A good book to read on a holiday trip. ( )

2.5 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review

Featuring characters that appeared in the Blackberry Island series, The Happiness Plan follows three friends, Heather, Tori, and Daphne and the three brothers, Campbell, Grant, and Brody that are the connection links in their friend group. Written with all the friends' lives and stories intermingling, this was a good women's fiction beach read that offered emotional highs and lows. Told from only the women's point-of-views, the focus was more on their character make-ups and development, the men were pretty distant and came off as stilted characters to me. From emotional affairs, miscarriages, finding a biological father, and realizing you're in love with your bestfriend, each woman's story offered a different emotional struggle.

Taking a chance on giving her heart was beyond impossible. There was too much risk and not enough reward. But that didn't mean she didn't miss him.

Readers of the Blackberry series will remember Heather and the fear of her falling in love with Campbell. When Campbell pushed for more of a solid commitment from Heather, she broke up with him but now that he is seeing someone else, Heather can't get rid of the pang in her heart. Heather probably got more of the page count and had the most to work through. Growing up with an emotionally manipulative mother has made her fear love as she can't trust the other person won't demand and drag her down like her mother tried. She also learns who her biological father is through an ancestry site and tentatively starts to have a relationship with him, his wife, and their two daughters.

I thought some of the actions by Heather's father and wife felt a bit forced, getting Heather's character to grow in leaps and bounds in regards to learning to accept and give love but at least her character did show and give growth. Her romance with Campbell was probably the most absent, as he's dating someone else the vast majority, but they do get their HEA because of the aforementioned growth by Heather. I felt the most satisfaction when Heather finally took a stand with her horrible mother.

She was lucky when it came to her friends. Less lucky when it came to men.

Tori works with Heather and has a “non-couple” friendship with Campbell's brother Grant, an ER doctor. Tori and Grant live across the hall from each other and with him working nights and her working days, they take care of each other's animals. Tori hates change and loves their routine but when the condos get severe water damage, they end up renting a place together, and Tori is confronted with the fact that Grant has decided to start dating. Losing her mother young and distant from the sister that hadn't wanted to take on the responsibility of raising her, their little friend group is all the family she has. Seeing how Heather has been pushed out a little as she's no longer dating Campbell and he's bringing his new girlfriend around, Tori's scared to admit to even herself that she has more than friend feelings with Grant.

This was probably the lightest story as Tori and Grant didn't have quite as much baggage as the other two couples. We get a good amount of backstory on Tori and her issues of fear of change and not wanting to rock the boat with her great friendship with Grant but Grant was pretty much a couple of pencil marks on a page. Their friendship and little touches obviously pointed to more and when Grant sees Tori in a towel, they're suddenly jumping into bed, but there wasn't really any emotional depth from Grant or to their romance. They get their HEA because Tori admits she's in real love with Grant and he just comes to the realization that yeah, he loves her too.

How had this all happened? she thought, wiping her cheeks as her breath came in choking sobs. How had they lost their way?

Daphne and Brody, probably because they are already married, felt the most heavy emotion story. They're newlyweds and Brody has accused Daphne of cheating on him when he discovers a partner at the law firm she works at sent her flowers. Daphne goes to lunch with Miguel and while recognizes he's sexy, she feels that there is nothing wrong with their working friendship. With Daphne's seventy hour work weeks, and Brody's three children from a previous marriage suddenly spending more time at their house, these two have lost time to connect. Daphne's also hurt that when she brought up wanting to try for a baby, Brody told her the timing wasn't good yet, so now she thinks he just using made up anger about Miguel to distract from the fact that he doesn't ever want a baby with her.

Like with Tori and Grant, we get way more from Daphne and Brody remained more of an outline of a hurt, angry husband. The majority of the time was spent with Daphne not wanting to acknowledge that she was having an emotional affair and therefore keeping Brody from being able to move on. With them growing more distant, Daphne also finds out she's pregnant and is scared Brody won't believe the baby is his. Not really knowing Brody had me kind of aghast at how he treated Daphne. He makes breakfast for himself and the kids but doesn't give Daphne any, when he sees Daphne smiling while reading an email (it had to do with a possible house for them to stay at for vacation) he nastily asks if it's an email from Miguel, and Daphne thinking her husband wouldn't believe her baby was his, had his petty attitude, from who is supposed to be an adult and love this woman, really souring me on him. For how deep some of their issues were, their story wrapped up fairly quickly when Daphne admitted she could see she had an emotional affair and Brody suddenly was fine with everything.

The three stories intertwined to give fairly deep looks at different emotional issues from all three women, the men characters were kind of left to the side. If you're looking for a beach read with some variety of relationship issues, animals like cute kittens and dogs getting screen time, found family vibes, and headed by three woman trying to work out their love lives, then this would be on to pick up. ( )

I really enjoyed this book a lot. I was so engaged with all of the characters not just Heather, Daphne, and Tori. Although, I will admit that I was most engaged in Daphne's story and then Heather's story. It just felt like Tori's story was not as prominent as the other two ladies.

I was really rooting for Daphne and Brody to be able to work through their problems and reconnect for a happy marriage again. Where, Heather is concerned, there was the confrontation between her and Jilian, her father's new wife that I was glad that Jilian did call out Heather. Not that Heather was trying to be meanspirited, but she needed to realize what walls she had put up that was keeping her from having her happy ending. Finally, there is Tori and Grant. They started out as friends, but you could tell that there was a spark between them. So, when they did cross the line, I was like "yes" about time.

Fans of Susan and new readers alike will really enjoy this book. The Happiness Plan is the perfect summer read! ( )