An enjoyable read, perfect for a day on the beach, which is exactly where I read it. Yes, it's a tad predictable but the humor and heart that the author gives her characters elevates it over a typical chick lit book. It's light, yet with some profound life lessons. I thoroughly enjoyed it!

I wanted to read this novel because its oft-used plot--a person who's been through a difficult experience decides to go on an Outward-Boundish trip as a form of renewal--has always appealed to me. I knew it was going to be some light reading, and that's what I was in the mood for at the time. What I didn't quite expect was just how predictable this book was going to be. Everything about it was so obvious--when the main character mentioned that she kept a list of all her goals tucked inside her b...

When I picked up the audiobook Happiness for Beginners, I didn’t get far. Not because it was bad, it just wasn’t the right time for the book and me to connect. But then I found out that Happiness for Beginners was actually connected to the author’s new 2020 release, What you Wish For. And that was reason enough to bump it up on my tbr, and give it another try.And I’m glad I did!A couple years ago I read Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail and really enjoyed the topic. After I was...

This was such an excellent and inspiring story and everything I was looking for in the previous travel books I’d bought but ended up not liking. This story was about overcoming your fears, being content with the person you are today, and finding happiness in little things. Add to that a stupidly cute romance with plenty of humour and a survival story in the middle of the mountains, and you’ve completely got me hooked.Helen was an extremely likeable protagonist. She wasn’t perfect in the slightes...

Helen was emotionally recovering from a miscarriage and a divorce. She felt like she needed to do something new and challenging, and joined a wilderness-survival course in the mountains of Wyoming. Along the way she learns to appreciate the good points of a diverse group of people, and connect spiritually to nature. She also starts noting three good things that happened every day. The more you remember good things, the happier and more positive you will feel.I have to admit that carrying a 70 po...

Katherine Center is one of my favorite authors, but I hadn't read this one. IT'S SO GOOD. I don't know why I waited. Jake is such an unusual hero, and appealing as hell. The humor is just fantastic. But the reason to read Ms. Center is the way she portrays her character arcs through personal challenges. The narrative is always so exciting. Enjoy! All my recent recs: https://shor.by/sarina-recommends

4 STARS! My first Katherine Center read, and it was a winner!Though I would classify it as more chick-lit than romance, I devoured this story. The author's writing flowed so effortlessly, and she created a wonderfully memorable character in Helen. I didn't belong here, which would have been okay if I'd been able to tell myself there was somewhere else - anywhere else - that I did belong. I loved that Helen's search for herself didn't come across as cheesy or contrived. Because it easi...

4.25 challenge yourself starsI really like how Katherine Center creates realistic and relatable characters. In this book, we have Helen Carpenter, she’s been divorced for a year and she wants to tackle and accomplish something new! She signs up for a hard-core hiking/camping wilderness experience that she thinks will do the trick and she’s determined to earn a certificate as one of the top 3 students.Somehow her younger brother’s best friend has also signed up for the camp, so they end up sharin...

Personal growth, happiness, healing, humor, and love, with a wilderness adventure thrown in; this book was all that and more. I highly recommend this brilliant novel to women's fiction fans. Now I'm off to read all of Katherine Center's other books!

NEWSFLASH: Happiness for Beginners is being made into a movie, starring Ellie Kemper and Luke Grimes! Great casting!! Watch for it, hopefully coming soon, to Netflix!And now, back to my regularly schedule review...One of the best reads of this decade for me, featuring an unforgettable, gutsy heroine and an equally endearing, swoon-worthy hero. What more could you ask for? You have to read this book!I laughed uproariously so many times while reading this book! At first, I was worried: there is a

Omg! I had such a love/hate relationship with this book but I loved it so much more! I'm so glad I read it for one of my book groups or I might have missed it! I did get this through the library Overdrive but I have since put the paperback on my Amazon wishlist. Sometimes there are just those books that get to you. It might not be the whole book, it might be bits & pieces. It was just that for me. There were parts that got to me that I want to insert into my own life. Just little bits that I can...

