I had no expectations going into this book and it was everything 💚 Lovely characters and inspiring story of one woman’s journey to become her best self after divorce.

Helen is a schoolteacher about to embark on a three week survival course in Wyoming, while hiking and camping in the wilderness, she hopes to become braver and stronger personally. Dropping off her rescue dog with her brother Duncan, she finds out his goofy best friend, Jake, is also joining the course and needs to catch a ride with her.

I couldn’t put this book down, hands down my favorite from Katherine I have read so far! I loved Helen’s internal monologues and how brave she was to do this hike in the first place, it sounds very intimidating! Her quickly developing relationship with Jake was so sweet, I loved the easygoing banter immediately. Jake is, what the kids call, a cinnamon roll 100%. His story is also heartbreaking and heartwarming, he’s just a great guy. ❤️❤️❤️

This novel was surprisingly deep and I kept being pulled into it more and more. A fantastic unlikely group of characters, great bonding and funny, I loved all the silly jokes and nicknames 🤣 – and finger guns! It was giving me all the good feels and I kinda need to take a hike now 😆

Fittingly, I started reading this on Earth Day and I just loved the messaging of being one with nature. At one point there’s a quote from Beckett, the hike guide:

“All-knowing Mother, […] I’m sorry human beings are such a blight. I’m sorry we litter your earth and choke the fish in your oceans with plastic grocery sacks. We have been given incomprehensible beauty on this earth, but we don’t see it. We walk around angry and blind and ungrateful. I wish we were better, our dumb human race, but I don’t have much hope that we ever will be. The best I can do today is say: Thank you for this world of miracles. We will try to be more grateful. And less ridiculous.”

Title: Happiness for Beginners
Author: Katherine Center
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Rating: 5/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️