The Second Home
By Christina Clancy
St. Martin’s Press, 9781250239341, June 2020, 352pp.
The Short of It:
The Second Home is the type of story you linger in for awhile. Full of nostalgia and set in a classic Cape Cod setting.
The Rest of It:
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.
Source: Review copy provided by the publisher.
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.
Book Chatter 
This sounds like a good one for summer. I do love a Cape Cod setting generally.
We used to spend summers at a condo we rented right on the beach. We did that for a few years but then we outgrew that condo and stopped going. There are some heavy topics in this story but the sense of place reminded me so much of our summers in that condo.
I haven’t heard of this one, but I love it when I finish a book and wish it wasn’t ending. Ah, such a great feeling!
Yes. I actually messed up at first with the ending. My review copy just stopped and I was sad because the story was missing closure. The next day I was like, how could it end that way so I looked at my ebook again and after a few blank pages the last chapter revealed itself. What a difference a chapter makes.
Cape Cod settings always seem like a summer time read for me.
So glad you read this one. Much more than a beach read. And the house itself was an actual character for me.
Yes. I considered the house a character as well as Cape Cod itself.