What to read after “Second First Impressions” by Sally Thorne: a list matched by tropes, mood and atmosphere. Under each book you will see what it has in common.
Lucy and Joshua are assistants at the same publishing house, forced to share an office while competing for one promotion. Their open hostility and elaborate office games hide an attraction neither will admit, until a single reckless moment changes the rules between them.
Rivals at a Seattle public radio station, veteran producer Shay and know-it-all newcomer Dominic are forced to host a relationships show while posing as exes. Working side by side on air, their barbed banter draws listeners and slowly turns into a connection neither of them planned.
Catalina needs a date for her sister's wedding in Spain and claims she is bringing her American boyfriend. Her infuriating coworker Aaron volunteers to play the part, and the two must keep up the act through a week of family dinners, sightseeing and shared hotel rooms.
Maybell inherits her great-aunt's crumbling house in the Smoky Mountains, only to learn the grouchy groundskeeper Wesley is a co-inheritor with very different plans. Forced to renovate together, the dreamer and the shy, scowling loner slowly find in each other the safety they have always wanted.
Anne Rollins is deep in debt when Mal Ericson, the wild drummer of the band Stage Dive, offers her money to pose as his girlfriend and repair his party-boy image. A cheerful man with no filter, Mal turns the arrangement real long before Anne is ready for it.
Single mother April Parker plans to sell her house now that her daughter is leaving for college. Her friend Mitch Malone agrees to help with repairs if she will pretend to be his girlfriend at a family dinner. The favour turns into a weekend away, where one hotel bed forces both to admit what they have been avoiding.
Lincoln O'Neill takes a night job monitoring a newspaper's email system and finds himself reading the messages between Beth and Jennifer. Their friendship and jokes draw him in, but he cannot reply without revealing his role. By the time he falls for Beth, meeting her means confessing what he has been doing.
Casey Hicks, a cheerful young hockey star who talks to everyone, shares a house with Landon Stackhouse, the quiet, prickly backup goalie newly called up to the Calgary team. A season of games, small routines and slow trust turns the unlikely roommates into something neither of them expected.
ER doctor Briana blurts out that she is dating a colleague to escape an awkward moment, and anxious Dr. Jacob plays along. Pretending to be a couple at his family gatherings brings the two reserved people closer, one quiet gesture at a time.
Hannah Bellinger takes a film job in the fishing town of Westport and moves in with Fox Thornton, the handsome, easy-going local everyone expects to stay single forever. As roommates they slip from friendship into something deeper, and Fox must decide whether he is brave enough to be loved.
Romance writer January and literary novelist Gus become summer neighbours in a lakeside town, both blocked and both skeptical of each other's genre. They make a bet to write in the other's style and slowly trade barbs for late-night talks, discovering the grief and hope behind their different worldviews.
Literary agent Nora is the cold city professional that small-town romance novels leave behind, and editor Charlie is her sharp-tongued rival in the same business. When her sister drags her to a North Carolina town for the summer, Charlie turns out to be there too, and their sparring slowly becomes something neither expected.
Iris Landry has worked as Declan Kane's assistant long enough to know his rules. When his grandfather's will ties Declan's inheritance and his chance to take over the family's media empire to marrying and having an heir, his arranged fiancée backs out—and Iris volunteers to take her place. They move in together, perform affection in public, and try not to confuse the terms of their contract with what they actually feel.
Stevie takes a job as a flight attendant on a hockey team's private plane, determined to keep her distance from players. Evan Zanders, the team's most disliked star, seems equally determined to provoke her. Long road trips and shared flights blur the line between irritation and attraction, even though both have reasons to stay away.
In Edwardian England, Robin Blyth is handed a dull government post and finds it is a cover for liaising with a hidden world of magic. His prickly counterpart Edwin Courcey blames him for a curse that puts them both in danger, and the two must work together before their time runs out.
Shy Maddie Gracechurch invents a soldier suitor to escape the London season and writes to him for years. Then the real Captain Logan MacKenzie appears, demanding the bride he never knew he had. To keep her home, they marry as strangers, and the arrangement slowly becomes something more.
After food poisoning strikes at her twin sister's wedding, unlucky Olive takes her sister's place on a free Hawaiian honeymoon, but her sworn enemy Ethan has to come too. Stranded together and posing as newlyweds to keep the perks, the two bicker their way toward something neither expected.
Darcy Barrett has loved Tom Valeska since childhood, but her twin brother Jamie claimed him first, and Tom has stayed loyal to that friendship. When the three reunite to renovate the family cottage, Darcy and Tom must decide whether the one rule they never broke is still worth keeping.
Actor Alexander Woodroe lands in trouble after a bar fight, so the showrunners hire former ER therapist Lauren Clegg to keep him in line. She is guarded and sensible, he is impulsive and warm. As she learns the reasons behind his recklessness, a road trip up the coast and a single shared bed pull them closer.
Chloe Mills is finishing her MBA while interning at Ryan Media Group, where Bennett Ryan, the boss's son, demands perfection and makes her work late. Their arguments turn into a charged contest of wills, and neither can stay away from the other. The affair is reckless, secret, and complicated by the fact that Bennett signs her paychecks.
Chloe, who lives with chronic pain and a careful routine, draws up a list of things she wants to do to get a life. To tick off the first item she asks Red, the tattooed handyman who looks after her building, for help, and their cautious friendship deepens into more.
Emma Corrigan is a junior marketing assistant at Panther Cola in London, stuck in a safe relationship and a job she cannot quite master. When her plane hits turbulence, she spills every secret to a stranger beside her. Back at the office, the stranger turns out to be Jack Harper, the company's founder, and he remembers everything she said.
Clara leaves her buttoned-up East Coast life to move across the country to the man of her dreams, only to find he has sublet her room to someone else. Sharing the apartment with easygoing Josh, whose job would scandalise her family, forces an uneasy friendship that slowly becomes more.
Zahra Gulian works at Dreamland's Magic Wand Salon and has long been frustrated by the park's uninspired new rides. After a drunken critique of Dreamland accidentally lands in the company's creative proposal contest, she is promoted to the Creator team—directly under Dreamland's cold, exacting director, Rowan Kane. Working for him was not part of her plan, and neither was the attraction that grows between them.
What should I read after “Second First Impressions”?
Start with “The Hating Game”, “The Ex Talk”, “The Spanish Love Deception”: they are the closest to “Second First Impressions” in tropes and mood. Under each book in the list you will see what exactly it has in common.
How are similar books chosen?
We compare tropes (for “Second First Impressions” these are Himbo, Wallflower Heroine, Forced Proximity), genre, plot, era and tone. It is not “readers also bought”; it is similarity in the content itself.
Are there recent books in this list?
Yes. Among the newer ones are “The Hating Game”, “The Ex Talk”, “The Spanish Love Deception”. Switch the “Modern” filter to keep only books from 2000 onward.
