Regretting You by Colleen Hoover

I've been seeing a lot of [mostly gushy] reviews of Colleen Hoover's books since I joined Instagram, a couple years ago. So many of my IG friends swear by her!  So I had to give one of her books a try. 

There are two interconnected storylines in Regretting You, the connection being family. 34-year-old Morgan married the wrong guy but she's happily married and close to her 17-year-old daughter Clara, the center of her universe, although she's starting to think it's time to go back and finish her education. The man she felt more in tune with as a teenager but didn't end up ever even dating is back in her life, father to her sister's baby boy and planning to marry the mother of his child. Morgan doesn't want to live a life of regrets so she's trying very hard to tolerate this complication. 

Clara is a sweet teenager and a good student with a devoted best friend but there's one boy who acts like he'll be poisoned if he gets too near her. When she stops her car to ask him if he wants a ride on a very hot day and he asks her to help move something, she discovers that he's actually a pretty nice guy. But, why has he been avoiding her at school if he's so friendly when they're alone?

When tragedy strikes and a betrayal comes to light, Morgan and Clara find themselves at odds and turning to the men who are willing to be there for them. 

Highly recommended - I love the "married the wrong guy" trope because it's always so fascinating. How can the couple who belong together get along while fighting back feelings? Is there a way they can end up together without everyone getting hurt in the process? Well, in this case, the complications are a little different than just learning to get along as friends. But, I think if I share any part of the tragedy/betrayal plot points it'll ruin the book for anyone who is interested, so I won't. 

What I will say is that Regretting You is believably emotional and I particularly liked the way Clara's feelings were portrayed as her life is pretty much spinning out of control. My only problem with the book was that the men were too perfect and, in fact, a bit too similar. And, the grief was hard. I've had a loss like Clara's when I was fairly young and it brought back the memories so it was a teary read for me. 

I have a copy of Verity on my reader so that will be the next Colleen Hoover book I read. I'm glad my Instagram friends brought this author to my attention!

©2021 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise by Dan Gemeinhart

Coyote Sunrise and her father have been traveling in a converted school bus for 5 years, since the tragedy that caused her father, Rodeo, to uproot them. They have not returned home to the state of Washington, even to visit Coyote's grandmother, since they left. 

When Coyote makes her weekly call to her grandmother and finds out a park back home is about to be plowed under and turned into a stretch of road, she must figure out a way to get from Florida to Washington to recover a box buried in the park before it's too late. But, she can't let her father know the real reason they're heading west. On the way, Coyote and Rodeo pick up people in need of help and form a lovely little make-shift family. Their new friends help Coyote with her time-sensitive mission and encourage Coyote and Rodeo to face their grief so they can live life instead of running away from it. 

Highly recommended - I loved this quirky, middle grade road trip book about grief and family and life. There's a lot of sadness in the story because Coyote and Rodeo have good reason to have been grieving and everyone they pick up along the way has his or her own troubles, but in the end there's change for the better and a wonderful ray of hope for everyone on the bus, in addition to new friendships that are absolutely heartwarming. 

After a mostly bad month (in February), The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise by Dan Gemeinhart was the book that finally broke my slump and made me feel like reading again. I will be watching for more by this author. 

©2021 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

The Museum of Forgotten Memories by Anstey Harris

And that's the most bitter thing about love: you can't understand it, measure it — not all its edges and intricacies — until it's gone and the clear print of its negative self is left behind. 

~p. 12 of The Museum of Forgotten Memories (Advance Reader Copy - the final print version may be different)

In The Museum of Forgotten Memories by Anstey Harris, Cate Morris is still grieving the loss of her husband, four years past, and now she's lost her teaching job and her home. But, she has one last option. Her husband Richard was the heir to an estate with a museum full of treasures from around the world, including stuffed animals collected by his grandfather, Col. Lyons-Morris. For reasons he never explained, Richard stopped talking to his grandfather and never returned to their ancestral home; he even dropped part of his double-barreled last name. Although he never returned before his death, their son Leo has the right to take residence in the sprawling mansion. 

So, Cate and Leo pack up their flat in Islington and travel to the home that contains Hatter's Museum of the Wide Wide World, which is now run by a steely woman named Araminta Buchan and a handful of employees and volunteers. It's on its last legs. Within 6 weeks, it's likely that the board that oversees the running of the museum will close it. They would benefit from its liquidation and it's unlikely that funds will be found to prop it up. Can the museum be saved?

