I really wanted to love this, the author is such a nice woman. But between the third person writing and the jumping around with the characters, I had a difficult time connecting to the story and everyone in it. Dunlop is talented, but I think her writing style needs some work.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 / 5

Wow, I was seriously blown away by this book, especially the ending. Ah, the lifestyles of the rich and famous (pardon the pun). She Regrets Nothing gives you an interesting look into how the esteemed and wealthy in New York live, at least how I imagine many of them live anyway.

This book is mostly based on poor Laila, the "lowly" girl from Grosse Point, Michigan. Daughter of a man cut off from his wealthy family due to a secret no one wants to talk about, but what made him the black sheep of the family. Laila ends up moving to New York and living with her twin cousins Nora and Leo. We also have the beautiful, driven, older cousin of hers, Liberty, who shows Laila great kindness the entire time even though frankly she doesn't even deserve it.

Laila's choices throughout the book are incredibly naive and ridiculous for the most part, but what kind of book would it be if they weren't? She is truly enamored with the life of the rich family she didn't even know existed. I love reading books set in New York because I feel like it makes them seem larger than life. NY just feels larger than life to me in general, and fun books like this set among wealthy (albeit fictional) characters there just ups the ante.

She Regrets Nothing is definitely a bit of a lighter read, while at the same time dealing with a couple heavy topics. There is also plenty of dirt and secrets mixed in to keep it spicy. It was a bit like watching a reality show honestly, and I loved every second of it. It took me awhile to get through this one because I wasn't reading it too often, but I know that if I had focused on it I would have flown through it. It also had multiple viewpoints, hurray!

3 words to describe this book: Juicy, Glamorous, Sexy.

Final Thought: If you like The Real Housewives or juicy reality shows, this is probably going to be the perfect book for you! At the end of this book my mouth actually dropped open more than once because THAT my friends, is the kind of book this is. I seriously cannot wait to see what Dunlop comes up with next!

While I enjoyed She Regrets Nothing, I didn't love it. I'm not sure what it is that kept me from being wow'd. The characters were well developed and I liked the storyline. Something just felt off and I can't put my finger on it.

3.5 Stars

A peak into the glittering world of New York society and the conflict between a poor cousin and her fabulously wealthy family.

Described as a Gossip-Girl type story, this book certainly delivers on describing the incredibly wealthy New York socialites and their often-empty lifestyle. There's romance, intrigue, family drama and blackmail - all wrapped up in a shiny bow.

I found the main character, Laila, slightly unlikable. Yet I kept reading to find out what she would do next. Laila moves from the Midwest to New York after the death of her mother and after she learns that she actually has cousins who are enormously wealthy. They take her in but Laila never quite gets over the huge chip on her shoulder.

Laila is ready to claim the life she is meant to lead. But it seems as though she will never really fit in despite her best efforts. Her arrival also re-opens old family feuds. What will become of Laila in the big city? Will she ever find her place in the family?

I am a huge fan of Ms. Dunlop and loved how she described the family drama and the day-to-day lives of New York City's young elite. There is a very surprising conclusion that never saw coming. While Laila was not my favorite, I enjoyed the overall story and the New York City setting. I am still thinking about the ending of 'She Regrets Nothing' and cant wait to see what the author comes up with next.

“I love New York, but sometimes I think that if I find my way in, I’ll never find my way out.”

This book just wasn't for me. I got about halfway through and there wasn't one character that I could say I liked. I also didn't care about their rich people problems at all, so there was that. This was a DNF for me and I hated to do it, but I just couldn't get into it. Maybe it's just me and the world I live in, but to listen to rich girls complain about their problems just got old for me and that's what stood out in the half of the book I read.

Did I just finish reading a book or did I just finish watching a telenovela that only played in my head? The world may never know.
This book is everything I hate in 384 pages. And… I loved it. I didn’t even know that was possible. That alone makes me want to give it all the stars—I mean flowers—in the world. But there’s even more things about this book that I hate/love. And one little thing that I hated more than loved so let’s start with that!

She Regrets Nothing started out a little (too) slow-paced for me. I usually enjoy reading fast paced books where the author throws feelings at your face since the beginning so reading one that started slow and then continued slow for a while was not my favorite thing in the world but at the same time it wasn’t all bad. Andrea Dunlop’s writing is BEAUTIFUL. When I say beautiful I mean it is like nothing I’ve ever read before. Her writing is so good you are not even going to try to skim read through the slow parts because you get to know about the characters and their life style and it is just plain amazing. Andrea is like a goddess above New York City who tells us everything about every character in this story (or almost everything at least)—and yes, what I mean is she wrote it in third person. I’m not one to read a lot of third person narrated books but after reading this one, I want to devour every book narrated in third person.

