Not only has Thea just been made redundant, but she also finds out that her husband has been sleeping with one of her friends, and is intending on leaving her. Thankfully, rather than having to live in a small flat in the same town in which she grew up and has lived in during her relationship, she inherits a great-uncle's house and book collection in a small Scottish town.

Assuming she might just clear out the house and sell it on, Thea heads up to Scotland, where she meets a local landowner, a crowd of friendly villagers and a grumpy bookshop owner who has a complicated and unpleasant history behind him.

I actually enjoyed this book a lot more than I was expecting. I love to read romance, but often spend so long raising my eyebrow at improbable situations and misunderstandings and cringey chemistry that I often don't enjoy it as much as I want to.

However, perhaps because the characters were in their late forties, the silly situations are done away-with. Instead we meet Thea, who has recently had assumptions about her working life and relationship completely destroyed. She's not actively searching for a new life, but decides to take an opportunity when it presents itself. She's straight-talking, friendly and pragmatic - which makes a nice change from some of the kinds of characters that you can come across in this genre. In fact, being straight-talking means that some of the standard misunderstandings that would otherwise appear are immediately nipped in the bud.

I suspect that not everyone would feel something for the bookshop owner, Edward Maltravers, who is rude, somewhat misogynistic and jaded. He's not an easy character to like ... but for me, personally, I recognise a few old crushes in that kind of personality - one that is guarded and shuttered - and I enjoyed the slow development of an understanding between both Thea and Edward.

Most of the time, Thea isn't even looking for love. Which means that, although there's a lot of self-reflection in this book, there's less of Thea agonising about what she should or shouldn't do, because she's just not considering it as an option. She has plenty of healing of her own to do first, and I enjoyed that the whole story felt more like Thea coming to grips with her job and her new way of living, rather than her falling madly in love.

And finally, the setting was lovely - wholesome Scottish village, antiques, bookshops, countryside, sea ... yes please.

There were a few very uncomfortable moments between Thea and Edward's brother later on in the novel, and some of Edward's own actions are more problematic than attractive. I also couldn't understand why someone as straightforward as Thea had just meekly accepted the end of her marriage. But overall, the whole story just worked really nicely for me.

An easy going read. Nice change to have a likeable middleaged heroine.

My only gripe really was how the relationship between a grouchy bookshop owner escalated so quickly to visits to the beach and a relationship. Felt the chemistry and spark was somewhat missing.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my review.

I love books about bookshops so I was eager to read this debut novel by Jackie Fraser. I was delighted to receive an early preview copy of this book from Netgalley and the Publisher.
I love the setting of this book, Scotland is a favourite place of mine. The Highlands always make a stunning location in my opinion.
Thea, the main protagonist loses her Job, Husband and her home within a very short amount of time, when she discovers that she has been left a house with a large book collection in the Highlands of Scotland. She has to decide if this will make a new start for herself or if she should sell it.
I enjoyed reading this book, I like the characters, it was nice to see Thea working through the pain of her divorce and trying to make,a fresh start. There was romance and a little humour. It was interesting when Thea was going through her historical book collection.
This is a good debut novel, and I will definitely look out for more books by this author in the future.

Thanks to Simon &Schuster for the copy of this book, thanks to NetGalley for making this happen. I was absolutely elated to get this book. This book is an absolute riot of emotions. When all books of women fiction starts with cheating husband/ boyfriend, losing a job and many other problems, this books plot will gut you out, the raw emotions and portrayal of pain is so pure. The main leads have the typical frenemies to lovers theme, which is slightly cliche. But the book is definitely recommendable.

I enjoyed The Bookshop of Second Chances and would rate it a solid 3.5 stars. Poor Thea has been dealt a terrible hand, after being made redundant she also finds out her husband has been having an affair and is leaving her. It’s not been her best month. But things start to look up when a great uncle she was fond of passes away. Not only does he leave her a house in a beautiful Scottish village but also a vast library of second hand books. Thea escapes there with the idea of staying until she’s sorted out the house for sale, but does she have anything left to return home to and could she make a new life for herself in Scotland?

Initially I loved Thea’s character. She’s fun and feisty and certainly has a lot to contend with throughout the novel. However I felt the over use of the F word just didn’t seem in keeping with the character and seemed to take something away from her slightly. Other than that I enjoyed the rest of the book with the various characters and everyone seeming to know everyone else’s business. I felt the plot flowed at a steady speed and you could easily while away a good few hours at a time with this book.

Thank you to NetGalley, Simon and Schuster UK and the author for the chance to review.

An entertaining story that has elements of romance and humour. It began with Thea finding out about her husband’s affair and him leaving her, which resonated with me as I’d been through the same thing. However she was handed a lifeline when her Great Uncle left her his house in Scotland and his collection of books. It was easy to sympathise with Thea as the character was well written. The character of Edward grew on me as it did with Thea. I really enjoyed their developing relationship and their humour was very entertaining. I soon found I couldn’t wait to find out what happened next as we saw a softer side to Edward and Thea gained in confidence. Their exchanges were very amusing and well written. It’s a refreshingly different story of romance without any cheesiness and plenty of subtle humour. If this is the author’s debut book I’ll look forward to reading the next one.

The book sounded very good, but sadly it didn’t quite live up to expectations. The story itself is fairly good, but predictable. I just felt like it wasn’t moving forward at times. I felt like I wanted to skim through it too often. I like the setting of the bookshop, but in the end it wasn’t really that big part of the book. I also liked to read about its owner and his brother, and their family history. I did not really warm up to the protagonist. She was a too distant character. Yes, she showed a lot of emotions towards different men, but lacked character and I would have liked to see more of her own personality, not just about her feelings towards men. 2,5 stars.

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. This is a real feel good read, great characters, great location and generally a good read.

I really enjoyed this book all the way through. It had a really good plot, great main characters and really keeps you hooked on the plot. I would highly recommend this book.

I thought this was a really charming book and loved the little community that Thea finds. This is the first book by Jackie Fraser that I've read, but I will certainly be looking out for more now.

Thanks to Netgalley and Simon and Schuster UK for a copy of this book in exchange for a review.

Thea has lost her husband and her job and finds herself reeling from both losses when she inherits and lodge from an old great uncle in Dumfries and Galloway.

On the whole I enjoyed the book. Second hand bookshop, set in Scotland, cosy read. What more could you want.

I absolutely loved this book. A quirky setting. and characters, a second hand bookshop, a broken relationship and a slow burning love story. The first book I’ve read by Jackie Fraser and I will certainly look out for more.