Realized I didn’t submit this review and came back to rectify! Loved this one. Though I left DC myself to get away from politics, loved dipping my toes back in the waters with this one. Allison’s books always feature a smart, charismatic lead and this was no exception. Especially loved the relationship that really grows throughout the book with her daughter!

Thank you so much NetGalley for this ARC and I apologize for not reviewing it sooner. Cleo McDougal is a boss bitch who makes it happen. She not only is a highly ranked politician, but she balances her work life balance as a single mom. She is on track to becoming a presidential nominee when a " friend" from her past declares her a bad person. For damage control, she decides to right mistakes she has made in the past. I always enjoy reading Allison Winn Scotch novels because they make you feel good. She constantly delivers as one of the queens of the rom com novels, and I will always read anything she writes.

If you want a book about politics, don't read this book. In fact, go and pick up 'Charlotte Walsh Likes To Win' - this is a bit of a carbon copy of that. The opening few chapters of this book are great - they're packed full of action, about a single mother and politician who has a list of regrets she wants to amend for. But from there...it all kind of goes downhill. I couldn't finish this one - life's too short for bad books.

What first drew me into this book is Cleo’s unconventional circumstance: it’s not every day you read a story about a single mom who is also a senator and pondering a presidential run.

This book is about a politician but is not a book about politics, though I desperately wanted it to be. It’s more about feminism, motherhood, and the desire to change. It was entertaining but nothing to write home about.

A fun, entertaining & original tale!
Interesting, engaging characters & timely subject matter.
Definitely an author I would return to.

I’ve been a fan of @aswinn’s books for years so I was thrilled to get an early ebook copy of her latest - “Cleo McDougal Regrets Nothing.” It’s about ambition, family, and how life can change. I really liked this timely novel, and it’ll be out in the world on August 1.

I love the cover and title of the book. While I liked the story, it wasn't a favorite by any means and I had a really hard time connecting with Cleo or caring about her. I wouldn't pick it up again but don't regret the time spent on it either.

Thank you for the advanced copy of this book. My reviews can be read on my GoodReads account here: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1335387-kelly

A political read, with smart and sassy writing.. Haven't read any by Scotch before but will be looking for more by her. A timely read.

Cleo McDougal Regrets Nothing is fun and smart with a bit of sass along the way.

There’s a political edge to the story, which provides a timely read, but more fun than real life politics. ;)

This is my first book from Miss Scott and I enjoyed her writing so much that I picked up another book of hers.

Allison Winn Scotch hopes that her eighth novel, Cleo McDougal Regrets Nothing, resonates with readers as "a thoughtful reflection on being a woman in this specific moment in time, . . ." It is a powerful exploration of female ambition, friendship, and learning to be comfortable and unapologetic in one's own skin. And yes, those topics require a very different analysis with respect to women than they do in relationship to men. Which is one of the points Scotch makes with insight, humor, and compassion.

"Cleo McDougal is not a good person. She does good, yes, but doing good and being good aren't the same, now, are they? In fact, her whole life Cleo McDougal has been a cheater. She cheated in high school, on the debate team, on the school paper, for a summer internship, and from there it only got worse. " By the time Senator Cleo McDougal learns that her former best friend, MaryAnne Newman, has written those words in an online alternative "newspaper," the piece has gone viral on Twitter and across the internet. Political blogs are having a field day at Cleo's expense. Unfortunately, Cleo had taken the advice of her chief of staff, Gaby, imparted from her therapist: spend an hour each morning "unplugged." So while Cleo completed her morning workout, showered, dressed, and dragged her fourteen-year-old son, Lucas, out of bed -- all by 7:15 a.m. -- her brilliant career may have imploded. She is utterly blindsided, not because she never thinks about MaryAnne, but because, over the years, she has "spent a lot of time trying not to think about her. How can you drive away from your past without even glancing in the rearview mirror? That kind of focus took effort."

But MaryAnne goes too far. In the article, she alleges that Cleo had an affair with a married professor and speculates that he might be Lucas's father. And it is Lucas who receives an alert about the article on his cellular telephone and informs Cleo about it.

