Dani Galler isn’t where she thought she would be at this point in her life. Back in Chica­go after end­ing a rela­tion­ship she had been in since high school, Dani finds a new job with a local Jew­ish non­prof­it orga­ni­za­tion, work­ing in devel­op­ment and stretch­ing her­self far beyond her com­fort zone. When she meets Jake, a young mem­ber of the board, she is imme­di­ate­ly attract­ed to him, not rec­og­niz­ing that they attend­ed the same Jew­ish sum­mer camp where she once met her ex.

In Julia Car­pen­ter’s sec­ond-chance romance, Missed You the First Time, Dani must make choic­es she is not yet ready for, exem­pli­fy­ing the quar­ter-life cri­sis of many a mid-twen­ty-some­thing. She con­tin­u­ous­ly finds her­self in sit­u­a­tions that do not excite her and ones she is not emo­tion­al­ly equipped to han­dle. While Missed You the First Time is a roman­tic com­e­dy, Car­pen­ter also crafts it as a com­ing-of-age sto­ry. Dani con­fronts her inse­cu­ri­ties and dis­com­fort head-on, ulti­mate­ly chart­ing a course toward a life defined by her own pas­sions rather than the expec­ta­tions of others.

Car­pen­ter also gives read­ers a unique­ly Jew­ish set­ting that is both spe­cif­ic and rich­ly drawn. The pro­fes­sion­al back­drop of a Jew­ish phil­an­thropy orga­ni­za­tion grounds the sto­ry in a world that is rarely cen­tered in main­stream roman­tic come­dies, and it adds tex­ture and authen­tic­i­ty to Dani’s jour­ney. The sum­mer camp con­nec­tion between Dani and Jake is clever and charm­ing, lend­ing the romance a sense of shared his­to­ry and warmth.

Car­pen­ter’s voice is sharp and fun­ny through­out, and her char­ac­ters are ren­dered with gen­uine affec­tion. Missed You the First Time is a promis­ing debut that offers both laugh-out-loud moments and a heart­felt look at what it means to find your­self before you can tru­ly find some­one else.