REVIEW: Second First Impressions by Sally Thorne

I’m going to come right out and say it – Sally Thorne is one of my new favourite romance authors. An Australian author living in Canberra, her debut The Hating Game was hailed as a reinvigoration of the romcom genre, and her latest release Second First Impressions firmly cements her position as an auto-read author for me. This book has everything: endangered turtles, eccentric elderly ladies, cardigans, weirdly intense descriptions of the love interests’ luscious hair, a cottagecore setting and plenty of snappy dialogue and heart-melting romance. I devoured it in one sitting.

Sally Thorne

Second First Impressions follows 25-year-old Ruthie who lives and works at Providence Retirement Villa. Ruthie has spent nearly her entire adult life sequestering herself away from people her own age and cares about Providence deeply, which is why the looming threat of the place being knocked down and turned into private housing is a deeply frightening prospect. Enter Teddy, the tattooed, motor-bike-riding, leather-jacket-wearing son of the man who owns Providence, he of the aforementioned luscious hair. Ruthie begrudgingly agrees to allow Teddy to work as assistant to two of the villa’s more eccentric elderly ladies and live in the cottage next to hers, but of course it isn’t long before sparks start to fly between the two.

If I had to describe this book in one word? ADORABLE. The warm-and-fuzzies were in full force and I absolutely loved it. It is so cosy and completely warms the soul, while managing to be laugh-out-loud hilarious and tooth-achingly sweet. I completely bought into the love story between Ruthie and Teddy and rooted for them the whole way through. Sally constantly surprises me with her writing – she never ends a sentence the way I expect she will, and it is a constant delight to be stunned into laughter at her clever metaphors and observations about love and romance. The characters in this book were another highlight, vividly painted and wonderfully funny. I was particularly fond of Ruthie’s friend Melanie, Providence temp and founder of The Sasaki Method, an elaborate plan to get Ruthie onto the dating scene, and the Parlonis, a pair of elderly ladies whose greatest joy in life seems to be bullying their assistants.

This book is pure fun and joy from beginning to end, and is the perfect pick-me-up read for a rainy day.

—Second First Impressions by Sally Thorne (Hachette Australia) is out now.

Second First Impressions

by Sally Thorne

Distraction (n): Something that turns your attention away from something you want to concentrate on. See: Teddy Prescott.

Ruthie Midona is twenty-four (going on ninety-four) and fully committed to her job at a luxury retirement village. Keeping herself busy caring for the eccentric residents means that Ruthie can safely ignore her own life - what little there is of it. Teddy Prescott is practically allergic to a hard day's work. When he rocks up as the retirement village's newest employee, Ruthie is less than impressed. The last thing she needs is a distraction as irritating (and handsome) as...

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Hannah Armstrong