What an absolutely delightful story!! Loved it so much. Charming with so much heart but also insightful.
Clover is a death doula, being with those who are dying, which sounds dreadful but it turns out to be a wonderful service. Beautifully written and a marvellous read. Congratulations of Mikki Brammer as The Collected Regrets of Clover tops my list of best books read this year.

Highly recommended read.


This review is based on a complimentary copy from Penguin General, Viking via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

#TheCollectedRegretsofClover #NetGalley #HarperCollinsAu

They say that you must not be afraid of death to be ready to live. Clover is the one who helps people in the last moments of their life, she deals with death everyday and she's happy with her life.
The Claudia happens and Clover starts to live at full speed.
I enjoyed this story even if the idea of a death doula is so removed from my personal experience, Italian culture is quite different that found hard to understand and couldn't help feeling sorry for those people dying without any loved one next to them.
That said I enjoyed how life and death mixes and how life can spring from death.
Clover is well plotted character and the story is both poignant and heartwarming.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

A remarkable novel that makes you think carefully about your own responses to living life and death. The characters are well-developed and interesting. Clover is a very amenable MC and I really did empathise with her.

A slow start however, stick with it as it is quite beautiful. The story follows Clover, a death doula who finds it hard to form relationships with people, unless she is helping them pass over. She records their final words in one of her three notebooks — Regrets, Advice and Confessions. Clover meets Sebastian at a death cafe’ and agrees to take his dying Grandmother on as a client, her friendship with Claudia helps Clover take stock of her own life.
I found this to be an uplifting and thought provoking read.
Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin General, Viking for the opportunity to read and review this beautiful book.

This was an enjoyable and insightful read. I found it a little slow to get going, but I couldn't help but feel for Clover, whose own losses had caused her to cut herself off and live vicariously through her work as a death doula. Once that work led to real lasting relationships and a new neighbour became her friend, her carefully constructed isolation began to fall apart.
Watching Clover's development throughout the book was very satisfying. A great read for anyone who values real emotions and believable endings.

This book took me by surprise and wrenched my heart. It's a slice of life type of story but with death at its center. It moved me deeply and I will recommend it to everyone.

This book. So beautiful on so many levels. With so much depth. It brings out so many emotions as you read it. It is so alive, so vivid.
The writing is beautiful also, and the main character, Clover, is such a beautiful soul.
This is one of those books where I really can’t find the right words to describe it. It is heartbreakingly beautiful, profound and, once it’s out and available for purchase everywhere, I will be recommending it to everyone, literally everyone who reads.

I really enjoyed this book. This is a book about death, or rather about a character whose life revolves around death. Clover Brooks is 36 years old, she lived with her grandfather in New York since her parents died when she was 6 years old, and after he died she remained in their Brownstone keeping all his belongings. Clover has a masters degree in thanatology (great quiz question) and works as a death doula, someone who spends their last days with the dying and helps them with anything they need to make their death better for them and those they leave behind. Sounds morbid doesn’t it? But strangely it really wasn’t.

Briefly, always a loner Clover finds peace in helping others and fulfilling their regrets but she wonders what it would be like to have a real boyfriend. She meets Sebastian and they ‘date’ but it’s clear he isn’t the one but he asks her to meet his grandmother who is dying and she agrees.

This should have been a sad and quite dark read but it was uplifting and full of hope. I didn’t warm to Clover immediately but as the book progressed I was rooting for her to sort out her life and open herself to new experiences. A wonderful poignant story that had me engrossed from start to finish. I loved it.

The Collected Regrets of Clover is a beautifully written book about the only certain thing in life: death. Despite the somewhat difficult topic, it is easy to read. The story follows Clover, a death doula, who helps people to prepare for their death and to live their remaining lives to the fullest.

Although it might sound morbid I found it both touching and full of thought-provoking insight into death and dying. The author does an excellent job of exploring the different ways that people approach death, and challenges the reader to think about their own mortality. After all, some of us are not really living and this book has the potential to remind you that life is finite so make the most of it while you still have a chance to really live. So many of us just exist, walking around like we have all the time in the world and while that sounds sort of intimidating, instead the book brings it home that death is not something to be feared but a natural part of life which if we can accept it, we might begin to stop taking our time here for granted.

