Lee Kelly is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. I've enjoyed every single book I've picked up and I can't wait for what's next. With Regrets is fabulous. You'll love to hate some of these characters.

Thank you to NetGalley And the publisher for the advanced digital copy.

Imagine the worst night of your life, the world may be ending, you can’t get to your children, and you are trapped with the most insufferable people ever.
Suspenseful, apocalyptic story that keeps you moving fast.

With Regrets Is like the Twilight Zone version of Big Little Lies. Or a remixed version of The Mist by Stephen King if it took place in a mansion in the New York suburbs during a bougie insta influencer's dinner party.

The members of the dinner soirée are frenemies. Not even the married couples seem to like each other very much. They are just trying to drink and eat the perfectly curated and chef catered food provided by the instafamous host and see how they each can level up in the social circle.

Who cares that the news has had some strange reports tonight and the UK has been on lock down? These people just want wine and to see the glamour of the social media star's party behind the posts. #richpeopleneedtochill

Well, the bizarre tainted air in the UK travels by cloud and mid party it has reached the USA. Now, there is a problem. Parents frantically try to reach out to their babysitters, but there is a communication blackout. People start to lose it. It's all a great time (for the reader, at least).

Where would you want to be at the end of the world? NOT at a ridiculous party hosted by a vapid influencer, that’s for sure… but that is where Liz, Mabel (both with their husbands), and Padma are. Here with Britta and her husband Joel, when a bulletin goes out that there is some strange affliction that is affecting people, killing them. They have called it The Shimmer.

All anyone wants is to be home with their loved ones: spouses and kids, but they are stuck together, quarantined in the basement of Britta’s sprawling home.

As the hours tick by, defenses go up and tension between the group gets thicker. Everyone has secrets. And each of them have a tipping point.

This was so intense. I didn’t like any of the characters at the start. They were showing how obnoxious and how annoying they could be… but as time went by, true colors were shown and my eyes opened to the battles they were each fighting in their own hearts and minds.

I found this to be a clever and enigmatic depiction of what could really happen in a situation like this. The idea of the situation they find themselves in was scary in its own way, but this book is less about that and more about human nature. How people act in certain situations and I found it to be a truly entertaining read!

Imagine BirdBox, but with the worst people.

A Sunday night dinner party hosted by an influencer who wants to collaborate with a new start up. She invites her best friend, who is hiding a secret and who's anxiety manifests into her LITERALLY grasping her pearls; the city gossip and her loud-mouth husband, another couple who moved to the area from Manhattan, and the start ups husband and wife, who was the principal of the local school.

Leading into the dinner party, tensions are high all around. Each couple has secrets, from the others and from each other. During the first course, phones starts to beep with emergency news alerts about a glimmering cloud that is fast-moving and destroying everything in it's wake. Local, state-wide and national announcements state that all should stay inside and as low as possible.

While the crowd rushes into the wine cellar, truths come out and people's character starts to really show. There is a battle about exposure, a battle for control and a battle for their lives and getting back to their children.
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The Glimmer is TERRIFYING, just....destroying everything in it wake. I did find the biggest 'secret' to be a fun little twist from the norm. Everything was terrible in their own way, but it was nice to get an epilogue with some resolution.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.

“…what we need is to pull this dinner off. Do you think you can just do what you’re told? Do you think we can just survive tonight?”

When Britta Harris-Che, instagram influencer of #Brittasays, invites four couples to a dinner party at her house to impress them with her McMansion and ostentatious lifestyle, nothing goes as planned. This snarky group of country clubbers includes the town gossip, a dystopian novelist, a new mother with post pardom depression, and the PTA president. They are all keeping secrets from each other. When the evening is abruptly interrupted by news of a fatal airborne pathogen called the Glimmer, chaos ensues. Didn’t they just survive Covid 19?

What is the Glimmer? How will the partygoers get home to their children? Will Britta get footage for Instagram?

and…

Will they survive?

With Regrets can best be described as Katherine St. John’s The Lion’s Den meets Josh Malerman’s Bird Box.

This dystopian horror plot seems to have been inspired by living through Covid 19. The author perfectly captures the fears, anxieties, and claustrophobia of a pandemic. How terrifying to be separated from your kids and unable to get home to them in this type of emergency!

While all of the characters are extremely flawed and somewhat annoying, I really liked the direction this plot took. They each pretend to keep it together and wonder if they are enough. In the beginning I wasn’t sure if I could tolerate more of their shallow behavior, but I was on the edge of my seat for the last 30%!

However, the name of the phenomenon, The Glimmer, does not capture the terrifying threat associated with it. It needs a better name!

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by this book and really enjoyed it!

3.5/5 stars rounded up

Expected publication date: 9/5/23

Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane books for the ARC of With Regrets in exchange for an honest review.

