved this book, and can't wait to put a copy on my shelf. Olivia, thank you for this masterpiece.

This was a sweet, funny love story with a host of crazy characters to round out the fun. Karl and Molly make their way through a lot of stuff, but despite their winding path, the destination is worth the hiccups along the way.