I doubt that many would say that they are interested in reading about death or dying so instead I will recommend it to anyone who simply wants to think more deeply about their own life. Brammer takes a light-hearted yet wise approach to the topic of death, not shying away from the difficult aspects of but finding humour and beauty in it. This book will stay with you long after you finish reading it.

From the moment I heard about ‘The Collected Regrets of Clover’, I thought that the premise was really interesting. Clover works as a ‘death doula’, supporting people through the final days of their life by listening to their regrets, advice and confessions, which she then documents for herself in three notebooks. An unconventional childhood has left Clover, an only child, insular and with few friends, which is why she understands the importance of being there for people who have no one.

It took me a little while to get into the book because I had some difficulty warming to Clover. Whilst I could empathise with her insular nature to some extent – I am also an only child and somewhat of an introvert – I struggled with the rudeness she sometimes exhibits, both inwardly and outwardly, stemming from her avoidance of closeness with others.

Fortunately, as the story progresses and as soon as Clover meets Claudia, a new client, the book really comes alive and I began to enjoy it a lot more. I loved Claudia as a character; her wit, her charm and her reminiscences of her past. The passages set on the Mediterranean were a welcome burst of warmth and sunshine in a novel predominantly set in New York with its subways and Ubers. The book is filled with other interesting, memorable characters – Leo, Bessie, Sylvie – and a potential love interest for Clover, Sebastian. I’m not usually a fan of ‘meet-cutes’ and ‘will they, won’t they’ plot lines, but I absolutely loved the way the author developed and concluded their arc.

In summary, a really enjoyable read which has a lot of thoughtful things to say about the choices we can make in life and how that might impact our final days.

Thank you to the publishers and to NetGalley for the advance copy on which this review is based.

The collected regrets of Clover by Mikki Brammer.

Clover lost both her parents in a tragic accident when she was just six-years-old when she went to live with her beloved Grandfather. At 36 she is living in her Grandfathers apartment following his death with all his things around her and her 3 pets. She has very little life of her own or friendships of her own and her biggest regret was not being with her Grandfather when he died.

Clover works as a death doula, firmly believing that everyone deserves to die with dignity and with their wishes carried out. Clover provides companionship and end-of-life support. She records her clients’ final words in one of her notebooks — Regrets, Advice, or Confessions. She revisits the notebooks regularly and tries to do something that one of her clients regrets not doing or by taking some of the advice that her clients gave her.

Clover then meets Sebastian whose Grandmother is dying and she is asked to support Claudia at the end of her life. Claudia is a wise and well-travelled ninety-one-year-old who had an early career in photo journalism back in the 50's. Claudia takes to Clover and tells her of a long lost love and regrets on roads not travelled.. This makes Clover reflect on her own life but which also pushes her towards a happier future.

Because it deals with the subject of death I did think this would be a depressing tale but it is far from that.
I thoroughly enjoyed this debut novel I highly recommend it as a life affirming read.

Thank you to Netgalley for a preview copy.

"Grief is just love looking for a place to settle"
As a Death Doula and having lost all her family, Clover knows everything about dying. It's living that she struggles with a bit. Especially living without regrets.
A new job forces her out of her comfort zone, makes her start dating and thinking about her situation. A charming little novel on grief, regrets, love and living your best life.
While it was most of the time predictable, you can just relax into it. A page turner from the start. One review stated this reads like a hallmark movie, and there is nothing wrong with that. When in the right mood, this is the perfect choice!
For Fans of "Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine".
"The secret to a beautiful death is to live a beautiful life."

Ever since her grandfather died, Clover has been living alone in his old apartment - her only friends are her pets and 70 something year old neighbour Leo. Clover works as a death doula, helping people see out their final days in peace, and with someone to hold their hand. Yet Clover herself is so lonely and isolated, resorting to spying on her neighbour's lives and watching rom coms incessantly in order to feel anything.

When she takes on a new client, Claudia and a new relationship blossoms with Claudia's grandson, Sebastian, it looks as though Clover has a chance to finally let someone get past her defences. But a trip to track down the love of Claudia's life changes everything...

