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Good Reads Summary:

After a disastrous summer spent at her family’s summer home on Cape Cod, seventeen-year-old Ann Gordon is left harboring a secret that changes her life forever and creates a rift between her sister, Poppy, and their adopted brother, Michael.

Now, fifteen years later, her parents have died, and Ann and her sister Poppy are left to decide the fate of the old Wellfleet home that’s been in the Gordon family for generations. While they both love the house, they decide to sell it and move forward. But then Michael re-enters their lives with a legitimate claim to a third of the estate. He wants the house. But more than that, he wants to set the record straight about that long-ago summer. 

Reunited after years apart, these very different siblings are forced to decide if they can continue to be a family–and in the process, they’ll discover that the house might be the glue that holds them together

TERI’S REVIEW:

The Second Home is Christina Clancy’s debut book the story centers around the Gordon Family of Milwaukee, who summer in a home they own in Wellfleet MA, part of Cape Cod.  The book starts out in the cottage, where older sister Ann is preparing the cottage for sale after her parent’s tragic death in a car accident. It is the first time she has been back to the cottage in years and it begins a series of flashbacks from her, her younger sister Poppy, and their adoptive brother Michael, the book’s chapters tell the story from the three POV’s

The story deals with one certain summer when the children are teenagers, older sister Ann is known as Ann with a plan, she has her life rather planned out, she is the sensible one, and during this summer she makes a decision that will test the families loyalty and bonds, and it changes each of their lives forever. 

Poppy is the younger sister, during the summer she feels a bit left out since her parent adopted Michael so she turns to a group of new friends and takes up surfing and drugs. She pretty much drops out of the family and takes off traveling the world seemingly searching for something.

Michael is their adopted brother, the Gordons adopted him while he was a teenager, he has feelings for Ann he knows he should not have, and Ann actually shares these feelings.

Others in the book include their parents, who are minor characters in the story but are two of my favorite characters. I love their quirkiness and their love for each other and their family. With the siblings, I never felt a huge connection, especially when they became older, infant there were times, I rather disliked Ann, but maybe she was written for me not to like.

Clancy does a great job of describing the setting on Cape Cod, she transports you there and you can just almost imagine the sand in your toes. It also pulls the reader in with lots of betrayals, loss, heartbreak, and scandal. Its a book about the ebb and flow of a family the spans a few decades. It is a heartbreaking look at how one day in the life of one person can alter so many lives, but also it teaches the characters to look at the truth with honest eyes.

Second Home is a quick read, and the setting makes it a great beach read, you can then blame the tears in your eyes when it’s finished on the bright sun!