After some unexpected news, Taylor’s family decides to spend the summer at the lake house they haven’t been to for five years. Unfortunately for Taylor, that means she now has to deal with the people and problems she ran away from there five years ago.

Devastating. Tragic. Heart wrenching. Beautiful. Was this possibly the saddest book I’ve ever read in my life? Yeah… I think it might’ve been. I was completely unprepared for the total tragedy that this was. Which says a lot of bad things about my memory because I’ve read this before. And I didn’t remember. And now I’m wrecked. So, if you’re looking for a good cry? Congratulations, you’ve found one.

Considering the fact that the ‘big secret’ is spilled in the first ten pages of the book, I’m gonna go ahead and spill it for you here. Taylor’s dad is dying of cancer. He only has three months left to live, and he wants to spend that time with his family at their lake house. Yeah… tragic.

This wasn’t a 5 star romance book. Don’t get me wrong, I love Taylor and Henry, but this was about so much more. I didn’t really like any of the characters at the beginning of the story, but, by the end, I loved all of them. I saw my family and my friends. Yeah, this was a second chance romance, but it also was a Second Chance Summer. A second chance for a family to recenter their priorities. A second chance to say all the things you should have been saying all along. A second chance to do all of the things you always said you would.

No, it wasn’t a perfect story. There were some typos, Henry and Taylor hardly spent any time together (on the page conversations/moments for us to read) before they were making out again, and the ending could have given a little bit more in certain areas. But it was close to perfect. It was life. And I don’t regret my time spent reading it.