I love a good uplit novel like this one! Elderly protagonist, neurodivergent female main character, second chances, missed opportunities….so many great elements!

My husband is suffering memory loss due to a TBI, and I found this quote of Edith’s so poignant that it made me cry:

“It’s not changing the scene we should be trying, or yearning, for. It’s keeping it. But, of course, people who aren’t suffering from memory loss don’t understand; they’re missing these small details that make the human experience.”

The audio was great, and I appreciated that there was both a male and female narrator. I wish they had read their own dialogue in all chapters instead of having the male narrator read everything in the chapters from the male character and the female narrator reading everything in the chapters from the female characters’ perspectives. It was kind of strange to hear Blade’s normal male voice at times and then his weirdly deep voice from the female narrator at other times. But overall, both did a great job and it added to the story!

(Also, this book made me long to be European, where you can just quit your job to care for your mother and not lose health insurance or be totally bankrupt!)

Edith has Alzheimer’s. The idea that she might someday forget her son, her life, even herself plagues her constantly. So there is something important she must do before the disease robs her of her memories: she has to find Sven, the love of her life whom she was supposed to meet on a bus stop bench twenty-seven years ago and run off with, but he never showed.

Oh! These characters are so great. I just loved Sophia and her quirkiness. Sophia is on the spectrum and no one in her family quite knows how to deal with her. But Blade…he is so kind and deferential towards her. It really brings you joy to experience their relationship.

And then there is Edith. I love how the author works this story around her memories…or lack there of!

This story will give you all the feels. It is truly a wonderful, heartwarming tale. And add in the mystery of Sven…and you have a pretty dang good read!

The narrators are; Heather Long; Joe Jameson; Pearl Hewitt. Talk about fantastic! I have said this before…I love a good tag team.

Need a heartwarming tale you will be thinking about for days to come…THIS IS IT! Grab your copy today!

I received this novel from the publisher for a honest review.

I was not a big fan of this story. The concept was so cute, but the execution fell flat for me. I think that if there had been a little more development of the emotion early on, I would've enjoyed it more, but it felt very transactional. A lot of tell instead of show.

This was a tender and emotional read, about Edith and her son Blade, and that would have been more than enough, but then comes Sophia, and it becomes something exceptional.

Edith is slowly losing her memories to Alzheimer’s, but she doesn’t want to forget her one true love, Sven. A man she was supposed to meet years ago at a bus stop. Blade is her full-time caregiver, and although he loves his mother with all his heart, he feels he has missed his chance to have a career, a family, and his chance at love. But he will grant his mother’s last wish to travel to Sweden to track down her long-lost love.

Enter Sophia. She is trying to run the flower shop in Sweden, which her beloved uncle left to her and her brothers. Lovely Sophia is autistic, and although extremely sharp and witty, she struggles with social cues and sensory stimuli. When Blade and Sophia have an encounter, which turns into a road trip through Sweden, it becomes the most beautiful depiction of two lonely, wounded people who needed someone to accept them for who they are.

The story is filled with awkwardness, brutal honesty, and compassion. It has humor and sadness, but it reminds us to love with abandon. Hearing all three characters’ points of view was affecting. Edith knew her mind and memories were fading. Blade was so loyal and kind, but the weight of being a caregiver is a heavy one. Sophia yearned to be seen and loved, not analyzed or put in a category.

I was so impressed with the writing; it felt natural, stirring so many emotions within me—truly a beautiful story.

🎧I loved sharing my time reading with the audiobook. Narrators Heather Long, Joe Jameson, and Pearl Hewitt brought these characters to life for me. With their accents and distinct voices, I felt like I got to know each one of them. It made the story all that much more emotional for me.

Thank you @htpbooks @MIRAbooks and @allyzetterbergauthor for the #gifted ebook via #NetGalley. Thank you @Harlequinaudio for the gifted audiobook via #NetGalley.

✨📖☕️ “What if the love you lost decades ago was the only thing you could still remember?” 🧶💐💌
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The Second Chance Bus Stop is a tender, emotional, and hopeful story about memory, love, and what it means to find closure. At its center is Edith, a woman in the early stages of Alzheimer’s who spends her days waiting at a bus stop for Sven- the love who never showed up almost thirty years ago.
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Her devoted son Blade, who has given up much of his own life to care for her, sets off to Sweden in search of this mysterious man. Along the way, he crosses paths with Sophia, a neurodivergent florist struggling to keep her business afloat while navigating family expectations.
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Told through alternating perspectives, this multigenerational story is both heartbreaking and uplifting. This one tugs at your heartstrings.
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Edith’s chapters are handled with so much care and honesty, while Blade’s journey of rediscovering both his mother and himself is deeply moving. Sophia’s arc was my favorite- her resilience, quirks, and growth made her such a standout, and her dynamic with Blade was beautifully done.
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This novel manages to balance grief, humor, and romance, and by the end I felt both wrung out and comforted. It’s a story about second chances, acceptance, and finding the people who see and love you exactly as you are.

I loved the author's debut and I had high expectations for this sophomore novel but wow, it completely blew me away!! This is such a heartfelt story about love lost and found and the lengths some people go to make the ones they love happy (or miserable).

Told from alternating POVs the story follows Blade, the sole caregiver for him mom who has dementia and is obsessed with finding the lost love of a mysterious Swedish man, 'Sven,' who promised to meet her at a bus stop but never showed up.

Unable to say no when his mother asks Blade to travel to Sweden and try to track the man down, he shows up there and meets Sophia, an autistic Swedish florist who makes a deal to help Blade in exchange for him driving her around to various locations for her floral design installations.

Full of heart and amazing autism, OCD and anxiety rep, this strangers to friends to lovers road trip romance was utterly relatable with characters I couldn't help rooting for. I so enjoyed Sophia learning how to set boundaries with her toxic family members and open herself up to the possibility of love with Blade.

Great on audio and perfect for fans of authors like Chloe Liese. I can't wait to see what Ally Zetterberg writes next. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital and audio copy in exchange for my honest review!

The Second Chance Bus Stop was so much more than I was expecting it to be. The story revolves around Edith, who is suffering with dementia. Her son, Blade has lost so much trying to take care of her, it has been extremely exhausting. Edith fears losing her memories and she wants to find Sven, the man she was going to marry 27 years ago. Sven never showed up and Edith has wondered why. Blade wants her to forget this idea and enter a memory care facility. Through this journey, Blade is able to understand his mom on a deeper level. In his journey of trying to find him, he meets Sophia, a neurodivergent woman running a flower shop.

The relationship between Sophia and Blade was sweet and I enjoyed reading of their time through their road trip. It just came across as such a healing process. This is an extremely emotionally charged novel. I liked how all the characters connected at the end, but be aware that this is a bit on the heavier side. However, the characters are quirky in the best way possible.

Thank you to the publisher for my gifted ALC.