Author: Michelle Hoffmann
Series: None
Publication Date: May 30, 2023
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Pages: 352
Obtained: publisher via NetGalley
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Rating: 4.5/5
Bottom Line: Redefining yourself no matter what your age
Grab, Just get it at the library, or Remove from your TBR list? Grab
Summary: Prudence Childs was once the most famous kindergartner on the planet. After teaching herself to play piano at age three, she performed at the White House, appeared on talk shows, and inspired a generation to take up lessons. But as adolescence closed in, Prudence realized that she was being exploited and pushed into fame by her cruel grandmother, so she ran away. Broke and alone, she took a job writing commercial jingles, which earned her a fortune but left her creatively adrift. Now forty-eight, with her daughters away at school, Prudence agrees to compete on a wildly popular dueling pianos TV show to reconnect with her inner artist. Unfortunately, her new spotlight captures the attention of her terrible ex-husband, Bobby, who uses the opportunity to blackmail her over a long-buried secret. If she doesn’t win, she won’t just be a musical failure; she’ll also be bankrupt and exposed in front of millions. Her on-air rival, virtuoso Alexei Petrov, a young internet sensation with a massive audience and a dreamy Russian accent, has problems of his own. His demanding parents made him a technically flawless pianist but left him without friends, hobbies, or any kind of life outside his music. As they prepare to face off onstage, the retired prodigy and the exhausted wunderkind realize that the competition is their chance to prove to their bad exes, tyrannical family members, and, most important, themselves that it’s never too late to write a new ending.
Review: I find that as I get a bit older, I have loved reading about more mature characters and how they are approaching life as certain points in their lives are coming to an end. This is the case for Prudence Childs, her daughters are now out of the house in college and her husband still has to travel for his job. So to say she is a bit bored and lost is an understatement. Her husband tries everything he can think of and then he has her childhood piano delivered. This brings back memories of her not so happy childhood and she's not sure she wants to play it again. Then of course life throws her a curve ball when her ex-husband shows up trying to blackmail her.
The Second Ending is funny, hopeful, and reverent. Prudence hasn't had an easy life and that has made her hard in some ways but her resilience is what endeared her to me. I also really liked Alexei and the fact that they understood each other even with their age difference. I liked how Alexei started to live the life he wanted, how he wanted control and how that gave him some peace. It also helped his relationship with his parents.
This is a great novel about new beginnings and finding your passion or rediscovering it.
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