Guest post written by Take Two, Birdie Maxwell author Allison Winn Scotch
Allison Winn Scotch is the New York Times bestselling author of nine novels, including Cleo McDougal Regrets Nothing, In Twenty Years, and Time of My Life. She lives in Los Angeles with her family and their two rescue dogs, Hugo and Mr. Peanut.
Releasing on March 5th 2024, Take Two, Birdie Maxwell sees Hollywood’s biggest rom-com star trying to recover from her damaged reputation by staging her own rom-com and following a lead on a lost love.
If there’s one thing I love in life—or at least on the page, it’s a second chance romance. There’s something about the mix of regrets, nostalgia, and the opportunity to right some lovelorn wrongs that just makes my brain short-circuit and my heart leap a thousand bounds. While I don’t actually know many second-chance romances that have worked in real life (though we’ve all given it our best shot at one point or another, am I right?), in a novel, they never fail to deliver an absolutely satisfying happily ever after. Maybe that’s why I can’t stop writing them —in my latest novel, Take Two, Birdie Maxwell, my heroine begrudgingly takes a road trip with her high school crush, and in my last novel, The Rewind, two acrimonious college exes wake up in bed together with no memory of how they got there. Not necessarily circumstance we aspire to in our actual love lives, but that’s the magic of great romcoms with winning characters: no matter what the baggage, you root for those two crazy kids to find a way to make it work and live happily ever after.
Here are a few great second chance romances that swept me off my feet and nearly guarantee you’ll levitate with joy too:
SAME TIME NEXT SUMMER by Annabel Monaghan
Honestly, I will read every single thing that Annabel Monaghan writes until the end of time. And Same Time Next Summer is no exception. Send one semi-happily engaged lady back to her family beach house (to plan her wedding, naturally), and put her on a collision course with the boy (now a man!) who wrecked her heart as a teenager, and you have the delicious makings of this second chance romance. Add in Monaghan’s sharp-shooting wit and writing, and just don’t blame me if you neglect your work and family to turn page after page.
FUNNY YOU SHOULD ASK by Elissa Sussman
Take one down on his luck movie star and pair him with a journalist whose last profile of the star made her famous in her own right and reunite them ten years later for another interview (and possible one-night stand – or longer). This book is one of my favorite romcoms in recent memory. The chemistry between the characters absolutely crackles, and Sussman’s dialogue and writing leap off the page. I stayed up well into the early morning hours devouring this one.
KISS HER ONCE FOR ME by Alison Cochrun
After a ho-hum engagement, our heroine takes a trip home with her fiancé for the holidays, only to discover that she had a previous fling with his sister, who she may or may not like more than the man who proposed. OMG. So juicy. I love a second chance romance that is pure mess, and this one is so messy and so simultaneously delightful. An absolute gem that will have you screaming and cringing and cheering.
EVERY SUMMER AFTER by Carley Fortune
I think everyone I know has already devoured this one because it topped so many bestseller charts but I loved it so much that I have to implore the remaining hold-outs to dive in. 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 character feel totally real. Ughhh, it was so real and so so good.
BEFORE I LET GO by Kennedy Ryan
I’ve read multiple Ryan books, and I think she is a master at unraveling real life circumstances that gut you and then put you back together, all in three hundred pages. Here, she tackles divorce and regret, and masterfully brings one couple back from the brink, as they wade through child-rearing, lingering attraction and overcoming all the obstacles that life can throw at you. Ryan’s writing always sizzles, and her books genuinely never disappoint.
WHAT YOU DO TO ME by Rochelle Weinstein
Weinstein was inspired by the song “Hey there, Delilah,” and wrote a swoony, romantic book about the story behind the song. In this version, a journalist with her own bruised heart tracks down both the musician and the song’s subject, and carefully, tenderly finds a way to lead them back to happily ever after. Perfect for anyone who loves love and loves music. (So all of us.)
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 entanglements and complications 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.
