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The Second Home
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A debut novel set on Cape Cod that centers on a beloved family home and the summer that changed the lives of three siblings forever, perfect for readers of J. Courtney Sullivan and Elin Hilderbrand.
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 ri ...more
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 ri ...more
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Christina Clancy writes a family drama with some very dark elements, featuring the Gordon family from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with parents Ed and Connie, their teen daughters, Ann and Poppy,and their late adopted son, Michael. They spend their summers at Cape Cod at a family home and 15 years ago, they experienced a troubling and traumatic summer of raging teen hormones that is to have devastating consequences and repercussions on all of them. In the present, the parents have died in a dreadful ca
...more
3.5 stars
I'm always up for a book that revolves around some long-standing family drama. This story held my interest but I wouldn't say that I loved any of the characters. That's okay though because that's not really a requirement for me to enjoy a book. I do wish that lack of communication which was an ongoing theme wouldn't have been so prevalent in the story. I think that's part of the reason I became frustrated with just about every character in the book.
Ann Gordon is back at the Cape Cod hom ...more
I'm always up for a book that revolves around some long-standing family drama. This story held my interest but I wouldn't say that I loved any of the characters. That's okay though because that's not really a requirement for me to enjoy a book. I do wish that lack of communication which was an ongoing theme wouldn't have been so prevalent in the story. I think that's part of the reason I became frustrated with just about every character in the book.
Ann Gordon is back at the Cape Cod hom ...more
The Second Home by Christina Clancy is an interesting beach or cottage read, perfect to pass the time while social distancing. Ann, Poppy and Michael are teenage siblings who spent their summer holidays with their parents on Cape Cod at their Wellfleet summer home. The novel gives the perspective of each of them throughout. Something went horribly wrong one summer that caused the adolescents to disperse in all directions, never to return to Wellfleet. After the parents were killed in a car accid
...more
My Kind of People, by Lisa Duffy, which I read and loved last month was set in on a fictitious island much like Cape Cod. The Second Home took me back to Cape Cod, and I loved it!
As a teen, Ann spends a traumatic summer in Cape Cod at her family’s vacation home. It causes a divide in her family between her and her siblings.
In the present, her parents have passed away, and fifteen years later, Ann and her sister need to decide what to do with the family’s Cape Cod home. The sisters decide to sell ...more
As a teen, Ann spends a traumatic summer in Cape Cod at her family’s vacation home. It causes a divide in her family between her and her siblings.
In the present, her parents have passed away, and fifteen years later, Ann and her sister need to decide what to do with the family’s Cape Cod home. The sisters decide to sell ...more
Melodrama or mellow drama?
I like my family sagas as tumultuous as the ocean with secrets buried so deep you need a team of divers to reach. This saga was more of a wearisome boat ride down a lazy river with maybe a few rapids to keep you awake. In other words, this may have been a mismatched reading experience.
I was never fully engaged in the characters’ lives, the prose lacked a certain artistry and the plot was largely dependent on lack of communication and convenience to move the narrative fo ...more
I like my family sagas as tumultuous as the ocean with secrets buried so deep you need a team of divers to reach. This saga was more of a wearisome boat ride down a lazy river with maybe a few rapids to keep you awake. In other words, this may have been a mismatched reading experience.
I was never fully engaged in the characters’ lives, the prose lacked a certain artistry and the plot was largely dependent on lack of communication and convenience to move the narrative fo ...more
3.5 Stars
A marketing director at St. Martin's press offered me a widget for this book back in October. This kind of book actually isn't my "cup of tea", but I love St. Martin's Press and the storyline seemed palatable, so I took a chance. All these months I kept pushing it aside, and as the publishing date recently passed I was shamed into finally picking this up. I needed something nice and easy after a recent all encompassing 5 Star read to "come down" from.
