Two estranged sisters reunite in an emotional novel of family, forgiveness, lost hope, and new beginnings.They had a forever bond, until a sudden tragedy thrust them apart. Now, each at a crossroad in her own life, two sisters’ paths are about to intersect.Broadcast journalist Julia Frank has it all: a career, an ambitious fiancé, and the hard-won respect of her peers. Until a ruinous decision … Until a ruinous decision destroys her reputation, puts her job at risk, and sends her reeling toward the only soul left to turn to: her estranged sister, Ginny.
The owner of a clandestine supper club hidden in the Arizona desert, Ginny Frank has a lot on her plate. The last thing she wants is more drama—or the burden of nursing her younger sister’s wounded ego. But family is family. Besides, Ginny can use the help in more ways than one, and she’s going to make sure Julia pulls her weight.
As a tenuous reunion reopens old wounds, Julia and Ginny have no choice but to confront the pain and betrayals of the past. Will working to keep the secret supper club running be just what they need to find common ground and a path toward forgiveness, or will the increasing stress push them even further apart?
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A really enjoyable story of two sisters coming to terms with the past, as well as a fun look at the inner workings of both the network television world and the underground dining scene.
I absolutely love to read books about sisters. I am lucky enough to have two wonderful sisters and unlike the sisters in this book, we have always been very close. The two sisters in this novel have been estranged for over three years and have to work very hard to re-establish their sister relationship.
Ginny is the oldest sister. She was on her way to becoming a famous chef in NYC but when their parents died in an accident, she went home to Arizona to clean out and sell the house and decided to stay. Ginny is stressed to the max with the struggles in her life. Julia is a broadcast journalist in NYC. She is put on leave after a major error on the show and decides that its time to go home to Arizona. She needs some time away from the hustle of the city to figure out what she wants to do with her life.
Julia shows up on Ginny’s doorstep without warning after three years of no communication between them and after the initial shock, they try to let go of their anger and become sisters again but it’s difficult for both of them to let go of their anger at each other. Will working to keep the secret supper club running be just what they need to find common ground and a path toward forgiveness, or will the increasing stress push them even further apart?
Thanks to the publisher for a copy of this book to read and review. All opinions are my own.
Sisterhood is rewarding, but intricate, and second chances don’t come easily. In this moving tale, Meier brings these ambitious, complex characters to life and sets them on an emotional journey toward honesty and acceptance.
The Second Chance Supper Club is a glorious celebration of new beginnings, sisterhood, and the healing power of food. A wonderful story!
I savored each and every word! Nicole Meier wrote a truly sincere love story to both food and relationships! She makes everything elevate off of the page.
An absolutely wonderful book about family, sisters, reconnecting, getting out of your own way you can finding your way back to who you truly are and truly want to be. Sisters Ginny and Julia at heart truly love each other yet have been estranged since the unexpected and tragic deaths of their parents. Ginny stepped back from her high powered career as a celebrity chef to take care of all of the things left to deal with for her parents where as Julia acted as if it were just another day and went back to work in her career as the host of a national news show leaving it all for Ginny to handle. She left a mess in her wake with nary a thought and also walked away from her beloved niece. They hadn’t spoken in three years when Julia makes a colossal faux pas on the air he career goes into a tail spin. She packs up a suitcase and lands on her sisters doorstop. Lots of emotions, difficult conversations and trying to decide what is next for each of them. Toss in a talented yet snarky young woman (Ginnys daughter, who is just a bit angry at the world) and a backdrop of some amazing food and you’ve got a fantastic book about following your dreams though they may be very different than you originally thought they would be.
I really enjoyed this book. Characters were very well defined along with their strong feeling of resentment and jealousy. The concept of underground supper clubs was very interesting.
I recommend this book!
BOOK REVIEW
The Second Chance Supper Club
-DESCRIPTION-
A book about sisters that have been estranged after a family tragedy.
-THOUGHTS-
1. It was very easy for me to relate to that book, having so many sisters myself…although not a requirement to enjoy this book!
2. I love that it was a book about life and all the food intertwined throughout the story!
-RATING-
I recommend this book!
-SIMILAR RECOMMENDED READS-
Beyond the Point
Map of the Heart
Sound of Gravel
The Second Chance Supper Club was a wonderful novel about family relationships and second chances. I enjoyed how the sisters’ relationship was portrayed in the story. Sisters Ginny and Julia haven’t spoken in years. After Julia runs into trouble at her job, she takes off and shows up at Ginny’s house. Ginny has been having her own work related difficulties and trouble with her daughter. The sisters seem to both have been holding a grudge and misunderstanding for something that happened years ago. Both women have to face changes in their lives as they also deal with their damaged relationship.
This is my first book by Nicole Meier, but it won’t be my last. I enjoyed the story and her writing style.
My stomach growled and my taste buds perked up reading about the delicious meals Ginny prepared. What a wonderful view of sister, mother-daughter, and romantic relationships. Each has its own difficulties, but watching each character grow and develop into a mature and responsible adult was rewarding.
This is a story of forgiveness, finding a sense of self, and accepting responsibility for each person’s role in the problems created.
Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review. I’m looking forward to reading more books by this author!
The Second Chance Supper Club by Nicole Meier is a wonderful story which drew me right in, and did not let go until I turned the last page. This is the first book I have read by Ms. Meier and it definitely will not be the last. This book just kept me turning the pages ignoring the rest of the world. I love second chance stories, and this one was heartwarming. It was very well written with well-developed and likeable believable characters. The descriptions were very vivid and made you feel you were right there with the characters. The food descriptions sure did make me hungry. This was a very quick and delightful read about sisters, second chances and delicious sounding food. I highly recommend this book to foodies, people with sister’s or anyone that needs a second chance.
I love a good, well written women’s fiction novel. So, when I read the blurb for this novel, I jumped on the chance to review it. My thoughts? It was fantastic. Meier has beautiful talent and knows how to create emotionally moving moments and characters that are chiseled perfectly with flaws. And, let’s not forget the yummy cover! I mean it speaks to my food loving heart instantly!
I loved following Ginny,and Julia through their journey of being estranged, through their journey of tragedy and hope, forgiveness and renewed relationships. I saw a lot of myself in each of these characters. I felt like they were speaking to me. Meier creates their story with powerful emotions from sadness to anger, to righting wrongs and seeking a second chance in life.
This 4 star worthy novel had me staying up late into the night, seeking out what would happen next between the sisters. Second chances don’t always come easy, and when it’s put in front you, grab it. Hold on to it and don’t let go. That’s what this story taught me. Through the happy moments, through the sad moments, through the angry moments, Meier uses these sisters to leave the reader with a powerful, soul moving lesson in family and forgiveness. I definitely recommend this read to all!
*I read this book from the publisher and was under no obligation to post a review, positive or negative.*Nicole Meier
Sometimes It Takes Losing Everything To Find Everything. Not that I haven’t lived this before. Not at all. Yes, this story of two sisters awkwardly reconnecting 3 yrs after a major fight that left them not speaking to each other somehow managed to resonate with a guy who only has brothers. 😉 Seriously, great job from new-to-me author Nicole Meier in crafting a very readable and relatable tale, that admittedly I wanted to stop reading at one point because it got a bit *too* real and brought back some difficult memories of my own. Hallmarkies and/ or foodies in particular will get a kick out of this one, but a strong book for any crowd I’ve ever come across. This is due to Meier’s skill in focusing on the very human even while also relishing the particulars she has set in motion here. Very much recommended.
It has been a while since I’ve fallen into a book as quickly as I did The Second Chance Supper Club. From the very beginning, I was intrigued by how Julia was going to handle to upheaval in her life, how as Ginny going to accept Julia’s unexpected visit, and how as Olive going to fit into the story with them.
The relationship with Ginny and Olive was so real. Olive is Ginny’s daughter and the bumped heads at every turn. It was probably because they were so much alike, but just as much that Ginny was doing everything could to keep her head above water that she couldn’t see what it was doing to her daughter. Olive was wanting to help her mom as much as possible, but she is old enough to have her own life too. There is a fine line when working with family and that line was blurred even more since they lived together also.
Julia had her own issues. I feel that she worked so hard to be successful that she feared losing her success. She made a poor decision and ran from it instead of staying and dealing with it. Her fiancé called her out on that but this time the running worked, and she found something that she really didn’t know she was missing.
The family dynamics in this book are real to many families. There are happy times, stressful times, and sad times but together they make an amazing story.
The Second Chance Supper Club is a story of second chances (of course!), sisters, forgiveness, starting over, and hope, mixed in with some delicious food.
Julia and Ginny Frank used to be close, but when the death of their parents sent them on different paths, the anger, hurt, and resentment combined for a three year separation. Julia has a successful career, but the stress she faces keeping it together causes her to make a potentially career-ending mistake. Knowing she needs space and a chance to re-evaluate, she goes to the only place she can think of: her sister’s.
Ginny Frank was a successful chef in New York packed up her daughter and returned to Arizona to deal with her parents’ estate. She still loves her career as a chef and is trying to make a private supper club successful. The stress of trying to make it work is taking its toll on her and straining her relationship with her daughter, Olive. The last thing she needs is her sister showing up and stirring up all her anger and resentment to add to the stress. Or maybe, it’s just what they all need.
Full of good food and strong women, this novel was a delightful visit with women I would love to know. It was a joy getting to know the Frank women and watch them find their strength to move forward as well as rebuild their relationships with each other.
#TheSecondChanceSupperClub #NicoleMeier #LakeUnionPublishing
The Second Chance Supper Club was such a heartwarming novel filled with family drama, long standing issues between the sisters and a young woman trying to find her place in the world. This story was about second chances for all the main characters.
Each of the characters were realistic and well rounded, the kind of people I’d like to meet and talk with. I definitely enjoyed the interactions between the women and cheered as they slowly starting taking steps to meet each other in the middle.
If you enjoy stories about people overcoming their past, working toward a better relationship with others and/or second chances, this is the story for you.