Leo looks just like his father but he has Down's Syndrome and Cate has clung to her parenting role. Now that Leo has arrived at his ancestral home, he's finding a new strength and determination. Will Cate be able to let go and allow Leo to grow and thrive, even possibly start a new life with someone else? 

Richard's best friend, Simon, dated Cate before she saw Richard and felt an immediate spark. He has been a kind presence as Leo's godfather and was a rock during the rough years of Richard's decline but spends most of his time out of the country. When Cate falls for a new man, will it last or will she be drawn back to her dear friend? 

Recommended - OK, first . . . you have to know half the reason I accepted this book for review was because of that stunning cover. How could you not want to know what's within its pages? In the preface, the author talks about the real museum in Kent that inspired the story and the kindness of the Major who preserved the animal specimens the museum was known for. I just added a new place to my bucket list. If it's at all like the fictional museum version, it must be worth the visit. 

As to the story, I had some minor issues with it that aren't worth mentioning and a problem with Cate's romance. The man she fell for moved on Cate faster than lightning. I was completely creeped out by the speed of his advances, to be honest, and never trusted him. Whether or not I was correct and he turned out to be trustworthy, I won't say. But, there are many surprises in The Museum of Forgotten Memories. It has a lot of plot twists that I never could have anticipated and only a couple that I managed to figure out with few enough hints that they were probably lucky guesses rather than a case of too much foreshadowing. 

I will say that I found it challenging to like Cate, at first. She was quick to make assumptions, a little haughty, and so heavily weighed down by her experiences that her inner monologue was a bit dark, sad, and judgmental. But, she was willing to confront her issues and apologized when she was wrong. So, she grew on me. And, while I haven't encountered many Down's Syndrome characters, it felt to me like Leo's character had the ring of truth. I had a friend in high school with a brother who had Down's and he always glowed when he spoke of his brother and how everyone loved him. Leo is like that; he has a temper yet he's also a charmer and everyone adores him. 

Obviously, there's a lot to this book. It has a surprising complexity and a gentle wisdom. And, I do love a book set in a sprawling English mansion. 

My thanks to Gallery Books for the review copy!

©2020 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Invisible as Air by Zoe Fishman

Either he did this all the time or he would make a one-time exception for a friend; she didn't care. She just wanted the pills. So badly. 

Just these few hours without them in her system, her world was too much. Edges were sharper, the sun was hotter, her unresolved emotions too present. Sylvie much preferred the alternative. She would do what she had to do. 

~ fr. p. 252 of Advance Reader Copy, Invisible as Air


Teddy stopped eating, his stomach suddenly full. His parents didn't so much argue when they argued; his mom just lobbed firecrackers while his dad retaliated with water balloons. 

~ fr. p. 260 of ARC


In Invisible as Air, Sylvie has been privately grieving her stillborn daughter for 3 years but she has been unwilling to even say Delilah's name aloud. She's become distant and snappish. Her husband, Paul, has channeled his grief in a different way, exercising vigorously and becoming a shopaholic. He's purchased so much unneeded exercise equipment that credit card debt has become a problem. Their son Teddy is on the cusp of turning 13 and Sylvie is nervous about planning his bar mitzvah while dealing with work, the PTA, homemaking, and a homebound husband who has broken an ankle in a biking accident.

As a newish health nut, Paul has decided to battle through the pain of his broken ankle rather than taking the prescribed painkillers and one day Sylvie decides to take one of his pills. Just this once, she'd like to feel a little lighter. The pill makes her feel relaxed, happy, and less stressed. It even makes her kinder to the people around her. So, she starts taking one a day and then two. It doesn't take long before she's hiding the pills and then stealing to keep from having to stop taking them. While she's sinking into addiction and spiraling out of control, her new attitude actually seems to be a good thing from Paul's perspective. But, when Sylvie can no longer bear the thought of doing without the pills, can she stop taking them? Or, will her family find out and intervene?

Recommended - Unputdownable. at least for this reader. An easy read with great flow, nicely paced, which is told from three separate points-of-view: those of Sylvie, Paul, and Teddy. While I was slightly surprised by some errors (bearing in mind that I have an Advance Reader Copy) that I tend to think of as typical of newer writers, which Zoe Fishman is not, they were blips. I just had to know what was going to happen with Sylvie and stayed up way too late finishing the book. There's also one possible research flaw that I consider significant. But, again, because I found Invisible as Air so gripping, I only knocked off a point for the things I found questionable.

