Book Review: The Summer of Second Chances by K.L. Walther

Jun 20

“The summer of second chances is a romance, but it is also a love story between a grandmother and granddaughter.”

— K.L. Walther

Hi Friends!

This past week I finished another ‘romance’ novel, “The Summer of Second Chances” By K.L. Walther (A #1 New York Times bestselling author), and it was hands down adorable. I went into this book expecting another simple love story, but main character Olivia Lupo surprised me with the emotional depth she had, especially at only 19.

Olivia Lupo is just like any other teenage girl, taking on the weight of something heavy despite the fact she is not obligated to do so- but not doing so would feel just wrong. In this case, Olivia has been carrying the weight of her grandmother’s, named Annie, worsening dementia. Despite being accepted to her dream college, Olivia took a gap year to stay home and be near her grandmother as the overpowering fear of losing Annie- or worse, the fear of Annie losing the memory of her own granddaughter- consumes Olivia. While her friends go to college and experience their freshman year, Lupo stays and works at a bookstore, spending a majority of her free time visiting her grandmother in the nursing home.

As summer begins, Olivia realizes that she will soon have to leave for college as she feels pressure from her stepmother (who Olivia believes does not like her) and her father. Olivia, however, still feels stuck- not knowing that breaking out of her cycle could lead to a plethora of happiness.

Olivia’s stepmom, Erica, suggest that she join the family in going to “Martha’s Vineyard” for three weeks to visit with Erica’s family- who Olivia is not familiar with. After continuously saying no, Olivia changes her mind when she finds an old box full of photos of young Annie at the same vineyard. Annie prompts Olivia to go and enjoy the vacation, and so Olivia makes it a mission to visit the spots her grandmother did many years ago.

When Olivia arrives to the island for Martha’s Vineyard, she bluntly finds out she will be sharing a room with not only a stranger- but a boy who is not even apart from Erica’s family. However, she soon finds out that this boy (Connor) is no measly stranger- he was an old childhood camp crush. It does not take long before sparks begin to fly between the two (leaving Olvia having to change sleeping arrangements per her dad’s request). Willingly, Connor takes on the challenge of finding all locations Annie is pictured at with Olivia- ensuring that Olivia gets her own photo in each location so she can make a photo album for her grandmother.

Connor and Olivia begin to only further develop their feelings, and after a seemingly perfect night, horror arrives as Olivia gets news that Annie is not doing well which leads Olivia and her dad to immediately leave the island and go back home- leaving Connor and Olivia unable to have the serious discussions needed to be had as their last conversation was heated and emotional.

The book ends with a tie back to the beginning of the novel- where Olivia had accidentally gotten into the wrong jeep at the nursing home. As she found out later in the novel, it was Connor’s jeep she had accidentally gotten into. This leads to her wanting to ‘start over’ with Connor- have a true “meet cute” as they call it. So, they do just that- she gets in his jeep as if was her own (as she did before) and he gets in, saying she is in the wrong car- creating their own meet cute as Olivia embraces her future rather than letting herself put Annie first (in a good way, not bad).

I truly liked this novel because the connection between Connor and Olivia was truly wholesome (Connor seems like such a golden retriever, lover boy). But more than that, I love what this novel does with the family dynamics and the emotional depth and growth the characters have.

Olivia’s fatal flaw in this novel was simply that she could not put herself first. Olivia focused so much on her grandmother- in a selfless way- but it almost led to her demise as she did not think about her forever, her future, her purpose. That was until she met Connor.

I think Connor, Martha’s Vineyard, and seeing Erica’s (stepmom) family dynamic, allowed Olivia to break through that barrier- leading to Erica and Olivia actually having a breakthrough into having a good relationship. There is no doubt that Olivia’s mom passing and her grandmother’s condition led Olivia to put a hard-shell cover on, but seeing her open up, reading the conversations Erica and Olivia have truly healed a part of me I didn’t know needed to be healed.

I wouldn’t just recommend this book because of the cute love story, I recommend this book because of the hurt it shows, the healing it speaks on, and the realistic family drama involved. This book lacks spice, but it has the reality that I find some romances lack. (Realism has always been a favorite genre of mine as I love being able to relate with what I am reading). Walther states in her acknowledgements that this is not just a love story, and I couldn’t agree more.

Overall, I would rate this book as 3.9/5. The story telling makes you feel like you are on the island with the characters, but I longed for more at the end- but the longing and wanting more was simply because of how encapsulated by the story I was.

So, if you want a fun, easy, but heartfelt summer read, I would highly recommend The Summer of Second Chances by K.L. Walther. (And I can’t wait to read more of her works!) This summer, we are reading. So, get out there and read girly pops!

For now, Bye Friends!

Jess C