From the publisher:
From the author of the book club favorite The Nine Lives of Rose Napolitano comes a riveting feminist thriller that tackles an unspeakable taboo: regretting motherhood.
When successful Rhode Island real estate agent Lucy Mendoza vanishes, leaving her baby behind in a grocery store parking lot, the news quickly makes national headlines. Lucy’s best friend, Michelle, is devastated, and terrified that Lucy’s life is at stake. But she knows something that could complicate the police investigation. Lucy had confessed something unspeakable: She regretted becoming a mother so much that she’d fantasized about faking her own kidnapping. If the police and media were to find out, Lucy would become a monster in public opinion. Michelle is sure Lucy would never abandon her daughter. But could she be wrong? Could Lucy have been so desperate she chose to escape her life?
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Bestselling author Donna Freitas has drawn from ground-breaking research to bring readers this unforgettable novel. Her One Regret is at once a pulse-pounding feminist thriller, a moving depiction of the realities of motherhood, and a rich exploration of a subject our culture and society have rendered nearly verboten—the possibility that for some women, motherhood is an unfixable mistake.
Freitas (The Nine Lives of Rose Napolitano) pens both a gripping mystery and a provocative social commentary that is an emotional rollercoaster of a read. When Lucy Mendoza vanishes from a supermarket parking lot, leaving her infant daughter behind, her husband becomes the prime suspect. Despite Lucy’s hints about escape, her best friend Michelle knows something darker is at play. As the investigation unfolds, secrets surface and public opinion turns vicious, casting Lucy as a mother who abandoned her child. Lucy becomes a monster in the media—a woman who dared to regret motherhood. What begins as a missing person case becomes a searing examination of maternal ambivalence, female friendship, and society’s ruthless judgment of women who don’t conform to the motherhood myth that all women long to be mothers. The story exposes the impossible standards placed on mothers and the taboo reality that some women struggle with maternal feelings they are not supposed to have. The book’s most poignant moment may be Freitas’s final note, where she explains her personal struggle with this issue and how she was too afraid to tell this story – until now.
VERDICT Sure to appeal to book groups, this emotionally charged feminist thriller holds up a mirror reflecting the impossible expectations placed on women, inspiring a necessary conversation about choice and regret.
©Library Journal, 2025
11/2025 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch
HER ONE REGRET by Donna Freitas. Soho Crime (November 4, 2025). ISBN: 978-1641296380. 384p.
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