Regretting You by Colleen Hoover

The #1 Wall Street Journal bestseller that People Magazine calls "a poignant, addictive read." From #1 New York Times bestselling author of It Ends with Us comes a novel about family, first love, grief, and betrayal that will touch the hearts of both mothers and daughters. 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.

2.75/5 stars

Morgan's storyline? I actually liked it. So I'm rounding this up to 3 stars. If we made this book entirely about her and her emotional turmoil, maybe I would have somewhat loved this book. I doubt it, bc this is Colleen Hoover, but it was a possibility.

Clara's storyline was

Possible spoilers

Even though this is only my second CoHo book she seems like the kind of author that likes to mess with your head and make you feel all kinds of feelings. And I'm definitely okay with that.

Regretting You is told from two POVs. Morgan and her 16 year old daughter, Clara. Being a teenager is a difficult time...being one while tragedy strikes makes it all the worse. Morgan became a mother very young and her whole life revolved around her husband and daughter. It's not until he dies in a tragic accident that it comes to light that maybe Chris isn't as wonderful as everyone thought he was.

Finding out your spouse is having an affair after he/she is dead is seriously fucking heavy. There's no one to direct your anger to. No arguments to be had. No questions answered. Morgan has to deal with this while her daughter also takes out her grief on her. Clara is just a teenager who just her father whom she was incredibly close to. Neither one seem to be able to get on the same page about anything. Which is normal but difficult under the best of circumstances.

I liked that Clara found out about the affair...not because I wanted her to hurt. But I wanted her to see that her mother was human with a fuck ton on her plate and she was navigating shit as best she could. Morgan resonated a lot with me. I understood her. As a mother ( a SAH one at ) that I felt a kinship with her. What stopped me from giving it five stars was that we find out nothing else about the affair. I feel like it was the crux of this whole book/situation. Why did it start? When did it start? For how long? I didn't want there to be chapters about it. But some closure? There were letters but at the end of it all Morgan decided she didn't need to know the minute details. And I feel like I did want to know

I'm not sure what I can say about Colleen Hoover that hasn't been said before. She is one of a handful of authors that I trust wholeheartedly to provide an engaging, emotional story that will tug at my heartstrings in all the right ways and characters that are complex yet relatable.

I prefer to go into books blind. I don't read blurbs, I avoid any chapter previews or sneak peaks that are released ahead of time. Really the only thing I knew going into this book was that it was going to be about a mother and her teenage daughter and was kind of a YA/contemporary romance hybrid and I would advise anyone else thinking of picking this one up to go into it blindly as well. Not knowing the events of this story just made it pack that much more of a punch. And there are quite a few punches here.

Colleen portrayed the mother/daughter relationship in this book so well and realistically that I could easily place myself into either characters' shoes. She made me feel what it was like to be a teenage girl again; angry and rebellious yet so giddy about the prospect of new love. At the same time, I could see myself as Morgan, being in her 30s and feeling like she's lost her way a bit. I felt every emotion as the characters were experiencing them, from heartbreak to anger to hope. This is really a beautiful story and I highly recommend it.

Thank you to Montlake Romance and NetGalley for providing this ARC for review.

In a word? BRILLIANT!
I devoured this emotional novel in half a day. Couldn't put it down and that's with my own deadlines!
Such a wonderful story of young love, marriage, fidelity and how one catastrophic event can change everything you believe in.
I rarely cry when reading books but this one made me bawl towards the end.
A beautifully told story of a mother/daughter evolving relationship and how the right man will stand by you no matter what.
Absolutely LOVED IT!!!!!