Title: Happiness for Beginners
Author: Katherine Center
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
ISBN: 978-1250765253
Publisher: Griffin
Publication Date: 2015
Publisher Description: Helen Carpenter can't quite seem to bounce back. Newly divorced at thirty-two, her life has fallen apart beyond her ability to put it together again. So when her annoying younger brother, Duncan, convinces her to sign up for a hardcore wilderness survival course in the backwoods of Wyoming-she hopes it'll be exactly what she needs.
Instead, it's a disaster. It's nothing like she wants, or expects, or anticipates. She doesn't anticipate the surprise summer blizzard, for example-or the blisters, or the rutting elk, or the mean pack of sorority girls. And she especially doesn't anticipate that her annoying brother's even-more-annoying best friend, Jake, will show up for the exact same course-and distract her, derail her, and . . . kiss her.
But it turns out sometimes disaster can teach you exactly the things you need to learn. Like how to keep going, even when you think you can't. How being scared can make you brave. And how sometimes getting really, really lost is your only hope of getting found.
Literary Atelier Review: In 2024 I discovered Katherine Center and her books quickly became my relaxing place. The books I read when I want to take a break from literary fiction and Shakespeare. Her novels are funny, relaxing and full of so much real emotion. She has quickly become my favourite women's fiction author.
Happiness for Beginners was the first Katherine Center novel I read. It was a fun tale set in the world of a camping wilderness course and follows Helen, who is dealing with a painful divorce and (dreamboat!) Duncan, her little brother's best friend, who she initially finds so annoying but of course comes to discover is so much more than she thought he was. If you want lighthearted, closed door contemporary romance with characters who are endearing and a main protagonist who is so real this is the ideal novel to pick up.