Magical, nostalgic, and utterly charming, The Second Chance Cinema is a love story like no other!

When Ellie and her fiancé, Drake, stumble upon a mysterious old cinema hidden at the end of an alley, they’re drawn into something extraordinary. On the screen? Their own memories - some heartwarming, some haunting, and some revealing secrets they’ve kept from each other. As their wedding day looms, they’ve got ten viewings that force them to question their past, their choices, and whether love alone is enough to shape their future.

With a touch of magic and a whole lot of heart, Thea Weiss weaves a spellbinding debut that had me completely hooked. I laughed, I teared up, and I was completely swept away - this is a story that will stay with me, and I can’t wait to see what she writes next!

A magical story of forgiveness, loss, love and second chances.

This story was so unique to anything I’ve ever read. It was a romance story but started with a couple; Ellie and Drake, who stumbled upon an abandoned cinema that replayed key moments in their lives.

Ellie and Drake were at a point in their relationship where it was struggling. Ellie very much wanted to explore and Drake wanted to please his family but going to this cinema really put a spin on everything.

It was interesting to see what couples keep secret from each other and how that can fester in a relationship. This book definitely isn’t all sunshine and daisies it is very real and emotional.

It had me that invested that when the characters were at a low point I honest felt there with them! Both characters were easily loveable and the ending was so satisfyingly hopeful.

I loved the concept of this story and it had me gripped from the moment they stepped foot in the cinema.

I’ll definitely be looking for more books from this author because the writing was so magical and real.

Ellie and Drake seem an ideally matched couple - she a cataloguer of vanishing places, always on the lookout for the quirky, the picturesque, the vintage, he a construction expert, safe and reliable, always fixing things.

As the two plan their marriage, however, both worry about secrets they are keeping.

And then one night, as Ellie leads them off the beaten track, they stumble across a hidden cinema with its own, special, midnight show - The Story of You. Those secrets will be revealed, and the two will have to face some uncomfortable truths.

I adored Second Chance Cinema. I always think there's something magical about cinema, something liminal as one steps out of one's normal life for a while. The darkness. The anticipation. It's especially magical when you have the whole place to yourself - as though the world has, just for a brief while, bent itself around you. For Ellie and Drake, that's literally true as they attend showing after showing, taking each of them deeper and deeper into their backstories - and revealing their pasts to each other.

This is a brilliant way to tell how two people came to be who they are, and to expose the dilemmas and tensions they now face. Across the screen flit parents, siblings, childhood insecurities, teenage angst, lovers, breakups, and betrayals. "To know all is to forgive all" runs the old saying, but will that be true for Ellie and Drake? Rather, it seems likely that with more perfect knowledges comes judgement, misunderstanding and pain. Yes, you may see what happened to your lover on a certain night ten years before, but will you understand? And are they the same person now as they were then? Is it fair to judge them on that past?

As the showings continue, the revelations affect Ellie and Drake, with things done, or left undone, in the past reaching out and putting their lives and relationship in question. Ellie's fears that she can't recapture her best work, and Drake's frustration that instead of building lovely, bespoke homes he's working on cookie-cutter residential boxes, tangle with family tensions and past relationships to make this a complex but rich account of a relationship. At the same time there's a good sprinkling of magical Christmas sparkle and vein of humour to lighten the more intense moments.

All in all I found Second Chance Cinema a compelling read - Weiss takes her fantastical premise and grounds it sufficiently enough that it seems real, with the authentic consequences for Ellie and Drake. It is in some ways an unsettling story, with real challenges for the couple, but it's one I had to keep reading - a "what if" that I had to follow to the last page.

Such a fresh take on a romance novel! I've honestly never read another book quite like it. Full of magic, hope and learning to live with grief, but also a reminder not to dwell on the past and to live for the future.

An amazing read!

🎥🍿 The Second Chance Cinema 🍿🎥

- Thea Weiss

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I was so lucky to be given the opportunity to read and review this debut. In the vein of Ashley Poston, with magical realism mingling with romance, the titular Second Chance Cinema is a vintage movie theatre that appears to couples mysteriously and at random. What shows on the big screen is the story of their lives.

We follow Ellie, a writer who blogs about vintage places fallen on hard times, and Drake, a construction worker. But when they stumble upon a vintage cinema one night, and decide to attend the showing, they quickly realise that the movie that plays is no normal feature film. In The Story of You, Ellie and Drake watch their own memories, from birth to childhood to adulthood to, eventually, their own meetcute.

