Read with Fern

“So, you have everything you need.” Alexandra spread her arms out wide to the view. “This view, that sea, this wine, good hotel. You have guests! You have each other! Running a hotel on a beautiful Greek island isn’t the worst thing to happen to two silly Americans.”

The Second Chance Hotel, Sierra Godfrey

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Spoilers Beyond This Point

I enjoyed this book on many levels. It is expertly woven to be an instant escape to another world with just enough believability to keep you pulled in. The different love stories are beautifully told and work together to showcase all the different kinds of love that create successful and wonderful relationships. It is clear that Godfrey loves love, and wants us to join in the celebration. However, my biggest struggles came from the book’s pacing, and some of James’s character development (or lack thereof). 

Before we got to this gorgeous Greek island, I was truly lost. Amelia is burning her life down in a blaze of glory, which is arguably a great way to jump into any story. I was fully in support until Amelia decides she has to leave town immediately and skip her best friend’s wedding. This made me pause for a moment, contemplate the different types of best friends, and then continue on. But I was dragged out of the story completely when it was revealed that her best friend, Ella, had canceled her wedding. 

This hiccup in Amelia’s personal life is used as the catalyst for her trip, then as her catalyst to come home, then again to go back to Greece. Because Ella and Amelia are not speaking for the majority of the story, there is no moment where any of these incidents are discussed at length. I didn’t even get a sense for how long these girls had been friends, never mind how close they actually were. Amelia had several other female friendships develop over the course of this book, and those relationships felt real, not like plot points waiting to be hit. This also affected the book’s pacing, making everything feel like it hinged on Amelia and Ella’s relationship, even though Ella was barely featured.

In a similar vein, James is sometimes treated like a plot point. He’s much more fleshed out as a character compared to Ella, but he lacks a lot of the depth that Birgitte and Alexandra have. James is never included in any conversations about emotion or motivation, beyond the damn olive farm. Instead, we get just enough basic information about him to accept his doormat personality. 

This is the most evident in the ending, as Amelia finds James wishing for her return, sitting on a rock in the middle of a rainstorm. It’s romantic, but it’s also unbelievable. James immediately accepts that Amelia will be staying, and there’s not even a hint of doubt that she’ll run away again. To me, James deserved a little more backbone than that. 

Overall, these issues did not distract me from the story in any meaningful way. The location is calling you from every page you turn. The background characters are reaching out of the pages to offer you sun-kissed olives and a flute of ouzo. You will fall in love with these characters, just like I did. You will get swept along in their whirlwind lives and relationship, and be ready to befriend every old man on the Mediterranean coast, just for a chance at a similar experience.