5 Fanfreakingtastic Stars!!!“Happiness for Beginners” is the Best Katherine Center Novel Ever! (If you haven’t read this one yet, trust me - you must get your hands on it!). “Happiness” has absolutely everything you could ever possibly want in a novel. Heart, soul, emotion (lots and lots of emotion, cue the tears) witty banter (cue the hysterical laughter!) phenomenal writing and characters you can’t help but love. The characters I’m referring to? They will steal your heart, just like they stole...

Okay--Accidentally clicked on the rating area and wound up giving my own book 2 stars. So then I had to go back and give it FIVE. Of course! But now it looks like I'm going around reviewing my own books. Which I guess I am--but only by accident. I DO give it five stars, though!! :) My favorite of them all.

5 stars! “Don’t be a Helen.” Happiness for Beginners wasn’t just a story, it was a journey. This author will take you on a journey of epic proportions. It’s witty, fun, and fantastic. I wanted to amaze everybody, including myself. My own personal campaign of shock and awe. Helen Carpenter has just made the list as one of my favorite heroines ever. This thirty-two-year-old divorcee decides after a year of being alone, she needs an adventure. So she goes on the adventure of a l...

A much-needed escape!A year after her divorce, Helen decides to take a risk and go on a three-week life-changing wilderness survival course. What she didn’t count on was that her younger brother’s best friend, Jake, was also going on the same trip. What she REALLY didn’t count on was falling for Jake. Although this book is a love story, the focus is more on Helen’s growth and coming into her own. I loved Helen’s character; she is likable and relatable. She has substance! Jake was super sweet and...

Katherine Center is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors! She writes straight from the heart and always manages to touch the soul. Helen needs a re-boot to her life after a divorce leaves her alone, without an anchor. With the encouragement and a loving kick in the pants from her younger brother, she signs up for a wilderness trek. One with an intriguing claim…you may not make it out alive!Her younger brother’s best friend Jake is coincidentally signed up for the same adventure. Poor Hele...

4.25 “Happiness is more about appreciation than acquisition”This is a “sort of” prequel to Katherine Center’s “soon to be released” book-“What You Wish For” as you will meet Duncan Carpenter, who has a starring role in that book, and his sister Helen Carpenter, who has the starring role in this one! After getting divorced, Helen feels LOST.Her brother much younger brother Duncan talks her into signing up for a Wilderness Survival Course, in Wyoming, despite the fact that she is NOT very outdoors...

4.5 stars rounded to 5 bright, very bright starsP.P.S. OK, I am back, exactly one year after first posting this review on May 30, 2019 and awarding 4.5 stars. See my P.S. at the bottom of the review. The reason I am back is that after one year, I still think about this book and harbor very fond memories for the characters and the messages of the story. I am now sure it will be making my “ All Time Book Hall-of-Fame“ as I lie on my death bed sometime far in the future. I’ve come to the conclusion...

Find all of my reviews at: http://52bookminimum.blogspot.com/I actually have an unread ARC of Katherine Center’s newest release, but it seems like that was a big turd for most of my friends so I’ve been terrified to read it. And despite my heart telling me . . . . My brain thankfully has been pretty persistent in reminding me that I’m kind of a Grade A Asshole and I need to lower my expectations before diving into that one.Unfortunately Happiness for Beginners didn’t help minimize my fangirl...

2.5 STARSWhen I’ve read in the blurb, the heroine is going after her divorce on a wilderness survival course in Wyoming, I thought it would be a story where she overcomes the mental challenges of hiking and sets out on a journey of self-discovery… and even though the course was in the book described as “famously hard-core, invariably grueling, and occasionally life-threatening”, it didn’t live up to my expectations of a survival book. What I’ve got was a fluffy chick-lit about a 32-year-old woma...