Funny enough, I didn’t realize when I requested this that it’s the same author I read an eARC for earlier in the year! I enjoyed this book from Kelly much more than the one she co-authored (The Antiquity Affair with Jennifer Thorne).

I loved the premise! It was a mix of Birdbox and The Mist by Stephen King vibes. Also the cover is the main reason I picked it up, it’s gorgeous! The story is told through switching POVs between 4 different characters, (who I won’t name because minor spoilers?) and each character has their own voice and was well developed!

The characters are complicated and mostly unlikeable in that their personality is being rich and “important.” Liz and Padma are the only ones I liked for the most part. Britta is like a train wreck where you can’t stand her but don’t want to look away either. She’s the typical influencer/wellness life coach that tries to create a perfect image where everything is not always what you see on social media. I feel sorry for her kids being used for her brand, especially the oldest daughter who is being parentified.

Mabel had ups and downs, I didn’t have strong feelings about her one way or the other. Gwen was kind of entertaining with all her gossip, she reminded me of Laura Dern’s character in Big Little Lies. And all the men were just awful most of the time, with the exception of Romer.

Overall, all the characters try to present a perfect image but over the course of 24 hours are forced to acknowledge their issues and the cracks begin to show. With that, there was a lot of character development throughout the book which I think was really well done!

The premise was unique and I didn’t want to put this down! The pacing was well done and the ending was good. I don’t read a lot of science fiction, especially apocalyptic stories, but I loved this! I definitely want to check out more from Lee Kelly in the future.

Highly recommend for any sci fi or horror fans, especially if you enjoy dystopian/apocalyptic stories.

Rating: 4.5 stars

With Regrets, by Lee Kelly, is a fun, suspenseful read that I wouldn't have come to on my own, but am very glad that I did.
I found the premise to be thought provoking and well executed, and I was engaged from beginning to end. These kinds of books are always among my favorites to read: take a bunch of well manicured, presentable people, throw them in a chaotic situation, add some weird stuff, and watch everything melt down.
Well done. A pleasure to read. I'll be looking forward to reading whatever else Lee Kelly writes in the future.
Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for the digital advance copy of the book in exchange for my honest opinion.

This was a quick read about an apocalyptic event that happens while some people who may or may not want to be together are gathered, which is a source of tension in the story. However, some problems arose for me in the way the story was told. It seemed at first like it was going to be centered around one character, and for a lot of the story actually continued to center that character’s storyline and perspective, but it also switched back and forth between other characters viewpoints. It would have been more successful for me either dividing equal time among all the characters, or staying focused on one main character and telling the other stories through her lens. Some (okay, most) of the characters also felt pretty flattened down to tropes; there’s actually a part of the story early on where the “main” character assigns tropes to the other people at the dinner party, and while they occasionally break these stereotypes, they often stick to them, which actually felt pretty unnatural, especially considering the circumstances. But it was still fun to read, if you like sci-fi/apocalyptic stories.

This book had me hooked from the beginning and I just couldn’t put it down! The Glimmer was such a unique and terrifying phenomenon. It was suspenseful and the characters, though a bit stereotypical at times, all had great internal monologues and motivations. I loved how there was so much going on behind the scenes and, obviously, out in the open. It was perfectly balanced between character and plot driven, with both sides being equally intriguing. I will most definitely be recommending this read and thinking about it for a long time to come.

This one was very interesting! I hate to give it 3 stars because it had such an interesting and fascinating premise that grabbed me fairly quickly. I don’t typically read novels like this so I was excited to dive in.
I do wish that the story was a little more polished overall. I don’t feel like we ever really got to know any of the characters as much as I wanted to! Their back stories were lacking in my opinion, which made it hard to really care for any one character. As a mother, it was easy to relate to each mother and their overwhelming guilt and fear. However, because some of the characters had secrets that stayed hidden for large portions of the novel, you never really got to see them in their true colors.
The “glimmer” was super scary but also mesmerizing at the same time so I could not look away and wanted to get the ending as quickly as possible!
Overall, this was a fun and unique read and I would recommend this to readers who like a little millennial-esqe drama (ie: insta, infidelity, social climbing, secrets!!) to go along with their science fiction.
A big thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for the opportunity to read this ARC!

“With Regrets” by Lee Kelly takes a suburbanite dinner party and turns it on its head. As a group of neighbors have gathered for a dinner party, strange glittering mists have appeared across the world and are wreaking havoc. Of course, the murder mists are nothing compared to the secrets the neighbors are keeping from another and their spouses. The standout aspect of this book is the fact the male counterparts take the backseat of story to the “suburban moms”. They drive the story forward as they struggle to find a way to survive, save their children, and in any many aspects find the desire to want to continue. They struggle through realities of post-partum depression, failing marriages, and changing desires. As the women band together they realize they have been putting forward fake realities and only together can they throw off the proverbial yoke of what it means to be a woman and mother today. The apocalyptic background adds both intensity and humor to the nightmares so many families deal with daily. Overall, a fast, quick read that will speak to many mothers out there.

