Really enjoyed this family drama. The characters were flawed but realistic and wonderful, and the setting in Cape Cod made me wish I was there spending time with the Gordons. Perhaps Ann and Michael should have discussed the discussions they each had with Anthony before Michael made his decision. It was rather sad how they all lost touch at one point but was happy with the outcome at the end. The story was a very touching one about family, truthfulness and forgiveness. A great debut novel by Christina Clancy. I look forward to reading more books by her.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy.

What a story! Family secrets and drama with familial love... My kind of book! This book gave me all the feels. I loved the relationships between the siblings. Cape Cod is a great location for a story like this. Overall, it was a great book and I would highly recommend it!

*Thank you to @netgalley and @stmartinspress for the copy in exchange for an honest review.*

Loved this book! I wish I could be guaranteed a book like this to savour every summer. If you like Elin Hilderbrand and Judy Blundell, you'll be richly rewarded in choosing to bring this book along on your Covid-19 staycation.

Family dynamics fraught with power struggles, the meaning of home, the difficulties we face in dealing with the death of parents....this book is 100% right up my alley.

Please write another book soon, Christina Clancy! Thank you St. Martin's Press for the advanced copy. I will definitely purchase a hard copy of this one. It'll go right on my imaginary beach house bookshelf.

I really, really loved The Second Home!

When their parents are killed in a car accident, Poppy & Ann must decide what to do with their family's summer home....and hope their adopted brother doesn't come back into the picture. But when he does, it could tear them apart or bring them closer together...

The Second Home by Christina Clancy is an interesting beach or cottage read, perfect to pass the time while social distancing. Ann, Poppy and Michael are teenage siblings who spent their summer holidays with their parents on Cape Cod at their Wellfleet summer home. The novel gives the perspective of each of them throughout. Something went horribly wrong one summer that caused the adolescents to disperse in all directions, never to return to Wellfleet. After the parents were killed in a car accident many years later, the adult siblings returned to the Cape to dispose of their second home. They had been haunted by what had happened there one summer and are uncertain about their relationships. Will they separate again? Or will they bond again as they had when they were younger? Will the past interfere with their future? Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book! This is her first novel and I can’t wait to read more of what she puts out!! I love books about family dynamics and this one was so beautifully written!

I was really looking forward to this book based on the description, but unfortunately, most of the story just made me sad and angry. I enjoyed the writing and the beautiful Cape Cod setting, but I found the characters very frustrating. I will leave it at that without going into spoilers. I also wish there was a better resolution or an epilogue at the end.

A story about nostalgia and summers with family, picking up after death and working out common conflicts that crop in families. I was not getting the feels from this story. I disliked all of the characters but enjoyed some of the descriptive writing.

<b>The Short of It:</b>

The Second Home is the type of story you linger in for awhile. Full of nostalgia and set in a classic Cape Cod setting.

<b>The Rest of It:</b>

The Gordon family has spent many summers at their beloved Wellfleet home on the Cape and have made many good memories there. But one summer, seventeen-year-old Ann experiences something that changes how she feels about the beloved beach house and when reality hits her, there’s no way to ever go back to how it was before.

The story goes back and forth in time. To the past, with the events leading up to Ann’s change of heart and then into the present which finds the Wellfleet home about to be put on the market. The decision to put the house on the market is not an easy one for Ann but what she feels is best for her sister Poppy and herself. However, their adopted brother Michael, who has been estranged from the family for years shows up to claim his piece of the house which forces Ann and Poppy to revisit their past.

At first, I had a hard time connecting with these characters. It took awhile for the author to lay the groundwork for the story but once she did, I was hooked. Clancy did an amazing job at setting the tone for this novel. It’s warm when it needs to be and brimming with nostalgia at times which I personally love. It’s also a story of loss and tragedy. There are many bittersweet moments as I turned the pages but the sense of family is overwhelming in a totally good way.

I did not want this story to end. As I got to those final pages I wanted to experience them without any distractions so I drew them out for as long as I could to ensure distraction-free reading. So good.

Have you read this one? Besides the awesome Cape setting, the house itself was so present and enjoyable even with all of its faults. The Second Home will be on my list of favorites at the end of the year.

For more reviews, visit my blog: <a href="http://bookchatter.net">Book Chatter</a>.

I thought I knew what to expect from this, and in some ways it followed a fairly predictable path, but in others the. plot took some unusual turns. I particularly enjoyed the personal relationships and found the ending quite moving.

Thanks Net Galley for the preview!

I was excited to read a book about cape cod since it is somewhere I have always wanted to visit. I was underwhelmed with the story as a whole. I just didn't feel like I loved any one character. I did feel like the scenery was described in a way that transported me to the cape. I didn't love or hate this story just wished it was a little bit more intriguing.

Ed and Connie Gordon vacation in Cape Cod every summer with their two daughters, Ann and Poppy. When they girls are teenagers, Ed and Connie decide to adopt a son, Michael, who is Ann’s age and she found out he was homeless. Michael’s second summer in the Cape with them something happens to Ann that causes the family to be torn apart. 15 years later, Ed and Connie Gordon die in a tragic car accident which forces the kids to come back together to figure out how to deal with losing their parents and to figure out what to do with their Cape home.

