The Second Chance Year by Melissa WiesnerMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
3.7 stars
I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review
And suddenly the room is spinning. Because though it's January first, just like I expected...It's January first, twelve months ago. The entire last year of my life is---gone.
Gone.
Just like I wished for.
Sadie has had a year, she lost her job as a pastry chef when she stood up to her boss again about his dictator way of running the restaurant, lost her boyfriend when he broke up with her because she made a scene again at one of his work events over sexist comments, and lost her apartment when her savings ran out. She's now living in a spare bedroom in the apartment of Jacob, her brother Owen's bestfriend. Depressed she works as a barista after her boss got her blackballed, she hardly leaves the couch. The only good thing is that she's starting to see that Jacob isn't so much standoffish and judgmental of her but really shy. When her bestfriend Kasumi invites her to a New Year's Eve party she doesn't want to go but it turns out to the be the best thing to ever happen to her.
And then he stands up from the couch.
Crosses the room.
Sinks down on the bed next to me.
Slides one hand behind my head.
And he kisses me.
The Second Chance Year was a chik-lit story told all from Sadie's point-of-view that took a good look at what it means to go along to get along and staying true to yourself, with a little romance. At the NYE's party, Sadie meets a fortune teller and makes the wish to get a second chance at the horrible year she just had. With some magical realism, she gets that chance and wakes up in her old apartment with her ex Alex and late to work at the restaurant she was fired at. Getting back all the things she lost has her taking a second look at how she reacted to things and trying a different route to get a different outcome. Instead of yelling at her chef boss, when he's unfairly yelling at employees or asking her to work the front of the restaurant, she bites her tongue and sees that he starts to treat her nicer and even dangle the promotion she wanted in front of her. Sadie also doesn't attack Alex's co-workers when they make sexist comments and instead talks to Alex first about it, which he had asked her to do. This has him inviting her to more work events, buying her expensive designer clothes to help her fit in, and even act like he could be ready to propose. Sadie starts to think this might be the chance she needed to get everything she wanted, if it didn't feel like she was also losing herself and the friendships she made in her awful year.
If I could go back, I'd do it all differently. I'd never let him walk out thinking everything that happened between us was a mistake.
Sadie sees that not only do things change for her when she acts different, things change for the people around her. She loses her bestfriend Kasumi instead of her job when she acts different at work and that awful year that lead to her knowing Jacob more and ended with them having a NYE's kiss, which now didn't happen, has him slowly hanging out with a neighbor that Sadie had set up with someone else. I greatly enjoyed how the book explored and showed how people who say others are too “abrasive” with what they say, is really how it isn't how you say it but that you're saying it at all, with it's looks at sexism in the workplace. Sadie struggled with this and how her college professor parents constantly belittled her pastry chef occupation and heaped loads of praise and love on her younger brother Owen because of his college degree and high powered job in robotics. As Sadie opened up more to the people around her, it was nice for her to see how the people who really cared for her, admired the things about her she thought she needed to change to succeed.
So, this is what it's like to be loved by someone who appreciates who I am, not just who I could be or should be. Not just who they want me to be.
During her second chance year, things don't quite work out the way she thought they would if she tried changing herself and gets a dose of maybe things happen for a reason. Sadie's journey is the focus of the story but, while we don't fully get to know Jacob, he's around a good amount and the way Sadie starts to see him different and the way he gets to be there for her does provide a sweet romance thread (not genre romance and no open doors) with a scene delivering happily for now that will probably get a few eyes watering. This was self-affirming, frustrating look at the systems allowed to exist in workplaces, a look at how sexism breaks people down emotionally, and a great look at how whittling yourself away to fit others never works. If you've ever wondered what a second chance could look like, this delivers all the ways it could go wrong and right, with a little tender romance.
Sounds like a win.
ReplyDeleteIt was! Just really liked how it showed that all the people that said, "It's how you said it" still had a problem in her second chance year when she "calmed" down and approached them how they said to, they still said she should have let it go. A great reminder of it's rarely how you said it, it's always that you said it in the first place. Some justification for us "abrasive" gals.
DeleteI like the idea; feels like feminist, AU take on "It's a Wonderful Life".
DeleteAnd the premise--that making oneself small and "going along to get along"--never does the person doing the shrinking and the going along any good, definitely not in the long run, but really, not even in the short term: there's a psychological cost to erasing oneself that must be paid, and with interest.
Oh yes, you definitely captured it. This stayed, somewhat, more in the surface of those feelings, light angst. It did have a shown sexual harassment/assault moment but didn't allow itself to dwell in the doldrums of how awful it all is. A good reinforcer of how it all sucks but showing someone getting a win to keep hope alive.
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