I Regret Everything by Seth Greenland

Happy Thursday, readers! Today I'm a stop on the TLC book tour for Seth Greenland's I Regret Everything.

Jeremy Best is a lawyer by day but his alter ego is that of the poet Jinx Bell. His boss's daughter, Spaulding, discovers his identity and immediately strikes up a sort of friendship. But as Jeremy faces down a truly life-altering discovery, their relationship blossoms into something more. 

Greenland has such a way with words. I read something recently praising an author's wordsmithing and that's exactly what Greenland is - a wordsmith.

Stylistically he plays with both Jeremy and Spaulding's narration opting for no quotation marks in Spaulding's chapters. Their voices are both very well established in the narrative and that particular quirk of style makes Spaulding's chapters that much more unique to her character. The interplay between the two, laid out in chapters that alternate their POVs, provides a fun bit of he said she said as well.

I wasn't sure what to expect out of this book and now that I've finished I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it. On the one hand, it's a bit of a downer. More than a bit. And I definitely didn't think the book was going to take the direction that it did in terms of Jeremy's story. But the relationship between the two characters is endearing and they are undoubtedly two of the most human characters I've encountered in some time. By that I mean not just coming across as real people you might meet on the street, but imperfect and eccentric in a way you only experience in those closest to you.

To see more stops on the tour be sure to check out the official TLC tour page here. And for more on Seth Greenland and his work, you can visit his website here.