This book sounded like it would be great, but I really struggled getting into it. The first half of the book just moved so slowly. There is a strange relationship that I cannot explain due to spoilers, but it made me rather uncomfortable and turned me off from the story. I did stick with it though, and the book did pick up in the second half. I really enjoyed the children reuniting as adults and dealing with the tragedy of losing their parents. I just wish the author would have gotten to that part sooner.

I do want to give the author credit for her description of Cape Cod. She really did transport the readers and make them feel they were there. I live in Massachusetts, and she did a beautiful job with these descriptions. The Cape feels like a character in the book.

There are trigger warnings you should be aware of before reading this book: rape and suicide.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. Unfortunately, I did not download this in time to read and review. I will pay attention next time and not let it happen again. Thank you.

Ann Gordon and her sister Poppy are planning to sell the family beach house. Their parents are dead, and neither really wants it. They do have an adopted brother Michael, but he is not and has not been in the picture for years, so they have not involved him. Something bad happened years before, when Ann was seventeen, and she never wanted to return after that. This secret she harbored drove the family apart. Michael left for who knows where, and Poppy traveled the world looking for who knows what. Poppy, still looking, is not ready to keep the house because she is not ready to accept the idea of settling in one place after all these years. Just when they are ready to sell, Michael returns, declaring he wants to keep the house and, more importantly, set the record straight about what happened all those years ago. This is the story of what happened and how it affected everyone and of what happens to the house now.

This is a well-done story. I enjoyed following the story of what happened years ago. Often, events like this one have a major impact on the lives of everyone involved, whether they realize it at the time or not. In this case, it definitely impacted the lives of this family, and bringing out the truth and how they dealt with it helped get them through whatever they were going to do with the house as well as to clarify a lot of what had been ruminating in everyone’s mind for years. I enjoyed the setting, which was portrayed quite well by the author. I am not familiar with Cape Cod, so it was interesting and enlightening for me. It was most interesting to watch the three character interact, developing and changing as the book progressed. This is a good book with lots in it. It can make a good summer read or a ready any time of the year. I hope the reader will be as involved with it as I was when I read it. I received this from NetGalley to read and review.

What a good story this turned out to be!
It was a slow start for me - I thought at first that it was another "coming of age" story, but it was much more than that. Very good character development, which I now realize had to be done at the begining to give the plot more depth.
I loved all the main characters, despite their flaws - the overly casual, intellectual parents, the annoyingly bohemian Poppy, the control freak Ann with a plan, and of course the lost boy, Michael.
I am a sucker for family drama and this was a good one! There are a lot of hard feelings and misconceptions, but most are resolved in the most tender way.
The ending is left open, with this reader hoping the best for everyone.
This is a great summertime book because of the Cape Cod setting, but can be enjoyed all year round.

The end of the synopsis for this book says this is a 'story of a family you'll quickly fall in love with, and won't soon forget'. That is so, so true. I fell in love with this story from the start and with each of the characters as soon as I met them. And I'm still thinking about them.

The Second Home delves into the lives of Ann, Poppy, and Michael. The dual timeline of the past and the present help us discover why these three siblings are estranged and what drove them apart. Can the past be reconciled? Or will the family lose their summer home, a home which meant so much to all of them?

This is a very well written book with the words just flowing off of the pages and into my imagination. This debut novel by Christina Clancy is an impressive work of fiction and she is an author I'll be reading again. I can't wait to see what she produces next. The Second Home is a title you definitely need to add to your summer reading list.

Author #Christina Clancy has a wonderful debut this summer with ‘The Second Home’. Told through the shifting perspectives of Ann, Poppy and Michael, this assured and affecting debut captures the
ache of nostalgia for summers past.Its about second homes,second families, and second chances.
Thank you,
#Netgalley, #Christina Clancy, and #St. Martins Press

What a fantastic read! This is sure to be a knockout.

This is a novel about family secrets spanning over years. Poppy, Ann and Michael are teenagers when an event takes place and changes all of their lives. This novel tells the story of what happened, and flashes to present-day where they are all adults and dealing with the repercussions of that fateful summer when it all started.

The Second Home sucked me in right from the first page, and I found myself unable to put it down until I flipped the last page.

With The Second Home, the teen children in the Gordon family find their lives uprooted one fateful summer. Poppy and Ann, biological sisters and adopted brother Michael, learn about love, heartbreak, and betrayal in ways none could have imagined. A number of independent actions and circumstances led to the family being torn apart, as distrust and secrets overwhelm loyalty and honest communication. Fifteen years later, the three are reunited and as truths are revealed, the chance for redemption and a new future is made possible.

(I received a copy of this book from Net Galley and have written an objective review.)

This family drama centered around sisters Ann and Poppy and adopted brother Michael and their long standing family drama. The siblings return to their family home on Cape Cod where the sisters want to sell it and Michael doesn't. I'd call this a saga as the lack of communication that ensued was I'm sure meant to keep the reader interested and reading, however, for me iI don't enjoy stories where the entire plot depends on no one communicating with each other. Combine that with the fact that I found all the characters unlikeable and this ended up being an unsatisfactory story for me.