The Book:
Regretting You by Colleen Hoover, 2019
The Characters:
Morgan, her husband Chris and daughter Clara
Morgan’s sister Jenny and her boyfriend Jonah
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The Plot (from Goodreads):
Morgan Grant and her sixteen-year-old daughter, Clara, would like nothing more than to be nothing alike.
Morgan is determined to prevent her daughter from making the same mistakes she did. By getting pregnant and married way too young, Morgan put her own dreams on hold. Clara doesn’t want to follow in her mother’s footsteps. Her predictable mother doesn’t have a spontaneous bone in her body.
With warring personalities and conflicting goals, Morgan and Clara find it increasingly difficult to coexist. The only person who can bring peace to the household is Chris—Morgan’s husband, Clara’s father, and the family anchor. But that peace is shattered when Chris is involved in a tragic and questionable accident. The heartbreaking and long-lasting consequences will reach far beyond just Morgan and Clara.
While struggling to rebuild everything that crashed around them, Morgan finds comfort in the last person she expects to, and Clara turns to the one boy she’s been forbidden to see. With each passing day, new secrets, resentment, and misunderstandings make mother and daughter fall further apart. So far apart, it might be impossible for them to ever fall back together.
The Review:
Believe it or not, Regretting You was my first Colleen Hoover. I get the hype, and can’t wait to read more of hers! I’m clearly late to the party, so instead of re-hashing I’ll just give some quick thoughts.
I loved that this was more than a romance–more so a look at grief, survival, and a precarious mother-daughter relationship. The book is told alternately from Morgan and Clara’s perspectives, so we get to see both sides of their relationship. I particularly enjoyed how the story came together to show Morgan and Clara’s relationship repairing itself from both points of view. I’m not a parent, but I definitely found myself wondering how I would handle things from Morgan’s point of view.
Jonah and Miller were both wonderful male leads, and perfect fits for Morgan and Clara respectively.
I can’t wait to get around to reading more of her books! I have Verity sitting on my shelf, and I’ve heard crazy things about that one. My curiosity is definitely piqued.