It probes a really intriguing question of ‘can we ever fundamentally know each other?’ Weiss explores reconciling with the fact that you can never know the ins and outs of another persons life before it intersected with your own, and how past experiences shape the people we become. Whether that’s something to be grateful for or to be mourned, and whether a persons past actions can determine how we love them.

Weiss skilfully conducts a post-mortem of a relationship that isn’t quite dead, but isn’t wholly alive either. Nostalgic, personal and painfully realistic, Weiss doesn’t shy away from writing her characters with flaws, which challenge the reader’s ability to like the characters at times. These unsavoury moments are essential to the story and to the progression of Drake and Ellie’s relationship, both with each other and themselves. Weiss helps us understand why the characters are the way that they are through their memories playing out on a film roll.

It was a really interesting look at what happens after The End of most traditional romances. I’d hesitate to call this book a romance, certainly not in the typical way. It’s more of a genre-blending tale of marriage, relationships, family and a love letter to the Golden Age of cinema.

Thanks to HQ Stories and HarperCollins for the ARC - all thoughts are my own!

Cinephiles meet bibliophiles in this magical novel.

Such a fresh take on the second chance romance trope. We usually don’t see where the couple are already established and dealing with trials and tribulations that come with a long relationship. Weiss did a great job of creating the magic and cosy vibes. A heartwarming read.

A raw, relatable, and magical tribute to making peace with the past.

This was a very different take on both romance books and magical realism romance. As fantastical as the premise was, the characters themselves were very real, flaws and all. Ellie and Drake have all the thoughts and worries that everyone has when approaching their wedding date: as much as you love someone, is this life altering commitment the right path for you? Would your partner still love you if they knew every bad decision and dirty secret from your past? Would you still love them if you knew theirs? Can you merge your life with someone else without losing yourself? But most importantly- can you move forward without coming to terms with the past?

The pace of the story lagged sometimes, but once it picked up, it really got going. I enjoyed seeing things unfold from both Ellie and Drakes different perspectives, and how they both held onto their love for one another despite frustrations and anger and jealousy.

Very sweet read!

Magical realism with a plot twist of much needed reality...

Thank you HQ and NetGalley for giving me this ARC to review.

As their wedding year approaches, Ellie and Drake's relationship is plain sailing but secrets and regrets lay below the surface. Such skeletons that don't seem as though they'll be coming out the closet anytime soon. That is until Ellie and Drake stumble upon a glamorous cinemas promising a personal screening of 'The Story of You', a show and tell of both of their formative memories before they came to be as one. As both of their worst fears are played out on the big screen, Ellie and Drake's voyage to a happy and blissful marriage is thrown onto unstable shores and there is no telling whether they'll get onto safe land.

If you're feeling the withdrawals of Ashley Poston's imaginative plot lines, The Second Chance Cinema will give you the hit you need. With the illusion of so much stake being on the line, I was hooked from the start to see what was in store for Ellie and Drake's future when it was time for curtain call. The only thing I wished to have more of within The Second Chance Cinema was a deeper connection to the characters, to feel as though these characters were real in the outside world, but I am one reader who struggles with such connection. Yet what I loved most was the raw, gritty honesty behind the character's secrets... such skeletons, regrets, mistakes that we all have in our closets. This was really brought home by at time poignant and poetic writing that I highlighted and cherished whilst reading The Second Chance Cinema.

A cute journey into magical realism, this novel makes you think - what would you do if your past was played out in front of you to relive again? A really enjoyable read for fans of Ashley Poston.

Thank you to Netgalley and HQ of Harper Collins for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is the kind of magical romance I want to read!

We follow the lives of newly engaged Ellie and Drake as they stumble upon a unique cinema with a special screening just for them. With magical realism that has you stepping into their memories, seeing the moments in their lives that made them who they are and how they got to where they are in the present, only to have a big impact on their future.

This book is the embodiment of the magic of being in love, dealing with loss, managing grief and how truly understanding yourself first can allow you to love.

A little escape into the magic of reality and romance, reminding us memories can be altered by our own perceptions.

I would totally recommend this for anyone who loves Ashley Poston, Sarah Adams and Abby Jiminez or just needs a cozy romance to snuggle up with.

A wonderful book about love, loss, grief, understanding yourself, acknowledging our imperfections and understanding what truly matters in life. It really resonated with me and moved me deeply. A truly beautiful book.

I’ve never read anything quite like this book before. It’s magical and captivating. I love how the characters are portrayed. I feel like with romance books, most of the characters are portrayed as this picture perfect people when in reality, everyone has their own faults and insecurities. I feel like the author did a very good job in conveying how realistic the characters are. Thank you for the chance to read an early copy of the book! I am very grateful!

