“A novel of family and place and belonging.” –Rebecca Makkai, Pulitzer Prize finalist “Tender and suspenseful.” –Chloe Benjamin, New York Times bestselling author Some places never leave you… After a disastrous summer spent at her family’s home on Cape Cod when she is seventeen, Ann Gordon is very happy to never visit Wellfleet again. If only she’d stayed in Wisconsin, she might never have … again. If only she’d stayed in Wisconsin, she might never have met Anthony Shaw, and she would have held onto the future she’d so carefully planned for herself. Instead, Ann ends up harboring a devastating secret that strains her relationship with her parents, sends her sister Poppy to every corner of the world chasing waves (and her next fling), and leaves her adopted brother Michael estranged from the family.
Now, fifteen years later, her parents have died, and Ann and Poppy are left to decide the fate of the beach house that’s been in the Gordon family for generations. For Ann, the once-beloved house is forever tainted with bad memories. And while Poppy loves the old saltbox on Drummer Cove, owning a house means settling, and she’s not sure she’s ready to stay in one place.
Just when the sisters decide to sell, 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 what happened that long-ago summer that changed all of their lives forever. As the siblings reunite after years apart, their old secrets and lies, longings and losses, are pulled to the surface. Is the house the one thing that can still bring them together–or will it tear them apart, once and for all?
Told through the shifting perspectives of Ann, Poppy, and Michael, this assured and affecting debut captures the ache of nostalgia for summers past and the powerful draw of the places we return to again and again. It is about second homes, second families, and second chances. Tender and compassionate, incisive and heartbreaking, The Second Home is the story of a family you’ll quickly fall in love with, and won’t soon forget.
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This deeply moving and heartfelt book explores what makes a home — and how homes make us. It’s deftly plotted, sensuously told, and incredibly smart about the secrets that pull families apart and the love that knits them back together.
From the first pages of The Second Home, it’s abundantly clear that Christina Clancy has an abiding love for outer Cape Cod, which she conjures in all its bluster and beauty. But as this compelling novel progresses, it also becomes obvious that Clancy has a keen awareness of how secrets can tear apart even the closest of families. Drawn in by the exquisitely-rendered setting, I was riveted by this stirring, family drama.
If you need a book that will draw you in, I have found it for you!
The Second Home by Christina Clancy has so many things in it that I love. It is written from different perspectives, covers a span of years, has various locations in it, and pulls you into the lives of Amy, Poppy, and Michael. I felt like I became a part of this book as I read about the lives of this family. I found myself wanting to give them advice! A great weekend read, beach read, escape from real-life for a bit read. Enjoy!
“I felt like I became a part of this book as I read about the lives of this family.”-Green Gables Book Reviews
The Second Home by Christina Clancy, an overview:
The Gordon’s are the perfect family.
Mom and Dad, Ed and Connie, Ed is a teacher.
Daughters, Amy and Poppy.
And, their adopted son, Michael. Michael and Amy met at a track meet for school and had been friends ever since, and Michael fit in with their family so well that they adopted him! If it weren’t for the Gordon’s, Michael would be a teenage boy still stuck in foster care.
The Gordon’s have a vacation home that has been in the family back to when Ed’s grandfather won it in a game of poker. It is their tradition to spend the summer there, enjoying the beach and sharing memories, and spending time showing everything to Michael makes it new and fun again.
Poppy has offered to teach Michael to swim, and they become good friends, but over time, Poppy feels a little left out as Ann and Michael are so connected and care so deeply about each other.
An event happens during this summer that changes everything for this family. Choices are made, worry is expressed, and words are said that can not be taken back. And the family is destroyed.
Years later, lives forever altered, Amy and Poppy have to decide what to do with the vacation home. It is all up to them until Michael hears about it and wants to be a part of the decision.
It was very exciting to be given an early copy of The Second Home to read and review!
I love a “first novel” that doesn’t feel like a first novel, and this one definitely sits comfortably in that category. Family drama, especially teenage drama, is at the heart of The Second Home, and some of it is dark. But I really enjoyed this book – the characters are interesting, if at times maddening, and their stories are funny and heartbreaking and frustrating and feel all too real. And the author’s love of two very different places (Cape Cod and Milwaukee) shines through her descriptions of each, each becomes almost another character.
Not long after finishing The Second Home, I saw that it had been optioned to be made into a mini-series, and I hope that happens. It has the potential to be a great one.
Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing a copy for an unbiased review.
This was a very good beach read . It has lots of family drama and some dark events . I enjoyed this read and can’t wait to read her next book
I knew right from the first few pages that I was going to enjoy The Second Home by Christina Clancy, and I think the book just got better and better as it went on. This is a family drama, and I loved the look at the sister’s relationships as well as their relationship with their adopted brother Michael. The trauma that Ann experiences that breaks the family apart absolutely broke my heart, and there are some very heavy themes in this novel. Add this in with their parent’s death and it made for one emotional ride.
