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.

There is a hidden message in this book, it’s we all should live our life at its fullest. No regrets! I don’t know anyone who hasn’t done or said something they regret.. Clover, the protagonist in this story certainly has. She is a death doula. She helps people pass and whilst helping a certain person she learns life is all about living. A lovely warm book that makes you think.

A feel-good novel of living your best life as you don’t know how long you have. Clover helps people to die in the best way possible but she needs to heed their advice of what they would do differently. This is a sweet romance with added bits.

Clover is a death doula; one who accompanies people through the process of dying. We are introduced to Clover through a mixture of flashbacks and present-day narrative, starting as a frightened 5-year-old girl and growing to become a complacent, lonely woman, with little going on in her life besides the naturally ephemeral demands of her job. The theme of death, as expected, runs strong.

Clover is a sometimes frustrating but ultimately loveable main character, and her flaws make her much more interesting to follow. The cast of people in her life are small in number but distinctive and charming. The writing got the story across well enough, but it was really the characters that kept me engaged.

Having said that, for a narrative that is driven largely by the dialogue between characters, the dialogue isn’t very convincing. All characters speak in detached, general terms, indistinguishable except for a few choice catchphrases. Given how interesting the characters’ lives and personalities are, it is disappointing that none of them have a particularly distinctive voice.

To me, the message of this novel - that we should live life to the fullest - didn’t really come through in the first 90 percent of the book, and when it did come, it was more like it was told directly than shown through the narrative. An issue I had with this book in general is so much of the story and characters was told very explicitly, rather than being left in the subtext (for example, I know that Clover is a social outcast because she directly told me perhaps fifty times in the first fifty pages). A tortuously analysing character can work well, but there should be some legwork left to the reader.

In all, perhaps my sparse experience with death and grief held me back from really resonating with this book.

Publishing of review to follow.

As someone who has recently lost a loved one I resonated with the underlying messages in this book about not living life with regrets and taking chances and I’d also never heard of a death doula so that was interesting. However, I found the main problem with this book was the main character Clover who I didn’t feel very connected to.

Thank you to netgalley for providing an ecopy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is a sweet book, narrated in the first-person. Our protagonist Clover has quite a special relationship with death. She witnessed her first death when she was five, lost both her parents before she reached the age of ten and was then brought up by a loving grandfather, who died when she was away travelling. This left her with intense feelings of sadness and guilt.

We meet Clover at 36, working as a death doula – in her own words a person who helps someone die with dignity and peace. Being a death doula helps to fill a void in her life, her deep sense of loss over her grandad’s death makes her feel at home in the company of those who are also grieving. She lives her life with a moral compass like no other but is also astutely aware of her own social awkwardness, her loneliness, the way how she observes life rather than participating in it, whilst constantly craving emotional connection.

This is about to change when Sylvie, a new neighbour moves in and then when she meets Claudia, a new client. Claudia’s life story makes Clover realise that she doesn’t really live her best life by slipping through it unnoticed: she doesn’t take chances, closes off her heart and exists out of habit. When Clover decides to help Claudia trace the love of her life, she acutely feels the void in her own. Claudia’s story gives Clover a glimpse of a life with fewer regrets and more risk-taking, inviting love and human connection back in.

I found this to be a thought-provoking book and also a very satisfying read.

I am grateful to NetGalley and Viking UK for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was just so lovely, and funny and life affirming. And I was so grateful for the romantic twist, it made everything so perfect.
Working as a death doula, Clover helps people who are living their final days to deal with their journey. Most people have regrets, and this wonderful story gently incites us to think about making changes now and living fuller, happier lives.

— 𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 —

𝐓𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞: The Collected Regrets of Clover
𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬: N/A
𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫(𝐬): Mikki Brammer
𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞: Contemporary
𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐏𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐝: 6th July 2023
𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝: 11th June 2023
𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: 5/5

”During my first couple of weeks, I’d felt overwhelmed with sadness seeing the unfortunate circumstances of these people, finding it hard to see past their debilitating illnesses and slowly wilting bodies. But I gradually began to realize that pitying them wouldn’t take away their pain. The kindest thing I could do for them was to look them in the eye and simply acknowledge their presence as human beings. That’s when I’d promised myself I’d never turn away from someone’s pain, no matter how much I wanted to.”

I absolutely adored this.

After reading the first chapter, I knew this would be a special book, one that would stick with me as time continues to move forward, a book that I could come back to for originality and comfort.

The Collected Regrets of Clover introduces to its main character with the words:

”The first time I watched someone die, I was five.”

Clover then grows up to become a death doula, somebody who coaches a person and their loved ones through inevitable death.

I am now literally obsessed with Clover. She is such an earnest and socially awkward main character, with strong morals and even stronger caution. Reading her character arc had me weeping. She is sublimely described and felt everything with such depth even if she didn’t understand it.

The story itself is such a tender, respectful, and hopeful exploration of death and grief. The author normalises the conversation of death and yet shuns societal ideas of grief. Other cultural traditions with the death of their loved ones are demonstrated in this story and quite honestly, death has never looked so interesting.

As a trainee mental health nurse, I found this story so refreshing, relatable and applicable to real life. I know a few nurses who believe that when a patient dies in a hospital, we need to open the window so that the soul doesn’t get trapped. If that’s the kind of information that resonates with you, then you will love this story.

—Kayleigh🤍
@ Welsh Book Fairy🧚‍♀️✨

What a fabulous book. At first glance it could appear a morose and gloomy tale of Clover who is an introverted, lonely, death doula. The more you read the more you realise why Clover is the way she is and what happened in her past to lead her there.

The writing is wonderful and so descriptive that I read the book in one sitting, I literally could not put it down!

A true coming of age book complete with the realisation that it is never too late to change