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Sooo I like this book. It was readable and it kept my attention and it was a good story. I also enjoyed all the talk about the Cape bc we go every summer. It definitely made me desperate to get back (covid summer sucks). My only comment on the story that could be less than 100% is that it felt very Wuthering Heights to me. Which is fine. Love me some Heathcliff and the whole dynamic. I just also like to know going in that I’m reading a retelling, which this very much felt like it was. So, not at all a bad book, just wanted that heads-up.
“Home” is an important theme to most of us during the Days of Quarantining. I was drawn to @Christi_Clancy brilliant imagery of our homes being “containers for families.” And even though the primary home in the book is the Gordon family’s Cape Cod summer dwelling, their rest-of-the-year home plays a significant role too.
The characters in this powerful story about family, secrets and forgiveness will stay with me a long time.
Despite my initial concerns about the actions of the main characters in the beginning of the book. I am so glad I read “The Second Home” and I highly recommend it. Thank you to @StMartinsPress for the advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review. #TheSecondHome
The characters in this powerful story about family, secrets and forgiveness will stay with me a long time.
Despite my initial concerns about the actions of the main characters in the beginning of the book. I am so glad I read “The Second Home” and I highly recommend it. Thank you to @StMartinsPress for the advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review. #TheSecondHome
The cover sold me on this one. It caught my eye the instant that I seen it on Netgalley. But the writing, the characters, and the lack of consistency in the plot really made me sleepy.
The consistency. The story had zero consistency. To me it was all over the place and when that happens a lot of things begin to get repetitive throughout. Characters become duller. Not to mention there were a lot of very important scenes (in my opinion) that were extremely downplayed. The author should have taken away from a few other occurrences and added more to those bigger elements.
Speaking of dull characters. Let's all say hello to Ann. She was awful, rude, and quite annoying. She was a liar and a money hungry woman who drove me crazy the entire way through. The only thing Ann deserved was to visit her city's local jail cell.
The Second Home had potential. The second I started reading this book I knew that it was going to take some time to get used to. The POV's are all written differently and sometimes the chapters didn't seem to be in order which got to be a little confusing. If you are into self-centered characters and manipulative men and women, you might actually really enjoy this one. You just have to make it through the lack of consistency and Ann first.
The consistency. The story had zero consistency. To me it was all over the place and when that happens a lot of things begin to get repetitive throughout. Characters become duller. Not to mention there were a lot of very important scenes (in my opinion) that were extremely downplayed. The author should have taken away from a few other occurrences and added more to those bigger elements.
Speaking of dull characters. Let's all say hello to Ann. She was awful, rude, and quite annoying. She was a liar and a money hungry woman who drove me crazy the entire way through. The only thing Ann deserved was to visit her city's local jail cell.
The Second Home had potential. The second I started reading this book I knew that it was going to take some time to get used to. The POV's are all written differently and sometimes the chapters didn't seem to be in order which got to be a little confusing. If you are into self-centered characters and manipulative men and women, you might actually really enjoy this one. You just have to make it through the lack of consistency and Ann first.
I was really intrigued by the family drama/mystery that was referred to early on in the book. While I enjoyed the book, I was so frustrated by what had happened, if they would have just talked to each other, then they would have known they were being played, and that really frustrated me. But they were young and naïve. Overall, a good family drama.
I wanted to like this story so badly., but it fell a bit flat for me. I spent so much time on the Cape growing up and I loved that this was a story celebrating that. But this story just felt so dramatic and outrageous at times. It’s about a family and their cottage on the Cape, but it isn’t a cozy beach read. It’s a harsh look at one family and the secrets they keep from each other.
The Second Home was a 3.5 for me. The character depth was fantastic, but at the same time, I felt it didn't go deep enough with all characters and too deep with others. The bones of a great story were there, and I really did enjoy it, but the book was a little drawn out. The writing and story definitely had potential.
The story of Ann, Poppy, and Michael is equal parts beautiful and heartbreaking. The family dynamics in play were all incredible - each relationship had so much depth to it. Written in multiple POVs, it was heartbreaking to read how the truth was twisted for each person. The Second Home covers some very dark topics - drug abuse, death and mourning, and sexual abuse - but Clancy did it with extreme care. Tragedy and trauma are never simple, never black and white, and Clancy captured the ambiguity of it all.
Reading this in December made me long for summer and a beach house of my own - despite the fact that this is really not a light summer read. I think that Clancy was able to beautifully capture the magic of a beloved family tradition - I'm a sucker for childhood nostalgia.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this Advanced Readers Copy in exchange for an honest review!
Reading this in December made me long for summer and a beach house of my own - despite the fact that this is really not a light summer read. I think that Clancy was able to beautifully capture the magic of a beloved family tradition - I'm a sucker for childhood nostalgia.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this Advanced Readers Copy in exchange for an honest review!
The Second Home is a surprising family drama that definitely took a turn I wasn't expecting! I enjoyed the story, and the characters, but did not really appreciate the revelation of a particular family secret (no spoilers!); having said that, it's perfect for those who enjoy messy, dysfunctional family relationships.
The Second Home by Christina Clancy was a delightful and fast paced story. Easily devoured this in one day. Thank you to St Martin’s Press for sending me a review copy. This book comes out tomorrow! I can hardly believe that Christina is a debut author because she sounds like a veteran. Her voice and writing style are so well developed. This story was riveting and set in the spellbinding scenery of a Cape Cod summer. I have such a love for this lush setting in a novel. We follow the Gordon family, who are dealing with the process of a teenage adoption and all of the hiccups and tenderness that come with it. We follow a young woman subtly groomed by an adult male that ends in a forced sexual experience, which Christina Clancy dealt with masterfully. She leads us into a little mystery of unraveling how the Gordon family fell apart and strayed so far from their rock strong relationship as a family. I couldn’t put this book down. My one qualm was Maureen could have been so much more fleshed out and she fell a bit flat, but while she’s an important character, she’s not a main character so it didn’t affect the story too much. It’s just an easy, riveting read and was much needed. I joined the #readerswithoutborders fundraiser, which is to raise funds for Doctors Without Borders, and this is book 1 down of my goal of 15 books read this month.