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Ex-convict Gabe Fenton returns to the St. Lawrence Seaway to crash a wedding and look up his long-lost girlfriend, Katie. He needs to gauge her reaction to him and ask a question that’s been burning in his mind for the past nine years. Many years ago, he left the relationship in crumbles, with only a flimsy explanation, to do time for a hit-and-run violation. He hoped for her forgiveness but received anger in its place.
America’s sweetheart and children’s book author Katie Parker feels like a fraud. How can she understand children so well but fail as a mother herself? She couldn’t even bring a child into this world that lived longer than a few days. And now the father of her lost child turns up again, after leaving her with nothing but lies and a broken heart.
Katie plans on restoring the old home place on one of the islands, but she didn’t anticipate Gabe showing up and insisting that he’ll do the work—never mind that he doesn’t have a clue about carpentry. He just wants a second chance with Katie, but the pain in her heart may not be so easy to remove.
Second Chance Summer packs a powerful emotional punch without splashing over into maudlin territory. Katie’s emotional scars can only lessen with forgiveness and boundless love, and she valiantly and admirably struggles to grasp both. Her anger and hurt, though painful to watch, are justified, and you’ll feel their full impact as you read. Gabe doesn’t get, nor deserve, an easy return; Katie has a backbone, and she keeps it rigid until he earns something more.
With courage and determination, Gabe manages to wring sympathy out of the reader, no matter what his past sins may have been. Though I didn’t like how he left Katie, I still hoped that she might give him a second chance—because not everything happened the way it seems. He had good reasons for his actions, and he’s doing his best to atone for the past.
I don’t normally like reading novels that are heavy on emotions, but sometimes it’s hard not to get caught up in the tragic lives of well-rounded characters. Such is the case with Second Chance Summer. Ms. McAdam expertly traverses the murky waters of the human heart without making her characters’ feelings sound annoying.
Wholesome and engaging, tragic and magnetic, Second Chance Summer latches on and won’t let go—and it just might leave you with the hope that love can survive anything.
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