Book Review: Second First Impressions by Sally Thorne

 So, the initial plan was to give y'all my favurite 21st century Generation Z fashion trends first; of which my fashion icons - Cloe, Yasmin, Jade, and Sasha- would approve of. And, don't fret, that article will come out eventually. But, I just finished reading the sweetest, coziest and heartfelt book and felt like recommending it to y'all and also providing an unprofessional AND very emotional book review, you may want to read afterwards to compare your thoughts! So, without further ado, lets get into it.

The book is called, Second First Impressions by Sally Thorne.

This story follows the span of a few months in the life of Ruthie Midona, a 25-year old administrative assistant, as she works at Providence Villa (a retirement villa for wealthy people to enjoy their last year(s) before death). Ruthie is a tidy girl, who finds comfort in her routined life, and is constantly giving to the people around her. One day, she ventures from her small cottage on the residence, and meets Theodore Prescott, the son of her boss, and her life changes almost immediately. Theodore, a seemingly reckless, selfish, bad boy with charm akin to Casanova, learns to grow into a better person alongside Ruthie, as they test and push one another to reach for their goals and dreams. But is there more to their relationship than buddies on the freeway to success?

Read to find out!!!

RUTHIE MIDONA

Okay, so this book pushed my heart in so many ways. Firstly, upon meeting Ruthie, I was quite familiar with her character trope. She is the typical good, tame and obedient girl that gets pushed over by practically everyone in her life. She mentions multiple times that her experience growing up was quite challenging. She was bullied in high school, had handsome boys use her for getting their homework done, and dated a terrible boy whom she only dated because their parents would approve of it. On top of that, her father is a priest, and their relationship is quite strained throughout the duration of the book. 

I sympathized with Ruthie a lot. Before she figured out that the incident from her teen years of losing 10 thousand dollars for a hurricane aftermath fund wasn't actually her fault, she beat herself up over everything, causing her obsession with locking all the doors, and her fathers passive aggressive comments questioning her capability of responsibility. It hurt to see, especially because everyone around her recognizes her devotion to her work and her diligence, responsibility, and ability to deal with whatever needs to come, but she wasn't able to do that for herself. Not withstanding her devotion to her line of work! Her main character flaw was a lack of confidence in herself when she really had little to not be confident in. 

I was quite impressed by her character growth in learning to be okay with taking from others and rely on others a bit with Melanie (My Fav) and Teddy (aka Theodore) weedling their way into her life.

MELANIE SASAKI

Melanie rocked!! I loved her energy and dedication to help Ruthie. I found it was quite interesting, because when Ruthie was sad over her seemingly 'cheerleader from the sidelines' relationship with Teddy, I really thought that was what her relationship with Melanie became. Especially from Melanie's side. Melanie was very forthcoming in trying to communicate her adoration for Ruthie and wanting to help her build her confidence and express herself freely. Even though she got hurt when the Sasaki method was eventually dropped (a happy tragedy), she got over it, and was a supportive friend (of course after receiving her well deserved apology). Melanie always saw the potential in her. I'm very happy Melanie ended up with a job befitted for someone with her unique talents.

THEODORE PRESCOTT (nicknamed TEDDY)

Now Teddy, Teddy. I think the most interesting thing about Teddy for me in the beginning was the GIVE and TAKE tattoos. From the start, you can tell it's gonna be really symbolic throughout the book. Whenever he was kind to Ruthie or just generally gave her something, you are reminded of that GIVE tattoo, but when Ruthie realized how much she was giving and questioned that relationship, we saw more of that TAKE tattoo. I loved the symbolism, and I have to fangirl over Sally's writing because some of the metaphors for Ruthie feelings hit different. A personal favourite of mine was, 'a record needle skips in my stomach,' like GIRL. WRITE A METAPHOR! dang she's good!!

Anyways, back to Teddy. At first I was like 'hmm you are way to charming for my liking,' but I really liked his forthcomingness and seemingly harmless honesty. The bothering part, for me, was how I realized that this is a bit of a coping mechanism for him. Not receiving love (from his parents and elder sister), and seemingly giving it all the time, so he could receive a little bit elsewhere, was his main character issue (flaw? torture? idk). We see his giving nature always comes with a little repercussion as time passes on (Hence the GIVE and TAKE tat). 

He enjoys toying around with Ruthie (for the typical good girl-bad boy trope reason) because she doesn't want to fall for it. He kind of thinks its fun to see the good girl crack, as illustrated by Francine from their favourite TV show; but apparently with Ruthie he wants something more. AND, because she doesn't crack easily, but she shows that she can (MULTIPLE TIMES) the game continues. 

At times I was quite frustrated with Teddy, because he didn't really align with being a friend, but didn't want anything serious which was just him viewing her as a little game. The typical bad boy finding the good girl's aura amusing. Though, I'm not too bitter about it, I liked that he started being very obvious with his constant looks of approval towards Ruthie after every joke, remark, comment, proud moment etc. However, he doesn't want to totally crack her because of the negative self-image he has for himself. The two loved each other for a while, they just had the issues blaring in front of their eyes for a while. His shamelessness was a little disarming for her and he would continue it, until he felt the reality of his own feelings. From that point on we saw his self-consciousness and looks of approval more consistently.

Teddy has the typical issues of a child who didn't get enough attention at home so he went out searching for it from his many 'good samaritans' (Though he denied whether they actually mattered to him, we can't be too sure of their influence on him since they were brought up by his wealthy and critical CEO father in the first place). His relationship with Rose was really indicative of this lack of connect he has with his family, which I sympathized with greatly. He also said his other sisters adored him, which I found slightly amusing, because I don't think I ever adored any of my siblings but I do love them very much. Which, is another reason why I think his idea of how relationships are supposed to be is warped, of which his growth in that department is drawn out throughout the book as expected due to the symbolic give and take tattoos.

WRITING

The writing in this book was pretty sweet, I mean I loved it. Below I'll list a few quotes in particular that made me feel some type of way (LOL).

"I click accept, and just like that, the conversation is not over, just rescheduled." (p. 10)

"We haven't had a Goth boy in a while. I want one that is constantly thinking about his mortality." (p. 15)

"Resident Protection Shields Up." (p.53)

"I blaspheme loud enough that God's going to call my father personally." (p. 75)

"Pinch me. Last time I checked I was real." (p. 121)

Overall this is a very character driven book, with a general plot set out for us at the beginning. Like with any good ol' romance book, you know they're gonna end up together, and I think Sally Thorne really made me enjoy the journey.

P.S. I knew from the very beginning that Renata and Aggie were together, I was just so confused at Ruthie for saying 'Sisters' all the time. Like dang girl, can you not!