In The Second Home, Christina Clancy presents an all-too-typical scenario of estranged siblings attempting to put their parents to rest and settle their estate while not killing one another. I started the book with the greatest enthusiasm since I know the settings and situations and Clancy so apparently knows and loves the quirks, history, and secrets of old houses. While I could see the inevitable showdowns, discussions, and resolutions coming, the unfortunate jamming of back story and unimportant detail stole the power and the flow of what could have been a solid story that I had to abandon within a few chapters. Regrettably, the writing, the pacing, and other essential components of a gripping story failed to support a fascinating premise.

Every year the Gordon’s looked forward to leaving Michigan behind to summer at Cape Cod located on the outer banks.
Ann was seventeen, innocent and carefree, until
one night on the Cape it was all taken away.
This story follows how their family is then split apart for the next fifteen years until their parents are killed in a car accident. Sisters Ann and Poppy then must put their differences aside and work together to ready both homes to be sold. The sisters, along with their (long-lost) adopted brother Michael, are brought together once again at their Cape bungalow. Ann planned on a quick sale of the Cape property, unfortunately things don’t go as Ann had originally planned. Old wounds are opened eventually bringing real truths to light. BUT is it enough to return love to where it had once been in their family?
The Second Home is a compelling family drama I quite enjoyed! 4.5 stars
Much thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing an ARC for my honest review. Releases June 2, 2020.

Families are messy. Every family has secrets they hope don't see the light of day. But, what happens when they are revealed? The Second Home delves into one family's secrets when a tragedy tears. a family apart. Christina Clancy has written an insightful novel that is both compelling and compassionate. I was looking for a book that would leave me with the feeling the characters were neighbors, I have found it in this book.

I would like to Thank Netgally and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this book. After reading the first 25% I had to stop. The type of family dysfunction hit a nerve and I could not continue. I am truly sorry.

Despite some cringey moments, I loved this book.

Ann and Poppy have been spending summers at their family’s Cape Cod home their entire lives, and they are eager to share it with Michael, an orphan who their parents have welcomed into their home. But by the next summer, things have changed. Connie and Ed have adopted Michael, oblivious to the fact that Ann and Michael feel more than sibling affection. Ann throws herself into the lives of the Shaws, the family she is babysitting for, distracting herself from Michael by fantasizing about Mr. Shaw, while Poppy, feeling neglected, has taken up with a fast crowd of surfers.

By the time the Gordons return to Milwaukee for Ann’s and Michael’s senior years in high school, their lives have irrevocably changed.

Seventeen years later, Ann and Poppy are dealing with their parents’ estate, refusing to acknowledge the additional hole in their lives due to Michael’s disappearance after that summer. As they disagree about what to do with the rundown house on Cape Cod, Michael reenters their lives.

THE SECOND HOME is an emotion-packed, impossible to put down novel. As much as I longed to escape (via the printed page) to Cape Cod, Milwaukee was the setting that resonated more with me. And the line clarifying the difference between “blessed” and “privileged” really spoke to me. #TheSecondHome #NetGalley

“The Second Home” is Christina Clancy’s debut novel. I love books about family drama so adding this book to my TBR was a no brainer. Overall, this was an ok read in my opinion. I did not really connect with the characters and the second half was just a bit less satisfying than I was expecting. The ending was kind of abrupt and rushed. There were also some moments that were just too unbelievable. What I will say is that this book had many elements to it and dealt with a variety of issues including abuse, trauma, dysfunction, and more.

After fostering and adopting a teenage boy, the family is torn apart because of secrets, misunderstandings, and deceiptions. This was a beautifully written story with "real" characters, that was painful to read because of the subject matter and the deception that tears part this a loving family. I enjoyed this very much and will be looking for more from this author.

A twisty family saga on Cape Cod - great if you're looking for a beach read with emotional heft!

