"Officially in my top ten favorites." Second Chances by @LincolnJCole #kindle

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Second Chances

Written by Lincoln Cole

Genre(s): Contemporary, Literary, Contemporary Literary


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Nichole, a young black woman, is caught in a tough position. She is juggling too many responsibilities as her world falls apart around her. When her mother turns up missing while performing an errand, Nichole is left picking up the pieces of her shattered life and taking care of her younger siblings. She isn’t sure where she can turn to for help, and she is facing a lot of harsh realities about how life works and how much prejudice can hold her back.

Richard is a lawyer who lost himself in corporate law. He wants to help Nichole through her heartbreaking situation, but he makes mistakes and loses her trust. He discovers that he’s been doing the right things for the wrong reasons for a long time.

Everything begins to fall apart as he realizes he's swept problems under the rug for so long he might no longer be able to fix them. After meeting a young alcoholic who is struggling to take control of his life, Richard wakes up to just how far off-course his life has become and attempts to right it. He asks Nichole for a second chance to help her overcome her obstacles, and he hopes it isn't too late.

Can Nichole and Richard overcome their prejudices and get a Second Chance?

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Second Chances is a contemporary novel set in Middle America that delves into Social Issues people deal with on a regular basis. It features a strong female protagonist standing up to the world and pushing back against commonplace wrongs. It tells a hopeful story about facing up to our own prejudices and coming to terms with who we are today, who we want to become, and what it will take to get there.

An excerpt from

Second Chances

“This is not a race issue. This is a commitment to education issue.”

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The room erupted in applause, as though saying the words made them true. A man whistled in the back, cheering wildly. The blonde woman stood at the microphone in a yellow sundress, nodding emphatically at the crowd. Her demeanor was aggressive as she spoke:

“I have lived in underprivileged areas. What I am saying today is not about race. And I just want to say to anyone who wants to cry that it is a race issue, I'm sorry. That's your prejudice, calling me a racist because my skin is white, and I'm concerned about my children's education and safety.”

Lakeisha felt a strong mix of emotions, none solid enough to grasp onto. Hatred, anger, despair, frustration, they all swirled and ebbed inside her. Her skin was darker than the other people in the room, but that didn’t give them the right to treat her like a criminal. To treat her daughter, not yet a teenager, like an animal. She looked down at her innocent child, wondering what was going through her mind.

Kenni was sitting cross-legged on the floor, watching the blonde mother currently addressing the crowd with a blank expression on her young face. She had deep black skin like her father but her mother’s nose.  It was—thankfully—the only trait she had inherited from Lakeisha. All of her good parts came from James.

She always reminded Lakeisha of her late husband, a bittersweet token of what they once had and was no longer. Kenni was eleven, not really sure what was going on at this town hall meeting, yet she could still feel the hatred and fear emanating from the audience of white parents.

The hate wasn’t directed at Kenni or Lakeisha. Not precisely. There was never a mention of names or examples, only abstract comparisons. The fog of hate was simply present in the auditorium, an apparition filling the air as people vented their frustration and anger.

The bleachers were packed in the school auditorium at Northmont middle school, row upon row of well-dressed white parents. The murmur running through the crowd was that of a cornered animal, ready to strike and protect its young.  Most of their white children had been left at home with babysitters while the parents went to do battle.

“I can’t believe this,” Nichole murmured from beside her. She shuffled a step closer and folded her arms defensively, frowning.  “I can’t believe they would say things like this.”

Nichole was her elder daughter, having just turned seventeen and soon to graduate from high school.  Her skin was lighter than Kenni’s, but she still stood out in the crowd.

“Neither can I,” Lakeisha said.

They stood with a small pocket of black and Latino parents, certainly no more than twenty, huddled in the back right corner of the auditorium. Most were stuck standing since seats hadn’t been set up this far back. They didn’t feel like mingling, so instead were tucked away and out of sight of the white parents filling the rest of the area.

This group gathered together in quiet desperation, amazed the white townsfolk were so brazen and outspoken about the recent court order: a few weeks earlier, an injunction had been put in place that would add diversity to their school by allowing more students to be bussed in from neighboring districts.

Lakeisha had brought Kenni along because this represented her future. She was one of the students who would be starting at Northmont in a few weeks. After living in a poverty-stricken neighborhood for fifteen years, Lakeisha had finally won the right for her children to change schools, along with a selection of other parents in her district.

It had been a long-running lawsuit that would send hundreds of low-income children, mostly black, to this highly ranked suburban school. Northmont School District’s minority numbers were in the single digits, so the judge thought it would be good for the school as well.

It was too late for Rico or Nichole to benefit from the lawsuit. Rico had already graduated, and Nichole was in her final year, but Kenni and Tyler would have a better chance at a good education. They would be leaving one of the worst performing schools in the state and attending one of the best.

This was supposed to be a public forum, a chance for all of the parents to come together and discuss the new integration plan and how best to enact the new policies.

But that wasn’t what this was. It had devolved into a public forum of outrage, a chance for parents to shout and receive adulation. How dare they allow these ‘hoodlums’ into their school? How dare the judge take away their right to self-segregate?

There was no quiet conversation; no debate. Person after person picked up the microphone only to reinforce the prejudices of the crowd.  This was an echo chamber, rising in volume.

Lakeisha was regretting bringing her youngest daughter along now. She had expected…well, she certainly expected some sort of response. But this? It was the twenty-first century.  She had never expected this kind of hatred to be the topic of conversation.

But, maybe she should have.  Had things really changed that much in suburban America?

