Review: Second Story by Con Riley

Title: Second Story

Series: Second Chance School: Book Three

Author: Con Riley

Length: 316 Pages

Category: Contemporary Romance

Rating: 5 Stars

At a Glance: Second Story is an impeccable ending to this set of books at Glynn Harber School. I can’t imagine any better way to get from “Once Upon a Time” to “And They Lived Happily Ever After” than to embrace and conquer and celebrate the challenges in between.

Reviewed By: Lisa

Blurb: Glynn Harber School needs a new live-in librarian, and I need the job more than breathing. The headmaster also wants a trauma-informed storyteller for his bruised children, so you better believe I pour my soul into winning both roles.

The only catch?

To score a place that could keep my own little brother safe, I’ll have to bare my broken heart in public.

It hurts to share the story of how our family shattered. I’ll push through that pain to prove to students that their first stories don’t have to define them. Their second story can have a happy ending.

No one warned me that I’d have to read my story aloud to the welfare worker who walked away when we needed him most.

Review: “. . . from Once upon a time all the way to The End.”

What happens between the two in Second Story is what Con Riley unfailingly builds so eloquently. There is a certain beauty to this story, one all its own despite it taking place in a world we know so well. It is the Butterfly Effect in story form—the idea that one seemingly small act can reach far away and lead to monumental change.

Glynn Harber School is the butterfly that flaps its metaphorical wings in Cornwall, and in far-off London instigates an immense opportunity for Isaac and his little brother, Lenny, to escape a life touched by drugs and violence. In only the way Luke Lawson and the lovely folks at this bastion of comfort and care and safety can do, the warmth and welcome to Isaac and Lenny come with introspection and healing.

The relationship between Isaac and Joe is complicated in a way that delineates the strength and integrity of both men. Isaac needs someone steady and unwavering to lean on as he bears a responsibility that would crush lesser men, but while Joe is that person, his responsibility to maintain professional distance forbids him from giving what both he and Isaac want. That they meet again on a more level playing field doesn’t make them any less complicated, though. The healing and building along the way is pure Con Riley, filled with heart and warmth and moments of nothing more than pure connection.

Second Story is an impeccable ending to this set of books at Glynn Harber School. I can’t imagine any better way to get from “Once Upon a Time” to “And They Lived Happily Ever After” than to embrace and conquer and celebrate the challenges in between. It’s a journey of love, friendship, found family, and the sort of healing that happens to broken hearts and world-weary souls.