This is a story about a family who h ...more
A marketing director at St. Martin's press offered me a widget for this book back in October. This kind of book actually isn't my "cup of tea", but I love St. Martin's Press and the storyline seemed palatable, so I took a chance. All these months I kept pushing it aside, and as the publishing date recently passed I was shamed into finally picking this up. I needed something nice and easy after a recent all encompassing 5 Star read to "come down" from.
This is a story about a family who h ...more
4.5
Review to come...
Review to come...
Initially I had a hard time engaging with this debut novel, but at around 30% or so things started to click for me when the pace kicked up. The story is set between 1999 and 2015 (with a 2017 epilogue) and takes place primarily on Cape Cod. I thought the author did a great job transporting the reader to the Cape. There are three narrators—Ann and Poppy and their adopted brother Michael. I would call this a darkish family drama, a “genre” I have recently discovered I enjoy.
Relationships can be m ...more
Relationships can be m ...more
Connie and Ed Gordon bring their family to Cape Cod every summer for vacation. It’s a rustic cottage in Wellfleet and it’s been in Ed’s family for generation. He’s a teacher in Milwaukee and loves to share the island’s history with daughters Ann and Poppy, and later Michael, the orphaned teen they adopted. It’s during their second summer with Michael that things go tragically wrong and life for this family is forever altered. It’s now 16-years later and Ann has returned to Wellfleet to prepare t
...more
*Happy pub day to Christina Clancy, this makes a great beach (or backyard) read!
3.75 Cape Cod Stars
The setting alone was cause for me to pick this book up! I’ve always been fascinated by Cape Cod and have enjoyed the limited amount of time that I’ve spent there. This debut novel focuses on one Midwest family who spends summers in an old house on the Cape. Events in one particular summer cause the family to splinter and years go by before anything is worked out.
Ann and her sister Poppy were close ...more
3.75 Cape Cod Stars
The setting alone was cause for me to pick this book up! I’ve always been fascinated by Cape Cod and have enjoyed the limited amount of time that I’ve spent there. This debut novel focuses on one Midwest family who spends summers in an old house on the Cape. Events in one particular summer cause the family to splinter and years go by before anything is worked out.
Ann and her sister Poppy were close ...more
3.5 stars
The Second Home was a great debut novel!!!! From the plot, and execution, to the writing – this book did not read or feel like a debut novel at all.
For the biggest part the story focused on the Gordon family, the parents, two girls and their adopted son, and it mainly was set around their vacation home in Cape Cod.
What I loved about the book the most was everyone’s love for their summers in Cape Cod. With different memories connected to those summers and especially the house that held a ...more
The Second Home was a great debut novel!!!! From the plot, and execution, to the writing – this book did not read or feel like a debut novel at all.
For the biggest part the story focused on the Gordon family, the parents, two girls and their adopted son, and it mainly was set around their vacation home in Cape Cod.
What I loved about the book the most was everyone’s love for their summers in Cape Cod. With different memories connected to those summers and especially the house that held a ...more
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.
(view spoiler) ...more
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.
(view spoiler) ...more
I won this book on a Goodreads first reads giveaway.
**Friendly warning in advance that this review contains spoilers.**
You're probably asking yourself why I gave this such a low rating (currently with 21 reviews, 37 ratings, and a cool 4.86 stars...I'm the first and only person, so far, to rate this below 3 stars). There are two reasons for that:
Consistency and Ann.
Nothing in this story was consistent, from the characters personalities to the plot...it sometimes became a tangled web of doubling ...more
**Friendly warning in advance that this review contains spoilers.**
You're probably asking yourself why I gave this such a low rating (currently with 21 reviews, 37 ratings, and a cool 4.86 stars...I'm the first and only person, so far, to rate this below 3 stars). There are two reasons for that:
Consistency and Ann.
