Two best friends. One person who decides to come between them. What follows is a study in how manipulation actually works — not through explosions, but through quiet erosion.
A Second Chance is independently published YA fiction that does something most mainstream releases in this space won’t: it slows down and shows you the mechanism. Asa doesn’t announce himself as a threat. He’s measured, polite, and deliberate. Mikaila, the book’s spirited first-person narrator, has to work backward to understand what’s been happening to her — and Frend earns that recognition scene rather than rushing to it.
Set across Maryland and Connecticut beach towns, the book uses its settings well. There’s a cognitive dissonance between those gorgeous summer backdrops and what’s quietly going wrong that Frend doesn’t over-explain. Multiple perspectives — Mikaila’s primarily, with Chara delivering the final word — give the story enough range to make the resolution feel true rather than convenient.
The faith thread is real but never heavy-handed. It functions more as a resource than a message. The father-daughter storylines running parallel add texture that a lesser book would have cut for pace.
This has earned the Literary Titan Silver Award, the Christian Books Excellence Award, the Christ Lit Award, and an Eric Hoffer Montaigne Medal finalist spot. Those aren’t participation trophies — the Hoffer shortlist in particular draws strong competition. The recognition is deserved.
Indie publishing at its best is exactly this: a story that found its audience because the author trusted the work. Asher Frend writes clean YA with a suspense edge and characters who face real choices. A Second Chance is that kind of book.
The US Review of Books recommends it. So do we.
Get your copy: A Second Chance on Amazon
What reviewers are saying:
“I realized he didn’t like me. He liked the control he had over me.” — US Review of Books
About Asher Frend
ASHER FREND writes clean young adult fiction with a thread of faith, a sharp edge of suspense, and characters who are trying to do the right thing when it would be easier to walk away. Their stories blend coming-of-age pressure with real emotional stakes, then build toward hope without pretending life is simple. When Asher is not writing, they are usually spending time with their spouse and son and getting out for long walks to clear their head and untangle the next plot problem.