Mulligan: a second chance to perform an action, usually after the first chance went wrong through bad luck or a blunder.
Remember that guy from junior year with that tiny—yet oddly sexy— patch of white hair right above his temple? The one with the killer dimples and slightly crooked bicuspid? The one who constantly asked you to borrow a pencil, even though you could clearly see he already had one? The guy you were going to ask out after gym that day, but right after calling his name . . . you got nailed in the face with a volleyball and were too mortified to do anything but dash into the locker room? The one that twenty (okay, okay, twenty-five) years later still crosses your mind occasionally and you wonder how his life turned out? Well, that guy and his ability to still swagger across your subconscious is the reason second chance romances fly off the shelves.
Our fascination with what could’ve been fuels the success of this romance trope. Who hasn’t imagined that fateful day years later in the frozen foods aisle when you both reach for the same container of triple chocolate gelato and the moment your hands touch there’s a zing! of awareness that snakes up each of your arms—creating way more goosebumps that the chill of the freezer on your skin? He’s still got the white patch, with maybe a few more threads of silver woven in his dark hair. The smile is still the same, only now he’s got those sexy crinkles around his eyes when his lips curve into it. But, after all these years, he recognizes you. Even better, he’s never stopped thinking about you and is thrilled to see you—even in your messy bun (does anyone really look good in a “messy bun”), faded Aerosmith t-shirt and yesterday’s yoga pants. Fate, and your joint love of chocolatey goodness, has brought you together once again.
And this time, dirty yoga pants aside, you’re not the dork who took a volleyball to the nose. You’re older, wiser, and this time you’re gonna get the guy. That’s the fantasy that second chance romances offer to readers. The hero or heroine who morphed from the dorky duckling into the sophisticated swan has been given a do-over with their dream guy or girl. It’s a successful theme because it’s so relatable.
However, that’s not the best thing about this trope. The best thing is the way it’s evolved, especially over the past few years. It’s no longer predominately a guy trying to woo back his girlfriend after cheating on her, or the football jock who sees the girl he tortured in high school twenty years later—except now she’s hot and he realizes he was a dick. There are fewer stories where there was actually ill-intent on the part of the person who needs the second chance. The conflict between the two lovers is based on a misunderstanding, an ill-timed and unfortunately overheard statement, or some other less toxic circumstance that makes it easier to root for the two main characters to get back together. The person who needs the second chance deserves it, because they weren’t a chauvinistic pig to begin with.
To me, that shows the writing is keeping up with the readers. A majority of whom are no longer interested in someone who was at the heart of things a narcissistic bully too weak to stand up to their friends—I’m looking at you She’s All That. Now, you see more romance novels about women (and men) who are comfortable in their own skin and don’t need—or want—to change themselves. That strength is the characteristic their love interest finds so attractive and what makes them long for a second chance at a happily ever after. Not with the person they could be made into, but with the person they are.
Earning It by E.F. Dodd is available at Amazon and Bookshop.
Read a sex scene excerpt from Earning It.