Regrets Only: A Novel

Erin Duffy

May 2018 · HarperCollins

About this ebook

From the author of Bond Girl and Lost Along the Way, comes a fiercely funny, insightful story of marriage, family, and the crooked path to figuring out who we really are.

Claire thought she had everything a woman was supposed to want—a loving husband, a newborn son, a beautiful home in the suburbs. Then she walks in on her husband canoodling with their realtor in their newly renovated kitchen, and in an instant, her perfect life comes crashing down.  

With her marriage heading for divorce, Claire knows it’s time to stop feeling sorry for herself. But how can she move on when she’s still stuck in the orbit of her husband’s world? For starters, she can get rid of her soon-to-be ex’s possessions—including his prized, gigantic foosball table—by dumping them onto the curb…until complaints from the neighbors get the police involved. Now Claire is busy dodging the mean mommies at story hour and hiding from her ex-husband’s girlfriend in the grocery store. But as Claire soon learns, suburbia still has a few surprises in store for her—surprises that will make her question her choices from the past, send her down an unexpected road to self-discovery, and maybe even lead to new love.

Desperate for a positive outlet to channel her frustrations, she turns to girlfriends Lissy and Antonia for help. Together they join forces to rebrand Lissy’s local stationery store and turn it into a thriving business. But as Claire soon learns, suburbia still has a few surprises in store for her—surprises that will make her question her choices from the past, send her down an unexpected road to self-discovery, and maybe even new love.

Featuring a second coming-of-age story, Regrets Only deftly explores the subtle nuances of marriage, family, friendship, and what it means to be a woman today, while delighting readers as its unforgettable heroine acts on impulses we’ve all been guilty of having.

Ratings and reviews

Solid characters with an ease in the writing style that foreshadows and allows readers to instantly sort the “good” from the “bad” and find the likeable characters. To be honest, the characters here were the best thing about the story – as we struggle through with Claire as she tries to reframe her life and her outlook as her marriage crumbles around her. Her husband has moved on with a new girlfriend, even as his “stuff” is left out on the curb to avoid that ‘face to face’ that Claire so desperately wants to avoid. Best friends Lissy and Antonia provide support, a new project and some badly needed positive reinforcement, allowing Claire to find a new purpose and direction as she reviews her choices, good and bad, and tries to set her feet on a new path. Unfortunately, the perseveration and lack of conviction with ALL of her decisions leave readers feeling Claire is a windsock – blowing with the wind from one direction to another – none that feel particularly well thought out or even decided with any sort of thought. That, combined with the lack of anything particularly unique or unexpected kept the progress and story solidly in the middle of the road range – while there was a serious change around for Claire, and she did find a new way of being, the path wasn’t full of revelations but more an expected story of growing up and attaining adulthood. I received an eArc copy of the title from the publisher via Edelweiss for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.

About the author

Erin Duffy graduated from Georgetown University with a B.A. in English and worked on Wall Street, a career that inspired her first novel, Bond Girl. She lives in New York City with her husband (whom she met the old-fashioned way—in a bar).