Nothing in this story was consistent, from the characters personalities to the plot...it sometimes became a tangled web of doubling ...more
This was an OK novel, but I felt it could have been stronger. The premise is that Ann manages to track down her estranged sister, Poppy, after their parents die in a car accident. Poppy returns to the Milwaukee, WI, home, where they grew up. Ann is going to sell their house on the Cape, where they spent every summer. One thing Ann conveniently leaves out of documents is that their parents adopted Michael when he was sixteen. Naturally, the siblings, who haven’t spoken in years, have to come toge
...more
May 26, 2020
Brenda
rated it
it was ok
Shelves:
2020-release,
arc,
own-read,
debut,
read-on-kindle,
net-galley,
contemporary-fiction,
drama
Every summer the Gordon family spent their vacation at their family home in Cape Cod, but the year Ann was seventeen was a disastrous one for the family. Ann had spent the whole summer babysitting for the Shaws. It was Michael’s first trip to Cape Cod as the family had recently adopted him and Poppy was learning to surf. When they left Cape Cod, the secret that Ann harboured caused a split in the family – a rift that might never heal.
Fifteen years later Ann was back at the house, preparing it fo ...more
Fifteen years later Ann was back at the house, preparing it fo ...more
Drawing on her own family’s summers spent on Cape Cod during her youth, author Christina Clancy’s debut novel The Second Home tells the story of the Gordon family and what happens one fateful summer during their Cape Cod trip that ends up changing the dynamic of their family forever.
Every year during their months-long break from their jobs as teachers in their hometown of Wisconsin, Ed and Connie Gordon like to take their two teenage daughters Ann and Poppy to spend the summer at their bel ...more
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 ...more
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 ...more
This is an enjoyable, yet sad story of secrets, trauma, love, hate and forgiveness. The emphasis being that no family is without pain, and some families can feel isolation in different ways. The question is can a family rise above all the mess and become one again.
Ann Gordon's family owns a summer house on Cape Cod. The last summer she was there when she was just a teenager with her sister Poppy and newly adopted brother Michael something happened which would not only change her life, but wou ...more
Ann Gordon's family owns a summer house on Cape Cod. The last summer she was there when she was just a teenager with her sister Poppy and newly adopted brother Michael something happened which would not only change her life, but wou ...more
I enjoyed this book very much but last chapters of the book was kind of felt rushed. But still it was quite an emotional story. <3
*ARC provided by NetGalley.
*ARC provided by NetGalley.
Review coming soon.
More than sibling rivalry this one cuts to the core and heart of this family.
Money is the root of the evil and inheritance is the middle of the problem with a beautiful Cape Cod home.
Everyone wants a piece of this pie and some will go to great extremes to get it after the death of the original owners.
What's up with the money is the bigger question and in more ways than one...
My word, the contesting of wills, the fighting over inheritances, the family dynamic is up in arms.
Ironically the last per ...more
Money is the root of the evil and inheritance is the middle of the problem with a beautiful Cape Cod home.
Everyone wants a piece of this pie and some will go to great extremes to get it after the death of the original owners.
What's up with the money is the bigger question and in more ways than one...
My word, the contesting of wills, the fighting over inheritances, the family dynamic is up in arms.
Ironically the last per ...more
The Second Home is impossible to put down, which is unfortunate because Christina has such a beautiful way with language that one never wants the book to end. I was drawn in from the very first sentence and the imagery is so vivid that I would swear I had sand from Cape Cod between my toes. Dive into this compelling family drama and enjoy the ride.
I'm kind of mystified at how this has such glowing reviews around here. I know I read an advance copy, but it's almost like I read an entirely different book. A completely implausible plot twist, conflict driven by people just not talking to each other, half-assed character development, this whole thing was an absolute mess.
...more
This is a hauntingly beautiful book. Told through multiple points of view, the characters are flawed and human, the family dynamic unusual and compelling, and the plot is riveting. The writing style reminds of me Joan Dideon or Jean Thompson. An amazing debut.