The Gordon family owns a house in Wellfleet on Cape Cod, and one summer changes everything for siblings Ann, Poppy, and Michael. When their parents die in a car accident years later, the siblings must confront old ghosts and work to repair their fractured relationships. Can the Cape still be their second home?

This book is told in multiple perspectives with a time jump after the first summer at the Cape. Both devices worked well for me - the siblings were drawn clearly and distinctly, and I enjoyed hearing each of their perspectives. Setting the main drama of the book years after that fateful summer allowed time for the ramifications of the summer to build up in the characters' lives. I thought Clancy did a great job interweaving the narratives to create tension and suspense. I read a lot of family dramas, but this one brought something new to the table.

I love spending summer weekends at the Cape, and Clancy really understands how to write about this setting. She perfectly describes the ruggedness of the Outer Cape and the complex relationships between the locals and the summer visitors. Wellfleet is like another character in the story, and reading this book made me long for the Cape.

If you love the beach and/or family dramas, I would highly recommend this book. It's a quick read but packs more of an emotional punch than the average beach read.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press for providing an ARC on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Second Home definitely threw me for a loop with family drama I was NOT EXPECTING. I knew there were going to be strains in the relationships between the siblings, but I was quickly taken aback by their cause. In some ways, that made for a compelling read, but without including any spoilers, it also involved one of my least favorite tropes so that took away from my enjoyment.

Poppy felt much more developed as a character than the other two siblings, even though she didn’t appear in the book more than Michael or Ann. I think that also kept me from feeling as attached to the family as I might have otherwise.

This story follows a family over 20 years as their lives fall apart and come back together around their family house on Cape Cod, and explores the hold that houses have on us. Ed and Connie, a pair of teachers who live in Milwaukee, adopt a teenage boy at their daughter Ann’s suggestion. No one bothers to tell younger sister Poppy, who grows up feeling like a stranger in her own home. Ann happens to have feelings for Michael, which sets up the unraveling of the family during their second summer all together in Cape Cod at the family house. Ann is perfectly selfish, which was excusable as a teenager, but only grows as she gets older. Her ordeal during the summer explains some of that, but it was hard to stomach just how cruel she is to her siblings. Ann, Poppy, and Michael become estranged after that summer. It’s only the death of their parents that brings them together to confront each other and the truth about what happened that summer. In the end, this is a story of the strength of family in all its misery and glory, no blood relation required.

I really enjoyed the setting. Cape Cod is one of my favorite places and the author described it so well it brought back memories of my own. One thing bothered me, and it must be a typo. The Cape was referenced as “The Cod” early in the book and nobody calls it that. I also had trouble with the suicide in the story. That personality would have been much more likely to lash outwards than inwards, and it struck me as a convenient way to get him out of the picture.

I am grateful to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advance copy, and this is an unbiased review.

This story is about more than a vacation home on Cape Cod. On the surface, it is the story of two sisters and their adopted brother, and a special place in their history. But underneath, ah, that is where the magic happens. This book is about blended families, of words unspoken, of secrets left to fester, of momentous events that shape one's life, of greed that can warp, of freedom that sets one free, of love deep and abiding, of sisters and brothers and parents and children. I found this debut author to be a beautiful writer; she drew me in immediately with her ability to develop characters and her words set me right on the sands of South Wellfleet, or in the neighborhood of Milwaukee. An extremely compelling and powerful novel, I will be first in line for her second outing. Well done!!

This sibling, Cape Cod story was a good read. I liked it overall, but there were definitely some parts of the storyline that were a bit “off”. I couldn’t really connect with the characters as much as I like to when reading a book. This book has tragedy, reconnection, and a beach theme. I was hoping to like it more, and although it is an “ok” read, and many people may really enjoy it, it was a little too slow-paced and had too many unanswered ends for me. 3 stars.

