The Happiness Project by Pippa James

☆☆☆☆
Kindle Edition, 343 pages
Expected publication: February 12th 2019 by Bookouture
About the Book:
1) Exercise more
2) Eat healthily
3) Learn how to live again
Forty-year-old Alison Lund has always carefully planned everything in her well-ordered life, from colour co-ordinating her beautiful house to persuading her excitable son Alexander that sticker charts are more fun than misbehaving. But Alison’s perfect world has just fallen apart. Her head is left spinning when her beloved larger than life mother-in-law, Maggie, passes away and Alison is left heartbroken. Every afternoon they’d talk and laugh over a pot of tea, she was the glue that kept Alison together through the first few tough years of motherhood. And now Alison is trying to figure out a future without her. With a little help from her two best friends, Alison resolves to be more Maggie. After an emotional New Year’s Eve get together, the three women create a happiness project, challenging themselves to step outside their comfort zones and make the most of every single day. Daring to do things differently, can Alison learn to live more spontaneously and find happiness along the way? Or will letting go be harder than she ever imagined?

This book intrigued me from my initial read of the synopsis. I opened it up to read and I knew from the first paragraph that I was going to love this book. And I did.

Now, this is the type of book that one is either going to love or going to hate. I sincerely doubt there is going to be a middle ground. For me it was a bit of delight with a cast of characters that I enjoyed spending my time with. None of them were entirely likable and some of them were utterly unpleasant but taken all together I didn’t want to leave them. This is what makes a book like life. People are full of contradictions and no one is a completely perfect being.

Pippa James has a magical way of writing, and the quality of it is really quite good. I was enchanted from the start as I noted. It’s not always a happy tale but it is certainly one to engage the emotions. It is humorous, touching, emotional, and clever. The descriptions are wonderful and the characters are well developed.

This is an agreeable, light novel that is easy to follow and as cozy as a cup of hot tea on a winter's day. The caliber of the writing elevates it above an average rating. I enjoyed this book very much.

Thank you NetGalley, Bookouture and Pippa James for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an impartial review; all opinions are my own.

#TheHappinessProject #NetGalley