When I started reading this book I had no idea what I was in for. I kept asking myself, what even is this story? Is it a thriller? A suspense story? WHAT is going to happen? Not knowing nearly drove me crazy but that only added to the excitement. It was refreshing not knowing what would come next. That’s why I don’t want to give anything away. But I will tell you this, about forty percent into the story things start getting messy and twisted. The kind of twisted that grabs your stomach with two hands and squeezes so hard you start feeling anxious and thinking this is not going to end well! That’s when I really started hating/loving the story. The lies started, the sex started, the dark side of the wealthy life started to come out and some characters’ true selves started to be revealed. It is probably the most thrilling story I have ever read.

As soon as I finished reading She Regrets Nothing I wanted to scream, cut the book into tiny pieces and burn it a fire. I’ve never felt so frustrated and betrayed. I’m the kind of gal that always sees the best in people and wants the good people to have the good life they deserve and let’s just say… someone in this book deserved better, they didn’t get what they deserved and I will be forever bitter. I don’t think I’ve ever been this affected by a story and it just makes me love it more in a twisted way because dang! That’s an amazing writer right there!

I honestly can’t recommend this book enough. This one is for all of my fellow book lovers who love themselves a thrilling story with unexpected turns and unpredictable endings. It’ll make you want to punch someone in the face, bite your nails and wonder why, why, WHY.

With the death of her mother, Laila Lawrence is left an orphan at the age of 23. Laila resides herself to a middle class life in the midwest, engaged to a dentist and working as a hygienist. However, when three unknown Lawrence cousins show up at Laila's mother's funeral, Laila discovers an entire family, lifestyle and family feud that have been hidden from her. Her cousin, Liberty makes a connection with Laila. With her mother's death Laila discovers the reason for the feud and decides to change her life. Two years after becoming an orphan, Laila divorces her husband and sets out for New York City. Laila is staying with her cousin Nora and soon discovers the affluent Lawrence lifestyle, living off of a trust fund, partying every night and meeting billionaires, Laila begins to find her place among the family she believes she should have been part of all along. Although, as her star rises, Laila becomes entangled in other schemes and plots that may set off yet another Lawrence family rift when all she wanted to do was fit in.

She Regrets Nothing is an interesting twist on a modern glam Cinderella where Cinderella uses her family for all it's worth and Prince Charming is anything but. Laila intrigued me from the beginning and even now, I don't really know how I feel about her. As Laila maneuvered her way through the Lawrences, my feelings for her see-sawed from 'you go girl!' to asking myself if she had a mental problem. Although, as Laila states, she is playing the part of the chameleon; and she does it amazingly well. I do wish that I got to see more of the true Laila, but perhaps we got to see her in the end. It was Liberty that captured my full attention, I loved her authenticity and the way she both accepted and declined parts of her expected role within society. The writing skillfully balanced mystery, suspense, complicated relationships and family drama against the backdrop of Manhattan's posh social scene. I was probably as awed as Laila at some of the clubs and people in it, I was equally amazed when I found out that Mustique Island was a real place. I became even more pulled into the story near the end as things began to fall apart and I wondered how Laila would keep her carefully crafted life afloat.

This book received from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

She Regrets Nothing follows our main character Laila as she meets her estranged cousins for the first time at age 23. After forming a relationship with her cousins and finding out how wealthy her estranged family is, she’s eager to join the family and receive the perks that come with it.

As soon as I started the book I was hooked. Laila meets her cousins for the first time when she’s 23, at her mothers funeral. I was intrigued because Laila didn’t know her cousins existed, and her cousins only knew she existed by overhearing a conversation once. After that first chapter I couldn’t stop reading, I needed to know what happened that caused Laila’s father to become estranged from his wealthy family.

I really enjoyed the author’s writing style, it was not over the top, and was very easy to read. I also loved that the book was set in New York, and was about the New York elite. I think it was a great glimpse into how glamorous their lives are (or at least how glamorous they appear to us from the outside).

For the most part the characters felt kind of pretentious, but I also liked them. I felt that they’re supposed to be unlikable characters, especially Laila, and that’s what made the story so interesting and intriguing. Laila is very obviously only interested in her family’s money and will do basically whatever it takes to get to the top and get what she wants, and that was fun to read.

I think the story was also an interesting look at how money can change people. It is easy to say that you’ll remain the same person you are if you come into a huge sum of money, but I think this story shows how once you get a glimpse and a taste of what life can be like, it’s hard to go back and accept how different your life was without that excessive wealth and everything that comes with it.

The drama that this family deals with was intense, and intrigued me from the beginning. Like most families they have their secrets, except these seem to be darker and more excessive than most. It was interesting to read how the family members act and react to one another, especially since Laila is new to the family and still kind of an outsider.

