Book Review: Season of Second Chances by Aimee Alexander

How are you supposed to say no to a book set in your native Cork? Well, I’m glad I’m biased because this was one great book.

*Trigger warning* This book discusses domestic abuse.

Goodreads Blurb

Season of Second Chances by Aimee Alexander

When leaving is just the beginning… A novel of family, love, and learning to be kind to yourself by award-winning, bestselling Irish author, Aimee Alexander.

Grace Sullivan flees Dublin with her two teenage children, Jack and Holly, returning to the sleepy West Cork village where she grew up. No one in Killrowan knows what Grace is running from – or that she’s even running. She’d like to keep it that way.

Taking over from her father, Des, as the village doctor offers a real chance for Grace to begin again. But will she and the family adapt to life in a small rural community? Will the villagers accept an outsider as their GP? Will Grace live up to the doctor that her father was? And will she find the inner strength to face the past when it comes calling?

Season of Second Chances is a heart-warming story of friendship, love, and finding the inner strength to face a future that may bring back the past.

Perfect for fans of Call The Midwives, The Durrells, Doc Martin, and All Creatures Great and Small. The villagers of Killrowan will steal into your heart and make you want to stay with them forever.

Review

Sadly, stories of domestic abuse are all too common and this has trickled into literature too. I was intrigued by Season of Second Chances but also presumed it would retell the same story of a woman struggling the leave her husband with him doing everything in his power to stop her. Instead, we begin in the aftermath of the separation and the main focus of the book instead is Grace’s attempt to build a new life for herself and her family.

What I just wrote in the paragraph above was obvious from the blurb, right? Now, what I was pleasantly surprised to encounter was a whole bunch of supporting themes that made Season of Second Chances a truly moving book: a codeine addiction, a battle with Parkinson’s, a son afraid he will turn out like his abusive father. These are all as hear hitting as the main theme of the book.

The author made it very difficult to dislike Grace. She wrote a truly independent and strong woman who didn’t take any of the routes I’d presumed. It was truly heartwarming to follow Grace as she tried to fit in again in a place that was once her home.

On a final note, the author did a wonderful job capturing the sense of community in Ireland. At a time when I feel really homesick, this was a comforting slice of home.

If you would like to read Season of Second Chances, you can pick up a copy of the book here.

I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.