Jeremy Best is a Manhattan-based trusts and estates lawyer but is also a published poet under the name Jinx Bell. He likes his job and those around him, but life has been tough lately. When his boss’s daughter, Spaulding Simonson, comes strolling into his office one day, things change drastically. She is 19 and considers him, at the ripe of old age of 33, to be halfway dead. But she also wants to be a writer and has read his poetry. This provides them with an instant connection that quickly develops into something more.
Spaulding has a sketchy past, having been institutionalized within the last year for trying to kill herself—and the dynamic of her family doesn’t help matters. Meanwhile, Jeremy has just found a lump and is afraid that if he gets it checked, he will learn that he is dying of the same cancer that took his mother. The trials they both face bring them together providing solace in a time that is about to get even tougher.
The title of this book might be a little misleading because at the end it is hard to tell what exactly is regretted. I know there were some actions that the main character wishes he might not have done, but everything he did led him to the path that brought him his greatest joy, even if it wasn’t perfect. The connection between Jeremy and Spaulding was there from the beginning. She was trying too hard at times and he was pushing her away not wanting to go down that road. Before long it was obvious to both of them that they couldn’t ignore the attraction that was pulling them closer and closer.
Not only was there the tension that they shouldn’t be doing what there were doing, but there was also an intense sexual tension when they were around each other and especially when they gave into those feelings and found they pleasure they had long been looking for. It’s awkward at times, and certainly not great for young readers, but captures the complexities of the situation well.
The best quality of this book is that the characters were real, flawed and desperately seeking to be wanted and loved even if it was not going to be accepted by those around them. I felt sorry for Spaulding at times because of what she had to handle with her family and their thoughts of her. Her turning to Jeremy was the only option she could see but the one that finally brought her real joy. The characters were good and the story didn’t drag. The length was just right, not too short but not overly wordy to make it boring. A job well done. I certainly don’t regret I Regret Everything.
