Happy Place

I know, I know, four stars for a romance?

Yes, but Happy Place is a little more than a romance.

So what's Happy Place about?

Happy Place is Harriet's last get-together with her for-life friends in the place they have loved for years, a wonderful cottage in Maine. Things are changing, though, and Cleo and her partner Kimmy seem too busy for friendship, and Sabrina has finally agreed to marry Parth, and, most drastic of all, Harriet has broken up with Wyn.

Okay, that sounds like a romance to me. What's with the four stars?

Look at the cover of this book with all its in-your-face pinkness, with young people in bathing suits splashing and laughing, and the author's name in huge type, and you are instantly thinking, Rom-com. Read the blurb on the front book flap and you can't help but think you know where this story is going.

But, and you have to trust me on this, Happy Place is a little more. Happy Place is snappy dialogue, fresh, witty, clever, laugh-out-loud funny at times. And that's huge.

Most importantly, Happy Place is therapy-in-a-book. You will read this book and you will think, Oh, yes, that's wise. You can see the characters growing, becoming stronger and braver, moving in ways that sometimes surprise you but also seem in retrospect to feel inevitable.

A romance, yes, but a romance that might offer more than just being a silly summer read.