In the hands of a less skilled writer, Cleo's story could have been far less moving and emotional than the book proves to be. Scotch very specifically set out to write a tale that is not focused on romantic relationships or politics, and succeeds spectacularly. She deliberately created Cleo as a single mother because "being on her own was a statement that she didn’t need the man." Cleo happens to be a politician and the story plays out against that backdrop, but the focus is on the way in which Cleo reacts to her former friend's accusations and what she learns in the process. Interestingly, Scotch decided that making Cleo a politician was the "most overt way to exemplify all these ways women are being held to a higher standard because we saw it play out [in U.S. politics]." She didn’t think it would be "necessarily as effective" if Cleo was in the corporate world.

Cleo is intelligent, strong, self-reliant, and extremely ambitious, an attribute that is required to succeed as a professional woman, whether it be in politics or another career. Her image has been carefully cultivated and she knows that she must launch into a salvage operation in order to save her political prospects. Women's reputations simply are not made or broken in the same way as men's. She's acutely aware that ambitious women are still viewed quite differently and judged harshly through a misogynistic lens. Cleo was about to announce her candidacy for the office of President of the United States, a dream she is not going to let go of without a fight.

At first, Cleo is believably defensive and denies MaryAnne's accusations. But Gaby declares that Cleo is going to embark on a "No Regrets" tour during which she is going to confront her top ten regrets, culled from a list of 233 that Cleo was encouraged by her father to write down so she could later look back and decide if they were truly mistakes and, if so, learn from them. But the list hasn't served her in quite the way her father envisioned. "She'd convinced herself that if she purged her misdeed on paper, recognized it for what it was -- anything from an innocent mistake to an intentional obfuscation -- she could pick it up and leave it behind her on the side of the metaphorical road, drive away with a clean conscience." Of course, life doesn't work that way. And Gaby's idea sounds preposterous -- no male politician would undertake such an endeavor, after all. But, as noted, Cleo is all-too-aware that the rules are different for men and women, and Gaby is insistent that Cleo must show everyone how liable and relatable she is, even though she's made mistakes.

So she complies, but instead of simply confronting her past for the sake of her future, Cleo begins examining in earnest the choices she has made, the calculated ways in which she ensured that she attained her goals (congresswoman at the age of 25, senator by the time she was 31, and now, at 37, poised for a presidential run). She realizes that, over the years, she placed a high value on things that turned out to be less worthwhile than she estimated. She discovers that she justified her own conduct without considering the circumstances objectively, taking others' perspectives and viewpoints into account.

In a particularly poignant and powerful encounter, Cleo confronts her law school professor. she acknowledges her role in their history, but indicts him for his behavior as she belatedly takes steps to ensure that no other young woman finds herself in a similar situation, something she could and should have done years ago. In the process, as a result of her newfound bravery, she finds herself inspiring other women and realizes that she doesn't regret "burning it all down. If she had to do it all again she would. Tomorrow. That was the opposite of regret, she decided. That was living."

At last, she comes to terms with having withheld information from Lucas, the son she loves and tried to protect. And reconnects with her sister, Georgie.

Scotch takes readers on Cleo's journey with her as she confronts the choices she made, the people she hurt, the mistakes she didn't own up to at the time, and the ways in which she failed to acknowledge and process her own feelings. Scotch employs her signature witty, often hilarious dialogue, surrounding Cleo with a supporting cast of characters that keep the action moving and prevent the story from becoming maudlin or cloying. The mother of teenagers herself, Scotch hits just the right tone with Lucas. His commentary and emotional reactions are credible, sometimes heartbreaking, and thoroughly endearing.

But it is Cleo's evolution that is the centerpiece of the story, effectively and compellingly chronicled by Scotch as she navigates her listed regrets and seeks to set things right. She learns about accountability and forgiveness, and in the process gains new appreciation of and the ability to productively harness and direct her own power.

From Scotch's perspective, the book is ultimately "about power: having it, losing it, abusing it, flaunting it, sharing it, craving it, and bequeathing it." An"part of being a woman and being a human is that you just gotta rise up." Readers will find themselves cheering for Cleo as she slogs through her past and makes decisions about her future. Because for all of her faults, she is empathetic. Every woman reader will see something of herself in Cleo, which is the real joy in reading about her sojourn, and cheer for her to rise up just as women all over the world are, at this time in history, rising up and demanding that their power be recognized and their voices heard.

This really missed the mark for me. The premise of the book seemed interesting and intruiging. But the main character, Cleo were just boring and i didn`t feel like she had enough character development, plus it took a long time before she worked on the list of regrets and it kind of felt rushed - espesially the ending.

