Rant Book Review: How NOT to Write a Second Chance Romance 

Ooh, I love this! We get respectful Jenna who won't "punch down" at authors, with a useful book review, and the ranting Cyborg Queen we love. Please do more of these 😁😁

"We REALLY dont need an evil ex in this story, especially if she's the victim in the situation" PREACH LOUDER SISTER!

I'm digging this format. I like watching un-anonymous book reviews for bad books on the regular to improve my writing and sometimes revel in a book's stupidity, but an anonymous review appears to be just as valuable.

“Come on date me 😠 COME ON 😡” took me out 💀

I like the format. I look forward to more “Edger”s and “Lucy”s from different stories.

I really can't handle books rooted in past teenage drama - whether romance, drama or thrillers. Once you've hit 30 or beyond, failed romances, or not being popular, or hating on other girls/boys, should all be a distant memory. I have no time for a 41-year-old still hung up on the fact that Tommy chose Tiffany over her in high school. AND I'VE READ BOOKS LIKE THAT! (One time, she was in her 50s!) Note: I'm in my 40s and was bullied in high school. I've grown up; they've grown up. I'm friends with a few now. If they're still a s**t person, you move on.

I appreciate your approach to these reviews. I would rather hear actual critique than dragging someone for their questionable writing.

I really liked this format and thank you for not naming and shaming. It happened to me years ago as a hobby writer just starting out and that really stings. I hope to see more videos like this in the future :)

We have Say Yes To The Dress now say hello to Say No To Edgar

As someone who enjoys the "heavy is the head that wears the crown" trope, I feel like the way to fix it is make Lucy not want it. Maybe she was pressured by her parents and did all the popular things because she though it was what it was expected of her without exploring her true passions. It could be that the only person with who she could truely be herself was Edward, but they break up precisly because she couldn't let go of what was expected from her. She keeps living live this way until the break up that ruins her live and now the new relationship with Edward is a way too finally break free and go after what she truely wants and not was she was told to want.

There is SO MUCH that can be learned here! 👀

Thanks, Jenna, you always deliver specific advice just when I need it.

This makes me feel good about my manuscript. If such a lame novel managed to get published, I guess I can do it too. I should probably have more confidence in my work.

This was great! I would definitely love more reviews like this.

I love this format for reviews! I'd love to see more. 🥰 Also Butters is forever the perfect co-star 🥰

If i were reading that book, i would never have gotten to the end. Thanks for doing the hard work Jenna!

I hope that I never come across this novel because yikes Edgar sounds like a pile of red flags

This is actually a nice way to approach a review. It doesn't shame the author or their writing, and it can be informative for other wtiters too.

Loved the way you've done this. Entertainment and thought without cruelty.

Say yes to butters. Say no to Edgar 😂

Loved it, I do hope you do more like this and yeah Butters is always a welcome sight too.

I have started to notice formatting of books. Especially left aligned vs justified

I'm gonna make a "book review" about how to not write a dark romantic fantasy. The first one I'll talk about has a death tournament, has a "Greek inspired" setting, and a forbidden romance, and Ill change the names to Tommy and Lily.

I'm not a book author (or rather I only write fiction recreationally) but I work in marketing with copy all the time and I can totally jive with this "author's lens" that you can't get away from when reading other peoples' works. The number of times I'll be reading something and I just want to stop, pull it up in Google Docs and go nuts with comments and suggestions ...

This is one of your best videos. The Problem/Solution format is really constructive. I'd dig more of this.

This is great! I'd love to see more reviews like this. Also, BUTTERS! 💖💖💖

Commenting to boost this video. I want more people to watch this!! You've always been iconic

This just sounds like a Hallmark movie.

😂 I want to read this novel.... Now I have to figure out how to search for it from your description. Please do another of these soon. Solving the riddle is going to be fun.

I just love your dog 🥰 And your review, too)

I have read way too many books with everything you’re describing.

Good plot twist would've been if Lucy would've found a better man and had some character growth herslf after that

You just reviewed a huge chunk of the romance "novels" available for free on Kindle.

