Maggie North

Great premise and Liz and Tobin are a couple you'll want to root for, but the overall story is a little light on hope throughout and heavy on doubt and misunderstanding/miscommunication between the characters. Liz is struggling in her life and in maintaining her marriage to socially outgoing husband Tobin. In her own words, she is playing a supporting role in her own life. She is socially awkward, has a strained relationship with her husband, has an overbearing mother-in-law, and struggles with an often-difficult relationship with sister who is unfortunately her main source of family support. Liz wants to be more noticeable and taken seriously, both personally and professionally. At her jerk boss's suggestion, she takes an improv class to build interpersonal skills ahead of a competition for a work promotion, and we get to watch as she learns more about herself and how she interacts with others. At the beginning of the book we also see Liz temporary split away from husband of 3 years. She has felt partially edged out of their marriage by the demands of their families who live in close proximity, and by Tobin's deferring to his parents' wants and needs rather than valuing his marriage. Liz has an autistic niece, who not only plays a large part in her life but also in her journey of self-identity.

The supporting characters were well-written, and I was invested enough in Liz and Tobin's relationship to root for them (both individually and as a couple). Liz sees herself as boring and weird, afraid her dynamic husband will finally figure out that he should leave her (as we watch her growing realization that she may be more like her niece than she thought). Tobin is harder to read at first, but is clearly shaken when Liz seems to leave their marriage and as the story progresses we learn more about how his past is negatively impacting his relationships. I wondered initially if Liz mistook her general unhappiness with how her life is going with unhappiness with her marriage, but as the story goes on we see that both Tobin and Liz have been holding back in their relationship. Liz and Tobin were written as closed-off products of their upbringings, which worked well as a plot point. I really liked the premise of Liz using improv to change her life, although it was a little heart-breaking that she felt she needed to learn how to be someone else in order to be happy in her own life. I liked the story but it was a lot: some parts of the story moved well but I struggled in other parts to stay engaged. Both of their families felt selfish and unsupportive, which you'd think would make Liz and Tobin's bond with one another stronger but it didn't seem to have done that. It also made them really hard to like. Liz's understanding of how to fix things in her life felt vague and nebulous, but I guess that was realistic. Having a one-year-later epilogue at the end went a long way towards helping me feel happier with the story's resolution. But since the majority of the story was about putting in the work to make a relationship work, skipping ahead a year for their HEA and to tie up the loose ends felt like a writing cop-out and minimized the continued work we are forced to assume they did to make things better for themselves. When all is said and done, the thing I love most about romance books are their sense of hopefulness, and I just didn't see enough of it throughout this story to feel satisfied. While there was some hope in this story (albeit most of it concentrated towards the end), it didn't feel strong and was outweighed by too much doubt and character confusion throughout the book. I'm not sure if that's the story's flaw or a flaw in my interpretation of the author's words, but it definitely affected my enjoyment of the book. That said, I did like the story overall and was engaged with it enough that I would read this author again. Thank you to NetGalley for providing an eArc of this story in exchange for my honest and objective review.… (mehr)

This is not a book on improv, but it does involve several improv scenarios. At its core, the narrative is about Liz, who has settled and made herself fit as a square peg in the round hole of life. She is tired of not being seen and will finally do what it takes to alter that.

I really related to the character of Liz. I believe that we all want to fit in, be admired, not make waves. I truly enjoyed the interaction between Liz and Tobin as they worked through scenes in the Second Chance book. I rooted for them to find their way back to one another.

I wasn't sure what to expect, but I'm so pleased I had the opportunity to read this book. 4⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press, St. Martin's Griffin for this complimentary ARC. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.… (mehr)