The Happiness Plan

By: Susan Mallery

Narrated by: Tanya Eby

Length: 10 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's summary

A USA TODAY BESTSELLER!

Three women search for joy in #1 New York Times bestselling author Susan Mallery’s new novel of hope, heartache, and the power of friendship.

Heather is happy . . . ish. She has a successful business, a cute but contemptuous cat, and best friends Daphne and Tori who know where she’s broken and love her anyway. So why does she feel crushed when her ex gets serious about someone new? No problem, she has a plan. More connections will hold her together while her world falls apart, so she finally reaches out to the stranger who might be her dad.

Daphne isn’t having an emotional affair, despite what her husband believes. He started the rift in their marriage when he said they weren’t ready for a baby. They used to be the closest couple she knew. Can they find their way back to one another before it’s too late?

When Tori forms an inconvenient crush on Daphne’s brother-in-law, she suppresses her feelings. Until her apartment floods, and she moves in with the dog-loving doctor. If things go wrong, she could lose her friends. . . but if they go right, she could lose her heart.

Don't miss #1 New York Times bestselling author Susan Mallery's joyful and utterly irresistible holiday tale, One Big Happy Family, about a mother who couldn't love her kids more hopes that, just this once, they don't come for Christmas.

Discover more by Susan Mallery:

• Beach Vibes
• One Big Happy Family
• For the Love of Summer
• The Summer Book Club
• The Boardwalk Bookshop

©2023 Susan Mallery (P)2023 Harlequin Enterprises, Limited

The happiness plan

The story was different. It took me forever to read it. I don’t know it just moved very slowly. It was emotional, but for some reason felt like it was lacking some thing I remembered the character of Heather from the book sisters by choice and that was a great book but the way Heather was in this book was sort of a contradiction to the way she was when she was younger. I think I had a hard time. Grasping that 15 years had passed even though in reality, it’s more like three. Maybe that was the biggest problem.

Confusing

It took some time to understand that there are three separate stories developing as there where no hints that chapters are changing or that the focus has shifted to different character. Story itself is not really relatable or interesting.

great book

enjoyed this book. it's fun to have some characters from earlier books return . worthwhile

Good story/fair performance

The story was good with variety and some unique twists.
The performance was fair. The reader was very choppy and emotional was flat.

Easy listening

characters are good, plot line easy to follow. I'm ready for the next book in the series.

Very cute Rom-Com

Sweet story of love and family and friendship. I did want to slap Heathers mom though, can’t stand that lady!

So gooooood!!!

I couldn’t put this one down!! SM delivers another wonderful story! I recommend this very highly!

Engaging story

I really enjoyed getting to know these characters, and found the plot to be entertaining. I recommend this one.

AI sounding read

When the story first started, I had to go back to description to see who was reading the book. To me, it sounded like an automated voice. Throughout the book there were many times that the reader sounded like “Siri” reading and it was hard to listen to some of the times. Going forward, I will look to see who’s reading and decide whether to spend my money on the book.

Romance for Betty Draper

This novel tells the stories of several women struggling to balance careers, children, friendships and their personal lives. It resolves these balance issues by encouraging downgrading careers and committing to heteronormative, male head of household relationships. The refrain is that women are happiest having babies and being at home "not leaving their baby at daycare for someone else to raise while they work 60-70 hours per week", which is basically a quote from the book that shows up ....myriad times. The terrible life choices that lead a woman to be a partner in a law firm in her mid 30s are fundamentally incompatible with love and motherhood, as evidenced by the fact that she starts having, gasp, lunch with some dude who then comes on to her. Thus, Eve is guilty of an emotional affair for which she must repent by losing a pregnancy, downgrading her career and deferring to her insecure partner. And everything is as it should be. That is ONE storyline, perhaps the most overt. If 1950's social norms are your thing, then this is for you. If you like to feel guilty about being a woman and doing anything besides staying at home, raising kids and going to church, this is for you. If your identity IS the aforementioned and you want that affirmed, this is for you. If you have even an ounce of post 60's feminism in your soul, this will probably make you want to throw things....I recommend the book, if you have it.