Author: Allison Winn ScotchSummary: Cleo McDougal is a born politician. From congresswoman to senator, the magnetic, ambitious single mother now has her eye on the White House—always looking forward, never back. Until an estranged childhood friend shreds her in an op-ed hit piece gone viral. With seven words—“Cleo McDougal is not a good person”—the presidential hopeful has gone from in control to damage control, and not just in Washington but in life. Enter Cleo’s “regrets list” of 233 and counting. Her chief of staff has a brilliant idea: pick the top ten, make amends during a media blitz, and repair her reputation. But there are regrets, and there are regrets: like her broken relationship with her sister, her affair with a law school professor…and the regret too big to even say out loud. But with risk comes reward, and as Cleo makes both peace and amends with her past, she becomes more empowered than ever to tackle her career, confront the hypocrites out to destroy her, and open her heart to what matters most—one regret at a time. ~amazon.com
Series: None
Publication Date: August 1, 2020
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing
Pages: 328
Obtained: Amazon First
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Rating: 5/5
Bottom Line: Multi-layered novel about the things women deal with throughout life
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Review: I don't read a lot of political fiction because I do feel it gets infused with the author's political views but in Cleo McDougal Regrets Nothing I didn't feel that at all. Sure I knew what political party Cleo was in but it wasn't the driver/focus of the book. As women, we are familiar with the term frenemy and Cleo is outed as not a nice person by her's from high school, Maryanne. Although her motive isn't really alturistic either. To say that neither of them are not good people would be too easy and gloss over more complicated feelings and circumstances.
Cleo is a wonderfully complicated character that you do feel like you know her. Cleo has always been about herself and being first or winning. What she never realized with that singular focus, she never realized how her goals and means to her goals affected other people. How they might have been hurt in the wake of the storm that is/was Cleo. With the op-ed by Maryanne, it forces Cleo to look in the mirror and realize that maybe she doesn't regret some of her actions but that doesn't mean she has to be proud of them.
There are so many great supporting characters in this book, her son Lucas being on of them. She begins to realize that it's always been the two of them and now that he's a teenager it might not hurt to be alone. She also comes to the conclusion that some of her decisions have been selfish when it came to him. In order to be a better mother, she needs to put his feelings first for a while.
This book is so layered that there were times where I paused and thought, "wow" beause it rang so true for the undercurrents of the novel. Women are put through the ringer professionally and personally and held to higher standards which isn't necessarily bad but it is certainly not fair. Ms. Scotch addresses these issues with aplumb.
Cleo McDougal Regrets Nothing will be on my best of 2020 list for sure. I highly recommend!
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