I couldn’t agree more. The fact that Lucy says she’s the sure thing when he was the one like “come on. Date me.” Says it all. If he’s gonna do that make him grovel and prove himself for her. Have him work for her for free.

Peaking in highschool is so off-putting, you're saying your best years were the ones your brain wasn't fully developed and had little concept of the real world and I'm supposed to care about this character's journey?

Wow, somehow the Notebook has a healthier love story

Sounds like a Hallmark Christmas movie!

yayyay...Queen Cyborg and Princess Butters. Anyway reviews are helpful since they are notes that can guide the player home to the right places. Yes, they are considered ''cruel'' because they worked on hard on it and think it is great and someone knocking them down. There is a way of doing it too. That said, I did give it a go once, and I was accused of cyber bullying after they asked for my help. I just don't do that now. There are plenty of people who do reviews.

Could you do how to write an arranged marriage?? I’m struggling so much 😭

I would love to find out later that one of these was an unpublished story by jenna

I don’t like romance stories in general. Except when they are deconstructed, like in Cosi fan tutte.

I doubt you ever read a book like mine. I don't know if it's any good, but I think I avoided tropes and made characters with personality

Hi Jenna! You have great writing tips. A lot of them have helped me get better at writing. I’m working on a fantasy murder mystery series based on Wednesday and Harry Potter. It has some similarities with both series: a main character is a psychic and a boarding school murder mystery like Wednesday and wands and magic like Harry Potter. I’m currently working on the first book. Do you think my series has potential?

Very interesting. My question is how this novel passed the editors. You have talked extensively about the various editorial jobs and duties. Perhaps no one did this. But, I am still puzzled how this person was able to ignore the editors’ suggestions and why the company published it.

My take away is, the author likely assumed the male love interest would come off as confident or assertive by knowing he wanted to go out with the female mc. Also didn't consider how the characters working together could build chemistry, and basically everything could be fixed if beta readers had been involved to mention these issues before publication since editing is not a replacement for beta readers.

I need to ask something from you about writing this whole, second chance in love I'm not talking about things you said in here and that whole, getting back to one's Ex which one broke up with more than a decade ago and both are really really different people at that point. I'm talking about a kind of failed romance which really has ended. with the previous love interest's death, or marriage to someone else, or getting separated because of politics or geography or different life path which doesn't match and...at the end of the day, that love interest is out and isn't coming back (at least not in physical or literal sense and is more of a ghost figure from the past), the story is over. and although the readers get to see the process of that relationship and its tragic ending, but the one who's the main character is going to given a chance to have romance and feel love again with someone else. can you help in giving yes' and no nos in writing such a story about second chance in love?

2:45... Absolutely absurd.. if someone "nerdy" lands a "prom queen" level hottie they DESERVE THE crap they wind up in cuz WHOM does that for no reason???

Lucy is thirty years old and was just dumped by a celebrity- She peaked in HS. Really? Nothing good happened to lead to her dating a celebrity?

That sinister ass intro. That eye tweak speaks a thousand pains.

They sound so emotionally immature that it all sounds very realistic actually😂 Maybe it's based on real life 😮

I just assumed that all of us were masochists who like pain and suffering. Thus we write expecting reviewers to absolutely destroy our work.

Story ain't Storying in that Book

It's actually really sweet of you to not want to reveal the author's name and the book's title, for their sake. I don't mind name-dropping, as it's a right to review and tell your opinion on any book, series and movie (preferably respectfully, unless it's a story with racism or something), but you know, it's the thought that counts. If the book here is generally unproblematic in plot, just written poorly, etc, then there's no need to warn readers to avoid this author if they dislike this or that.

Wow the two MCs sound annoying.

Would you be willing to review books of deceased authors?

I feel like the author was the mean ex/actual victim and wrote two garbage characters based off her jerk of an ex and the prom queen who stole him from her as revenge. The author is like you two jerks deserve each other! Then she started writing a book about it in high school but didn’t finish it until she was 30 so then she changed it to a second chance romance.

