Book Review: Summer Secrets

by: Jane Green

I was sent a hard copy to review from BookSparks PR for the Summer Reading Program.

I have to admit to being pleasantly surprised. I have been eying this book since it was released. I'm not a huge Jane Green fan, in fact I don't think I've ready anything of hers yet...but that has changed.

This book was so unique. The main character is a recovering alcoholic. She deals with her memories, she deals with the outcomes of her behavior. In the present she is trying to make up for not being available to her daughter. She also really misses her ex-husband. But instead of playing all sorts of manipulative games, that you regularly see in romance novels, Cat is honest about the whole thing. She recognizes that she messed up, and that he will either want her or not. She lets go of it, knowing she really can't control it.

Lots of things happen. In her late 20s she finds out the truth about her father. She finds sisters she never knew she had. She gets married, has a baby, loses everything to her drinking.

This book was mesmerizing. And so unique. Cat is my favorite character in a long time. I get the literary need to have those dramatic games that people play, the ones that in reality are messy. I liked that this story was far more realistic in dealing with the mess created by the mistakes that people also make every day.

I liked that Jane looked at how people view teenagers and parties, drinking, experimenting with drugs. There are a great number of people that think it's perfectly normal behavior. But is it? Should we write it off as a right of passage, or should we do more to teach our kids about the dangers associated with that behavior?