• Second Helpings: A Humorous Contemporary Novel

Can her marriage be saved?

Today is Jocelyn Johnson’s forty-fifth birthday. Unhappy with her marriage of twenty-two years, she has planned a noonday tryst with her talk-show cohost. A phone call from her college daughter, a peek into her teenaged son’s journal, a sick preschooler, a Goth daughter’s identity crisis, a middle-school son’s prank, and her husband’s inflamed suspicions, not only interfere with her hopeful birthday plans but throw her family into more chaos than a circus on steroids.

In desperate need of counsel, Jocelyn invites a Christian, her guest from her morning talk-show segment, to dinner. However, the evening holds little promise of calm. In the midst of bedlam, a forgotten faith rekindles causing Jocelyn to rethink her life and her marriage.

You will laugh and you will cry from the first page to the last as you journey through the day’s events and Jocelyn’s search for Second Helpings.

my point of view:

I want to start off by telling you this is my very first post for Celebrite Lit Bloggers and I am honored to be here, I thank you very much for the opportunity. I was a little surprised by the start of the story, not having read anything by this author before.

This story is fairly fast paced, and other than the epilougue, it all takes place in one super jam packed day. The chaos of the main characters 45th birthday is a lot to take in, and in all honesty, I was a little nervous about the beginning of the story. A woman married for 20+ years contemplating having an affair with a co-worker is truly not my “cup of tea”. Getting to know her husband and children in the middle of all the conflict is intense and you find yourself caught up in all the drama quickly! However, once you get pulled into this family’s dynamics, you find yourself invested in what is happening with her marriage and children and needing to know how this will come about!

For me, Naomi is the bright light and shining star of the novel….I absolutely adored her! In the midst of the storm, she is the anchor that manages to right the ship and set Jocelyn and her family on the right course. Seeing the turn around and how Jocelyn embraces her faith once again is truly inspiring. I was quite pleased with the journey.

About Linda Wood Rondeau