Book ~ "The Melting Season" (2020) Jami Attenberg

From Goodreads ~ Catherine Madison is headed west with a suitcase full of cash that isn't hers. She's just left the only home she's ever known, a small town in Nebraska, after the only man she had ever known, her husband, Thomas, deserted her. She's also left behind her deepest, most shameful secrets - among them a dysfunctional family she's never quite been able to escape and a marriage whose most intimate moments have plagued her with self-doubt. On the road, she was going to become a new person. Or so she thought.

But running away from the past isn't as easy as she had hoped. When Catherine reaches Las Vegas, she forms surprising new friendships that compel her to reveal what she had sworn she'd keep hidden and teach her what human connection really means. Armed with this new knowledge, she is finally emboldened to uncover the truth about her family, come to understand what destroyed her marriage and prevent her troubled sister from repeating her mistakes.

When the story begins, Catherine is driving west to get away from the small town in Nebraska where she is from. She has a suitcase with $178,000 which she has stolen from Thomas, her estranged husband. She ends up in Las Vegas where she is befriended by Valka, an older woman who is in Las Vegas to celebrate New Years Eve.

As the story unfolds, we find out why Catherine has run away. Her mother is a mean drunk, her father has tuned out and her younger sister is running wild. Marriage to Thomas hasn't turned out to be the love story she thought it would be.

Sounds like a dreary story, right?  Well, it was. The writing style for of the book was dark and depressing too. The only likeable character was Valka and I found her a bit over the top.  The story jumps back and forth in time as Catherine fills us and Valka in on what's been going on. As a head's up, there is swearing.