A tale of dreams thought lost and the past catching up to the present. The Second Ending by Michelle Hoffman brings full circle the story of two primary protagonists and their attempts to regain control of their lives through music.

This light read touches on deeper topics and successfully captures what could be a humor driven fiction in a way that also reaches the audience in an impactful manner.

The two primary PoV’s, Prudence and Alexei, master the art of piano playing at an early age. They later find themselves facing off in a nationally televised piano duel, although they arrived in this place from starkly different paths. Alexei is a young man, still controlled by his parents. He lost the true essence of his childhood locked away playing piano. While Prudence could somewhat say the same, she is long past her prime and felt her dreams and goals of the piano sail far out of reach.

The novel tells their stories, while carefully intertwining the perspective of those that stand in the way of happiness for both Prudence and Alexei.

There were moments in the story that I felt slowed down the forward movement, and a couple of character PoV’s that I didn’t love, but I overall enjoyed the storyline. The novel did feel as though it had a slow start and spent quite some time on the character backstories. It helped to grow the rapport for the main character sets, but I feel like it could have been shortened up a bit to jump into the present and move things forward in a quicker manner.

I felt connected to Prudence the most. I enjoyed her perspective and felt like I was rooting for her to win more so than that of Alexei. Alexei felt a bit too formulated at times, rather than the flaws and more realistic persona of Prudence. I felt for Prudence and empathized with her mistakes. I felt the same for Alexei, but in a different manner. The characterization and details were depicted wonderfully, and I felt like it was the author’s intent to have the reader choose between Prudence and Alexei.

I LOVED the ending. I won’t place spoilers, but the story absolutely offered closure. Occasionally, with light hearted novels that try to reach a deeper level of emotion, the ending can come up short. Not here. The Second Ending certainly offered a fun read from start to finish. Unique plotline, good characterization and a great ending but a slow start and a few sections that felt a bit too contrived. It’s a 3.5 out 5 stars for me.