I loved the Cape Cod setting which made me feel like I was on a vacation while I was reading, but I also loved the parts where they are in Wisconsin as well. I am from Minnesota myself and found it so fun to have somewhere I was familiar with along with the beachy setting. Although The Second Home is set in Cape Cod, don’t let that fool you into thinking this is a light beach read. It was an emotional roller coaster for me and a bit of a tear-jerker as well, especially when we get to a couple reveals towards the end. I decided to listen to the audiobook and Tavia Gilbert did such a wonderful job voicing the book. The more I hear her narrate, the more I love her, and she made this a great listening experience for me. Highly recommend The Second Home if you are looking for a family drama with lots of heart.
Bonus – The end of the audiobook has an interview with Clancy which made me love the book even more. This was a fantastic debut and that coupled with the interview I got to hear, made her an instant autobuy author for me. So excited to see she has another book coming out soon – Shoulder Season!
I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
This was a wonderful novel. It wound up being not at all what I expected—from the cover and blurb, I was somehow thinking it was going to be a beach read of sorts… long lost family reuniting at their beach home in Cape Cod. The tone feels like more of a literary character-driven sort of novel, with quite a few dark spots. However, I thoroughly enjoyed the author’s way with words and found myself drawn into the setting and the characters.
Ann and Poppy are in high school when they meet Michael, a fellow classmate whose mother has just died, leaving him homeless. Michael comes to live with the Gordon family over the next few years, bonding with all of them and eventually getting adopted. I won’t spoil what happens next, but it definitely kept me turning pages. Author Christina Clancy can craft a twisted tale, for sure! Told in split timelines with the events of fifteen years ago, and the present, we see how Ann, Poppy and Michael have come to be where they are today and whether it’s possible to find your way back to family after terrible tragedy and decades of estrangement.
I thoroughly enjoyed this beautifully crafted tale about family dynamics and the meaning of “home”. The characters are well developed and interesting. The book is well written, fast paced and a pleasure to read. I’m looking forward to more from this author. I received a free copy of this book and chose to make a voluntary, unbiased review.
The Second Home
By Christina Clancy
Clancy wrote an incredible family saga story full of drama, secrets, and trauma. Ann Gordon’s family owns a summer home in Cape Cod and memories about her last summer there with her sister Poppy and newly adopted brother Michael , would change everything. Years later at the death of her parents, and decision to sell the home comes into play, siblings have come out of the woodwork to decide on the home. Told in two timelines of the past and in the present 15 years later, the story is about family dynamics, complex characters and their differing personalities and point of views, with issues in communication and misunderstanding causing a lot of the fracture in their relationships. Clancy writes a convincing story that I enjoyed reading about despite the heart wrenching and heavy issues addressed in the story. Clancy is an amazing writer and I loved the way she told the story, with the the two time lines in a beautiful Cape Cod setting.
I love stories about families because you want them to be your childhood vision of a family – happy and giving and forgiving – but as you read The Second Home, you discover the characters are more like most families – dysfunctional and fearful and ill and childish. In other words, the characters are so real you hear them speak and laugh. You hurt for them. With them.
The setting is Cape Cod. In all its beauty, and also its rough edges. You hear the waves crashing on the beach and feel the chill when it’s long past summer, and all the tourists have disappeared. And speaking of tourists, you are somewhat ashamed that you, too, have been a tourist and
unknowingly looked down upon the locals.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and look forward to Ms. Clancy’s next endeavor.
I LOVE books based on the Cape! I’ve been to Wellfleet and it is a wonderful town and great for a summer home. This is a good book about family relationships and how siblings get along with each other. Having three different points of view was presented well and it was great to get their differing opinions about the same incidences.
This is a tale that will expose you to trauma, love, hate, forgiveness…lots of emotional angst. But that’s life and especially life with family.
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s for my advanced review copy. All opinions and thoughts are my own.
“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.
A 3.5, rounded up. This was a slow-starter for me. For the first third of the book I couldn’t quite engage with the characters. Despite all the claims that they were a wonderful close family, they didn’t seem that way at all. Each character was pretty oblivious to all the other’s struggles. The setting seemed idyllic – an old family beach cottage on the East coast full of memories and love. Then there was a very dark section which might be a trigger for some. And then the book just dropped us into disjointed future times, making it a little hard to follow. All the pieces of the story finally came together, and I did enjoy the last third of the book, but I just couldn’t relate to these people. It obviously kept me reading, as I really wanted to put all the pieces together at the end, but that seemed a little too neat.
Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for a fair review.
Really enjoyed this family drama. The characters were flawed but realistic and wonderful, and the setting in Cape Cod made me wish I was there spending time with the Gordons. Perhaps Ann and Michael should have discussed the discussions they each had with Anthony before Michael made his decision. It was rather sad how they all lost touch at one point but was happy with the outcome at the end. The story was a very touching one about family, truthfulness and forgiveness. A great debut novel by Christina Clancy. I look forward to reading more books by her.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy.
Family drama, lies, inappropriate relationships, manipulation, ignorance, stubbornness, unwillingness to speak up, and more lies. So much happens in this book and I don’t want to give away any of it. A well written emotional journey of a once very loving getting stuck in a sea of misinformation and mistrust. They never dealt with anything and then after more lies their hands were forced. It all comes out and isn’t always easy. I found myself yelling at some of the people at various times. Speak up for goodness sakes. You are all adults now, talk to each other and figure out how to move forward, apologize, take some responsibility etc. I was definitely emotionally invested and imagine you all will be too. Not your average summer/beach read, but perfect for any time of the year. I look forward to more from this author.
The end of the synopsis for this book says this is a ‘story of a family you’ll quickly fall in love with, and won’t soon forget’. That is so, so true. I fell in love with this story from the start and with each of the characters as soon as I met them. And I’m still thinking about them.
The Second Home delves into the lives of Ann, Poppy, and Michael. The dual timeline of the past and the present help us discover why these three siblings are estranged and what drove them apart. Can the past be reconciled? Or will the family lose their summer home, a home which meant so much to all of them?
This is a very well written book with the words just flowing off of the pages and into my imagination. This debut novel by Christina Clancy is an impressive work of fiction and she is an author I’ll be reading again. I can’t wait to see what she produces next. The Second Home is a title you definitely need to add to your summer reading list.
The Second Home by Christina Clancy tells the story of a long ago summer, three siblings and a home that may mean more than they thought. The story centers around Ann, Poppy and Michael and what happened that long ago summer that led them go down separate paths. When their parents die, they need to decide what to do with the house and are suddenly all back together again. What follows is a family drama full of intrigue, secrets and miscommunications. I am excited to read more from this author!
Happy reading!
Although this book was slow-moving and difficult, I finished it hoping for more. There was a lot of drama and darkness in the then and now story that takes place in the beautiful Cape Cod setting and you need to know that this is not for the easily triggered. The summer does not end well for this sibling trio and leaves them with wounds and scars that they never seem to let go of. A sad story with so much tragedy and so many secrets and hurt, told from the different points of view from the family members, first in the summer of 1999, then fifteen years later after the parents have passed. For sure, nothing lighthearted about this read, and although it is well written and descriptive (relatively speaking) I couldn’t give more than three stars because of how hard it was to move through. This is just one opinion. I received a complimentary copy from Net Galley and this is my honest review.
I received the digital arc of this book from NetGalley and publisher in exchange for an unbiased review.
Anne Gordon returns to Wellfleet after the death of her parents in a tragic car accident to sell the summer home her family has owned for years. Of course, Anne is overwhelmed with ambivalence once the memories starting flooding back to her. Anne is a 35 year old practical woman looking to tie up the loose ends of her family’s complicated history.
The Gordon family lived in Wisconsin and drove to Cape Cod every summer which worked out well given her parents were born teachers. The story is a tale about what constitutes a family and the loyalties that might bind people. The story is told through the POV of Anne, Poppy and Michael. They are “siblings” each with their own unique perspective yet deep firm commitment to their parents.
It’s an emotional story which addresses sensitive topics such as sexual, physical and drug abuse as well as homelessness and poverty. Sometimes families may look “perfect” from the outside which makes looks deceiving. The Gordon family adopt Michael, a student who lost his family and was friends with Anne. Although unconventional, her parents were admired for their relaxed acceptance of people’s differences.
The strong family values instilled by the parents are what ultimately brings the estranged siblings together after their death. Poppy has always been free-spirited never setting roots anywhere for too long. Meanwhile, it seemed Michael was never as “lost” to them as they believed. The summers on the Cape changed all of them in ways they could never expect.
Once they work together they discover the truths of the past and that no matter how far away you go your family ties will lead you back home.
I so loved this book! I was given an advance reader’s copy through NetGalley. The story was so emotional told by all three kids in the family, Ann, Poppy and the adopted son Michael. It takes place mostly in Cape Cod, which I loved as I never really had a beach experience or surfed and this took you there, right there you almost felt what it was like to catch a wave.
This was Christina Clancy’s debut novel, wow I never would have guessed, it brought out many emotions, heart tugging and heart stopping and I would recommend you don’t miss this memorable page turner.