Within the first few pages of The Second Home I was thoroughly hooked. Christi Clancy is a gifted storyteller, and long after I finished the book I could not stop thinking about the characters Ann, Poppy, and Michael. An arresting debut novel!
3.5 stars
The Second Home was an emotional family drama. It's broken into two main parts - the past and then 15 years later. The story focuses on the Gordon family and how one disastrous summer sends all three siblings on different paths. The book played out in my mind like a movie and after a bit of a slow start, I couldn't turn the pages fast enough to find out how it would all end.
I liked Michael, Ann, and Poppy for the most part, but there were also times that I found them very frustrating. ...more
The Second Home was an emotional family drama. It's broken into two main parts - the past and then 15 years later. The story focuses on the Gordon family and how one disastrous summer sends all three siblings on different paths. The book played out in my mind like a movie and after a bit of a slow start, I couldn't turn the pages fast enough to find out how it would all end.
I liked Michael, Ann, and Poppy for the most part, but there were also times that I found them very frustrating. ...more
The Second Home tells the story of the Gordon Family from Wisconsin. Their summers were spent at the family home in Cape Cod. The home had been in the family for generations.
Parents Ed and Connie were ex hippies and teachers who provided a loving home for their daughters Ann and Poppy. They were so giving that they adopted Ann’s newly orphaned friend Michael who was in need of a family and a safe place to live.
The story begins in 2015. The Gordon parents are now deceased and single mother Ann r ...more
Parents Ed and Connie were ex hippies and teachers who provided a loving home for their daughters Ann and Poppy. They were so giving that they adopted Ann’s newly orphaned friend Michael who was in need of a family and a safe place to live.
The story begins in 2015. The Gordon parents are now deceased and single mother Ann r ...more
I gave this book 5 stars because from the very start I was drawn to this Wisconsin family and their second home on Cape Cod. The family consists of a mother, father, daughter Polly and daughter Ann. They adopt a teenage boy named Michael, who is the same age as Ann. The parents love him like a son but the girls, particularly Ann, like him more than a brother. What could go wrong? To complicate matters, Ann take a babysitting job and gets involved with the father of the boys she is babysitting. T
...more
The horrors of that summer on Cape Cod not only affected Ann Gordon, but painfully destroyed the very fiber of the bonds that cemented her family’s very soul. Instead, the poison of the secrets kept caused the familial rift to fester. Fifteen years later, after her parents’ deaths, she must come face to face with her past, the secrets and the lies. Is she ready? Are any of them?
Christina Clancy’s THE SECOND HOME is a tale of flaws, of human frailties, insecurities and the selfish actions of emot ...more
Christina Clancy’s THE SECOND HOME is a tale of flaws, of human frailties, insecurities and the selfish actions of emot ...more
Hireath is the word that sprang to mind when reading this novel. The feeling of longing and nostalgia for the places of your past. All three protagonists feel it to some extent.
This debut novel was skillfully written and though I didn't always agree with the characters they all became important to me and I felt invested in the outcome of their lives. Told via three narrators, giving the perspectives of all three Gordon siblings, the story gave a well-rounded view of how each of them felt.
The set ...more
This debut novel was skillfully written and though I didn't always agree with the characters they all became important to me and I felt invested in the outcome of their lives. Told via three narrators, giving the perspectives of all three Gordon siblings, the story gave a well-rounded view of how each of them felt.
The set ...more
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Like the characters in THE SECOND HOME, I spent the summers of my youth on Cape Cod in the rugged and artsy town of South Wellfleet, MA. The outermost Cape is a place of steep sand dunes, pristine fresh water kettle ponds, salty air, scrub pine and oak trees. It's a place that has stayed with me everywhere I go.
My grandparents lived in a simple cove-side house that has been in our family since the ...more
My grandparents lived in a simple cove-side house that has been in our family since the ...more
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“Their possessions seemed ready to be put to use again and again, and made the house feel like it was less a place they'd left behind than a place they'd planned to return to.”
—
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