Happiness for Beginners by Katherine Center

 

Summary (from the publisher): A year after getting divorced, Helen Carpenter, thirty-two, lets her annoying, ten years younger brother talk her into signing up for a wilderness survival course. It's supposed to be a chance for her to pull herself together again, but when she discovers that her brother's even-more-annoying best friend is also coming on the trip, she can't imagine how it will be anything other than a disaster. Thus begins the strangest adventure of Helen's well-behaved life: three weeks in the remotest wilderness of a mountain range in Wyoming where she will survive mosquito infestations, a surprise summer blizzard, and a group of sorority girls.

Yet, despite everything, the vast wilderness has a way of making Helen's own little life seem bigger, too. And somehow the people who annoy her the most start teaching her the very things she needs to learn. Like how to stand up for herself. And how being scared can make you brave. And how sometimes you just have to get really, really lost before you can even have a hope of being found.

Review: Helen is coming out of a divorce and feeling adrift. She decides to sign up for a wilderness survival course to have time to reflect and pull herself together but is annoyed to discover that her younger brother's best friend Jake is also signed up. Over the course of three weeks in the remote wilderness of Wyoming, Helen survives lots of obstacles and also finds herself drawn closer to Jake. 

This was such an interesting but also wild premise for a divorcee! This was a very extreme wilderness challenge, with participants not allowed to bring shampoo let alone makeup. They hike all day while carrying extremely heavy packs, before eating a dehydrated meal and falling asleep under a tarp. It's hard to imagine these are conducive circumstances for romance to blossom. But it does give Helen and Jake plenty of time to talk and bond and experience obstacles like injuries together. Over the course of the trip, both confide the heaviest emotional burdens to each other. Helen had a very traumatic childhood and experienced an immense loss. Meanwhile, Jake is facing a serious health issue that will dramatically alter his future. 

On the flip side, the miscommunication between Jake and Helen seemed hard to believe, especially since Jake makes it clear from the beginning of the novel that he has a long-standing crush on Helen. Although it is unclear why he likes her so much when she is relatively mean and dismissive to him. I also thought it a little unrealistic that some discussion of his future with his medical prognosis did not factor into the book at all. Obviously, she should still date him regardless! But some realistic discussions of what that might mean long-term would have been nice.  

Overall, I did enjoy this novel. Katherine Center does such a wonderful job in her novels at presenting a fun romance but one with substance. Her characters face real obstacles and have baggage, yet still have wonderful love stories. I did enjoy the fun premise of this one. 

Stars: 4

Related Titles: 

• Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center
• The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center
  
• The Bright Side of Disaster by Katherine Center
• Hello Stranger by Katherine Center