Thank you to @stmartinspress via @netgalley for my copy of this book. I admit that I went into this book assuming it was just a light, fluffy, summer, family dynamic read...I mean look at that pretty cover! Well pretty quickly, I realize it was so much more and hits on some bigger issues (trigger warnings...DM if you want to know as it is a plot point too) and I just could not turn the pages quick enough. I actually had to re-read the synopsis again as I thought I missed something. 😂 I actually wanted more about certain pieces of the story and characters so that is a good sign for me! I really enjoyed this one and recommend it for a summer read with a little more depth/darker issues. Great debut novel and I will be on the look out for the author’s next book for sure. Posted on Instagram @carolinehoppereads And on Goodreads

2.5 stars - rounded

Three siblings, two homes and the unexpected death of their parents are the kindling for this story. Ann is on the Cape looking to offload the ‘summer home’ the family owned in Wellfleet. Her sister Poppy is to manage the family home in Wisconsin, their adopted brother Michael is not a serious consideration in any of this. But many questions arise –where did the split come from, how are they moving forward with Ann as executor with no will, and why haven’t they contacted Michael?

Enter the deep dive into memories, lies, secrets and plenty of conveniences to move the plot forward with zero (and I mean ZERO) grounding in any sort of fact. One does not appoint themselves executor of a will – one first has to have a copy of said will. One does not simply spirit a child away into adoption without someone taking notice – one can’t bully the courts into ignoring documents and information found during probate – and these are just the ‘tips’ of the problems I had with the story. It was convoluted, convenient for the drama with little grounding in facts – and the genre and story require that some factual content is correct.

And sadly – the incongruencies here pulled me out of the story and made the read a difficult one. Sadly, because Clancy can create a character – a flawed, distasteful character and make you want to see more. Just piling on “bad things happened to __” and they are justified (or feel it) because of that doesn’t get to any sort of growth or recognition of the character problems, nor did it make any of the ‘connections’ feel more than ‘for convenience’ and to move the plot forward. It just didn’t work for me, as I want to see some changes that feel honest and not contrived. It’s a difficult read, despite the obvious talent of the writer – I just think that an editor should have taken away extraneous elements and ‘issues’ and focused the story, removing the ‘for convenience’ elements that served only to create confusion and drama that doesn’t serve the story.

I received an eArc copy of the title from the publisher via NetGalley for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.

Review first appeared at <a href=” https://wp.me/p3OmRo-aIg/”> <a> I am, Indeed </a>

The Second Home is a dark, twisted family saga fraught with drama, resentments, tragedy, misunderstandings and abuse. As two siblings are faced with the sudden death of their parents and must prepare to sell their two family homes, they also have to deal with the unexpected visit of their long lost adopted brother and consequently face long held family secrets.

Ann Gordon finds herself back in Cape Cod having to sell her family vacation home while her sister Poppy is tasked with selling their main home in Wisconsin after their parents are killed in a car accident. Amidst these unsettling tasks, their estranged, adopted brother Michael makes an appearance, staking a claim of his own on the property. The first portion of the book is focused on the picturesque Cape Cope in 2015.

The reader is then taken back to a fateful summer 15 years ago when tragedy struck and everything changed for the family. The story carries on alternating between these two time frames as the story comes full circle.

There were a few elements I did not love about this novel. I’m not generally a fan of the no-communication trope between characters which was a main liner in this story. I find it frustrating when people are capable of having a straightforward conversation to clear things up, but don’t, and are then surprised when issues erupt. There are also some implausible events in the plot that would not occur in real life and made the story less credible and believable. The characters are also generally unlikeable and made some really poor choices, which makes for some unsettling reading.

I did enjoy the vivid descriptions of Cape Cod and it’s customs and the shared memories of the good times the siblings shared with one another. It is also decidedly soap-opera-esque and a wild ride with its drama and scandal.

The story does deal with some darker topics and the difficulty of relationships and human interactions. It’s a story about communication, missed opportunities and attempts at reconciliation and restoration. It’s moving, frustrating, harrowing and emotional.

