Second Chance Summer (review)

The Pennsylvania lake house meant summer to Taylor until she was twelve, when she stopped going; now she's seventeen, the family is returning to the house, and it's going to be very different: her father is dying of cancer, and this is how he wants to spend his last summer. This already difficult situation is complicated by the fact that Taylor upset her two best lake friends, her then-boyfriend Henry and near-neighbor Lucy, and then fled town and never made amends, so they're treating her frostily upon her return. Soon, though, she's back in Henry's arms and Lucy's confidence, but her father's decline may compel her to flee again. The book is long but the pages turn swiftly even as they convey that unmeasured pace of summer, and Taylor's transitions are effectively developed. While twelve-year-old Taylor's mistake is held against her more than is realistic, her gradual reconnection with her friends is believably awkward and slow. Her eventual romance with Henry is lush and summer-perfect, with cinematic scenes of mad kissing below the stars or amid a dramatic storm. Most moving of all, though, is her witnessing of her father's gradual decline and her family's reaction to it as their lives change irrevocably. The exploration of the father-daughter relationship is warm, sensitive, and heartbreaking, with Taylor realizing how much she counts on the man she's going to lose. Between the dreamy romance and the four-hankie family story, this is a satisfyingly emotional summer tale.