*** Review may contain spoilers...proceed at your own risk ***

Family. Friendship, secrets, lies and always, love. When something happens to one, it happens to all. What would you do to protect your loved ones? I enjoyed this story, I found it moved at a good pace and the story line was new and easily followed. The characters were likable, and situations they found themselves in were age appropriate. Loved the dynamics within the family. Enjoyable read with a little more depth than a normal summer read.

Story takes place from 1999 thru 2017. The story flips seamlessly from teenage siblings Ann, Poppy and newly adopted Michael. From Wisconsin to Cape Cod. Parents Ed and Connie are well loved teachers with a hippie-like vibe, and huge hearts. At their daughters suggestion, they adopt fellow student Michael. They spend their vacations at a family house on Cape Cod. What transpires from their second summer together changes to the course of this family. The sisters are very close and Michael adds a new dimension and feelings like no other.

The author does an excellent job relaying teenage feelings, angst and longings in this book about growing up in a tight knit, loving family when something unspeakable happens. It may happen to one, but all are effected equally. The adoption of an older child and their ‘baggage’ is handled with sensitivity and honesty, showing the struggle to find their forever place within the family. I have first-hand knowledge of adoption issues and memory issues and found this part of the story true to fact.

Thanks to Ms. Clancy, St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for this ARC. Opinion is mine alone.

A huge thank you to Christina Clancy, NetGalley and St Martins Press for the advanced readers copy! The following thoughts are my opinions alone.

Do you ever feel as though something is always pulling you to a certain place? Maybe a vacation home or a parents/grandparents home? Certain places have always held memories for me and particular ones are just so welcoming and make you remember what’s truly important in this crazy life we live. This novel brought those feelings back to me.

It centers on three kids, Michael, Ann and Poppy and then living in the cold north and spending their summers on the cape In a very appropriate cape style home. One summer gives way to a lot of regrets and chasing that “feeling” for many years after. The memories of that cape home are all that Michael can think of and want. Sadly, life has happened and a lot of pain.

The feelings of the beach and happiness are things I associate within my family. We don’t have a vacation home but, whenever things get rough and hard and we need to come together, we head to the beach. Even if it’s just for the day, it’s that place where our memories are maintained and happiness floats back in.

I really enjoyed this novel and it’s the authors FIRST one!! A huge kuddos to you Christina!! Brilliant story and I love the way you wrote it, different perspectives and even going back and forth in time, that’s how the characters were built and how you made them more understandable. It was a good read and I love the way it ended!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

All I can say is WOW! Christina Clancy’s debut novel is a winner! It tells the story of a family that lives, loves and then shatters. The characters are so real that they step right off the pages into the reader’s heart. Ann, Poppy and Michael struggle with trying to find their way back home to the family they once had.

The Second Home is an emotional read. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and highly recommend it.

I received a copy of The Second Home from the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for my honest review. I can honestly say that I loved this book and I look forward to reading Ms. Clancy’s next book.

It was a great book, enjoyed exploring the family along with Cape Cod. Lots of twists and turns of the characters. Very good read.

A beautiful and emotional read. Ms. Clancy has a talent for building strong characters. The level of description used for each character made them seem almost real. Of course, when I invest in the characters, it pulls me into the storyline. The Second Home was aptly named. The family's vacation home was the link that pulled Ann, Poppy and Michael back together after many years apart. It always seemed to be at the center of some of their best memories and significant life events.

Ann, Poppy and their adopted brother, Michael were torn apart by events that happened one summer. The lies and betrayals from that summer would lead them to choose paths away from each other for years. When they are finally brought back together, it isn't easy. They still have to find a way to deal with the hurt and misunderstandings. Navigating these rough waters and reconnecting as a family will be a huge challenge but it's worth it.

I really enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more by Christina Clancy in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This is an enjoyable, yet sad story of secrets, trauma, love, hate and forgiveness.  The emphasis being that no family is without pain, and some families can feel isolation in different ways.  The question is can a family rise above all the mess and become one again.

Ann Gordon's family owns a summer house on Cape Cod.  The last summer she was there when she was just a teenager with her sister Poppy and newly adopted brother Michael something happened which would not only change her life, but would tear her family apart.

