Cat Coombs is 27, a journalist living in London , refuses to
admit she is an alcoholic. She parties hard every night,
beginning with two glasses of wine during her lunch hour.
Evenings
she attends any and all business launches where there is
free booze. She drinks until she blacks-out, unable to
remember what happened. Why does she drink so much? Cat
tells herself it is because she never "fits in". She always
has to fight her feeling of isolation and turns to her
friend Mr. Vodka for help.
Waking up one morning with a
raging hangover, she finds herself in a stranger's flat. He
is a handsome man who introduces himself. "Jason Halliwell,
3 years, 8 months, 69 days of sobriety." He is a recovering
alcoholic. Jason is charming and spends the day with Cat
and then the next day and the next. He urges her to attend
an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting and Cat tries hard to fit
in. A relationship begins between them, but she knows that
she must stop her drinking to make it work into something
serious and everlasting. Can she do that?
One night, her mother, now a widow, confesses to Cat that
her biological father is alive and living in Nantucket with
his two daughters. Stunned, Cat tells her mother that
something was always missing with her relationship with her
father. There was never any affection and at times she
wondered why? When she asks her mother to arrange for her
to meet her real father, it is not long before Cat is
heading to Nantucket. A grand reunion! Brooks is an
artist, shows her his studio, talking and taking quiet
walks together. It looks like a nice beginning. Too, for
Julia who seems sweet, friendly and anxious to become her
sister.
However, Ellie, the other sister refuses to befriend Cat.
All is ruined when Julia's boyfriend, Aiden, encourages Cat
to have a drink to celebrate the happy reunion. Cat
refuses but he is not to be denied, and what happens is a
total catastrophe. Forced to return to London Cat hits
bottom. Desperate, she turns again to AA. She begins her
long, brutal battle to take back her life and stop drinking
and this time she succeeds.
.
SUMMER SECRETS tackles a real life problem, alcoholism.
One of my favorite authors, Jane Green, takes us from
London to Nantucket. She tells a compelling story of Cat,
her struggle with addiction that ruined her life, love and
family. Cat had me cheering for her every step of the way.
The meetings, program and steps that is AA, the people she
met there, her sponsors, gives a keen insight into the
sickness that is alcoholism and how severely it can threaten
life and all that is dear. I loved Jason, his patience and
his devotion.
This is a story about relationships, betrayals, courage,
second chances and love. It is a compelling tale of Cat,
who in the end looked at herself in the mirror and saw in
her glowing eyes how happy and calm her life is; she knows
now she is a good mother, a good friend, and a good person.
A touching read and one you will
think about long after you close the final page. As usual
Ms. Green does not disappoint.
When a shocking family secret is revealed, twentysomething
journalist Cat Coombs finds herself falling into a dark
spiral. Wild, glamorous nights out in London and raging
hangovers the next day become her norm, leading to a
terrible mistake one night while visiting family in America,
on the island of Nantucket. It’s a mistake for which she
can’t forgive herself. When she returns home, she confronts
the unavoidable reality of her life and knows it’s time to
grow up. But she doesn’t know if she’ll ever be able to earn
the forgiveness of the people she hurt.
As the years pass, Cat grows into her forties, a struggling
single mother, coping with a newfound sobriety, and
determined to finally make amends. Traveling back to her
past, to the family she left behind on Nantucket all those
years ago, she may be able to earn their forgiveness, but in
doing so she may risk losing the very people she loves the
most.
Told with Jane Green’s keen eye for detailing the emotional
landscape of the heart, Summer Secrets is at once a
compelling drama and a beautifully rendered portrait of
relationships, betrayals, and forgiveness, about accepting
the things we cannot change, finding the courage to change
the things we can, and being strong enough to weather to storms.
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