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From the publisher:

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.

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There is a lot to unpack in this book but it’s too good to ruin with spoilers. You get the gist of it from the publisher’s synopsis, but I will suffice it to say that there is so much more to this story. The characters come to life on the page, and the relationship between Morgan and Clara rings true. While there is a bit of romance, this is essentially a story about family, what brings them together and what can rip them apart. I read this in one day and was so sorry when I turned the last page.

My only criticism is that some of the details were not addressed, and the thing that could have resolved at least some of it was destroyed. I had a hard time believing that someone would do that. Other than that minor quibble, this is another excellent read from one of my favorite authors.

REGRETTING YOU by Colleen Hoover. Montlake (December 10, 2019). ISBN 978-1542016421. 365p.

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From the publisher:

To celebrate their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, Grace has planned the surprise of a lifetime for her husband—a romantic getaway to Paris. But she never expected he’d have a surprise of his own: he wants a divorce. Reeling from the shock but refusing to be broken, a devastated Grace makes the bold decision to go to Paris alone.

Audrey, a young woman from London, has left behind a heartache of her own when she arrives in Paris. A job in a bookshop is her ticket to freedom, but with no money and no knowledge of the French language, suddenly a summer spent wandering the cobbled streets alone seems much more likely…until she meets Grace, and everything changes.

Grace can’t believe how daring Audrey is. Audrey can’t believe how cautious newly single Grace is. Living in neighboring apartments above the bookshop, this unlikely pair offer each other just what they’ve both been missing. They came to Paris to find themselves, but finding this unbreakable friendship might be the best thing that’s ever happened to them…

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Sarah Morgan is a prolific romance writer and her “From Manhattan with Love” series is one of my favorites.  A few years ago, she shifted from writing romance to women’s fiction.  One Summer in Paris has been gathering virtual dust on my Kindle for about a year now.  As I’ve been trying to clear out the ever-growing number of to-be-read titles on my Kindle it was time to finally go for it.  This is a somewhat tricky review to approach.  On a surface level, I enjoyed reading One Summer in Paris, it is a quick read, the descriptions of Paris and its food are of course charming, but in the end, the book as a whole didn’t sit well with me.  The main highlight of the book is the unexpected friendship that grows between Grace and Audrey as they work together in a quaint bookshop.

After her husband’s devastating betrayal Grace has been struggling with feeling useless and learning how to navigate her life without her husband at her side.  Audrey, on the other hand, has already had to be more independent than any teenager should.  She has practically raised herself while dealing with a severe learning disability, while her mom struggles with alcoholism and is often neglectful if not downright abusive.  Seeing these two women from vastly different backgrounds support and learn from each other was the best part of the book.  Each of them begins to overcome their fears and gain confidence, while of course finding a little romance.  Then, however, things begin to take a turn plot-wise, all working towards an ending that feels a little forced and not earned.  A storyline involving Grace’s beloved grandmother, Mimi, in particular, feels like an afterthought and was not well developed.  Most important though, I feel that in Morgan’s desire to give her characters happy endings, Grace and Audrey never get to fully reflect on the trauma and difficulties they have experienced and how they have changed as a result.  As a reader this left me with some feelings of frustration by the end of the book.

While One Summer in Paris is packed with beautiful descriptions of Paris, its art, architecture, and food, even the complex friendship between Grace and Audrey wasn’t enough to keep me from feeling that this book still lacked something when it came to actual substance and character growth.

ONE SUMMER IN PARIS by Sarah Morgan. HQN Books (April 9, 2019). ISBN  9781335507549. 400 p.

1/2020 Caitlin Brisson

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The basic premise of this new telling of an old story reimagines Henry VIII morphed into a Rupert Murdoch type figure, without having learned a thing in the past 472 years.

Harry Rose is a British business tycoon whose media empire puts him near the top of every list of billionaires worldwide. This fast-paced, fun, yet engrossing read follows Harry’s marital trail of tears. Being married to one woman doesn’t work for Harry; he has one affair after another, and some of the mistresses even become wives. As a young man, he marries Katie, a devout Catholic with infertility issues. Eventually, she bears him a daughter, and not long afterward, Harry falls madly in love with wife number two, Ana, the “ice queen.” Harry’s blindly devoted secretary becomes his third wife, followed by a couple more, and he has children with several of them. But it is the burgeoning #metoo movement that creates a comeuppance for Harry, retribution for at least some of his wives, opportunities for his daughters, and a fitting end to this ultimately feminist tale.

Verdict: This story will resonate with readers, even ones those not familiar with British royal history. For readers who enjoyed the updated Jane Austen books like Unmarriageable by Soniah Kamal and Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld, and are ready to branch out.

©Library Journal, 2020

1/2020 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

WIFE AFTER WIFE by Olivia Hayfield. Berkley (January 21, 2020). ISBN 978-0593101834. 464p.

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