Now, years later, her parents have died and it's up to Ann and Poppy to decide whether to sell the Cape house or keep it.  Ann and Poppy have not been close since that last summer.  Ann works in Boston and Poppy lives wherever she lands, traveling and working and has never really settled down.  Michael's whereabouts, after he left mysteriously that last summer is unknown.

So when the decision needs to be made whether to sell or keep the Cape house, Ann, who cannot bare even being in the house decides she wants to sell.  Unfortunately for Ann, Poppy who has come back with her own emotional baggage from the past decides she cannot imagine selling the house.

To complicate the situation even further, Michael discovers what is happening and is furious he had not been notified.  He concludes he cannot let this house go and wants to buy it himself.

Is it possible for three siblings who suffered great trauma, hurt and mistrust in their past be able, without their parent's guidance, comeback together as a family, not the one they remember from the past, but a new type of family, one their parents would be proud of.

As I thought about the story after I finished it, I realized that the title, The Second Home has many meanings.  There are many seconds in this story for most of the characters.  The Second Home was an uplifting and satisfying read.

Thank you #NetGalley #St.Martin'sPress #ChristinaClancy #TheSecondHome for the advanced copy.

Ultimately The Second Home is about the ability to forgive. While it is important to forgive others, it is perhaps most important to start with yourself. It’s a story about a normal family having their own set of issues and fracturing because things were too hard to confront or discuss.

Despite the pretty pastel cover this is not a light, fluffy beach read, rather it is quite dark and gets downright disturbing. This emotional family drama centers on the Gordon’s, parents with two daughters Ann and Poppy and their adopted son Michael. They are a seemingly perfect family spending their summers at their beloved old house in Cape Cod. They live an idyllic privileged life until one summer a terrible man commits a heinous crime and the traumatic event tears the family apart. This crime and the lead up to it are explored in depth and it is very uncomfortable to read. I was so incredibly livid about the crime and even more by the gas lighting that occurred afterwards. While the offense was terrible and upsetting it is the gas lighting that breaks this perfect family and it was heartbreaking and infuriating. This is one of those cases when you will be screaming at the characters to just communicate and talk to each other but of course the drama comes from miscommunication or complete lack of communication. I wanted to shake them to make them see the truth. I don’t really understand why they were so willing to believe someone they both knew was a bad person and untrustworthy. The family is irretrievably broken and it isn’t until 15 years later with the death of the Gordon parents that the siblings are brought back together to divide up their inheritance including the beach house.

The story alternates between the past when the sisters were teens and the present in which they are adults and we see the consequences of the crime and their decisions around it. While the past timeline was tragic, sad, and made me angry, the timeline set in the present surprised me more than once. A few things happened that I did not see coming, one in particular was especially shocking. There were some very heart-warming moments both in the lives that the characters built for themselves separately and also when they finally come together and talk about what happened. For the most part things work out and the story didn’t always take the expected path to a HEA ending. In the end I feel like this was a touching and positive read but it sure puts you through the emotional wringer to get there!

Thank you to St. Martin's Press for providing an Electronic Advance Reader Copy via NetGalley for review.

This book was just ok for me! I had a hard time connecting with these characters . I also didn’t like there was sexual assault...

This is your summer beach house novel with some extra depth. The Second Home is a book about family - the love and the secrets. It's a book about what it means to belong. When their parents die, the three Gordon siblings are back together for the first time in a decade. And, it won't be easy.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book. All thoughts are my own.

A family drama set in Cape Cod?!? Sign me up! The Gordons spend each summer in their beach home on Cape Cod. Summers that are usually full of the typical beach fun and memories. Until one summer when 17 year old Ann is put in a situation that forces her to make some tough decisions and keep some dark secrets. The drama unfolds when the Gordon children reunite 15 years later and must face the secrets from all those years ago.

Even though there were a couple of cringey scenes in this one for me, I ultimately really enjoyed this book. I think fans of Elin Hilderbrand would like it for the beachy family drama aspect. The Second Home just released last week, so make sure you check it out!

Confession time. While the fine folks at St. Martin's press gifted me with the Kindle file for this book I just could not concentrate on reading this book - it was me not the book (actually the time we are living if truth be told). So I used one of my Audible credits and grabbed the audiobook, it didn't take long before I was totally immersed.