I was excited to be given an ARC at my request. Thank you to the publisher, author and Netgalley. My thoughts are my own and happily given. I definitely enjoyed this book.
/ 5
The Second Chance Supper Club by Nicole Meier is an emotional but endearing look at family and putting your life back together when things fall apart.
What it’s about: Sisters Julia and Ginny have been estranged for years, ever since their parents died in a freak accident and Ginny went home to Arizona to pick up the pieces while Julia stayed behind in New York City to work on her journalism career. But after making a big mistake that may leave Julia out of a job, she decides to run from her current problems and travel to Arizona to reconnect with Ginny and her niece, Ginny’s daughter, Olive. But Ginny has her own struggles and tempers will flare, can Ginny and Julia patch things up again or are they doomed to be estranged forever?
The Second Chance Supper Club was such a cute book, and I really enjoyed the two storylines of Ginny and Julia. I did think that it felt like I was reading from younger POVs than I actually was though. Julia is 38 and Ginny is older, but I got the impression I was reading from the perspectives of women much younger. This might be because they weren’t as developed as they could have been, and I would have liked to get to know them a bit better.
I do think that Meier struck the perfect balance between talking about food (Ginny is a chef) and family. The Second Chance Supper Club is a great book to read among heavier books, and while my eyes were glistening with tears at the end – overall it is not a tearjerker. However, this is definitely a book that will make you want to spend more time with friends and family and hold them tight. It makes you reflect on just how short life can be, and that part in itself made me emotional because I know from experience.
Besides wanting more character development, I was also a little disappointed about a couple of plot lines that just fizzled out with no explanation, and for adult women, they didn’t really act like it or have the sense they should have, especially financially for Ginny. Overall though this is a super sweet book that I do NOT regret reading in the slightest.
Song/s the book brought to mind: Who Says You Can’t Go Home by Bon Jovi and Jennifer Nettles.
Final Thought: If you are looking for a nice palate cleanser between heavier reads that still has heart, The Second Chance Supper Club could be the book for you! The parts about food made my mouth water, so I think chefs and foodies will also be able to appreciate this book. Julia, Ginny, and Olive were 3 characters that I felt for and I loved reading their stories. This may not be anything too crazy, but it was super sweet and a book that will stick with me for a while.
Thank you to Get Red PR and the publisher for providing me with an advance review copy of this book. All opinions are my own.
Nicole Meier, Author of “The Second Chance Supper Club” has written an emotional, captivating, intriguing, and thought-provoking novel. I love the way the author vividly describes and writes about her characters, landscape, markets, florists and food. I appreciate the comparison of city vs. country life. The Genres for this story are Fiction and Women’s Fiction. The author describes her dramatic cast of characters as complex and complicated. The theme of this book is sisters, mothers and daughters, forgiveness, and acceptance.
Younger sister Julia Frank seems to have it all together, she appears on a Television Morning show as a journalist and has a wealthy, motivated fiance. Julia appears to be polished and works very hard and is respected. With the pressure of her ratings, she mentions something live without thinking it through. Julia finds herself on “leave” from her job and doesn’t know where to go. Just knowing she has to get away for a few days, she decides to leave the city and head for Arizona, where her older sister Ginny lives with her daughter.
Ginny and Julia have not seen each other in several years after a tragedy caused their estrangement. Ginny has her own problems. Ginny is a chef and barely makes ends meet, by having “discreet” supper clubs in her house, where she prepares and serves the food to a discriminating culinary and appreciative clientele. This might not be the perfect timing for a reunion for the two sisters. Or maybe it is just the right time.
I appreciate that the author discusses the importance of family, friends, support, forgiveness, love, and hope. I would highly recommend this thought-provoking and emotional novel to those readers who enjoy family drama, and women’s fiction.
I’m always reluctant to read a novel that highlights food, because I usually put on some pounds, as a skilled author vividly tempts my palate. And this proved to be the case.
Nicole Meier wrote a very entertaining story of loving sisters, estranged by stressful events that left them miles apart, in locations and their relationship. For Julia, it took an unfortunate mistake that had her fleeing N.Y. her job and her fiancé, to seek the solace and comfort from her sister Ginny in Arizona.
As she is roped into helping Ginny in her popular but struggling secret supper club, she begins to heal.
This is a story of second chances, whether in relationships or business and despite differences and disagreements. The skill in which the author describes the beauty of the desert and the preparation and presentation of tempting dishes, just adds to this delightful novel. I really loved it!
My thanks to #Lake Union Publishers and #NetGalley for the ARC.
This book is so easy to read and enjoy and would make a wonderful story to sit and relax with on a beach.
It tells the tale of two sisters filled with anger at each other and estranged for years.
An act of fate will have them meet again, still unreconciled.
The struggle to accept each other continues until ultimately family love and loyalty bring them together.
There are some lessons that we can all learn from this story.
1) Family love and loyalty is an undeniable fact which somehow always emerges.
2) Compromise is a wonderful middle ground rather than walking away, which solves nothing and leads to hard feelings.
Open minds and open hearts can really do so much to bring peace and harmony into our lives.
It was a pleasure to open this novel and read it!