Summer Secrets

"http://www.anurseandabook.com/2015/06/summer-secrets-by-jane-green.html<br/><br/>What I Say....Well, I think I need to preface this review by saying that Jane Green is one of my all time favorite authors. It's always chick lit done right, and she writes real women characters.<br/><br/>Summer Secrets felt a little different to me, but honestly, I think it will probably resonate differently with every reader, depending on their experiences and family relationships with alcohol.<br/><br/>Usually, I find myself having much stronger feelings about her characters, and Cat's story was certainly compelling. She started drinking to bolster her self-confidence as a young teen, and moved into full fledged black out binging in her early adult years. <br/><br/>After a disastrous meeting with her newly found father and half-sisters (including a black out betrayal of her new half-sister) gets Cat on the wagon, and she marries her dream man and has a great daughter, but Cat makes a misstep with alcohol, and off the wagon she falls. And can't seem to get back on.<br/><br/>Eventually her husband leaves her (he's a recovering alcoholic too), and takes her daughter. This is Cat's rock bottom, and she gets sober for herself for the first time. It seems to be sticking, and she needs to complete the step that requires that she make amends to those she has wronged.<br/><br/>Cat returns to Nantucket to complete her step and make her amends. I won't go into much detail here, no spoilers allowed.<br/><br/>However, there were a few things that seemed out of order in this book. Towards the end of the book, Cat thinks back to the first time she and her husband made love (for her, the first time making love sober). I felt like I would have liked to have read this earlier in the book, because there was never enough detail for me to actively root for Cat and Jason to find their way back to each other. He seemed like a very nice guy, but the relationship seemed very bland. I wasn't seeing the passion or longing.<br/><br/>The character of Sam didn't seem to have any purpose, other than to accompany Cat to Nantucket, and to give terrible parenting advice. I did identify with Cat on the difficulty that we have in listening to our gut, especially in parenting issues. That's one of the things alcohol does, it makes you not trust your instincts because the alcoholics in your life have made things so unpredictable.<br/><br/>Anyway, another winner by Jane Green. The woman who introduced me to chick lit. If you haven't read Jemima J. or Bookends, you are missing out."