sarahkorn's reviews
183 reviews

I am generally fairly mid when it comes to Emily Henry (sweet, but not particularly resonant) and after hearing mixed reviews of Happy Place, I was on the fence.  It did take some time to really connect with the characters and look past their overly saccharine, youthful way of relating to each other, but by halfway through, I was hooked.

What I loved most was not the romance (TBH there are much better second chance romances, like Seven Days in June) but the themes of friendship, of growth, of doing the shit that makes you happy and at peace -- your Happy Place, if you will -- really got me. The B plots are what gave this book a 4.5⭐ ranking.

I genuinely enjoyed the juicy gossip, though while it's clear Harry and his family have gone through a lot of terrible things, it's still hard to have much sympathy for a prince. The Oprah interview, and the Netflix series, and now a surely bestselling book...at a certain point it feels like an overly desperate quest for public vindication and a money grab. I don't regret reading it, but my feelings are overall complicated.

This book did not fully live up to the hype for me. I appreciated an older, divorced heroine and complicated family dynamics. The celebrity romance element was sweet but under developed in my opinion. Leo could have been the movie's camera guy and the storyline could have still worked. Nora's character was easier to connect with, I am glad she got her HEA but I also wish she had more of a redemption arc separate from Leo. At a point I was kind of waiting for either her to realize that she's worthy on her own or for them to reconcile, but it took a while to pick a lane and once it did it wrapped everything up a little hastily in my opinion.

There were times in the last hundred or so pages the storylines became somewhat convoluted and hard to follow, but overall I loved this book and can respect Loesch's intent to leave room for many interpretations. I can see how it may be unsatisfying to some readers but it does represent the messy unfolding of Russia's past, present, and future. There is a certain sadness in the fight for a fairy tale that could never come true. The writing was beautiful and I loved getting to learn more about this critical time period.

Changed from 4.5 ⭐ to 5 ⭐ because I can't stop thinking about this book.

This book had everything. Lone women. Creepy old timey cowboys. Montana.

This book is atmospheric to the hilt, and a little bit absurd in parts, like David Lynch meets the Montana Hi-line. The whole book felt surreal and ghostly. I went to college in Montana and the small, disappearing towns across the mountains and prairies are chilly reminders of what was once a booming wild west. There's a lot of room for the imagination to run and ghosts to appear.

There were times where the weaving storylines were hard to follow but it didn't take long to catch back on.

I needed a palate cleanser after reading a bunch of dark books, and this one was recommended. Sadly it fell really short for me.

I think it was trying to be a little spicy, but the spice level is incredibly mild. Fine, if it weren't for the other big issues I had:

I love a good famous/non-famous person romance but for the Princess of Pop, Amelia seemed a bit...bland.

Noah (reminds me of another iconic grumpy southern love interest of the exact same name...somehow I've met this character before) is a bit too perfect, but what really got me was he didn't want people to feel bad for HIM for having to care for his elderly grandmother that he will just let them think she DIED. Like we are just glossing over that weird bit?

Other than Mabel, the other characters didn't captivate me. Noah's youngest sister is 26 but is characterized like a little child. 

The villian storyline with Susan in the last 1/3 of the book was a bit out of place. I understand how it was supposed to function as part of the plot, but honestly I just didn't really care.

Rachel Hawkins is a mixed bag for me (loved The Wife Upstairs, did not like The Ex Hex), and this book is too. However, I overall really liked it and think it would make an excellent book club pick because there is so much to discuss and interpret.

I've never said this about a book before, but I wish it were 100 pages longer. I really liked the setting and characters, especially the frenemy narrative and the characters' relationships to fame and power. It's a short and fast book, and could have been a lot more atmospheric and intense with different pacing.