Second First Impressions
Ratings55
Average rating3.5
”I prayed for peace, quiet, certainty. And it's you. I'm in love with you.”Based on the reviews I have seen I think I am about to have an unpopular opinion but I enjoyed this way more than I did The Hating Game.I found this book so entertaining and silly and just an overall good laugh. It gave me the found family trope that I absolutely live for.Were some parts cringey? Yes. Were some parts predictable? Yes. But I laughed and that's what I was looking for when I went into this.I couldn't help but love the Parlonis and Teddy's interactions. The things she would make him do and he just took it like a champ had me giggling because of how silly and out there it was. The humour of it and Teddy's wit and banter in general is what made me enjoy this as much as I did.Something that I loved about this story was how supportive Ruthie and Teddy were towards one another. They never asked for the other to change anything about themselves. Even though I felt that the romance started off too quickly to my liking, I felt as if the romance between the two was very sweet and genuine.This was the perfect definition of a rom-com.
A lovely and cozy read which I found difficult to put down, not because there was exciting action to follow but simply because of how sweet and inviting the characters were. Definitely a book I'll revisit when I want something comforting!
Not crazy good, just your average romance, but still worth sticking around until the end.
so ruthie's parents didnt report the stolen money to the police bc they were embarrassed, BUT they made ruthie get up in front of the church community to admit her ‘irresponsibility' for losing it??? make it make sense!!!
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THIS WAS SO CUTE.
Teddy is a giant adorable/hot cinnamon roll and I absolutely loved him as the romantic interest in this. Ruthie was a sweetheart who desperately needed her friends to tug her out of the little comfort nest she'd made for herself.
Loved this, just like I liked Sally Thorne's other books. Would read again.
Sadly, I was never invested in Second First Impressions.
I disliked Teddy and Ruthie. Both characters lacked depth and neither of them had any growth IMO. The reason Ruthie lived her life like she did felt flat and didn't make any sense. Being inside Ruthie's head was cringey and the way she thought about Teddy was awkward. There was no chemistry and the relationship felt forced. There were a few interesting, funny secondary characters and that was it.
My dislike of the main characters made it tough to keep listening to the audiobook. I put it off for more than a month, thinking that maybe I wasn't in the right mood for it, but after I got back to it I felt the same way. Can't believe I finished it.
This one didn't work for me.
My history with Sally Thorne's books has been wildly varied.
I LOVED The Hating Game. I thought it was completely unputdownable, funny, sexy, and probably one of the best romantic comedies I'd read.
Then came 99% Mine. I really, really disliked this book. A really unlikeable main character, coupled with very little plot stretched out over hundreds of pages of repetition, plus conversations that went round and round in circles... it was just bad. And the writing style felt so different to The Hating Game, it was almost like a different person wrote it. If I'd read this book first, I would never have picked up another book by Sally Thorne.
So then comes Second First Impressions. Would it be more THG or more 99%M? And the answer is... it's right in the middle. The plot and characters are so much better than 99% Mine, which is a definite win. But the writing style is still more like 99%M than THG. It lacks the “must keep reading” factor, the fun, and the joy of THG.
To be honest, the writing style Sally Thorne has now isn't my thing at all, and so this will probably be the last book I read by her. But I'll still reread The Hating Game when I want a fab romance that I can't put down!
This was ok but I really struggled with Teddy as a hero. I just couldn't understand his appeal the give and take tattoos really irked me. The constant reminder of how much he was 'taking' just irritated me more and more . As I was reading this, there was one quote from [b:Red, White & Royal Blue 41150487 Red, White & Royal Blue Casey McQuiston https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1566742512l/41150487.SY75.jpg 61657690] that kept ringing in my head. Worst of all, Henry is good. Alex doesn't pretend to care about the rules of the game, but his primary turn-on has always been competence. I think this quote perfectly encapsulates my own feelings towards romantic heroes. I love heroes who are good at something , anything really. We are told over and over again how good Henry is at tattooing but we never get to see him in his element. Instead, we get this seemingly aimless Henry who doesn't struggle too much to achieve his goals because of a string of good Samaritans and a rich daddy.Teddy aside, this still wasn't a perfect book. The ending fell flat and Melanie felt like a token character of colour, very much like the throw-away line at the end about making Providence more inclusive
This book was only okay for me. I found it an easy read, but a little too predictable.
I am sad to say that I really struggled with this book. I don't know if subconsciously my mind was expecting another THG or maybe if I had never read THG in the first place and read SFI first, maybe I would have liked it better. I just couldn't get into it but because I loved THG so much, I wanted to keep going. It finally picked up around the 80% mark but unfortunately by that point, it was too late to save the book for me. I'm beginning to think The Hating Game was a fluke but I really hope not. Also I really wish authors would stop making their characters dress like old ladies.
If I were Sally Thorne, I would have published this book under a pseudonym. No other author I can think of has had a smash hit debut novel, followed by an almost universally reviled sophomore effort. So inevitably, her third book is being weighed against either extreme. I'm trying to forget her backlist and reviewing Second First Impressions it on its own merits. And my conclusion is that it's pretty good, but not great.
I found both MCs to be incredible, as in I couldn't quite believe they were real. Ruthie was so repressed, shy, and obsessive that I couldn't even see her functioning in her administrative job, and Teddy was so disorganized that I couldn't see him remembering to feed himself. So their romance-0f-opposites had a fairy tale feeling to it, which wasn't necessarily bad. The secondary characters, most notably the wondrous Melanie Sasaki and the senior living residents who employ (torture) Teddy are more grounded, surprisingly. I found their interactions with Teddy and Ruthie to be more interesting than those between the would-be lovers. Thorne notes in her afterword that she is not planning to write Melanie's story, but I bet it would be a hoot.
I'd say the turtle metaphor is a bit heavy-handed, except for the fact that when I was a 9-year old girl I started drawing turtles everywhere as I tried to make sense of the world around me. So if I felt like I needed a protective hard shell, I'm fine with a fictional character learning to come out of hers as well.
Thorne's writing style is distinctive and quirky. It made me laugh several times, although even after reading through the last few chapters a second time, it didn't quite make me say “awwww” the way I do at a satisfying HEA. I'm glad Ruthie found the courage to fully live her life, and that Teddy found someone who made him feel safe, but I'm not sure I believe they will be together forever.
“There's no heavier burden than a great potential,” cried Linus from the Peanuts comic strip once upon a time, and I wonder if Sally Thorne would agree with him. Let's give the poor woman a chance and just appreciate the fact that she writes enjoyable contemporary romance. She doesn't need to be the genre's savior; all she needs to do is entertain us for a few hours. And she's doing that quite well.