Clover Brook is a a wonderful person, but a lonely one. Meeting Claudia changes her. This is asuch a lovely book, not a sad story but a life-affirming one. Full of hope and love. I hope it does well, it deserves to become a best seller, .

Clover is a death doula in New York and yes, one of the themes of the book is death but it is oh, so much more than that. It is beautifully written and heart wrenching in places. The central character, Clover, has her own struggles due to her upbringing by her doting grandfather after the passing of her own parents at the age of only 6. She is somewhat of a recluse, missing out on life, love and friendship. She lives vicariously through the people she assists in their dying days and is by all accounts very good at her job, she then retreats to her hermitage to rest and recover between 'clients' trying to avoid human contact at all costs. She keeps journals of people's last regrets, advice and confessions and eventually comes to realise that friendship with the living is as if not more important that offering it to those in their final days but it is not handed to her on a plate. This is where the book really comes into its own as it doesn't follow the obvious path set out at the beginning, instead it allows the reader to feel all of the emotions poor Clover experiences as she finds her way in the world and gradually forces herself to join in. She takes the advice of her most recent client and decides it is time to examine her own living regrets and do something about it. She is careful to choose the right people to surround herself with, those that love and care for her and starts to live for herself instead of others.
There are many lessons to be taken from this book. It is well written and the characters are fully formed and believable. It is well worth an investment of time to read this book and could well be a favourite of this year...

Clover is a wonderful character who I loved getting to know!

Clover is a death doula who tries to ensure that no one does alone. Yet her life is pretty lonely.

Clover finds herself challenged by those around her, neighbours, employers, those she is supporting, to focus on herself and live a little.

Clover’s story is sad, complicated, funny and heart warming. She meets some very interesting characters along the way, not all of them very nice, but they all teach her something.

A wonderful, heartfelt tale about death and about living. Highly recommended.

Thank you NetGalley and Viking for this eCopy to review

The Collected Regrets of Clover is a beautiful book, it had me gripped from the first page to the last as we follow Clover in her job as a Death Doula. Due to not being upset when her teacher died whilst teaching his class, losing her parents at a young age and living with her grandfather Clover has removed herself from life. She is unable to forgive herself for not being with her grandfather when he died. She works as a death doula as penance and does not make any friends. All this changes when a new neighbour moves in, Sylvie forces Clover to go out and try new things with her and to be her friend.

Clover also meets a potential boyfriend at the death cafes she goes to. He hires her to help his grandma who is dying and her friendship with Claudia also helps Clover overcome her regrets and go out and embrace life. I don't want to say much more as it would spoil the book but it truly was uplifting and a call to go out and live your life to the fullest so that you have no regrets when it ends

This was an inspiring and sentimental read that encouraged me to examine my own life choices as well as explore the characters’ life experiences. It made me full of hope reading about a woman a little bit ‘stuck’ in her own life while enabling others to move on- and the moments when her life begins to shift and gain momentum. This was a feel good book which can go either way for me. In this case it was not too sweet for once. A thought provoking read. Many thanks to Netgalley for an arc of this book.

This book has an almost 'Midnight Library' feel to it as it deals with death, a topic that no one likes to ever talk about or even think about. But this is not a depressing book as the idea behind it, I think, is that we should appreciate life and live it to the full so there are no regrets. Our main character Clover is a death doula, which means that she supports the dying, giving them comfort, listening to them and in some cases making sure that they do not die alone. However, Clover herself seems to be alone. Her parents died when she was little and she was brought up by her grandfather who died several years previous. Apart from her 84 year old neighbour, she has no real friends. Then Sylvie moves into her apartment block and her new client, Claudia's grandson starts to make an impression on her. But Clover is guarded and is unwilling to open herself up. Ultimately this is a warm book and you gladly follow Clover's character arc as she takes tiny steps to forming new relationships.

I am enjoying this book so much! It's the tale of Clover, a death doula. She helps people at the end of their lives in the same way that a birth doula helps people as they come into the world. She is a bit of a loner, mostly due to the nature of her job, but she meets a man at a death cafe who employs her to help his Nan in her last days.
if you liked Jonas Jonasson's books or Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine, then you'll enjoy this lovely, heartwarming book.