The Second Home is told from a few different points of view. Mostly Ann's but Poppy and Michael's also, between 1999 and current day. A lot of the story takes place in the Wellfleet area which had me itching for a summer by the water. From the rustic cottage, surfing and just the relaxing way of life this book was atmospheric.

This is the author's debut and while there were a few things that didn't fly with me I still enjoyed the 12 plus hours spent with this family.

One of the benefits of the audio was a nice interview with the author concluding the listen. It was great hearing Christina Clancy talk about her inspiration and thoughts. Thank you.

I love family stories and expected to enjoy this book more, but I found my attention wandering many times while I read it. Maybe it's me, but I think the book is a tad bit too long or heavy on the details. The main characters - Ann, Poppy, and Michael - are interesting.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Christina Clancy's "The Second Home" is a beautifully written family drama that sucked me in from the first chapter.

The titular home belongs to the Gordon family - dad Ed, mom Connie, older sister "Ann with a plan," younger free-spirited sister Poppy and their newly adopted brother and Ann's classmate, Michael - who leave Milwaukee behind to spend every summer in this house on Cape Cod that's been in their family for generations. The plot alternates between the summer of 1999 when the kids are all teenagers and decisions they make change the family forever, and 2015 when Anna, Poppy and Michael, now adults, must pick up the pieces after the death of their parents. The story is told from all three of their perspectives, slowly revealing the mystery of what happened that summer on the Cape and why they've been estranged for so long.

I adore the way the author writes. There were several lines that made me laugh out loud - like "She flitted from beach to beach, chasing STDs and waves" and "It was a yard that looked unnatural, like a boob job of a yard" - and her descriptions of the Cape are so vivid, you can see yourself there. Similarly, I found the characters so real and colorful - from the Gordon family to more bit players, they all had wonderful quirks that brought them to life. And even though I thought the way the story tied up was perfect, I was so sad when it ended - I want to know what's next for the Gordons, people I came to care so much about.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press and the author for an advanced copy fo the book in exchange for my unbiased review.

I loved this; I'm always drawn to books set on the East Coast (Olive Kitteridge, Rules of Civility, Gatsby of course) for some reason and this fit that brief perfectly for me. I also really enjoy a family saga and this fits neatly into that genre for me. I wouldn't say the book is hugely pacey, but it's a leisurely read that I enjoyed stretching over a few days.

The second home was an amazing story of family. Two families. Relationships, injustice, betrayal and perceived betrayals. Self-discovery, forgiveness, and coming back to the heart of it all... Family. Sometimes an anchor can be the thing that weighs you down , pulls you under; and sometimes the anchor can be the thing that steadies you and makes you strong. I loved this story and found it difficult to put it down, to do those adulting things that one must do! This is a story that will stay with me for some time ️😊

The Second Home has many layers. Ann amd Poppy lost their parents and now have To sell the family homes in WI amd MA, except the beach house has so many memories. Flashbacks occur that allow readers to fill in the details of why things occurred. I liked the ending, everything was wrapped up very well, with meaningful resolution. It's a great story about family, loss, and an heirloom house.

This book was an enjoyable read that I read in one sitting. It reminded me a lot of Elin Hildebrand's writing, as it focused on familial relationships in a beach setting. If you are looking for a light, fun read while sitting poolside or just enjoying warm weather outside, this is perfect! I am definitely reading more from this author in the future!

3.5 stars

Christina Clancy has the gift of making characters believable and immediate from the start. Great! "The Second Home" is readable, but goes to a number of dark places with its most unconvincing character. If members of the Gordon family had just communicated they way their parents had taught them, most of this book would not have happened. You'll want to shake them.

Next book, Christina Clancy, I'm in. She's got character down. Next--plot.

~~Candace Siegle, Greedy Reader

A beautifully told story of how, sometimes, family has to fall apart in order to fall back together.
Set against a Cape Cod background, the Gordon girls are fighting to find an ounce of common ground between them in the wake of their parents untimely death. As they are both forced to confront everything that broke them apart, they realize that maybe secrets shouldn’t always stay buried.