Second Act Romance by Julie Soto follows Bex, a theater girl trying desperately to keep a production together when basically everything that can go wrong does. Half the cast and crew are sick after eating some questionable shrimp tacos, people are throwing up everywhere, and yet, as they say in theater, the show must go on.
With so many people out sick, the production brings in CJ to help—and CJ just happens to be someone from Bex’s past.
Eight years earlier, when Bex was first getting started in theater, she and CJ met and immediately had a connection. They liked each other, but thanks to a mix-up, they never managed to meet again. Now, eight years have passed, CJ has become a hotshot TV doctor, and somehow the two of them have ended up back in the same place at exactly the right time.
Of course, this means we get a second-chance romance, and I thought Bex and CJ were really cute together. I especially loved the contrast between their romance and the absolute chaos happening around them. They’re reconnecting and falling for each other while everyone else is getting sick and the entire production is hanging on by a thread. It made for some really funny moments.
Unlike some of the other short romances I’ve read, this one isn’t dual POV. We stay entirely in Bex’s perspective, and the story almost feels like one long chapter because everything moves so quickly.
I really liked the chemistry between Bex and CJ, but I do think this is one story that I would have loved to see as a full-length novel. Give me more of their original meeting eight years ago! Give me the misunderstanding that kept them apart! Give me both of them trying to find each other afterward! I think there was so much more that could have been explored with their history and their romance.
Still, for such a short story, Second Act Romance was fun, chaotic, and sweet. I loved the theater setting, the second-chance romance, and Bex and CJ’s chemistry. There is something hilarious about watching two people get another chance at love while everyone around them is throwing up from shrimp tacos.
Romance, theater chaos, a missed connection, and a second chance eight years later—what more could you want?