14 second chance romance books you need to read ASAP

The saying “if at first you don’t succeed, try again” has never rang truer than with second chance romance novels. These books focus on main characters who have had love slip through their fingers but now, they’re lucky enough to get a second chance.

Second chance romance novels are filled with drama, tension, and angst, and are usually a bit of a slow burn. After all, there’s years of history and heartbreak to wade through before we can get to a happy ending!

This trope can manifest in a lot of different ways:

• They were together in the past, now they’re not and they’re somehow brought back together (“The Road Trip”)

• They had one night together and went their separate ways but found each other again (“Pucking Around”)

• They weren’t together but they definitely have chemistry and history and now they have a chance to reconnect (“You, with a View”)

• They’re together but their relationship is in danger and they need to build it back up before it’s too late (“Love Her or Lose Her”)

The second chance romance trope pairs perfectly with the forced proximity trope. After all, if we could avoid our ex partners/crushes/situationships, we would! But this is the book world, not real life, and for romance to get a second chance we need the main characters to spend time together (even if it’s against their will).

These books will rip your heart out and stomp on it a little bit, but hey, what’s a little heartbreak on the way to a heartwarming happily ever after? The best second chance romance books are as heartwarming as they are heartbreaking—don’t say I didn’t warn you!

Grab your Kindle, head to the library, or browse your own TBR pile (we’re all guilty of owning a book we haven’t read yet!) because these are some of the best second chance romance books out there.

1. “Happy Place” by Emily Henry

Harriet and Wyn were the perfect couple—until they weren’t. They kept their breakup quiet—so quiet in fact, that even their best friends don’t know.

Now, six months after they split, they’re headed out with their friends for their annual vacation on the coast of Maine. Worried about burdening the group with their relationship woes, Harriet and Wyn keep up the charade that they’re a happy couple. But the more they try to fool everyone around them, the more they wonder if they were fools for breaking up in the first place.

This book is about romance, sure, but it’s also about growing up and growing apart, falling in and out of love, finding your people and finding yourself. Run, don’t walk, to one of BookTok’s favorite second chance romances!

2. “You Deserve Each Other” by Sarah Hogle

Just months before their wedding, Nicholas and Naomi should be on cloud nine (key word, should). Instead of preparing for newlywed bliss, they’re at each other's throats. They’d probably be better off apart, but whoever calls off the wedding has to foot the bill and so neither one of them wants to cave.

They are locked in a passive-aggressive war, each trying to annoy the other into calling the wedding off. But the harder they try to drive each other away, the closer they seem to become. With their wedding date looming, they’re forced to confront their relationship problems or risk losing everything.

This book is packed with the annoyance and banter we love in enemies-to-lovers books and will make you laugh, swoon, and kick your feet!

3. “Hometown” by Dipsea

After a breakup, Gia heads back to her hometown looking for a place to crash and reset. One night at the local bar, she runs into Jack, her friend’s older brother, who can’t believe his luck running into her after so many years apart.

He offers her a ride home and what starts as a casual, friendly catch-up turns into a heated secret hookup. After years of wistful longing, these two finally have a second chance at creating their own love story.

If you love the best friend’s older brother trope, steamy small town romances, and a man with a British accent, then this audiobook series is for you!

4. “Final Offer” by Lauren Asher

Cal is on the brink of earning his share of his grandfather’s whopping estate, but to get the money he has to go back to the one place he swore he’d never go again: Wisteria Lake. All he has to do to secure his inheritance is spend a summer at the lake house and then sell it. Seems simple enough!

What he’s not expecting is for Alana, his former best friend and the one that got away, to be living in the house. And she’s not going anywhere, because her name is on the deed too. If Cal wants to sell the house—and he desperately does—he’s going to have to face off against Alana and the ghosts of their past.

This is the final book in the Dreamland Billionaires series, but can be read as a standalone.

5. “Every Summer After” by Carley Fortune

Percy has been trying to outrun a dumb mistake for years when she finds herself heading back to the tiny town where she spent summers on the lake. She hasn’t been back in ages and she sees Sam, her best friend-turned-first love, everywhere. After years of avoidance and no contact, Percy and Sam finally have a chance to pick up the pieces of their past and work out what drove them apart all those years ago.

This story is told in the present over the course of a single weekend and through six summers from the past. There’s so many versions of each character to get to know and the common thread between them all is the incredible chemistry and tension between Percy and Sam.

6. “The Mistake” by Elle Kennedy

College hockey star John Logan and shy, reserved Grace first cross paths when Logan accidentally shows up at her dorm room door while looking for a friend. Their budding romance comes to an abrupt halt just as school lets out for the year.

Once the school year starts in the fall, Logan is on a mission to win Grace back and he’s willing to do whatever it takes for her to give him a second chance. Grace isn’t sold, but it sure is fun making him work for it (we love a man who grovels and Logan is the king of groveling!).