My first impressions reading With Regrets was that it was a mix of The Mist meets a Real Housewives dinner party from hell. But as we learn more about each of the guests, secrets are revealed and alliances shift it becomes something more complex. I was invested in the relationships between these women and felt the story was quite heartfelt. The pacing and tension are also great, I would have finished in one sitting if I did not have to get up for work the next day. Exciting, thought provoking and an interesting mix of genres.

A massive thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

What a ride! Absolutely enjoyed this book. The drama from start to finish... just, wow! I will be reconsidering dinner invites from now one because you just never know, lol! Thanks Netgally.

Liz and her husband have left the Big Apple behind and want to fit in in their new neighborhood, that’s the only reason Liz accepts the invitation to lifestyle influencer and neighbor, Britta’s get-together. Liz thinks Britta is a pain in the butt, but she agrees to go to appease her husband, who seems to want to be part of the “in crowd”. At the party, they all get red alerts on their phones advising them to seek shelter and stay inside. In the wine cellar, the party guests begin to unravel as fears about what’s happening outside and worries about their children, left with babysitters erupt. In a town littered with bodies and crashed cars, their worst fears have come true. The question is, how do they survive?

Wealthy suburbian couples, a 'lifestyle guru', secrets and a dinner party - what could go wrong?

Well... when they get a 'red alert' come through on their phones to find shelter immediately and stay inside, panic breaks out. Trapped in the wine cellar.. suburbian drama and secrets unfold, morals are questioned and self awareness comes into play.

The suspense of the story, coupled with the unfolding disaster was well written, and the characters reactions were realistic - overall becoming a fast paced, sci-fi novel which keeps you on the edge of your seat.

Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for this eARC.

Elegantly crafted with a brilliant and timely premise, With Regrets throws the cracks in the facade of suburbia's elite into relief through a disaster of potentially apocalyptic proportions. Playing on the claustrophobia, forced proximity and upending of normalcy with which we have all become well acquainted, With Regrets dials the familiar up to the extreme. With the near entirety of the novel taking place over approximately twelve hours, our cast of soiree attendees (of varying willingness) have this trauma quite literally compressed and compacted as they're locked in a cellar with rapidly decreasing contact with the outside world.

This is a novel about a world-shattering catastrophe. This is novel about women. Delightfully executed, With Regrets examines the complexity of relationships, worldviews, priorities, ethics, morality, and, perhaps most significantly, identity — it asks, as many have asked themselves in their own recent uncertain times, who are you in a crisis? Who are we when the need for pretense crumbles, if it does? What is living to you? What is your life worth to you? It preys on what some part of us has always thought of and feared. What if, when the end comes, we're away from home? What if we can't reach our loved ones? What if we're staring down our final moments among strangers, friends you can't stand, enemies who you tolerate by necessity, cut off from what matters most?

It's an original and stunning reimagining of the classic stranded dinner party gone wrong. It should not, perhaps, work as well as it does; as one of our protagonists does not hesitate to point out, this is, perhaps, the least relatable and accessible demographic to follow into their wine cellar (see the existence of a wine cellar with room enough for a party to take shelter). But the fact that these characters are, in many respects, terrible, makes it all the more enjoyable to observe them in their dead-end labyrinth. It makes it more startling and rewarding when, inevitably, the human in them is forced to show itself. I did not to be emotional by the end, but there you have it; the poignancy of the moment that precedes the climax and breaks the suffocation of the cellar-confined setting is remarkable.

A cathartic and gorgeous read. I flew through it in a day. No, it isn't perfect; yes, the creeping, beautifully and grotesquely rendered atmosphere is a bit compromised by what we shall call and unexpected detour in the name of avoiding spoilers, but yes, even this absurdity ultimately works. Of course it's absurd; their world is, our characters know as well as anyone by this time, very absurd. With Regrets is an expectedly delightful ride that was an unexpectedly deeply moving standout.

With Regrets was a peculiar novel for me, though worthwhile. I knew it would be outside of what I normally read, which was part of the appeal. On NetGalley it's categorized as General Fiction (Adult) and Sci-Fi & Fantasy and on Goodreads Fiction and Horror. Those are all suitable, if not entirely accurate. Some of the reviews out as of this writing are unintentionally misleading as well. This isn't a dystopia or post-apocalyptic. It's a peri-apocalyptic survival horror-ish melodrama with some humor and a few thrilling moments. As to the specific references made by the press release and what I've seen in the currently published reviews I can't comment much because I haven't read or watched any of them, except for the one, Coherence, which I enjoyed and was also part of why I read this. It turned out not to have much in similar though.

