Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge discussion

A Second-Chance Romance

Since I have not read nor do I now read much romance, I'm not much help. Although after perusing the first listopia below, I remember now that I have read two:
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Goodreads listopias to help:
"Best Second Chance Romance"
"Gay Romance Featuring Second Chances"

Listopia is HERE

Courtney Milan:
The Duke Who Didn't
Once Upon a Marquess

Emily Henry:
People We Meet on Vacation
Happy Place

Lyssa Kay Adams:
The Bromance Book Club
Isn't It Bromantic?
Both of these involve husbands trying to win back their wives.

This will be easy I think.

I'm going with Eclipse since they broke up in New Moon and then got back together by the end of it.

Back when it looked like AtY might have a "second chance romance with an Ex" category (in honor of "X" our 24th letter) I made myself a list of second chance romances to read. It turns out I really like the "second chance romance" trope, possibly even more than the "enemies to lovers" trope. I'll add these to our list, too.

You Deserve Each Other (Hogle),
Every Summer After (Fortune),
The Rewind (Scotch),
Where We End and Begin (Igharo),
People We Meet on Vacation (Henry),
First Love, Take Two (Patel),
The Road Trip (O'Leary),
The Devil Wears Black (Shen),
Talk Bookish to Me (Bromley),
Hands Down (Zapata), Delicious (Thomas),
Seduce Me at Sunrise (Kleypas),
Again the Magic (Kleypas),
What Happened at Midnight (Milan),
Something About You (James),
Will They Or Won’t They (Wilder),
Bad Girl Reputation (Kennedy),

And then I got so excited I read three of them right away:
Same Time Next Summer - they were madly in love one summer when she was 16 and he was 17, and then tragedy struck, and they stopped speaking to each other ... until now.
Happy Place - the world thinks they are still engaged, because they haven't told their friends they broke up for reasons - so now they need to act like they're still a couple ONE LAST TIME ... and how do you think THAT goes.
The Best Man - she kissed this guy, once, back in high school, but for most of high school she was dating his best friend, who ditched her at the altar, for reasons - now she's back in town, and she just keeps running into this guy again ...

Aw thinking about it The Notebook would be so perfect for this.

So, just to be clear... is this a case where a couple falls in love, are together, break up, and then they fall in love again?

Usually the couple is already broken up or is breaking up at the start of the story, and the romantic arc follows the couple getting back together.

Nadine in NY wrote: "Back when it looked like AtY might have a "second chance romance with an Ex" category (in honor of "X" our 24th letter) I made myself a list of second chance romances to read. It turns out I really..."

Hmmm... It never occurred to me that it was an "Ex" thing (going with the 24th letter of the alphabet). Thanks for explaining that! My first thought was, a widow or widower, or even a life-long single, gets a 2nd chance at love.

I'm not much of a romance reader, although my husband and I just LOVE watching corny Hallmark movies. But I really love movies where older people, who never expected it, fall in love (even with books/films, like A Man Called Ove, Remains of the Day, or The Elegance of the Hedgehog). Those are my favorites, and I was hoping to find something like that.

Denise wrote: "So, just to be clear... is this a case where a couple falls in love, are together, break up, and then they fall in love again?"

That would be the main way to interpret it, but I also think it could mean a case where a pair finds love with each other after they've had previous relationships with other people. For example, 2 widows or even 2 divorcees who fall in love later in life. That could be considered a situation where each is having a second chance at a love.

Diana wrote: I also think it could mean a case where a pair finds love with each other after they've had previous relationships with other people. For example, 2 widows or even 2 divorcees who fall in love later in life. That could be considered a situation where each is having a second chance at a love

Oh nice. I might end up reading Nights in Rodanthe then for it instead of Eclipse because it's a lot shorter.

Just finished Much Ado About Nada and it will work for this prompt.

Much Ado About Nothing would work for this! I also endorse William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Mean Girls.

Saving Katya by Sandra Edwards has figure skating and is a second chance romance. it wasn't too bad

I found out that Persuasion would work.

Megan wrote: "I found out that Persuasion would work."

I'm reading that.

Megan wrote: "I found out that Persuasion would work."

This has been on my TBR so I'll probably add it.

If people don't like this one and want to get done with it quickly, I just read a holiday second-chance romance that was more a novella - very short. Wrapped Up in Beau

Back when I wasn't really a romance reader, I discovered a romance that I turned out loving and I reread it every year or two for over a decade. Second Thyme Around

Finished Same Time Next Summer by Annabel Monaghan

My Review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I read:
Final Justice by Fern Michaels

I don't read romance novels, per se, but this book did have the beginnings of a second chance romance.

