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Second Chance
Second Chance
Mar 7, 2026 1:24 PM

Author:Jane Green

Second Chance

Jane Green, author of the bestsellers The Love Verb and The Beach House, examines love, life, and friendships in her moving and entertaining novel Second Chance.

Holly Macintosh is sitting round her kitchen table with her oldest friends - friends she hasn't seen since school - now reunited by an unexpected tragedy and catching up on the past 20 years.

On the surface, they are all successful and happy. But scratch a little deeper after that extra glass of wine and it's not quite so straightforward: Paul and Anna are struggling to have a baby, Saffron the actress is still waiting for that really big break that - at 39 - is looking less and less likely, and Olivia, always the wallflower of the group, is newly single and mourning her lost love.

And what about Holly Mac? Can she and her husband Marcus get their marriage back on track for the sake of the children? Or has someone just come back into her life who will change everything forever?

'A corker of a story' Heat

'Witty and wise . . . another winner' Daily Express

'Will keep you entertained to the last page' Cosmopolitan

Reviews

A corker of a story, sharply and elegantly told

—— Heat

Fizzing with fast-and-furious dialogue, this is vintage Green

—— Eve

What an absolute treat - sheer joy from start to finish.

—— Lucy Diamond

Pesky boss, sexy man and plenty of laughs, and you’ve got rom-com excellence. This will be huge in 2017.

—— Heat

Sure to make you laugh out loud... this book can't fail to lift your mood.

—— Closer

A touching read with lots of laugh-out-loud moments . . . brilliantly captures the zeitgeist

—— Daily Express

This is vintage Kinsella with laugh out loud moments, a haphazard but likeable heroine and a gorgeous love interest. Perfect.

—— Closer

Enchanting and clever . . . whip-smart and brilliantly done, with a lightness of touch that disguises a lot of real wisdom.

—— Amanda Craig

Comic gem … fast, furious and fabulous fun.

—— Woman & Home

This fun, super-readable breath of fresh air had us completely hooked

—— Fabulous magazine, Sun on Sunday

Kinsella at her put-a-smile-on-your-face best

—— Good Housekeeping

A warm-hearted comedy about appreciating what really matters in life

—— Sunday Mirror

I'm a huge fan of Kinsella . . . This is a highly enjoyable romp

—— Sara Lawrence, Daily Mail

A captivating story, full of heart.

—— Good Housekeeping

Praise for Sophie Kinsella

—— :

The most hilarious, breathless romp imaginable. You’ll laugh and gasp on every page

—— Jenny Colgan

I let out a huge, embarrassing honk of laughter on the tube reading Wedding Night. And then, two stops later, I did it again. This is why Sophie Kinsella is beloved by millions - her books are properly mood-altering. Funny, fast and farcical. I loved it.

—— Jojo Moyes

The narrative gallops along with humorous scenes and great one-liners...and you won't be able to stop reading until you find out how all the loose ends tie up.

—— Daily Mail

Daring and often hilarious

—— Angel Gurría-Quintana , Financial Times

Brimming with absurdity, intelligence and wit, The Explosion Chronicles considers the high stakes of passion and power, the consequences of corruption and greed, the dynamics of love and hate, as well as the seemingly boundless excesses of capitalist culture.

—— Asian Art Newspaper

A blistering condemnation of political corruption and excess

—— Catherine Taylor , i

The sweeping mythic style and cartoon-like effects are exhilarating, and...the realities of life in China are sharply conveyed

—— The Times

A fast-paced, ambitious, hallucinatory mystery

—— Publishers Weekly

Marvellous, original and intelligent. Kunzru writes like a master storyteller... There's simply nothing [he] couldn't manage in prose

—— Literary Review

Publisher's description. Electrifying, subversive and wildly original, White Tears is a ghost story and a love story, a story about lost innocence and historical guilt. This unmissable novel penetrates the heart of a nation's darkness, encountering a suppressed history of greed, envy, revenge and exploitation, and holding a mirror up to the true nature of America today.

—— Penguin

Compulsively readable, masterly - a tour de force

—— Rachel Kushner

Riveting from the very first page, I was completely addicted... A literary thriller and a timely, unsparing excavation of the very real spectre of race in America's past and present. White Tears is proof that Kunzru is one of the finest novelists of his generation...

—— Mirza Waheed

Hari Kunzru is an incredibly versatile writer who is alert to the inequalities in the world... Powerful and complex, White Tears is a novel about abuses of wealth and power. Brilliantly orchestrated, unforgettable and devastating

—— Bernardine Evaristo

Hari Kunzru is one of our most important novelists

—— Independent on Sunday

Kunzru's engagingly wired prose and agile plotting sweep all before them

—— New Yorker

Elizabeth Strout's My Name is Lucy Barton shouldn't work, but its frail texture was a triumph of tenderness, and sent me back to her excellent Olive Kitteridge

—— Cressida Connolly , The Spectator

A rich account of a relationship between mother and daughter, the frailty of memory and the power of healing

—— Mark Damazer , New Statesman

This physically slight book packs an unexpected emotional punch

—— Simon Heffer , Daily Telegraph

A novel offering more hope

—— Daisy Goodwin , Daily Mail

My Name Is Lucy Barton intrigues and pierces with its evocative, skin-peeling back remembrances of growing up dirt-poor.

—— Ann Treneman , The Times

Masterly

—— Anna Murphy
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