Second First Impressions

A Novel

By: Sally Thorne

Narrated by: Jennifer Jill Araya

Length: 10 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's summary

From the USA Today best-selling author of The Hating Game and 99 Percent Mine comes the clever, funny, and unforgettable story of a muscular, tattooed man hired as an assistant to two old women - under the watchful eye of a beautiful retirement home manager.

Dazzle (n): Brightness that blinds someone temporarily.

Position Vacant: Two ancient old women residing at Providence Retirement Villa seek male assistant for casual exploitation and good-natured humiliation. Duties include boutique shopping, fast-food fetching, and sincerely rendered flattery. Good looks a bonus - but we aren’t picky.

An advertisement has been placed (again!) by the wealthy and eccentric Parloni Sisters. The salary is generous and the employers are 90 years old, so how hard could the job be? Well, none have lasted longer than a week. Most boys leave in tears.

Ruthie Midona will work in Providence’s front office, and be at the Parlonis' beck and call, forever. That’s sort of her life plan. If Ruthie can run the place in her almost-retired bosses’ absence, with no hijinks/hiccups, she has a shot at becoming the new manager. She might also be able to defend her safe little world from Prescott Development, the new buyer of the prime site. Maybe after all that, she can find a cute guy to date. All she needs to do is stay serious - and that’s what she does best. Until, one day, someone dazzling blows in to town.

Teddy Prescott devotes his life to sleeping, tattooing, and avoiding seriousness. When Teddy needs a place to crash, he makes a deal with his developer dad. Teddy can stay in one of Providence’s on-site maintenance cottages - right next door to an unimpressed Ruthie - but only if he works there and starts to grow up.

Ruthie knows how this sweetly selfish rich boy can earn his keep - and be out of her hair in under a week. After all, there is a position vacant....

©2020 Sally Thorne (P)2020 HarperAudio

Just OK

I loved Sally’s two prior books but this one fell flat for me. I wish we had known Teddy’s thoughts as well since two perspectives would have been better. The ending in the 2nd to last chapter (excluding the epilogue) felt extremely rushed and too convenient to me. While I enjoyed it, I wouldn’t recommend this as I would Sally’s previous works.

A fun read

A sweet opposites attract rom com. Fun quirky cast of characters. I enjoyed this story and the narrator did a good job

So sweet

I loved this book. It’s not the most original story line but it’s a sweet one. Ruthie is shy and conservative and Teddy is confident and out going. I was sad when the story was over.

Love Rom Coms

This was such a good summer read. I LOVE Sally Thorne books and can't wait for more.

Quick read

I needed to get out of my head and this did the trick. It was a bit slow in some places, but the characters were hilarious and held my attention through the slower parts. Definitely worth reading.

Comfort Read!

This is my third time through this book - first time listening. It’s a different book than The Hating Game, and that’s okay! I love the main characters. And it’s swooooooony!

Charming!

Sweet charming read with a wonderful undertone of love and acceptance. I really enjoyed it.

I really tried

I love the writing style and narration and the romance is sweet and believable and it's so easy to root for them... but there are two things about this book that made it just unbearable for me: it's so FREAKING BORING and the Unnecessarily Sexually Repressed Good Girl Falls for Himbo trope embarrasses the heck out of me. IMO, nothing is less sexy in a modern romance than a female protagonist not having sexual autonomy, and quite frankly the author presents a lot of trauma surrounding the character's experience with sex the ONE TIME SHE'S HAD SEX IN 25 YEARS - as a teenager - (~6 years removed from the plot), but doesn't have her resolve the actual psychological abuse that caused said fear of sexual intimacy. Unless you can cure mental illness with penis, she doesn't even seem to register that her entire childhood was totally craptastic and that maybe therapy would be cool. She just... overcomes a deep and almost decade long fear of sexual intimacy... with penis? It would have been amazing to finally see a narrative about a woman who is a Good Girl who just chose to wait for sex because she wants to wait for sex, a Good Girl Who is Waiting for Sex has autonomy. A Good Girl Waiting can still be a sexual being... not the static "she's afraid, she's ashamed, she thinks she's ugly, she's ugly until she learns how to utilize cleavage, conservative family, what's a flirting, omg 3 pages about his crotch bulge, can he see me blushing? ahahaHAHHA," blah, blah, blah. Virgins can be confident, flirtatious and outgoing people with self esteem who just... haven't had sex or chose to stop having sex. Where is SHE? I WANT TO READ HER STORY, THANK YOU. Not "Sally Butterface has never kissed a boy, but now that her glasses are off and she looks like Jessica Alba..." Quite frankly, I'm sick of these Never Been Kissed But Bad storylines. She feels like a repressed and terrified former cult member more than the recovering daughter of fundamentalist Christians. Which, honestly, she is... but that's also only mentioned and not dealt with. None of her hangups are actually dealt with. Holy exposition, Batman. Nothing is seen, only told throughout the entire novel.

There's no plot... nothing happens to motivate you to continue except for the same fluttery cute scene slightly rewritten 165 times. It took me over a month to finish this book. There's an unnecessary make over sequence, because virgins obviously don't understand fashion or make up. Oh! Don't forget the token POC who is, to her core, a 2D character who cares about nothing else but matchmaking and protecting the protagonist from the Himbo. She's shallow and vapid and still the most interesting character. I'd skip this one. It's like a well written fanfiction one would enjoy to cool down from an intense, plot driven narrative. Not an actual novel.

100% enjoyable, a great story of giving and taking

I’m happy I ignored the negative reviews, because they were so untrue to the reality of this story. There were portions of this book that literally made
me cackle with laughter, and parts that tugged my heart. Sally Thorne has such a witty humor, creates realistic and great dialogue between characters, and I found the main character’s development and growth to be understandable to anyone who has ever had their world shifted or who has had their self esteem downtrodden on. Additionally, the characters creating the community are hilariously lovable.

The narrator does an excellent job. Her character voices are easy to tell apart, and she breathes a beautiful life into the words.

Legit, I couldn’t stop listening. Actually fell asleep with my earbuds in because my tiredness eventually won out … but it was a great story to hear.

Everything I love in a book!

"Second First Impressions" gives me everything I want in a feel good read: drama, laughter, growth, fun characters and the perfect ending. I love how relationships grow and build - both romantic and platonic. Thorne writes characters that are relatable, people we want to see rise up and succeed. I've loved everything this author has given us readers and am eager to read more of her work.