The final TBR Challenge prompt of the year usually has a holiday-related theme, and this year’s is Celebration! – but I confess I went with a book that, while set mostly during December, is probably more Christmas adjacent than Christmas-themed. But that’s fine – so many Christmas romances end up being a bit trite and predictable (and too fluffy for me) – and Kaje Harper’s Second Act is, fortunately, none of those things. It could have been – the synopsis tells of a fairly well-known actor going back to his home in small-town Minnesota over the Christmas period to ‘make peace’ with the boyfriend who refused to leave with him a decade earlier – and we all know how that one goes, right? Except it doesn’t, and Kaje Harper does something different, turning it into a story of forgiveness, healing and finding new love. A Second Act indeed.

Ten years before the story begins, eighteen-year-old Bryce Edwards caused something of a furore when he stood up in church and confronted the bigoted preacher during a service one Sunday, coming out in the process and blowing up his plans to go to college with his best friend (and first love), Cody. When he couldn’t persuade Cody to leave with him, a broken-hearted Bryce left for the bright lights of LA and has never looked back.

He’s worked hard to build himself a career, although like most actors, he’s had lean periods, but at twenty-nine he seems poised for a breakthrough into bigger and better parts, having landed a plum role in an upcoming, much talked-about paranormal thriller. Shooting has begun, but he’s only been on set a few days when he’s called in by the director and told that his role has been rewritten as a female character (there’s a love triangle and the producers don’t want to “push a gay agenda”), so he’ll be paid his full fee, but is no longer needed. Bryce isn’t out in Hollywood – he realised pretty quickly that he could be an out gay actor or play straight action heroes, but not both – so he’s not being fired for being queer, but it does remind him of why he made the decision to keep the closet door shut.

For reasons he doesn’t really understand, this disappointment hits really hard, harder than practically any other setback he’s ever faced. He needs something to ground him, some familiar sights and people, and decides to fly home to Minnesota for the holidays. He also admits to himself that he has never properly processed what happened with Cody, that he’d stuffed it all in a box in his head and hadn’t ever looked at it again – and now it’s all spilling out. He doesn’t even know if Cody got married and had kids the way his ultra-conservative parents wanted – but he thinks it’s time he found out. And perhaps, if he can confront his past and make peace with what happened back then, it will help him to move on to better things.

Bryce checks in at the newly restored Des Arbres B&B and after a short nap, he heads downstairs for dinner. Not sure where to go, he follows the sound of voices into the kitchen and finds the owner, Jacques LeClair, and his gorgeous younger half-brother Dion – and if Bryce had thought Jacques, with his perfect grooming and expensive clothes looked a bit out of place in rural Minnesota, Dion is much more so; tall and slim and stunning, with perfect, smooth skin, wide dark eyes and a shock of platinum blond hair. He’s bubbly, flirty, clearly out and proud and also, it seems, a fan of Bryce’s; the three men spend a pleasant evening, eating a wonderful meal and chatting easily together.

The next morning, Bryce is walking along the lane to Cody’s farm when Jacques drives past him, stops and offers to take him to his destination. As Bryce exits the car, Cody comes out of the barn – then they’re hugging fiercely and as Cody invites Bryce into the house, he tells Jacques to come in, too – and to Bryce’s astonishment, leans in and kisses Jacques hard on the mouth.

It seems Bryce has got a lot to catch up on, and part of this story is dedicated to exactly that. As Bryce gets to know more about Cody’s life over the last ten years, he comes to realise that he’d been looking at the past through rose-tinted glasses and holding Cody up as some kind of ideal when in reality, neither of them was ready to be together back then. I liked that the author doesn’t make this a one-sided thing, showing that Cody, too, needs closure and has things he needs to talk about and work through with Bryce.

Bryce starts spending more time with Dion, whose offer of fun, no strings sex is exactly what he needs. Their chemistry is electric, and Dion is hot, funny, great in bed and genuinely interested in Bryce as a person – and while sex is all it’s supposed to be, when Bryce gets a call from his agent telling him to hoot-foot it back to L.A., he realises he isn’t ready to leave Dion and asks him to go with him. Bryce knows he’s falling for Dion, but also knows he can’t offer Dion the kind of relationship he deserves, so he tries to play it cool, to show Dion that he’s totally down with the casual thing and that Dion should feel free to do his own thing while they’re in L.A.

But that isn’t what Dion wants. We don’t get his perspective as the story is told entirely from Bryce’s PoV, but the author makes it clear that Dion is falling hard for Bryce and is confused by his attempts to put a bit of distance between them (other than in bed) – which leads to heartache for both of them.

Bryce is a superbly-written character and I liked that he’s not your typical Hollywood actor. His self-esteem isn’t great (he genuinely doesn’t think he’s a big deal, often reminding Dion he isn’t a ‘star’ when he’s obviously more highly thought of than he realises) and he’s quiet and more than a bit lonely – probably due to the fact that he feels he can’t be openly himself because it could damage the career he’s worked so hard to build. The author describes his life as a jobbing actor in (what seems to me) a very realistic way; years of random minimum wage jobs, running from casting call to casting call, quitting real jobs for bit parts, and living in crappy, cramped apartments.

Dion is warm, outgoing, funny, unapologetically himself – and very wealthy. He’s not a dick about money, but it does bring some tension to the story because Bryce is sure Dion is way out of his league. Bryce has spent many years just scraping by and had to declare himself bankrupt when he couldn’t pay his parents’ medical bills; and even though he’s making decent money now, he’s understandably cautious and sensitive to any suggestion that Dion might want to help him out.

Yet despite their differences, Bryce and Dion make a good couple. Meeting Dion encourages Bryce to expand his horizons outside his single-minded focus on his career, and Bryce is good for Dion because he wants nothing from him except himself – and he (eventually) makes sure Dion knows it.

I really liked that the story focuses on more than the central romance (although that’s still the most important part). Cody and Jacques play a key role in Bryce and Dion’s story, and I liked the exploration of Bryce and Cody’s friendship and the glimpses we’re given into Jacques and Cody’s relationship.

Second Act is a fairly quick read, but well worth it if you’re looking for something seasonal but not schmalzy that features a wonderfully-written romance between multi-layered, flawed characters who experience significant personal growth. I’ve had a pretty good run of TBR Challenge reads this year – mostly good with the odd dud – and I’m happy to have completed the 2025 challenge with such a great read.