Take This Regret by A.L. Jackson Series: Take This Regret, #1
Published by Sapphire Star Publishing
Published on April 5th 2012
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Pages: 242
There are some mistakes we make that we will regret for the rest of our lives. For Christian Davison, it was the day he betrayed Elizabeth Ayers. For five years, Christian has regretted the day he walked away from his family and will do anything to win them back. Can Elizabeth forgive someone who has committed the unforgivable? Or are there some wounds that go so deep they can never heal?
Review:
They say cowards run in the face of danger or pain. I supposed that’s what I was, what I’d become, too fearful to love, too fearful to be loved, too afraid to live— so I ran.
This is one of those books that I can see people having a lot of mixed feelings about. The reason I think that is because I had a lot of mixed feelings. It’s been weeks and I’m still not exactly sure. There were moments that made me so angry with the characters that I wanted to stop reading. Then there were moments when I completely loved it.
Elizabeth and Christian were the perfect couple for four years. Committed, intensely in love, and on track to achieve their college and professional goals. Everything changes in a split second when Elizabeth tells Christian she is pregnant and he gives her an ultimatum. The baby or him. (← See, angry moment.)
Fast forward five years later and a chance encounter has Christian face to face with the family he left behind. All this time he has regretted his decision but deluded himself into thinking Elizabeth and his child deserve better and are happy without him. Now that he has seen his child, he is hell bent on being a part of their lives again and righting his wrong.
I’d thought I’d understood, but I’d had no idea. The truth was, I never would. I wasn’t there and I would never really know. And there was nothing I could do to earn that time back. Even if Elizabeth forgave me, I didn’t think I could ever forgive myself.
As a protective mother and the woman who had her heart shattered, Elizabeth is definitely resistant (to say the least) to Christian. He does not have it easy (nor should he) and he has to prove himself.
Once I would have trusted him with my life, but now I knew better. I’d never allow my daughter or myself to be put in the position for Christian to freely dispose of us again.
What made me want to read this after I got started was wondering if and how Christian would prove himself. I HATED him in the beginning. An ultimatum like the one he gave Elizabeth is cowardly and just downright cruel. It would be bad enough to do that to anyone, but someone you have been with for FOURyears, someone you are committed to, plan to marry? I just don’t get it. Even by the end, that’s something I never understood. I won’t ever get his reasoning, I just won’t. So you probably think I hated him the whole time, right? Well, no, I didn’t. I actually started to root for him in a weird way. I was always on Elizabeth’s side, even when she was being stubborn, emotional, and challenging. Because she was being that way. There was one part that bothered me with her View Spoiler », even though I think she’s entitled to her moment of stupid after everything she went through.
This is an emotional read that chronicles their journey through regret, forgiveness, redemption, and love. It’s told in dual pov, so you get a very honest account from both Elizabeth and Christian. It’s very well written and I thought the character development was well done. Even though it was a bit slow moving at times, I was genuinely interested the whole time. I didn’t reach that level of emotion that I was hoping for, but it kept me wondering exactly things would play out. Although, I am content with where it ended, I will definitely be reading the continuation of their story in If Forever Comes.
We had the power to destroy, to devastate and ruin, to lay the other to waste.
Also Available:
Lost to You (Take This Regret, #0.5)
This is a prequel novella.
Buy on Amazon | Buy on Barnes & Noble
NEW RELEASE:
If Forever Comes (Take this Regret, #2)
This is a direct continuation of Elizabeth & Christian’s story.
Buy on Amazon | Buy on Barnes & Noble
About A.L. Jackson
A.L. Jackson is the New York Times bestselling author of Take This Regret and Lost to You, as well as other contemporary romance titles, including Pulled, When We Collide, If Forever Comes, Come to Me Quietly, and Come to Me Softly.
She first found a love for writing during her days as a young mother and college student. She filled the journals she carried with short stories and poems used as an emotional outlet for the difficulties and joys she found in day-to-day life.
Years later, she shared a short story she’d been working on with her two closest friends and, with their encouragement; this story became her first full length novel. A.L. now spends her days writing in Southern Arizona where she lives with her husband and three children.
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