Posted by Guest Reviewer

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/reviews/second-chance-romance-by-olivia-dade/

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/?post_type=reviews&p=172094

This guest review is from Danielle Fritz! Danielle is a former librarian who has a special affection for children’s lit and books about the funeral industry. She first cut her criticism teeth as a fanfic writer. A resident of the upper midwest, she’s learned to love beer and tater tot casserole and tolerate long winters. Most nights will find her cuddled up with her pups and wearing out her wrists with yet another crochet project.

…

Second Chance Romance is the second of Olivia Dade’s Harlot’s Bay series. I really enjoyed the first title, At First Spite, which featured a cute lil spite house, the clever Athena and her ex-fiance’s sweet brother Matthew. Second Chance Romance centers on a character introduced in the previous book, the grumpy-with-a-heart-of-gold Karl, a baker and childhood friend of Matthew. When we’re introduced to Karl in At First Spite, one of the first things we learn is that he listens to monster fucking romances in the early hours of his baking shift, and on speakers no less. It’s implied that Karl has a mysterious attachment to these audiobooks.

Second Chance Romance introduces Molly, a freelance audiobook narrator, and Karl’s high school friend. Unlike Karl, Molly isn’t a Harlot’s Bay native, and moved to the town as a teen after a long series of moves for her parents’ jobs. Their friendship blossomed after Molly unexpectedly defended Karl from a teacher’s accusations of cheating. They’re quick friends, with an unusual dynamic. Where Karl has a fiery temper, long-established roots in the community, and a deep sense of duty, Molly is calmer, teases with snark, and is careful to avoid attachments. This is less of a golden retriever/black cat romance and more of a grumbly black cat/aloof tabby cat pairing, which I loved to see. Haters can find love too!!

Despite harboring crushes for one another in school, they never managed to move beyond friendship, and at the start of the book they’ve been out of touch for almost twenty years. There’s no dramatic falling out behind their disconnect, though the decision to stop talking was deliberate on Molly’s part. But even all these years later, Karl’s still got a massive crush for his old friend. Those monster fucking audibooks he listens to while icing cookies and kneading dough? Molly narrates them.

In the present day, Molly is two years divorced from her cheating ex who broke up with her as soon as he graduated med school (which Molly funded). She has a major renovation underway in her L.A. home, along with some potential health issues impacted by increased stress. This stress is heightened when another high school friend reaches out to tell her Karl has died. With little thought, Molly abruptly flies back to Harlot’s Bay on the East Coast, intent on paying her respects to her old pal. Only to find him at his bakery, very much alive and exuberantly happy to see her. The reports of his death were the result of a nosey reporter at the town’s paper mishearing bakery staff explain Karl’s absence due to a bout of flu the week prior.

Regardless of her motives, Karl takes Molly’s unexpected arrival as an opportunity to right the mistakes of his past — namely, dating her. Now adults, they’re quick to admit their attraction and affection for one another, which is refreshing to read after so many second chance titles where the topic is danced around. Yet Molly isn’t looking to jump into another relationship after being blind-sided by her recent divorce. She is, however, down to have no-strings-attached sex.

But Karl wants a full-on relationship, wants Molly to stay. So he proposes an alternative: instead of a one night stand, the pair embark on four weeks of trust building exercises, with their deadline of their high school reunion at the end of the month. When Molly feels like she trusts Karl, they can do the deed. Of course, Karl hopes the venture will convince Molly to leave L.A. for good and start a relationship with him in Harlot’s Bay.

So the trust exercises begin. And these are like, corporate retreat team-building activities, which was hilarious to see in a romance. After fumbling the first exercise in which they learn that Karl has incredibly poor communication skills, and explore Molly’s deep-seeded trust issues, they eventually find their groove. It takes less than the full month to make their way to mutual trust, and thankfully, amazing sex.

The first time the characters have sex, I found myself giggling. There’s also a competitiveness about giving pleasure between Molly and Karl, so much so Molly at one point basically pounces face-first into Karl’s lap after he’s been excessively giving. I love it when depictions of intimacy are funny and a bit awkward, because in my experience that is how sex is more often than not.

I really love how this author writes her sex scenes. We don’t get an abundance of cliches, like “sensitive nub” and “thrust his member to the hilt.” Bodies are written about in realistic and relatable ways. In Second Chance both characters are confident, have ownership of their sexuality and bodies. They also have pretty average bodies, who still manage to *gasp* admire one another’s features.

In Molly’s POV, she repeatedly admires Karl’s thick thighs, which isn’t a feature I often see heroines consider. Molly herself is a plus-sized woman, and Karl loves her body in a way that isn’t “despite,” objectifying or fetishizing. As a fat woman partnered to a physically thinner man, it was relatable and refreshing to see my own experience mirrored back to me.

Speaking of sex, let’s talk food porn! Karl is not especially good at verbalizing his feelings, but he’s all about showing his affection through service and helping others. This comes up repeatedly through his custom bakery creations for Molly, including but not limited to: lavender-white chocolate lattes, goat cheese/pickled pear/arugula/honey croissant sandwiches, mint and berry balsamic salads, pavlovas with plums in orange-rosemary syrup and vanilla bean whipped cream…. The descriptions made me very hungry for fresh pastries at 11pm when fresh pastries are not to be bought.

