Book overview
For admirers of JFK in these turbulent times, a gorgeously written page-turner about the goodness and light that can thrive inside us despite dark days, unexpected death and grief.
The year is 1962. In Second Chance, West Virginia, the enchanting landscape belies the poverty of a dying coal town, and tragedy shatters the idyllic life of two-year-old Laney Mae Martin, when her father, Gil, dies in a fatal car crash alongside a mystery woman.
Her mother Faye, bitter and humiliated that her husband was with another woman, uproots Laney Mae and her older brother Neal from their familiar rural surroundings and moves them to the D.C. suburbs. Faye forbids mention of Gil and refuses to ever speak his name again, leaving Laney Mae without answers about a father she cannot remember.
Branded as "hillbillies" in the suburbs, Laney Mae and her brother endure mockery, and psychological scars inflicted by a deranged housekeeper, an abusive stepfather, and her emotionally detached mother, who fails to protect them. Amidst the chaos, little Laney Mae finds solace in a portrait of President Kennedy, whose death has devastated the nation as her own father's death shattered her family, pouring out her heart and conjuring an idealized father figure.
As she navigates an era of assassinations, racial discord, and the war in Vietnam, the scars of her past remind her of what she has lost and her obsession about her dead father grows. When she receives her mother's terminal cancer diagnosis, Laney Mae's desperate search for truth takes an unexpected turn.
What kind of a man was her father, really? Who was the mystery woman in the car with him that night? Can Laney Mae get any answers from her mother before it's too late? Embark on a poignant journey as Laney Mae unravels secrets, confronts grief and seeks forgiveness -- a second chance that holds the power to heal - a lesson for our turbulent times.
In the tradition of Claire Lombardo and Anna Quindlen, Andrews' lyrical and tender style and memorable characters transport readers inside a drama of family secrets, fierce love, inexplicable grief, and redemption. The Road to Second Chance is a captivating tale of the enduring resilience of the human spirit and its uncanny ability to heal.