But to his credit, Henry doesn’t give up that easily, and eventually Taylor also realizes that she is foolish to throw away someone like Henry because of her fears of losing him. However, I also appreciate how the novel doesn’t just finish with Taylor’s dad’s death, it continues to show the family dealing with their grief, especially Taylor, who uses her father’s death as an excuse to push Henry away again. As someone who lost a loved one to cancer, this was hard to read at times, not because it is graphic, but because it is so accurate in the depicstion of how quickly someone from cancer can die. Matson definitely does not shy away from showing the realities of watching a loved one deteriate from an invasive illness like the late stages of cancer, as well as how the family copes with watching their dad wither away before their eyes. Taylor also starts to grow closer to her father when both of them have trouble sleeping at night. During this time he encourages Taylor and her siblings to live their lives as normally as possible despite the circumstances of their stay at the lake house.

Over the course of the novel, Taylor’s dad is dying from cancer, and their summer at the lake house is his last wish before he passes on. Second Chance Summer was a great read, because not only is it about romance and friendship, it also deals with the topic of death.

But maybe this summer she will get a chance to reignite her friendship with Lucy, and maybe another chance at love with Henry. But when her father forces her to get out of her comfort zone and get a job, she is forced to both confront her past with both Lucy, her former best friend, and Henry, her first love who still carries the hurt from her leaving without a word. However, Taylor wants to be everywhere but there, especially since the last time she was there she ran away from her best friend, and broke the heart of her first love. Second Chance Summer follows Taylor Edwards who returns with her family for the first time in five years to their lake house.

Second chance summer by morgan matson