Second First Impressions
A Novel
-
- 10,99 €
-
- 10,99 €
Publisher Description
“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…
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Second First Impressions is the cathartic read we desperately needed—it made us laugh out loud and cry! Ruthie Midona grew up in an extremely religious family, and she’s never felt like she fit in among her peers. Living and working onsite at an exclusive retirement community makes her feel safe, living a sheltered and predictable life. But when the property owner insists that Ruthie give a job to his entitled son Teddy—the family’s black sheep—her ordered world is thrown into flux. When Ruthie assigns Teddy to her most demanding residents, he responds with unfailing kindness, eventually drawing Ruthie out of her shell. With its theme of figuring out how to leave a safe space to experience the world again, Sally Thorne’s gentle romance feels especially relevant now. This book stole our hearts!
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Extreme opposites are drawn together in the most unlikely of circumstances in this sweet, cheeky rom-com from Thorne (The Hating Game). Theodore "Teddy" Prescott is a tattoo-covered, motorcycle-riding, itinerant rich boy; straitlaced Ruthie Midona is an administrator at the affluent Providence Retirement Villa who rarely leaves the compound—and has rarely been kissed. Good girl gets the bad boy may be a popular trope, but the quirky supporting cast of crazy rich old people and Thorne's precise and original prose give the premise new life. Teddy first meets Ruthie at a gas station and offends her by assuming she's in costume as a character from The Golden Girls. That might have been the end of it, had Teddy's father not recently acquired Providence. Now he decrees that Teddy should temporarily live and work on-site while getting his life on track. Ruthie and Teddy inevitably grow closer, but longtime social outcast Ruthie struggles to imagine Teddy sincerely liking her, let alone wanting more, and Teddy has some emotional baggage of his own. The couple bond in part over their surprising mutual love for a late 1990s, 7th Heaven–esque family drama. As with that show, readers longing for laughter and heart will find comfort here.