Better than the food itself, however, was the depiction of a fat heroine enjoying a variety of food without shame. Karl took pride in culinary creations, and Molly ate with pleasure. There was absolutely no commentary on her dietary choices, which in my opinion, is how food and eating should be treated in literature and real life. And it’s so nice to read a book with fat characters where they’re not second-guessing themselves, not embarrassed or struggling with their body image. They’re just living life in their larger bodies.

If there’s one gripe I have about Second Chance Romance, it’s how thick the characters’ issues were applied. At some points I felt like I was being beaten over the head with reminders of how terrible Karl is at communication, or depictions of how guarded and mistrustful Molly is, especially with men. Communication is a very common and relatable issue relationships face, but here it was just over-emphasized like readers weren’t trusted to pick up on the problem or remember it between chapters. I felt like there wasn’t really a good analysis into why Karl sucks or is outright reluctant to communicate his feelings, not that poor communication skills necessarily have a clear-cut motive. But the root of Molly’s trust issues is clearly spelled out, which made the motive for Karl’s weaknesses less clear.

I also took issue with the character’s initial estrangement. The abrupt break happened over a misunderstanding that could have very easily been resolved had either character bothered to interrogate it. And while we know one struggles to clearly express themselves and the other has a predisposition to expect the worst, the reasoning felt flimsy versus a “we just fell out of touch” like a lot of high school friends do. While it’s incredibly common for characters in romance to break up over misunderstandings (how many times have you gotten to that inevitable scene and howled “JUST TALK TO ONE ANOTHER FOR THE LOVE OF GOD?”), for some reason the miscommunication here was even more frustrating.

Maybe it’s because we’re shown over and over that despite their weaknesses, Karl and Molly are pretty emotionally mature people, who are sensitive to others’ needs. Yes, they have their flaws, but we get to know them as reasonable and generous. So it makes little sense for them to be so pigheaded when it comes to the person they utterly adore. It was a detail that really irked me, despite all of the other good things the book has to offer.

On the plus side, if you hate a third-act breakup, Second Chance Romance has more of what I’d call a third act pause. It’s very short — like, under a dozen pages, I think, — and doesn’t leave readers in complete agony.

Small town romances aren’t always my cup of tea (especially after growing up in a stifling tiny town), but throw in some quirks, colorful citizens, weird traditions and I’ll bite. Harlot’s Bay has a lot of historical charm, including but not limited to a weekly karaoke featuring 18th century versions of pop favorites.

“This one sounds familiar!” Under normal circumstances, she wouldn’t shout like this, since babying her throat meant she could narrate two books a week instead of one. But since she was off for the entire month, who gave a shit? “Is that—no, don’t tell me—”

“‘WAP.’” Lise had been drinking the tavern’s famous ginger ale all night, probably so she could stay alert enough to ward off any attempts to haul her onstage. After another sip from her brown glass bottle, she grinned at Molly. “‘Weird-Ass Pianoforte.’”

There’s also references to a pair of rival sex shops, who regularly send each other cakes iced with rude messages (I dearly hope Dade tells that love story next). We get repeat cameos from the geriatric journalist who originally reports Karl’s demise and is overzealous with her camera. And a romance bookclub entitled the Nasty Wenches reappears from the first book, just in the midst of a monster fucking themed month. Picturing the elderly club members reading My Kangaroo, My Kidnapper: A Dark Shifter Romance definitely made me chuckle. Details like this just make me fall even more in love with a series.

I think the charming setting just adds to the wholesome characters and great sex, creating one warm and fuzzy love story. If you’re looking for a relatively lighthearted, slow-stakes romance read, I think this is an exceptional pick. Overally, Second Chance Romance had its weird Romance Reasons moments, but was pretty down-to-earth and fun. I look forward to Dade’s next entry into the series!

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/reviews/second-chance-romance-by-olivia-dade/

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/?post_type=reviews&p=172094

Posted by Amanda

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2026/05/sunday-sale-digest-80/

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/?p=172460

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2026/05/sunday-sale-digest-80/

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/?p=172460

Posted by Elyse

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/reviews/hollywood-hookup-by-christy-swift/

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/?post_type=reviews&p=172064

I listened to Hollywood Hookup on a recent plane ride, and while the tone of the narrative wasn’t really for me, I can say that the structure of the book lends itself really well to audio.

Josie Days is a makeup artist on a hit musical sci-fi show starring five hot guys who are sequel fodder. They’re doing a charity celebrity date contest with said five guys and for hand-wavy reasons Josie gets roped in to replace a last minute drop out. She winds up winning a date with Sean O’Sullivan, which she does not want.

Josie used to be a child actor under a different name until her career came to a catastrophic end during an incident that involved puppet immolation. She’s been hiding ever since and dating Sean will put her back in the public eye. Sean really wants to date Josie though because she seems uninterested in him and HOW DARE.

This book didn’t work for me very well because it’s really a mad-cap, wacky sort of comedy. The situations the characters find themselves in are very over the top and sometimes felt like they would have worked better for visual comedy versus something on the page. For example, the heroine shows up to a date with the hero in full space alien FX makeup in order not to be recognized…which might have been funnier if we had seen her unexpectedly appear in costume versus reading about it.

If a reader doesn’t mind zany shenanigans, the book does work really well in audio and it’s closed door, which I know some readers are searching for. There are two narrators for the audio book (male and female), and some sections are transcripts of podcasts and talk shows, so that makes for a lot of varying voice acting opportunities. It’s definitely fun to listen to.

Hollywood Hookup was just okay for me, but I can see it having more mileage with others.

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/reviews/hollywood-hookup-by-christy-swift/

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/?post_type=reviews&p=172064