Being a woman is hard. Being a woman in politics is even harder. Allison Winn Scotch’s pitch-perfect new novel, Cleo McDougal Regrets Nothing, beautifully dives into this harsh truth, and, honestly, it could not come at a more fitting time.

Cleo McDougal has had her future mapped out forever. Congresswoman at twenty-five. Senator at thirty-one. Nothing can stand in her way from her next stop as the presidential nominee–except for maybe her childhood best friend’s scathing op-ed and the accusation, “Cleo McDougal is not a good person.” Does Cleo have regrets? Certainly. 233 of them at last count. But what keeps the brilliant single mother successful is her drive to always move forward and never look back. When her chief of staff comes up with the idea for Cleo to take a “No Regrets” tour, owning her mistakes and making amends, Cleo must face every complicated decision she’s ever made and accept the fact that long-buried secrets can’t stay locked in a drawer forever. Cleo McDougal Regrets Nothing is a heartfelt and honest look at impossible standards of womanhood–those unfairly put on us by society, and those we unfairly put on ourselves.

I’ve been a fan of Allison Winn Scotch for a long time, for her wit, her complicated characters, and her way of engrossing you in a story the minute you pick it up. From start to finish, Cleo McDougal Regrets Nothing is a complete joy to read. Cleo is a character you can relate to and root for, whether she’s coaching her assistant on how to stop apologizing, hopping on a flight to boldly face her past, or resisting every urge to tell her teenaged son to wash his hair. While Cleo’s regrets are uniquely her own (regrets involving her law professor, too much bourbon, and, for reasons she can’t remember, brownies), her overarching struggles are universally female. When is the last time you heard a male politician—or a man in general—criticized for being too ambitious, not smiling enough, not wearing shoes that make their legs look good, or—God forbid—having a few gray hairs? Cleo’s journey is humorous, heartwarming, and utterly human, deftly exploring gender disparity, motherhood, friendship, and the idea that our pasts—the good, the bad, and the in between—shape who we are.

Cleo McDougal Regrets Nothing is not only a compulsively enjoyable read, it’s an empowering read. If you’re looking to be entertained and inspired, do yourself a favor and pick up this book. I promise, you won’t regret it.

Allison Winn Scotch can write a hell of a relatable book, even if the main character is running for President.

Cleo is definitely someone who you could be friends with and her teenage son is portrayed perfectly. At times poignant and also hilarious, Allison gives us another fantastic novel.

Clever and insanely funny. The author wrote a book that was intellectually written and can be applied in real life. I appreciate the down to earth story intertwined with an entertaining character. The political climate today deserves a refreshing out look and a book involving a sense of humor.

I enjoyed this book, and loved the premise. Cleo McDougal is a successful politician until she reads an op-Ed written by one of her childhood friends. It’s scathing and says “Cleo McDougal is not a good person.” In response, Cleo creates a regrets list, and she decides to address them one at a time.

Unfortunately, in my opinion, Cleo is not a nice person, and I got frustrated reading about her. The book was well written, but it wasn’t for me. 2.5 stars, rounded up to 3.


Thanks to Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Cleo McDougal is a career politician. She has set her sights high. Her aspirations include the presidency. However, when a friend from her childhood publishes an op-ed entitled, "Cleo McDougal is not a nice person," damage control must begin. Cleo's good friend, and chief of staff comes up with the idea that Cleo must list all of her lifetime regrets. She will pick the top 10 and work to fix them in a media blitz to save her career. Along the way, Cleo learns a lot about others and herself. A cute book.

Cleo McDougal is a lovable, flawed single mom and senator who is considering running for president. Like all of us, she has regrets. Unlike most of us, she has made an actual list of her regrets. As she seeks to remedy some of her regrets, things start to blow up. I enjoyed following Cleo through her journey of forgiving others as well as forgiving herself.

Thank you to NetGalley, Allison Winn Scotch and Lake Union for this entertaining ARC.

This was a cute story. I liked the idea of the regret list and how Cleo focused more on what was right than what would make her look good for a nomination. I did feel it got a little wordy at times and found myself skimming. I found could skim an entire page and not feel like I missed any important details. I did like the characters in the book and wish we got a little more out of some of them.

I started out loving Cleo - she was funny, driven, everything I would want in a political member. But as the story moved along, her past came out, and she started thinking like a 21 year old girl instead of the veteran she was...and that's where I felt that the story lost control for me