Such a unique and different story that is more than just a romance. It is also an exploration of how our past shapes us and influences how we love and view relationships. The mystical realism mixed with the imperfectly perfect romance in this book was a breath of fresh air.

The story follows Ellie and her fiancé Drake, who one night stumble upon a mystical cinema which is showing their life story. This cinema curated both of their memories into short films that they can see and relive on the big screen. Both being curious, they choose to see what the cinema has in store for them. However, both Ellie and Drake have some past events and memories they would rather not remember and would rather not let each other know if they want to save their relationship and love. The shorter the movies they see, the more they realise that they need to decide whether they want the past to influence their current relationship and future life together.

I loved the mystical realism in this book. It was amazing. I also adored the deeper meaning of this book. That exploration of someone’s past and how it shapes and allows us to grow and make certain decisions. What was missing from me in this book was the chemistry between the two main characters, mainly because the book explores so much of their past, and their current relationship, especially how they fell in love, was left in the background. I also didn’t like them not communicating and not discussing what they saw in the cinema until the very end of the book. Just felt that this way, some of the topics like grief were not explored in depth.

Overall: Very unique romance book with a sprinkle of mystical realism and a deeper meaning of how the past influences our lives and futures, that was a breath of fresh air.

oh magical realism is so back !!!!! a magical movie theatre that plays out the story of your life? i’m SEATED! i’m so seated the movie theatre workers are scared and asking me to leave !!!! this was such a good and magical book. loved the setting, the feel of the movie theatre and learning about their lives through a movie!!! this book has everything you’d want in !!!! so so cool and sick. actually loved ellie’s character so much and think she should’ve married ME! would love going to the movies with her !!!! she’s so princess.



also… kinda need stephanie and lucas’ story now !!!!!

Second Chance Cinema by Thea Weiss is a beautifully written debut that blends nostalgia, love and magic in a deeply moving exploration of memory and healing. The story follows Ellie and her fiancé, Drake, as they stumble upon a mysterious cinema hidden in a fog-covered alley. What makes this cinema so magical is that it doesn’t just show movies—it plays their most formative memories. This is a place where the past and present collide, revealing moments from their lives that they may not have fully understood or remembered.

The concept of revisiting memories, both painful and beautiful, is what drew me into this story. Ellie, in particular, is haunted by a night from her past that she cannot fully recall, and the cinema offers her a chance to piece the puzzle together. I appreciated the delicate way the author explored the complexities of memory, as well as how the characters’ pasts begin to affect their present relationship. Ellie and Drake’s evolving relationship, filled with secrets and unresolved emotions, feels so real and relatable.

The magical realism in the book was enchanting without feeling overly fantastical. The idea that a cinema could allow them to witness their past moments felt both whimsical and poignant, especially as they grapple with the consequences of what they see on screen. The setting of the cinema itself was atmospheric and immersive, adding a layer of mystery and charm to the story.

What resonated with me the most was the way Second Chance Cinema approached the theme of love and grief. The narrative deftly illustrates how love, in its rawest form, can both break us and heal us. Ellie and Drake’s journey together is not just about discovering the truth about their past but also about accepting and understanding the people they have become as a result of it. The book reminded me that sometimes, confronting our memories and the secrets we keep can be the key to moving forward in life.

If you’re a fan of stories that are emotionally rich and thought-provoking, Second Chance Cinema is a captivating read. It’s a tale about forgiveness, growth and the impact of memories on who we are. If given the chance, I would gladly revisit my own memories, both the good and the bad, just as Ellie and Drake do—because in the end, it’s our memories that shape our future.

Read more at The Secret Book Review.

This was such a fresh take on a romance novel! How often do we get to see what happens after the last page has been turned and the couple have professed their love?

I went through such a range of emotions reading this story, and found myself even reflecting on the parts of my life that have impacted the person I am today. At its core, this story reminds me that all the people I've met, and all the good, bad and ugly things that have happened in my life, might actually be shaping me into the person I'm supposed to be.

Our main characters, Ellie and Drake are far from faultless, and their lack of communication leads to a lot of difficulties in their relationship. The touch of magic from the second chance cinema, really just pushes them to be honest with one another.

The only thing I found myself missing was the delicious tension that comes from reading about a new couple falling for one another. It made the story lack a little bit of the excitement I was craving, but equally I feel that adding this would have overshadowed the beauty of the mundane, normal day-to-day life of Ellie and Drake.

All in all, I would call this a look at what happens AFTER happily ever after. Thea Weiss expertly adds a sprinkle of magic over an authentic, imperfectly perfect relationship.