The Second Home is a story is a family drama full of secrets and spanning decades. It is my favorite premise for a book and it lived up to all of my hopes. The Gordon siblings are set to deal with their family summer home on the Cape after the sudden death of their parents. There are flashes back in time to show how Ann, Poppy, and their adoptive brother Michael became estranged after a summer marked by a shocking secret. Each character had their own reason for pulling away from the family but so much was based on pain from misunderstanding. I rooted for each character to find their way back home and their paths there were interesting to observe. I also loved the setting on Cape Cod. It definitely added to the “substantial beach read” feeling of this book. I can’t wait to see what Christina Clancy writes next.

Thank you to Christina Clancy, St. Martin Press, and NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This debut novel will appeal to those who like family sagas tied familiar beach locales. Having spent several of my college summers on the Cape, I was drawn to this story of the family that seemed "perfect" from the outside but with dark secrets that the siblings - Ann, Poppy and Michael - kept from their parents and each other. As the curtains are literally pulled back at the family's summer home on Wellfleet after their parents unexpected death, the truth about the horrific events of one summer are forced to light. While I love a good family drama and especially loved the setting, I had a hard time really connecting with the characters, particularly Ann, whose story that fateful summer is pivotal and one that brings up to surface issues related to sexual assault, class wars, teen pregnancy, and single parenting. Communication is a key issue here between the siblings and their struggle made for slow reading at points and characters that just didn't engage enough empathy from me. A good story, but not a summer page-turner in my opinion. Thanks for NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

On paper this was one I thought I would really like: a family drama set in Cape Cod and with a blurb from Chole Benjamin (The Immortalists) on the back. But in reality, I struggled with this one.

The book begins when the Gordon children are teenagers, over the course of a couple of summers at their Cape house. A tragic series of events drives them apart, changing everyone's lives. Fast forward to fifteen years later, and Ann, one of the siblings, has returned to the Cape to sell the house. But what follows is a conflict over who truly has claim to the estate and who doesn't.

One of my biggest pet peeves in books is where conflict could be solved by the characters having a simple conversation. The inability of anyone in this family to say anything of substance to each other drove me crazy! Pretty much everything in this book could have been solved by one conversation early on. When the conflict was eventually solved in the end of the book, it wrapped up so quickly and neatly because of this; everyone's resentment of one another seemed to vanish in thin air. Other twists in the plot just felt contrived.

I enjoyed each of the characters, though they often read as caricatures of people. Poppy initially did not feel necessary to the story, but I liked how she eventually played her role later on in the story.

Semi-spoiler, but there is a sexual assault scene at one point in the book that was unnecessarily graphic and I almost put the book down after it.

I think that I am not the right audience for this book, and others might really enjoy the plot and characters here. It certainly feels like a good book to bring with you to the beach (maybe even the Cape!) and read there.

I walked past a house where I lived once; a man and a woman are still together in the whispers there. -- Yehuda Amichai

I've always loved novels which take place along the water in New England...particularly the islands like Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard. This book might be the exception.

While the plot was decent, the inconsistencies within the story bothered me. The dialogue, along with the character's reactions to major life issues, were also completely off the wall. (You can see my hidden spoilers on the Goodreads site.)

I do feel Christina Clancy captured both Cape Cod and Milwaukee beautifully. The setting was definitely the highlight of this novel.

Overall, this story pushes the boundaries of plausibility so far (which seems like it would be hard to manage in a family drama), it's hard to take it seriously.

Triggers: Rape

2.5 bra-sniffing stars

**My sincere appreciation to the publisher for my review copy.

I really enjoyed the first half of this book! It felt honest and real, and totally tugged at the heart strings. I really loved all of the characters to start.

After that I was kind of bored, and didn't love the rest of the story. It was a bit mundane and slow, the characters just plateaued and Ann was the absolute worst. It was all very predictable. I found myself wanting to shout "JUST TALK TO EACH OTHER" more often than not.