Honestly I'm not quite sure who the intended audience is for this, which isn't uncommon for me and is more a failure of my imagination than anything else. Although I primarily read science fiction and fantasy I think this could've done without it in this case as overall it doesn't seem to serve much more than as a plot device and if it had any deeper symbolic meaning then I entirely missed whatever it could've been. Kelly has written other books with fantastical elements, which I haven't read read, so it isn't as if this is something entirely new for her. For this book in particular I think it would've been better served to focus on the dark and absurd humor that was on the borderline between being mundane and surreal. I probably never would've come across this book if it that had been the case, but it may have been better for it.

As for the characters there are four viewpoint mothers, Liz, Britta, Padme and Mable. Liz is a writer who tends to see herself as an assertive leading character like the works she's written, though others see it as bullying. Britta is an Instagram lifestyle influencer who sees everything as an opportunity for Content and always wants to present herself as having The Perfect Life. Padme is a nursing mother who has severe doubts about her maternal suitability and has equally severe general anxiety. Mable is a Good Christian who just wants to fix people, though others see it as judgmental and condescending. Three of the husbands are also present, though none of their wives are on good terms with them. Various other characters have their own roles, but mostly to a far lesser extent. It's really kind of amazing how much the characters change during this short period of time. I wish people could make such strides towards self-awareness and empathy as they all did.

When I don't know a term I usually look it up and since this was about the sort of lifestyles that I don't know much about I was looking up a lot of brand names and other proper nouns. Did it matter much that I wasn't familiar with specific Instagram filters and hashtags, Japanese cosmetics, European wines and cheeses, fashion houses, or Safe Rooms? No, but I still like to know anyway. Some of the mentioned stuff is fictional, though I didn't know that until I looked. Simply being exposed to different perspectives was probably what I liked most about this, aside from what I saw as humorous. If nothing else, this really showed me how much I've restricted what I read and I ought to do something about that, even when considering this isn't really all that different from what I tend to read in a lot of ways.

The following may literally be only how I felt so don't take it too seriously. There were many scenes where I felt like I was reading an interactive cinematic game such as those developed by Telltale, Quantic Dream, or Interior Night. Quick Time Event (QTE) situations abounded and the conversations often reminded me of dialogue trees with timed game-changing choices. I like those sort of games, but I thought it peculiar that that's why came to mind for me. Interactive cinema like Black Mirror: Bandersnatch is similar, but not really relevant to this.

I received this DRC from Crooked Lane Books through NetGalley.

TV/Movies name-dropped and two direct references, which amuses me to do for some books.
21 Jump Street
Babysitter's Club
Walking Dead
Sleeping With The Enemy
DuckTales
Encanto
The Queen's Gambit
The Wizard of Oz
Love Actually
SNL
Mission Impossible
Zombieland
Working Girl
Indiana Jones
Modern Family
Survivor
The Scarlet Letter

The life of an influencer can never look dull, but things get a bit too exciting when a disaster interrupts a dinner party. With Regrets did a great job of creating characters that were relatable and in building tension. Even their reactions to the insane scenario they get put in feels honest. There were no moments of “no one would do that” or “yeah, right” that can come up in books like this. This was a great read that I would definitely recommend!

Note: arc provided by the publisher via netgalley in exchange for honest review

When I saw this 𝘨𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘦𝘰𝘶𝘴 book cover on NetGalley, I knew I had to read it. Then I read the synopsis and thought “ok, Big Little Lies meets The Mist - sign me up!”
Liz Brinkley 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 doesn’t want to go to almost macro-status Instagram influencer Britta Harris-Che’s dinner party. Her husband, on the other hand, is itching to get into the town’s most elite social circle. In The Falls, New Jersey, status is everything. Reluctantly, Liz leaves her two children with a questionable babysitter and braces herself for a long, annoying night.
That is just what this “Sunday soirée” promises to be when it’s clear that this meticulously planned event is going off the rails. While Britta tries to project a perfect, instagrammable family, something is clearly off. The other guests seem tense, and there is talk that Britta had to scramble to fill seats for this lavish event. And why did she invite the man that her own husband had a public shouting match with?
Then, a mysterious, glittering mist envelopes the town. The streets are littered with bodies, human and animal alike, and the group is forced to seek shelter in the wine cellar. Liz is desperate to return to her children, but every attempt to escape is sabotaged.
I really enjoyed this. The building tension and claustrophobic setting made it hard to put down and there were some genuine horror elements. The character development was excellent, as well. The POV switches between the women and, despite being initially unlikeable, it was hard not to root for each of them by the end. It’s a great story about motherhood, marriage, public image, female friendship, and social media. I highly recommend it.