A man walked to the microphone after the blonde woman, big, burly, and wearing a polo shirt: “Maybe we should look at all of this a different way.  The state says we can’t do anything about it. That the lawsuit is through and their hands are tied. That we can’t fight it. But maybe if we change the start time of the school day…move it forward twenty minutes, or an hour. Maybe then fewer children will want to come!”

Roaring applause, as though the man had just delivered a stirring speech during wartime. Not as though he had just suggested sabotaging the lives of hundreds of innocent children; not as though he were offering a petty solution to keep disenfranchised children out of this predominantly white school.

Another woman stood, willowy in a red dress. She took the stage:

“We are talking about violent behavior that is coming in with my second grader, my third grader, and my middle schooler that I'm very worried about. And I want to know—you have no choice, like me—I want to know when they will install metal detectors. I want to know where they will be in our schools and who is going to pay for them.”

More cheers. Metal detectors, not books. That was the concern that received cheers from this crowd.

Another man:

“Being from a nearby town, I've watched the dismantling of an award-winning school. I've watched it. I went to private school because I had to—not because I wanted to, but because I had to. So I know the routine.”

And then yet another person voiced their concern:

“We need security. The same security they had in their schools.  I deserve to not have to worry about my children getting stabbed, or taking a drug, or getting robbed because that's the issue.”

And each time, the crowd of white parents cheered and the crowd of black and Latino onlookers withdrew a little further. Lakeisha was heartbroken but just as determined about her child going to the school as she was before coming to the meeting.

More, even. She’d hoped things would be different, but if she had to claw and fight her way to get her children a better education, she would.  It was just disheartening that she would have to fight at all. Why were these people so committed in this battle against fellow Americans?

She thought to take the microphone. To tell her side of the story, the side that was being ignored in this entire discussion. She wanted to defend her family, tell these people that she also wanted the best for her children. She wanted to tell them that they weren’t different and they didn’t deserve to be treated like this.

But she didn’t take the microphone. There were a lot of people here tonight to speak, but none of them had shown up to listen.

“It’s just…” Nichole started to say.

“…unbelievable?” Lakeisha finished for her.

Nichole nodded. “I don’t get it.”

“They are afraid of change,” Lakeisha said.  “Everyone is. They just want to give that change a face.”

Nichole was silent for a second.  “You mean our face?”

“Exactly.”

Kenni looked up at her mother, a confused expression on her young face.  Lakeisha saw the way she scrunched up her nose, the same movement Kenni’s father always made when he was concerned about something. It solidified the resolve Lakeisha held in her heart to finish this.  They would do this as a family, no matter the cost, for him.  It’s what he had wanted.

“Are they talking about us?” Kenni asked.

Lakeisha couldn’t think of a good answer. Of course, they were talking about them, at least abstractly how they believed them to be, but that didn’t feel like the right thing to tell her eleven-year-old daughter. How could she explain something like this to her child? Why did she have to explain this?

“I don’t know,” she said instead.

“They don’t even know us,” Kenni replied.

“No,” Lakeisha agreed.  “But they think they do.”

A board member stood up, waving his hands to quiet the crowd. “We feel the same way, but there is nothing we can do about it.  The courts have ruled and we don’t like this any more than you do.”

“We will just leave!” one man shouted from the back of the auditorium.

“They can’t do this to us!”

“I don’t want my children to be at risk!”

“We shouldn’t…”

And on and on it went.

Here's what

Fans are saying

Powerfully captivating

Wow! Second Chances by Lincoln Cole, is a must read. From the first page, I was hooked, and anxious for more. I read whenever I had a moment, and was absolutely engrossed by the story. I cannot say enough fabulous things about this book. The author is sincerely a gifted writer, and has a way with words. If you are looking for a dynamically emotional story, filled with life lessons, this is the story for you.

It begins with a mother, looking for a better education for her younger children, which spirals into the struggles of her eldest daughter, and a man who forgot how to be outward focused. Beautifully written, I was enthralled by their lives and the reasons they all became who they were. Everyone has a story, and this book embodies that thought, along with learning to take responsibility for our own lives.

I cannot recommend this book enough! It is officially in my top ten favorites.

— Nicole L Walker

One of the most thought provoking books I have read in a long time!

Lincoln Cole is one of the most gifted writers I have read. From the first few pages of this book i was fully engaged in the lives of the characters and anxious to know how their individual issues would resolve themselves. This is the second book I have read by this author and I'm sure it won't be my last.

The way he brings his characters to life is truly amazing. This book had me questioning my own preconceptions and biases and wondering how I am perceived by the people I interact with daily. It also made me want to call my sister just to tell her I love her!

I think it is a sign of true talent any time an author is able to bring out this kind of response from his or her readers. Thank you Lincoln, and keep the books coming!

— D.B. Evans

Author Bio

Lincoln Cole

Lincoln Cole is a Columbus-based author who enjoys traveling and has visited many different parts of the world, including Australia and Cambodia, but always returns home to his pugamonster puppy and wife. His love for writing was kindled at an early age through the works of Isaac Asimov and Stephen King and he enjoys telling stories to anyone who will listen.

His first published novel was Graveyard of Empires. He has won several awards, including:

Ripples Through Time -

• Literary Classics 2015 Book Award for Inspirational/Visionary Fiction

Second Chances -

• 2015 New Apple Award for Visionary Fiction 
• 2016 Regional Excellence Book Award for Midwest Fiction 
• 2016 Finalist in the Wishing Shelf Book Awards (winners announced April 1st).