Book ~ "Summer Secrets" (2015) Jane Green

From Goodreads ~ June, 1998: At twenty seven, Catherine Coombs, also known as Cat, is struggling. She lives in London, works as a journalist, and parties hard. Her lunchtimes consist of several glasses of wine at the bar downstairs in the office, her evenings much the same, swigging the free booze and eating the free food at a different launch or party every night. When she discovers the identity of the father she never knew she had, it sends her into a spiral. She makes mistakes that cost her the budding friendship of the only women who have ever welcomed her. And nothing is ever the same after that. 

June, 2014: Cat has finally come to the end of herself. She no longer drinks. She wants to make amends to those she has hurt. Her quest takes her to Nantucket, to the gorgeous summer community where the women she once called family still live. Despite her sins, will they welcome her again? What Cat doesn’t realize is that these women, her real father’s daughters, have secrets of their own. As the past collides with the present, Cat must confront the darkest things in her own life and uncover the depths of someone’s need for revenge. 

When she was younger, Cat was a partier.  She drank a lot and would wake up in the morning wondering what she'd done and where she was.  After a blackout, she wakes up in Jason's bed.  He is a recovering alcoholic and tries to get her to go to AA meetings.  Around this time, she discovers that her father wasn't really her father.  She visits her birth father in the U.S. but it doesn't go well because of her drinking.  Her real father is also an alcoholic so she now knows where she gets it.

Sixteen years later, Cat is a divorced mother of a preteen and going through the 12 steps of AA.  The ninth one means she has to make amends to anyone she has hurt.  She heads back to the U.S. to apologize for her actions in 1998 to her half-sisters.  One of them accepts her again as her sister and they move on in their relationship.  The other wants no part of her.

This is the third book I've read by this author and I enjoyed it.  It's written in first person perspective in Cat's voice.  I liked the writing style and thought it moved at a good pace. It was an interesting story.  It jumps back and forth in time but the chapter headings let you know what the time period is.  As a head's up, there is some swearing.

I liked characters.  Cat had made some mistakes but in 2014 she's older and more mature and trying to move on as a mother.  She's sorry she lost out on having a relationship with her half-sisters and depriving her daughter the opportunity to know her aunts.  She has some tough obstacles to overcome and she faces them head on.