I think it's worth adding that Invisible as Air could be triggering for anyone who has lost a child to stillbirth as it really digs into the lasting grief felt by each of the family members and how they responded to it.

I received a copy of Invisible as Air from HarperCollins in exchange for my unbiased review. The paperback has some extra features: a conversation with the author, reading group guide, and information about other books by the author. My thanks to HarperCollins!


©2019 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

When God and Grief Meet by Lynn Eib (review)

When God & Grief Meet by Lynn Eib
Copyright 2009
Tyndale House - Grief/Comfort - Christian
187 pages, incl. lists of resources

Author and pastor Dan Hans, who lost his three-year-old daughter to a brain tumor, says, "To lose a parent is to lose your past; to lose a spouse or close friend is to lose your present; and to lose a child is to lose your future." Each death shakes a little different part of your world.

If you want to start a lively discussion sometime, just ask a roomful of grievers whether anyone has made an insensitive remark to them since their loved ones died. I guarantee you the recollections will be vivid, free flowing, and still hurtful no matter how much time has passed.

"God wanted another flower in His garden."
"At least you have other children."
"God must have needed her more than you do."
"At least he lived a long life."
"You're young--you'll find someone else."
"I thought you'd be over this by now."

I just finished reading When God & Grief Meet about twenty minutes ago and I thought it was one of the best grief books I've ever read, so I'm sitting down to hammer out my review while it's still fresh in my mind. Again, this is a very Christian book, with Bible verses peppered throughout the text. Some folks might not like that, but since I'm a Christian I have always found comfort, hope and reassurance in Biblical scripture.

As a grief book, in general, what I truly loved is that this book targets no specific type of loss (a parent, children, spouse, etc.) but has general appeal. The author leads a grief support group and describes examples of a variety of losses and grief experiences, along with ways people emerged from their "grief storms". She talks about the fact that grief is something that stays with you forever, but which you learn to live with. I'm sure a lot of people who've experienced loss really appreciate reading that kind of statement because we've all been told it's about time to "get over it" or have been patted on the back while someone who simply is ignorant about loss makes a completely inane statement that implies that your grief is just a flicker. For those of us who have experienced loss, we know better. Loss is not fleeting; it's a hole that is never filled. It stays with you, forever. You never, ever stop missing someone you truly loved.

Like my old favorite classic grief manual, Good Grief by Granger E. Westburg, When God & Grief Meet is the kind of book that reminds you, You're not alone. It's okay to still feel that absence, even years later. You will get through the hardest part and learn to live with your loss.

No matter who you are, what you've accomplished, or what you believe, the intensity of your grief will surprise you. . . . when new waves of grief come, I encourage you to remind yourself that your strong grief is a testament to your strong love.

There's a chapter entitled, "Throwing Rocks at God's Windows." I hadn't heard that there's a Jewish proverb on this subject: If God lived on earth, people would break His windows. That made me laugh because I understand the anger, the questions, the disappointment, the pain and how people who believe in God frequently throw those unanswered questions back at him in anger, after loss.

"What did we do to deserve this?"
"When am I ever going to stop reliving those last days?"
"Where was God when I prayed for a miracle?"
"Why did she have to die just now?"
"How am I ever going to go on without him?"
"Who really cares how much I'm still hurting?"

After this opening to the chapter, the author talks about the sense of "profound injustice" (bereavement counselor Robert Zucker's wording) people feel, especially after a particularly cruel or untimely loss. As an example, Lynn Eib describes two friends whose losses were unexpected. One of them, Gigi, lost both parents in a freak car accident and found herself reliving their last moments over and over, again, as they fought to escape from a sinking car but drowned before rescuers arrived. She also talks about a friend whose sister was kidnapped and murdered, some parents who've lost children to suicide, a father whose 3-year-old son was crushed by a heavy window left propped against his neighbor's house and whose neighbor then actually told the father You should thank me for sending your child to Heaven. Unbelievable.

My rating: Huge thumbs up. When God & Grief Meet is wonderful. I hope I don't need it too much, myself, and don't have to recommend it often but it's another book I'm putting on the keeper shelf for future reference. By far one of the most comforting, reassuring, intuitive, lovely grief books I've ever read.

You can read another review, here:

Wendi's Book Corner

Tonight is drawing night. If I'm late posting, this evening, it's because the turnout was so terrific. Please be patient with me! The winner's name should be up by midnight, U.S. Central time.