Cute Story! The roles of the characters were a bit exaggerated but it was okay. Liked the happy ending for all of them and the setting was also interesting. Bonus points for Mel and the Parlonis

** spoiler alert ** I absolutely loved the Hating Game, but was disappointed by Second First Impressions. It had a different feel, and though I liked it overall, I didn't love how Ruthie was described, nor how everything wrapped up so neatly at the end with Providence and Teddy's family relationships.

extremely unlikeable/unbelievable characters huhu

This hits the checklists of chick lit romance books:

• Introvert homebody girl with questionable fashion taste and a penchant to avoid risks at all costs

• 
  

• Extrovert tattooed bad boy who lives life one adventure at a time and has killer hair

• 
  

• Side character who pushes main girl character to find love, only for main boy character to realize he wants to be that love badly.

You really can’t go wrong with that formula!

Super cozy and will give you fluttery feelings, my only critic would be that the conclusion was resolved way too fast and the redemption arc patched up like there hasn’t been any significant childhood trauma and neglect lol.

Finishing the year with a book I did not like. The characters didn't do anything for me and maybe I just don't really like this authors writing. Because I also didn't like The Hating Game and both books where just bleh

honestly better than the hating game idk why

I enjoyed this much more than I thought. I really loved Thorne's first book "The Hating Game" very much. Any reluctance I had in reading this book came from a fear that I would love the first book a little less. Thankfully that did not happen. I was a bit thrown by the writing in the beginning but it became very cute and sweet and that kept me engaged. She did such a wonderful job I wasn't even bothered that it took that about 230 pages for our hero and heroine to get together. There were also some lovely emotional subplots but I felt the ending to resolve them was a bit to sentimental for my taste.

This is a 3-star review because Sally Thorne gave me The Hating Game, otherwise, it would've been a 2-star. I had many, many feelings while reading this book, most of them negative. Ruthie annoyed the hell out of me for the first half of the book and Teddy seemed too much of a cliché. I even told my friends I was reading this one out of spite, pure spite, because I was so frustrated. How can the same person make me swoon with The Hating Game and then make me grind my teeth with this one? I didn't have a good experience reading it but the wrap-up was so cute that made it kind of worth it. Kind of. Still debating on it. I know I read rom-coms filled with clichés for a living, but this good-girl-meets-bad-boy-who-needs-to-get-a-grip was too much for me. I'm aware that this worked for some people, but the way Thorne chose to address some mental health issues was so... I don't know, wouldn't have done it like that. Maybe it's my lack of faith. Picturing Teddy as Damiano from Måneskin did wonders for me, so I'm just leaving it out there.

** spoiler alert ** I didn't really enjoy this book as much as I enjoyed "the hating game". In my opinion, I didn't really like the fact that teddy and ruthie got together (im sorry). I actually really liked Kurt and I wished that he had more interaction with the characters in the book more. I took so long to read the book to the point it actually hurt. I tried my best to read it in the shortest time possible because I honestly just wanted to get it over and done with. I'm giving it 2 stars as the characters in the book were actually quite interesting and was what made the book tolerable.

DNFed this midway. Wtf was this book. Sally Thorne is a one-hit wonder. Please don’t even bother buying this.

3.5

Because of the reviews I was pretty skeptical going into this book, but I love this genre and author so I figured it was worth a shot. The first like 50 or so pages aren’t great, to be honest.... but then it turned into a storyline that I found so charming! I really enjoyed this book overall. I’d give it 3.5!

It was a cute romance, can be seen as sad by some people. Personally i didn’t think it was that sad but to each their own

It was a nice story where the main character found herself. The love interest was so annoying. The Parlonis were the best part of this book.

Eeeeesh, cringe content alert. ⚠️
The main characters are just so freaking horny all the time! The author wrote, that this is basically a written down daydream and yep, that's what it feels like. Weird and not realistic but good enough because you are just looking for a happy end, it doesn't necessarily have to have an amazing plot. This book still got me sometimes, some parts were really honest and I liked that, it did touch on a few insecurities, that I also have, so that helped it of course. All in all, wouldn't read it again, but I've also read worse things. 🤷‍♀️

This book was kind of just... eh for me. It was cute enough, I guess, but I was expecting more. Maybe it’s because I absolutely loved The Hating Game and wanted this book to be it so badly, but it wasn’t. The characters just weren’t it for me. They were supposed to be 25 and 28 (I think), but they seemed so much younger. It all felt a little too childish for me, especially Teddy’s character. I’m honestly blanking now, wasn’t he supposed to be 28 or her age? Regardless, he didn’t feel 28 to me, or even 25. I’d believe 21 much more easily. The ending felt rushed to me and not very believable. Specifically, the part with his sister. On one page she’s telling Ruthie how she doesn’t think of him as a brother, and like, 2 pages later she’s crying and everything is all better now. I don’t know - like I said, I loved the Hating Game so much and this just didn’t do it for me like that book did. That being said, it did have it’s sweet moments, and I only kept reading to see how it all would develop.

It was cute! I liked the characters at the retirement home!! So funny. But the love interest was too much for me. Wish he was written with a few more flaws. The back story was good! But his singular focus seemed inauthentic.

The ending is so worth the read

I'd been a little hesitant about reading this book because of all the mixed reviews I'd seen but I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's not quite as good as The Hating Game but it's still pretty good. Both MC were very sweet and funny and the romance was nice.

Okay so i don’t know how to explain my feelings for this book, i think i liked it? THINGS I LIKED: I loved the idea of the story, and i love a slow burn romance. I really enjoyed the elderly characters and how much we got about their lives! Renatas sass really made the book for me along with Mel and her contribution to changing Ruthie was very cute. I also loved how you would not assume Teddy would be such a warm and compassionate person by the way Sally describes him on the back of the book and i loved the surprise i got from that , soooo cute :))) THINGS I DIDNT LIKE: I felt as if the timeline of the story could’ve been a little more clear ESPECIALLY in the epilogue. When i finished the book i had no idea how much timed passes from the Christmas party so it made it a little confusing. I also felt as if the beginning of the book (and by beginning i mean until the last 80 or so pages) was SO SLOW like i don’t even remember any big parts of the story until the thrift store scenes with everyone shopping for Ruthie. The plot was adorable i just felt like there was too many details for non important things and not enough details for the actual important things. The amount of description on teddys hair was insane even though i understand that Sally wanted to show how big of a deal it was to him but OKAY LONG STORY SHORT it’s cute i think i did like it

Stop doing this to my emotions, Sally Thorne. 65 stars!

good. I just wans't very much into it. It was very contemporary. i mean it revolves around the story and a lot has happened and only has a few sweet and fluffy moments but so far good and great.

I thought Ruthie was written in an incredibly boring way, but that didn’t stop me from loving this story. A very cute and cozy romance.

just another book that emerald hated that i loved. what can ya do. this was my favorite kind of book where sometimes i have to put the whole book down when the main boy says something so incredibly over the moon crazy cheesy. i eat that shit right up! i loved the old lady sisters......(iykyk) i was laughing my ass off at reneta the entire time, what a funny gal. i loved that Ruthie was 25 because thats literally my cutoff age for main character women. if she's older than 25 i just pretend she's 25 anyways. Ruthie was definitely over the top quirky but homegirl had religious trauma so i'll let it slide. there is something so wonderful about a giant tattooed man named Teddy. MELANIE!! oh my god I wish she was real so she could be my best friend.