Second Chances: A Novel

by Linda Chadwick

He slowly sat down in the porch swing. Even though it was not raining, he thought he could hear the rain falling softly from a darkened sky. He imagined Barbara sitting beside him, a sweet smile on her beautiful face and her silky brown hair blowing in the breeze. Suddenly, the front door opened, and a small, elderly woman stepped out onto the porch. "Can I help you?" she asked abruptly. Embarrassed, Larry jumped out of the swing. "I . . . I used to live in this house . . . I was . . . reminiscing . . .," he tried to explain. He quickly came to his senses. "I'm sorry to have bothered you. I'll be going now." Still grieving over the loss of his wife, forty-one-year-old Larry Porter is facing challenges that no father should ever have to face. Almost overnight he becomes both father and mother to his three children, and they aren't having anything to do with him. A former workaholic, he now regrets being an absentee parent, but doesn't know how to make amends. Soon, Larry comes to understand that his children are more important to him than anything else. He must change the path they are on or lose them forever. This tender and thought-provoking story will bring you face-to-face with the realities of losing a loved one. It will touch your heart, lift your spirit, and inspire you to tackle your own challenges with determination and hope.

237 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 8, 2009

About the author

I am the proud mother of five great kids, ages 20, 18, 14, and twins girls, age 10. I love to watch movies, read books and write. Second Chances is my first novel.

Reviews

[Angie Jessie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A deeply touching and authentic story that captures the pain of loss and the power of unconditional love. Larry Porter’s journey as a father suddenly forced to hold his family together is raw, emotional, and inspiring. The struggles feel real, the growth feels earned, and the message of hope lingers long after the last page. A heartfelt read that truly reminds you what matters most.

[Kathryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book that talks about loosing a spouse and mother. It talks about dealing with the bad things that happen in life and learning that even if we don't have the whys for the things that happen sometimes the Lord opens our eyes and lets us see some good come from our trials. While Larry, the father is dealing with his own loss of his wife, he finds that he has been selfish in his desire for wealth and has let his priorities shift in this pursuit even to the neglect of time with his family. His oldest daughter, Jody resents him for lack of attention and feels that work was more important than his love of her. His son, Chris has turned to his mother for validation in his worth not turns off all emotion until a near life beating gets him hooked on drugs and the emotion explodes. His father makes a hard decision to put him into drug rehab where maybe he can get the help he needs to deal with the drug addiction and the emotions he is feeling so he won't try to take his life again. Chris learn many important lessons in the rehab. He meets a girl who in telling her he is mormon, convinces him he still has a testimony as he tell her of his beliefs. He also meets and befriends, Keith his roomie, who later commits suicide, but the action turns the tables for Chris in seeing how others are affected by the choices we make. He sees how selfish he was being in his decisions and comes to want to change and have a second chance with his family's forgiveness, forgiveness from his Father in Heaven in sticking to his word of wisdom promises and looking at each day of life as a gift. Larry works on putting his kids first again and working to gain their trust and forgiveness. Touching story of the obstacles in life that are thrown our way and how our choices affect the outcome to our happiness and that of others.

[Pam · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is very compelling about a family suffering from the recent death of their mother/wife. The father and the three children all have their own ways of coping with the death - most notably, the teenage son gets into a fight which leads to a brutal attack of retaliation. He is prescribed painkillers for broken ribs and other injuries and can't get off of them. The characters are believable and the situation heart-rending.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

After loosing his wife, a workaholic has to become a Dad. Connecting to a teenage daughter and son as well as a younger daughter who are also trying to deal with the loss of their mother, is a challenge. I appreciated that the author accepted that there isn't always a simple solution and worked at changes. I did feel that she didn't deal with suicide and its effect on the son in a realistic way.

[Erin Woods · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was fantastic! A workaholic's wife dies and leaves him to raise three kids on his own. Two of these are teenagers dealing with some severe anger issues, and the dad has to learn to put his family first, and break through the walls that have been built between him and his children. You see the story from each characters point of view which helps the reader see things from the point of view of someone with a serious addiction. Every parent could benefit from reading this book.

[Grace · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great story about a mormon family who is dealing with the death of a wife/mother. The children are angry at their father because he's never been there for them. Now that he wants to be there for them he has a lot of barriers to break down. The son gets messed up in drugs and the last part of the book is all about his drug rehab.

It shows you inside the mormon faith which was all new to me but over all I enjoyed it.

[Patricia · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was about a man who lost his wife. He'd been a workaholic and had spent little time with his family prior to his wife's death. However, that all changed and his children weren't happy about his sudden interest in parenting them. I really hadn't paid a lot of attention to the plot (or non-plot) of this book and was not interested in a book about family dynamics. This is one of those times when regardless of how good a book is, I just am not interested in reading it.

[Sharee Wanner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Linda has captured real emotions in this book. It is a great lesson in how to deal with trials and struggles that come our way. Whatever they may be and no matter how old we are there is always hope. There are always two sides to every story. By listening to both sides we can help each other heal and bring family and friends closer together.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Second Chances is a story for all of us who have ever found ourselves in the depths of sin. It reminds us of repentance and the atonement of Jesus Christ. There is never anything that we can't overcome through love and acceptance if we let them. I enjoyed the family's forgiveness for one another giving each other a second chance to really be a family again.

[Rebecca Dean · Rating 3 out of 5]

Characters are dealing with real emotions and the author does a good job of describing them. I found myself wondering the entire book if the author had had personal experience with these issues or if she had just done some great research. Well-written

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Everyone would love a second chance and this book is a delightful look at second chances filled with hope and inspirations for all of us looking for our second chances.

[Rachael · Rating 2 out of 5]

nice story, i just thought the story was about the dad but then 1/2 thro it flipped to the son. i skipped a few chapters and still got the whole story :(

[Aubrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Brave story about recovering from loss, drug addiction, and the triumph over adversity. Good character development and I enjoyed seeing the way the story came together at the end.

[Marilyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hard story about family relationships and learning to love again. I enjoyed reading it though I had a bit of a difficult time with the concept of loving again so quickly.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

love it

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book. This is the second time that I have read this book and I like it just as much this time as I did the first time that I read it.

[Nadine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good storyline but just not engaging