The Second Daughter by J. Jeffrey


Winner HONORABLE MENTION New England Book Festival 2012!

Helen Gale is so busy suppressing secrets from her past that she doesn’t notice that almost everything she believes about her husband and two daughters is false. She is so busy what-iffing about the life she might have had that she overlooks the life she is actually having. Her family slowly, then quickly, then one day explosively disintegrates around her. Left awkwardly alone with her now 16-year-old second daughter Debra, Helen finds herself settling into the postscript of her life when, one night, the phone rings—and the man from her past, located by Debra’s secret machinations, suddenly crashes back into her present.

What if a game of “what if” were actually to come true? For a tired and lonely woman just north of her fiftieth birthday? Helen’s life is about to change forever; or rather, as Debra puts it, revert back to what it should have been all along.

But not exactly because of that man, as it turns out.

Because of the second daughter.

Welcome to a funny but poignant, unusual but beautiful love story


My rating: 5 of 5 stars


A journey of a family, the good (rare), the bad (often), that cleverly draws you in. The hardship of a family, a mother who was alone with her children too much and a father absent most of the time. Two daughters who are opposite in most every way. The surprising outcome was an emotionally tribute to the love that survives. Well done.
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