I’ve been working my way through the Bridgerton series- hoping for an easy fill in. Does anyone know if one of the books could fulfill this prompt?

I read Pay It Forward

I don't read romance books so this was cute without being too sappy.

Take Two, Birdie Maxwell by Allison Winn Scotch

Yikes, I'm kind of impressed and kind of surprised really, at how many Nicholas Sparks books fit these prompts!

Given that he's got a new book being released (as I've stated a hundred times before now. LOL.) I've got to officially add Nights in Rodanthe to this list.

I love Much Ado About Nothing. Sounds like an excuse to re-read. But I also really want to read Recipe for Persuasion..love Jane Austen and Jane Austen riffs

Josh and Gemma the Second Time Around by Sarah Ready. A fun romance that has humor too.

I read The Echo of Old Books by Barbara Davis. It was terrible. But it features a second chance romance

Talking at Night by Claire Daverley definitely fits the bill for this!

I read “Meet Me At The Lake” by Carley Fortune for this one.

For me, this had to be Gaudy Night by Dorothy Sayers. I mean, really, it was in Strong Poison that Peter Wimsey had proposed to Harriet Vane almost within days of seeing her for the first time--and mere minutes after meeting her face-to-face. In her jail cell. Seriously.

He was that sure, that fast, that she was the one for him. Harriet was a little warier of that idea, for complicated reasons, and rejected him. But he didn't give up on her, and it's in Gaudy Night that Harriet learns to trust her heart again.

Over the course of the series, theirs is a luminous love story about two equals meeting their perfect match.

I read Something Wilder for this prompt. It was fantastic, and it's now my favorite Christina Lauren book. There should be way more adventure romances than there are.

Heather wrote: "I read Something Wilder for this prompt. It was fantastic, and it's now my favorite Christina Lauren book. There should be way more adventure romances than there are."



I had decided that writing duo was not for me, but maybe I should give them one more chance? I love a good second chance romance.

More romance, sigh. Still, I've liked Emily Henry in the past, and I know what I'm getting with her books, so I may well go for Happy Place, which is #1 in the Listopia.

Nadine in NY wrote: "I had decided that writing duo was not for me, but maybe I should give them one more chance? I love a good second chance romance."

I think we agree about the authors! I don't actively read their books, but the summary caught my attention and I couldn't find anything better for this prompt. This is nothing like any of their other books. It's an adventure romance. There are still places where the characters make tragically stupid decisions, but it's so much fun I can overlook it.

I read Happy Place for this one!

I'll be reading The Notebook for this one because it's been on my TBR for far too long

Is I'll Give you the Sun a second chance romance?

I usually like a second chance romance but I'm still not sure what to read for this. I started out reading You Deserve Each Other and I'm not really liking it. I might switch to Will They or Won't They because I really liked the first book Wilder wrote.

I read Mom Com. The title definitely fit doesn't the story or style. The story was more serious than the cartoonish cover and title implies.

Can anyone recommend a 2nd chance romance that's also a mystery or thriller?

I'm not one for romantic fiction but I enjoyed Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren.

I read Yours Truly. 5 stars. I enjoyed it.

I don't normally read romances, (they seem to be a very Marmite genre),but I've read six this year for various prompts, which is enough for me. So I read Americanah, which has two second chance relationships, one a follow-up much later from a chance encounter, and another one, which involves an ex.

A really good book.

Ann wrote: "Can anyone recommend a 2nd chance romance that's also a mystery or thriller?"

Rebecca?

Never Finished by Ana Rhodes

Would count as a second-chance romance or is it too much a mystery/literary fiction novel?

Cathern wrote: "Would count as a second-chance romance or is it too much a mystery/literary fiction novel?"

Personally, I wouldn't count it that way, but someone else might make a case for it. But I think it falls down on the romance front.

Joanna wrote: "Cathern wrote: "Would count as a second-chance romance or is it too much a mystery/literary fiction novel?"

Personally, I wouldn't count it that way, b..."

Understandable, I'm mostly just trying to see if I can plug in books I've already read.

I had asked for a recommendation that's not a romance, and realized that I just finished one :) A Sorceress Comes to Call I was reading it for the pen-name prompt, but I'll just find another book for that one.

I wound up reading ASAPby Axie Oh, which would also work as a K-pop themed book:

http://www.lauraruthloomis.com/whats-...

Can also recommend The Pairing by Casey Mcquiston, but I'm using that for "novel by a trans or nonbinary author."