by Sally Thorne
"Second First Impressions is the warmest, coziest, sweetest book of the year, an absolutely perfect blend of humor and heart. I want to live inside Sally Thorne's brain." —Emily Henry, New York Times bestselling of Beach Read
From the USA Today bestselling author of The Hating Game, soon to be a movie starring Lucy Hale and Austin Stowell, 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 Parloni's 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 into 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...
"Second First Impressions is the warmest, coziest, sweetest book of the year, an absolutely perfect blend of humor and heart. I want to live inside Sally Thorne's brain." —Emily Henry, New York Times bestselling of Beach Read
From the USA Today bestselling author of The Hating Game, soon to be a movie starring Lucy Hale and Austin Stowell, 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 Parloni's 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 into 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...
Reviews-
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February 15, 2021
Thorne (99 Percent Mine, 2019) returns with a cozy romance set in a high-end retirement community. Young and beautiful Ruthie, the retirement villa's manager, is an old soul looking for a man who wants to snuggle up on the couch and watch her favorite shows. Despite her coworker's pleas to set her up using her "Sasaki Method," Ruthie's demanding job and trauma over her previous relationship make her reluctant to seek out love. When the CEO of the company that has acquired the retirement community coerces his carefree son, Teddy, to work for Ruthie while living on the property, she finds that maybe love is just next door. Thorne injects humor and emotion into Ruthie's story, along with a great cast of characters that make the setting come to life. Teddy is an easy-going, tattooed biker who drifts in and out of people's lives, while Ruthie is a steadfast, tidy worker reluctant to give up on her dreams for order and duty. They clash, but always in a playful, fun way that makes this romance the perfect low-angst read.COPYRIGHT(2021) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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March 1, 2021
Ruthie Midona has a perfectly safe life. During the day, she cares for the residents and the endangered tortoises at Providence Retirement Villa, and at night, she manages the online forum for her favorite TV show from her townhouse on Providence's property. Two simultaneous events cause Ruthie's world to tilt on its axis: two of the residents, the nonagenarian Parloni sisters, need a new assistant to boss around, and Providence's owner comes for an unscheduled visit to evaluate the grounds for a potential build site, with his hot, tattooed son in tow. Ruthie suddenly has carefree Teddy Prescott working as an assistant for the women while living in the townhouse next to Ruthie. As Teddy charms his way into her life, Ruthie begins to see how small and lonely her world has become. She'll have to decide how much of her heart and her safety she's willing to risk, while also trying to keep the place she loves up and running. VERDICT Following 99 Percent Mine, Thorne's latest novel is a sweet story, merging a woman whose fears tend to overpower her dreams, and a slow-burn romance that turns her world upside down.--Kellie Tilton, Univ. of Cincinnati Blue Ash
Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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Starred review from March 15, 2021
A kindhearted, by-the-book heroine is drawn to a playful, charismatic tattooist. A preacher's daughter who was disgraced by making out with her boyfriend on prom night--when said boyfriend went to her father for counseling the next day--25-year-old Ruthie Midona has found refuge as the live-in office manager of the Providence Retirement Villa and creator of a fan forum for a wholesome TV show called Heaven Sent. Just as she's getting ready to date for the first time since that disastrous prom, other changes threaten her safe routine, including a corporate takeover of the retirement community and the arrival of the new owner's ne'er-do-well son, Teddy Prescott. Though Melanie, the Villa's office temp who's serving as Ruthie's amateur dating coach, judges Teddy as too risky for Ruthie, his disarming behavior undermines Ruthie's pragmatic judgment that he's a rolling stone. When Teddy needs a place to live and his father lets him move into the Villa if he earns his keep, he becomes the temporary caretaker for two eccentric seniors, and Ruthie glimpses signs of a compassionate character and a skilled artist under his careless facade. Writing from Ruthie's first-person perspective, Thorne manages to bring all the characters to vivid life, endearing them to the reader through the enumeration of their quirks and fleeting revelations about their pasts. Each scene between the protagonists--whose first meeting will make you laugh and wince simultaneously--is a delight, as is Ruthie's motley found family. The turning point in Ruthie's professional and personal arc is unsurprising, but the denouement is joyful in more ways than one. Charming, funny, and heartwarming.COPYRIGHT(2021) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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Emily Henry, New York Times bestselling author of Beach Read
"Second First Impressions is the warmest, coziest, sweetest book of the year, an absolutely perfect blend of humor and heart. I want to live inside Sally Thorne's brain." — Emily Henry, New York Times bestselling author of Beach Read
"I inhaled Second First Impressions! I had to force myself to slow down because I didn't want it to end. It's a truly adorable, heart-warming, swoon-worthy love story. A book hasn't given me the warm-fuzzies like this for a very long time." — Beth O'Leary, bestselling author of The Flatshare
"Second First Impressions is about realizing that life is short, and that to live it to the fullest we must be both selfish and selfless. It urges us to soak up the beauty of each passing moment — and this wondrous book is a good place to start." — Entertainment Weekly
"Thorne manages to bring all the characters to vivid life, endearing them to the reader through the enumeration of their quirks and fleeting revelations about their pasts. Each scene between the protagonists—whose first meeting will make you laugh and wince simultaneously—is a delight, as is Ruthie's motley found family." — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Following 99 Percent Mine, Thorne's latest novel is a sweet story, merging a woman whose fears tend to overpower her dreams, and a slow-burn romance that turns her world upside down." — Library Journal
"Second First Impressions was perfect for the moment I was reading it in. It's funny and might make you cry (in a cathartic way), and has a hero whose kindness I truly loved." — Smart Bitches, Trashy Books
"Sally Thorne satisfies hearts longing for laughter in their love stories... [Joshua and Lucy's] battle of wits is tremendously fun—acerbic and sexy and filled with tension. The result is a wicked, witty romance that will capture readers' hearts long before Joshua manages to capture Lucy's." — Washington Post on The Hating Game
"Good fun." — People on The Hating Game
"Funny, smart, fresh, and thoroughly enjoyable from the first delicious page to the last. I highly recommend." — Susan Elizabeth Phillips, New York Times bestselling author, on The Hating Game
"A brilliant, biting, hilarious new voice. The Hating Game will take the rom-com world by storm. One of the best I've read, ever." — Kristan Higgins, New York Times bestselling author