At times I felt that the story dragged on, and didn’t tie up some loose strings, but overall I enjoyed the book. I definitely went in thinking this was going to be a fluffy contemporary read, but was surprised at how dark it actually turned out to be.

This is a coming of age tale of a woman who discovers she has a long-lost, wealthy family in New York City. It is a dark, edgy, gritty story of a life that has been changed tremendously by these circumstances.

I’m not going to lie, I was first drawn to this book by it’s gorgeous cover, and it is one that suits it well. I especially enjoyed reading about the places in NYC that I was familiar with, I love how it took on a life of its own and was almost a character in the story.

This book was Gossip Girl meets Sex and the City with a darker edge. It took a very unexpected left turn in the last quarter or so of the book which threw me for a loop, in a good way. I wasn’t anticipating the conclusion but it wrapped up quite well.

3.5 stars

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for a copy of this cook in exchange for an honest review.

I'm a sucker for an unfortunate soul who discovers they have a wealthy family and come into money (hi, secret dream). Andrea Dunlop's latest novel, She Regrets Nothing, introduces the world to the Lawrence family of New York City and their latest member, the recently orphaned Laila Lawrence.

After reconnecting with the cousins she never knew she had, she reevaluates her life in small town Michigan and goes to NYC to claim her place with the rest of the Lawrence clan. She crashes with her twin cousins, Leo and Nora, who are the typically spoiled and privileged trust fund babies you see out and about. Laila also gets to know her older cousin Liberty, the more levelheaded and grandfather favorite, who lends her a helping hand by offering her an internship at the literary agency where she works. While Laila waits around for her grandfather to acknowledge her and answer some questions she dives into the party lifestyle of the twins and learns quickly how to placate Nora to get what she wants and stay on her good side (and in their townhouse).

I don't want to summarize the plot, you can look that up anywhere, but I do want to touch on some things that stood out to me. At first, I found myself rooting for Laila (who wouldn't?) and hoping that the grandfather accepted her and gave her loads of money, but Laila's attitude eventually had me wishing someone would find her out and throw her ass out on the street (which happened) but a part of me wanted her to come back stronger and find some good fortune after that. Ha, maybe I was writing my own spin-off in my head!

I would have liked there to have been some sort of meeting with the grandfather, part of me thinks HE was her father since it looks like he had an affair with her mother (his daughter-in-law). That would have been a juicy story.

The Cameron storyline was a good one and definitely what made Laila a villain (poor Liberty!) but holy hell, the murder caught me off-guard! A thrill I enjoyed and did not see coming.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book! I was hooked within the first couple of pages and kept reading until the tasty end. I want more!

Highly recommend you pick yourself up a copy, it's scheduled to be published on 2/6/18.



Disclosure: I received an advanced copy of this book from Atria Books via NetGalley. Opinions are my own.

link: https://www.bookish-em.com/book-reviews/review-she-regrets-nothing-by-andrea-dunlop

I liked this book and there was some enjoyable aspects. I just felt this book was a bit too pretentious for me. I think this would be great for a lot of viewers though who love lots of drama and scandal. Thank you for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

In Andrea Dunlop’s She Regrets Nothing, the author studies the upper echelon of Manhattan. These uber-elite socialites hold all the power and make all the rules. It seems there are no consequences to their actions that money and power can’t eliminate.

When long lost cousin, Laila, finds her way to New York, her cousins pity her and take her in. The disembodied third-person narrative made me vacillate in my opinion of Laila. At times, I found her empathetic and deserving, and at other times she appeared cunning and manipulative. Is the poor country mouse really a sly, street-smart shark?

The people Laila throws in with are far from innocent and pure, however, with each move in her game she creates a more tangled web of deceit and heartache. The dynamics between Laila, her cousins, and the cousins’ “set” are varied and interesting. Laila so deeply wants to be not only accepted, but also taken care of (in the manner to which her cousins have become accustom), but she doesn’t have enough game or patience to execute a plan that will bring her dreams to fruition. Each time that Laila “regroups” she makes matters worse. In her desperation she makes one bad decision after another; she is too needy and she too strongly covets her cousins’ wealth and lifestyle.

The story is intriguing, albeit a bit slowly paced. The cast of characters is rich (no pun intended); there is but one good, worthy soul in the bunch. I fully enjoyed the author’s voice, and her very shocking twist left me pondering the author’s intended message. The ending is equally expected yet somewhat dissatisfying. This family story truly is filled with betrayal, deceit and greed. It reminded me of an addictive serial drama, like Dynasty: the situations are preposterous, you love to hate the characters, and you can’t stop watching!

