Category Archives: McFarland, Sherry J.

Sherry J. McFarland. Second Chance at Happiness. Raleigh, NC: B-About-It-Productions, 2010.

Nina, Tracy, and Amanda have been friends since college.  When this novel opens, the women are married and living in Raleigh.  Luckily, their husbands are compatible and the three couples often socialize and travel together.  A trip to Atlanta–for a fun day at Six Flags and an evening at a Beyoncé concert–reveals that Amanda’s marriage is shaky. Her long-suffering husband, Darnell, has had enough of Amanda’s indiscriminate flirtatiousness.  At Darnell’s insistence, the group cuts the weekend short and leave Atlanta late at night.  The crisis in Amanda and Darnell’s marriage pales in comparison to what happens next.  With Amanda at the wheel, the van overturns, killing Amanda and Darnell, and two of the other passengers.

Nina and Bryan survive, although each has lost a spouse.  How they accept the tragedy and move forward with their lives is the heart of this book.  The network of family and friends, especially Nina’s mother, comfort and support the two survivors, and work also helps them move past their pain.  By using chapters featuring different characters points of view, the reader understands the struggles and strengths of each one.  Bryan is the first to find strength in his faith, but as the book concludes that strength has spread to Nina and her mother, and even Nina’s shallow friend, Nicki.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

Comments Off on Sherry J. McFarland. Second Chance at Happiness. Raleigh, NC: B-About-It-Productions, 2010.

Filed under 2010, 2010-2019, McFarland, Sherry J., Religious/Inspirational, Romance/Relationship