This is the second in the Off Campus series but you can read it as a standalone if your Goodreads TBR is just too long.

7. “Under Your Spell” by Laura Wood

Clementine is going through it: Her cheating ex left her (and took her cat!), she lost her dream job, and she’s on the verge of losing her apartment. When her sisters suggest getting drunk and casting a spell like they used to as kids, she figures things couldn’t get worse.

But now she’s ruined a funeral (oops), had her first one-night stand, and is stuck working for Theo Elliot, the most famous musician on the planet. Things might not be worse, but they’re definitely interesting. As Clementine sorts through her mess of a life, she’s forced to confront her past so she can chart her future.

This book had me on my toes from the very first pages and it just kept getting better!

8. “Things We Left Behind” by Lucy Score

Sloane and Lucian weren’t exactly high school sweethearts but they were toeing the line between friends and something more before The Incident sent them their separate ways.

Even though they’ve kept their distance over the years, Knockemout is a small town and it’s impossible to stop running into (and annoying) each other. Everyone in town can see their chemistry from a mile away—it’s less sparks flying and more of a lightning storm—but they’re both stubborn and neither one wants to be the one to cave.

Fans of the friends-to-enemies-to-lovers pipeline, this one’s for you. This book is the third in the Knockemout series that all takes place in the same small town. You can read it on its own but I recommend fully immersing yourself in the Knockemout universe by reading “Things We Never Got Over” and “Things We Hide from the Light” first.

9. “The Bromance Book Club” by Lyssa Kay Adams

Gavin is the hotshot second baseman for the Nashville Legends—life should be great, right? Wrong! He just found out his wife, Thea, has been faking it for their entire marriage. If that wasn’t enough of a blow to the ego, Thea wants a divorce.

Desperate to turn things around, Gavin seeks help from the most trustworthy group imaginable: the secret romance book club made up of some of Nashville’s most prominent pro athletes and public figures. Between the tips he learns in the steamy romance read and his friends’ invaluable advice, he can win her back…right?

It’s the first in a series so you can read this and be done, or you can fall in love with all the characters and read the whole series.

10. “Reckless” by Elsie Silver

Winter and Theo get along like oil and water but they finally let their animosity boil over into passion for one fateful night. Like a textbook one-night-stand, they part on terms to never talk about this night again (no matter how good it was).

A positive pregnancy test a few weeks later means these two aren’t getting out of each other’s hair anytime soon. As they spend more time together and learn more about each other, they form a tentative friendship that blossoms into more.

Accidental/surprise pregnancy is not one of my favorite tropes but this is done so well here. It’s the fourth in the Chestnut Springs series and while you can read it on its own, you should do yourself a favor and read them all!

11. “The Ex Vows” by Jessica Joyce

Eli and Georgia became friends in high school, got together in college, and had the breakup to end all breakups five years ago. As best man and woman, the former couple is forced to put their messy feelings aside and help their best friend Adam as he navigates the world’s worst wedding luck (seriously, if it could go wrong, it does!).

When Adam asks Georgia and Eli to travel to Napa Valley to pull off a wedding miracle, they don’t hesitate, even if it means being forced to spend time together. Will they be able to keep their feelings in the past or will this trip be the start of something new?

12. “Once More with Feeling” by Elissa Sussman

Katee is a pop superstar with an equally famous boy-bander boyfriend, everything should be perfect, right? Wrong! She finds herself falling for Cal, her friend and boyfriend’s bandmate. One night together takes down both of their careers and they go their separate ways.

Years later, Katee is living a relatively normal life when Cal shows up, offering her a role in his Broadway play. It’s everything she’s ever wanted, but it means having to spend hours with Cal in rehearsal. Their chemistry is still just as intense as it was all those years ago but giving an ex another chance is crazy…right?

13. “Seven Days in June” by Tia Williams

As teenagers, Eva and Shane had an intense, explosive, week-long love affair. Years later, Eva is a best-selling erotica writer and single mom while Shane is a reclusive, award-winning author.

By complete chance, they meet at a literary conference in New York and both of their worlds are turned upside down by the blast from the past. Their relationship as teens wasn’t exactly healthy, but it changed both of them. There’s no denying the feelings and chemistry are still there, but Eva won’t be burned by the same flame twice—no matter how tempting Shane is.

14. “Untying the Knot” by Meghan Quinn

Myla and Ryot have been married for 11 years but the spark has faded. Ryot has been so focused on retiring from professional baseball and figuring out what comes next that he hasn’t even noticed Myla checking out of the marriage.

Myla makes the hard decision to leave and serves him with divorce papers but Ryot surprises her by fighting back for her and their marriage. He’s willing to do whatever it takes to make her fall in love with him all over again—and this time he’s not letting go.

This is a standalone book but you may recognize some of the side characters from Quinn’s other books.

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