4.5 stars

Raise your hand if you were a fan of Gossip Girl? Either the books or the TV series, I preferred to binge the series, but I digress. If you liked those books back in the day then She Regrets Nothing should be your next read. It’s a more adult version with a darker edge but still explores the glamorous side of the elite society in NYC. This was scandalous, juicy and full of family drama.

Laila never knew she had wealthy, albeit estranged family members until her mother passed away. When she finally meets her cousins she takes the opportunity and uses it to her advantage, the only thing she truly she wants is to be fabulously wealthy. Laila wasn’t likable at all but she sure was entertaining, this girl redefined the phrase social climber and took deceit and manipulation to a crazy level.,Most of the Lawrence family is pretty unlikable honestly, but Liberty was my favorite and not at all like the rest of the clan. She works in publishing and is a bookworm, what’s not to like?! Badly behaved characters are some of my favorites though and this had them in spades.

Books set in NYC always appeal to me and Dunlop brought the glittery backdrop to life. I mentioned a dark edge earlier and this part took me totally by surprise, for the majority of the book I figured this would be a three star read at best, nothing inherently bad, just a fun read about rich kids in the city. But things took a turn and I was pleasantly surprised and totally addicted. The ending was fantastic as well, one of those rare times where it was exactly what I wanted.

She Regrets Nothing in three words: Seductive, Dazzling and Dramatic.

For some reason I had a good feeling for She Regrets Nothing and I'm glad I was right about it!It wasn't one of the books I usually like to read ,but the synopsis was so interesting and I was intrigued. She Regrets Nothings was an enjoyable read, once you start it you can put it down until you finish it!

This story gives you a lens into two families and you meet characters that you will mostly love to hate!! Family secrets,lies, scandals are some of the things you will meet in this story!The way the story was told was brilliant and there were some twists I didn't see them coming!Liberty was a lovable character! Laila was the character that most frustrated me.I really, really did not and could not connect with her or her actions or choices.

Overall, it was a refreshing and different story from what I have used so far!!

I'm calling this at 32%. I kept hoping to be drawn into the story but I never engaged with it. The only character I really cared about was Liberty, but even she wasn't enough for me to continue on. This book just felt too pretentious and while the blurb intrigued me, there was really nothing in the story that held my interest.

I very much appreciate Atria Books and Simon & Schuster giving me the opportunity to read an early copy of this book, and I'm sadly disappointed it didn't work out for me.

2 1/2 stars

I saw this one described as a Gossip Girl type read. It had betrayal, blackmail, conflict... all the makings of a great read. It, unfortunately, fell short for me.

The main character, Laila, is very unlikable (actually, most of them are). I normally don't have an issue with a main character who isn't my favorite, because they usually redeem themselves at some point. Not Laila. Also, the story didn't flow smoothly. It seemed choppy from chapter to chapter and it took me some time to realize what was happening. It reads like a screen play, almost. There are fade to blacks between chapters, so the new chapter may pick up a year later and you have no idea. You'll fumble through a chapter, not understanding what is going on... only to realize at the end that a big chunk of time has passed. That added with characters with problems that may be self inflicted, made this one a big let down for me.

Family secrets and lies combined with greed often makes for compulsively readable fiction, even if the characters are somewhat unlikable. That's the case here. Newly orphaned 23 year old Laila discovers that her father's family, which she has never known, is actually quite wealthy. She moves to New York where she begins to circulate through their orbit. Liberty , Leo, and Nora are all spoiled. I wanted to tell all of these people (except Liberty) to go get a 9-5 job. That said, that's not really the point of this fluffy novel. There's a twist part way through that makes this a bit more interesting. Thanks to net galley for the ARC. Beware that these are 20-somethings but it's popcorn.

Money can buy anything including love and happiness right?  Laila Lawrence is convinced she can find all that and more.  Which is why she ends up in New York City after the death of her mother.  Her cousins, whom Laila has been estranged from, welcome her with open arms.  Just not open pocketbooks.

I had a love hate relationship with this story and the characters.  Especially Laila.  She had moments of being that girl next door, who just wanted to make it in this world, who needed acceptance and understanding.  But would very quickly ruin any warm fuzzy feelings by showing her true money hungry, will do anything for money traits.  It was off putting at times.  I think though that was the intent.

I craved a heroine though.  It was difficult to not look for the silver lining, the happily ever after.

The pages of this story dripped with opulence, petulance, greed, mistrust, lies, avoidance, all the worst qualities that come with lots and lots of money.  Laila somehow manages to be in the center of all of it.  She really struggles...that girl....so frustrating.  I couldn't decide if she deserved what happened to her or if she was just too naive to figure it all out.

All in all it was an enjoyable read.  Days later though and I'm still not sure I'm satisfied with the ending.  Something that's not a bad thing.  I'm not sure Laila's story is over.  I would be interested to see if the author plans anything more for her.

* I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader’s Copy of this book *