No please HURT our feelings Do it So basically the plot of nearly every Hallmark Special, but less wholesome...?

I hate the second chance trope for MANY reasons

1. Sigh, you're only allowed to complain about how rich and pretty you are in book world, NOT in real life. And I would be remise if I did not say that yeah, I do this with my antihero. He learns some humility at the end of the day, though, and especially when his pride puts off his prospective girlfriend, not to mention literally ANY other friend he could have. 2. Like...okay...the above character DOES wind up with a girl from high school, but they were not together IN high school, and rather hated one another's guts. And not in the cute "will they/won't they" way: she's Black and he's a d-bag racist at this point. She puts him in his place more than once, though, because the narrative does not GE to be nice to Stephen until, that's right, he stops being a d-bag. 3. CORRECT. Jesus, I use this poor kid as my titular case study because he's my best-written character and is also VERY messed up. Beginning of the book, right, he starts chasing this girl Olivia, and she starts to develop feelings for im, but only because they bond over art and never really talk about anything else. When she tries to get him to talk about his family or whatever, he just gets surly, until he suddenly gets the idea, "Hey! I don' have to skip class to go paint pictures with her. I can just invite her over! Which he does, and it goes well, and while she Is a woman of size, his parents like her well enough. The dad's a sexist ass and makes a comment or two about it, but not to her face, so Stephen's like, "No worries, pop, I can change her." Uh, no you f*cking can't, because the shit hits the fan when he finds out that she, dun-dun-DUUUUUUUUUN, KISSED his arch-rival! They used to DATE Never had sex, but just the fact of her having been Jeremy's (in Stephen's twisted mind0 "possession" is enough to drive him up the wall. Yeah, you can see the level of immaturity we're dealing with here. So he flips out on her, border-line assaults her (more or less accidentally dumps blue paint down her front, but doesn't apologize or regret it), gets out before he hits her, and spends a full scene begging for her forgiveness. And OF COURSE she f*cking tells him no. Girl has some self respect. End of the book, they do share a small, chaste kiss, but only after he's stopped being a pr*ck and learned to trust her. But they don't get back together and he spends the rest of high school without a girlfriend. I don't know what's worse, eh: begging someone to date you or take you back in a PUSHY way, or doing it in the "clearly I'm f*cking desperate" way. They're both super undignified. 4. HAAAAAAAAAAAAATE. HAAAAAAAAAAATE! HAAAAAAAAAAAAAATE! No seriously, I HATE this trope. The only woman in my book who IS this is the mom of my four mains, and she's been...in some cases literally...beaten into submission. Yes the kids have seen the father hit their mother. And they have also all been hit at one time or another by this asshole. 5. Neither Stephen nor Olivia are "sure things" for the other, and this is why they don't get together, even just beyond him being a total ass to her. She DOES find him attractive nd interesting, and vice-versa, but they've both got major baggage. I don't even imply at first that she's an emotional eater, but she is, because her mom died (cancer can suck my CLIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII...) when Olivia was still just a baby, and then her first-ever relationship broke up under really convoluted and messy circumstances that I'm not getting into here. I don't know who or if she marries. I only know Stephen does NOT marry her or even continue dating her after his meltdown. The only thing they have in common is the art, eh?

0:15 regardless if you’ll hurt someone’s feelings or not, book reviews aren’t supposed to be a safe space for the authors you review their books.

Even if I figure out this book it sounds like it sucks and not worth my time. I have read more interesting romance comics.

I don't mean to nit-pick your criticism, but it's clear you've never been stuck in the town where you spent the ENTIRE 13 years of your school life. I live in a small town where the only big thing that happens is the school Homecoming Parade, and I can tell you with absolute certainty that after high school 99 percent of the student population never left high school. In other words, you can take the person out of high school, but you can't take the high school out of the person. (And FYI: People who were traumatized in high school because of bullying or whatnot rarely "let it go". Just ask this guy.) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ofXJTKCI0NU.html