Publishing Date: December 10, 2019
Publisher: Montlake Romance - Amazon Publishing
Pages: 366
Contemporary Romance / Women's Fiction
The Premise from the Publisher: "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" (Montlake).
My overall thoughts and review: Before I begin my rambling review, I want to preface that I have not read a Colleen Hoover book before. I know many of my friends love her work, but I'll be honest, I've always been a bit reluctant because I was worried about how "heavy" some of the books are - emotionally. I can firmly say that after reading this book, Colleen Hoover, has a fan for life in me - why did I wait so long to read a book by her?! That being said, I'm so excited now to go back and read her backlist because I love her writing so much. Hoover immediately draws the reader in with her stories, and just the wait she writes from first person perspective is incredibly captivating.
This story follows a mother and daughter and both of their love stories, and how everything kind of intertwines at the center of it all. We have a mother who doesn't want her daughter to repeat her mistakes by getting pregnant too young, but we also have a daughter that wants to break free of some of her parents over-protectiveness. The story moves back and forth from Morgan's perspective (in the past and now in the present), to her daughter, Clara. We learn about Morgan's relationship with Clara's father, Chris, and how that was inextricably linked with her sister, Jenny, and Chris' friend, Jonah. A tragic accident happens, and many things are revealed which really shook up the household, and Morgan is left to deal with it all, along with Clara and Jonah. While all of this is going on, Clara finds herself drawn to a boy who is known for the mistakes of his father, rather than who he really is. It's an interesting dynamics because during this time of grief, when Clara and Morgan should turn to one another, they find themselves pushing the other even further apart. So you can see how they find their way back to one another during the course of the book. I loved all the characters a lot, even when they frustrated me. I could see why they acted a certain way, and while I didn't always agree, I think it says a lot for someone to step back and be able to understand why certain actions happened. Clara drove me a bit insane towards the end, but I understood that her anger was coming from grief and frustration due to what she was dealing with. I don't want to say too much to spoil any of the plot points, but there's three stories going on here, Clara and Morgan's mother-daughter story, and then their respective romantic relationship stories. It seems like a lot, but Colleen Hoover pieced it all together so well!
This book poses so many intriguing questions that really make you stop and wonder. Would certain relationships have flourished if there wasn't a particular circumstance? Do you sometimes get it wrong with who you are supposed to end up with? And in terms of grief and death, how do you know when it is appropriate to move on or rather, how long do you mourn for? There's so much tangled up here from family dynamics, relationships (romantic and friendships), to grief and trauma. But also finding yourself, and chasing after your dreams.
This book will definitely break your heart a few times, but by the end of it, I promise Colleen Hoover does mend it all, and kind of makes it all right again. It felt incredibly authentic, and even though in a way, there's definitely a HEA, the book emphasizes how relationships can change with certain factors affecting it, but it can definitely grow from it. It reminds us that certain things in life are incredibly big challenges, and ultimately, it's the stuff that is most challenging that is most worth it in the end. If you want a book that will basically make you feel ALL the emotions, this is definitely the read for you!
My rating of the book: ✮✮✮✮✮ (5/5 stars)
Available for purchase at:
Chapters/Indigo, Amazon, Kindle, and Book Depository
About Colleen Hoover
Colleen Hoover is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of several novels, including the bestselling women’s fiction novel It Ends with Us and the bestselling psychological thriller Verity. She has won the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Romance three years in a row—for Confess (2015), It Ends with Us (2016), and Without Merit (2017). Confess was adapted into a seven-episode online series. In 2015, Hoover and her family founded the Bookworm Box, a bookstore and monthly subscription service that offers signed novels donated by authors. All profits go to various charities each month to help those in need. Hoover lives in Texas with her husband and their three boys.
Follow Colleen:
Website - https://www.colleenhoover.com/
Twitter - https://twitter.com/colleenhoover
Facebook Readers’ Group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/colleenhooverscohorts
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/colleenhoover/
Goodreads - https://bit.ly/36GI0Cz
Tour Wide Giveaway
The winner will receive 1 copy of Regretting You by Colleen Hoover!
Giveaway Details:
Canada Only (excl. Quebec—full rules found in the T&C on Rafflecopter)
Giveaway begins on December 9th and ends on January 5th, 2020 at 11:59 pm EST
Winner will be drawn randomly through Rafflecopter, contacted via email & will have 48 hours
to claim their prize
PUT RAFFLECOPTER LINK HERE
Don't forget to check out the other stops on the blog tour:
Dec. 9 – Erin @ Sleep Less, Read More
Dec. 10 – Allyssa @ Between the Spine
Dec. 11 – Christine @ Padfoot’s Library
Dec. 12 – Amanda @ Stuck in YA Books
Dec. 13 – Guylaine @ Two Dogs & a Book
Dec. 16 – Krystal @ Stellar Book Blog
Dec. 17 – Milana @ A Couple Reads
Dec. 18 – Lisa @ RemarkablyLisa
Dec. 19 – Xandria @ Beautiful Bitch Book Reviews
Dec. 20 – Beth @ Fuelled by Fiction
Disclaimer: I received an advanced readers copy of this book from Thomas Allen & Son in exchange for an honest review and participation in this blog tour. All opinions are my own.
