Hey adventurer!
Last month, I read “Happiness for Beginners” by Katherine Center, and I loved it! I didn’t know what to expect, even though I had watched the movie first and enjoyed it.
The story
The story follows Helen, whose life has been off the rails ever since the breakup of her marriage and the divorce that followed. She has a younger brother whose best friend is Jake. Helen decides to go on a wilderness course to find herself and become someone new. Enter Jake. Jake also happens to be on the same survival course, and from there, the story unfolds.
Guys, it’s nature and romance. You can’t lose with that. You simply cannot.
Spoilers incoming!
The movie had: hiking, nature, being lost (in life and, well, not only), romance, love, and friendship. It was very Hallmark-like, as a lot of reviews of the book and the movie mentioned. And it was very much my type.
It was my first book by Katherine Center, and I put another book by her on my TBR after I finished “Happiness for Beginners”. I enjoyed the descriptions of nature, which were not overwhelming or too long. I enjoyed the romance, and it didn’t overshadow the hiking/nature part of the book. I loved the part of being lost in your 30’s theme (I am 31, basically the same age as the main character).
The characters were fun, and their struggles felt real. The life advice we get from Windy about focusing on the good parts of your day was such a good reminder. If you have one good thing happen during the day but only focus on how bad everything was, you’ll never notice that something good happened at all. I think we can all agree that sometimes we just really need that one good thing to hold on to.
For the longest time, I thought the whole “what I’m grateful for today” thing was complete bullshit. But once I actually tried it (thanks to a meditation app), I started realizing there might be something to it. Frankly, in today’s world, we’ve got to try to find all the positive, genuinely good things in our days just to avoid going completely cuckoo.
Reading this book felt good.
See you next!
Tanya