Guest post written by author Allison Winn Scotch
Allison Winn Scotch is the New York Times bestselling author of eight novels, including Time of My Life, In Twenty Years, and Cleo McDougal Regrets Nothing. A cum laude graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, where she studied history and marketing, Winn Scotch now lives in Los Angeles. Allison’s latest novel The Rewind is out November 1st 2022.
I admit that I am a sucker for a second-chance romance. No, scratch that. That makes it sound like they’re a guilty pleasure. Something that I shouldn’t adore but do. So let’s be clear: I absolutely love second-chance romances, which is probably why I’ve written a few of them myself. A perfect blend of nostalgia and romance and regret? Guaranteed to slay me every time.
Here are a few of my favorites!
FUNNY YOU SHOULD ASK by Elissa Sussman
Take one down-on-his-luck movie star and pair him with a journalist who rose to fame for her first profile of him – which may or may not have ended with a sleepover – and get them back together ten years later for another interview. This books absolutely crackles. The chemistry between the characters is so engaging, and Sussman’s dialogue and writing leap off the page. I stayed up well into the early morning hours devouring this one.
EVERY SUMMER AFTER by Carley Fortune
I think everyone I know has already read this one, but I’d be remiss not to rave about it here. Set over six years, Every Summer After captures that perfect blend of love, heartbreak, nostalgia and a whole lot of that intangible magic that makes two fictional characters feel totally real. This book is a beauty in every way.
SEVEN DAYS IN JUNE by Tia Williams
Let me start with the tag line because it encapsulates this book better than I could. Seven days to fall in love, 15 years to forget, and seven days to get it all back again…I mean…Sign. Me. Up. Williams’ novel dives into the romantic history and messiness of two writers who were once high school sweethearts, and whose paths, naturally (and a little begrudgingly), find their way back to each other. The characters wrestle with some very real-world problems, which I appreciated, and Williams’ writing pops off the page and punctures your heart simultaneously.
GHOSTED by Rosie Walsh
This one cuts to a few years ago but I loved it enough to still recommend it now. There’s an instant love connection between two strangers, followed by a perplexing disappearance, coupled with a genuine mystery. Add in a twist halfway that I did not see coming (and I pride myself on almost always seeing them coming!), and I didn’t stop rooting for a reunion until Walsh gave me exactly what I needed in the end. I had a reading hangover after this one.
QUEEN MOVE by Kennedy Ryan
This is definitely the book on this list with the highest steam quotient, and Ryan executes every move, every touch, every plot line – including some very true-to-life complications — with total precision. Start with two childhood best friends and reunite them twenty years later, with messiness and still a lot of heat between them? An absolute recipe for perfection. What I appreciated even more was that the characters and their stories were nuanced and real, which made the romance all the better.
