Review: Happy and You Know It by Laura Hankin

This book has been on my radar for months and it’s also been all over my social media and of course it was a Book of the Month selection which made it all the more buzzy!

I really liked the premise of this one, especially as a stay at home mom myself, I thought there would be a lot to enjoy and relate to in this one even if it sounded a little on the darker side.

But the fact that it was getting so much hype kind of worried me, sometimes the hype is real and sometimes it’s just not, but either way I was definitely on board with reading this one!

Summary

A dark, witty page-turner about a struggling young musician who takes a job singing for a playgroup of overprivileged babies and their effortlessly cool moms, only to find herself pulled into their glamorous lives and dangerous secrets….

After her former band shot to superstardom without her, Claire reluctantly agrees to a gig as a playgroup musician for wealthy infants on New York’s Park Avenue. Claire is surprised to discover that she is smitten with her new employers, a welcoming clique of wellness addicts with impossibly shiny hair, who whirl from juice cleanse to overpriced miracle vitamins to spin class with limitless energy.

There is perfect hostess Whitney who is on the brink of social-media stardom and just needs to find a way to keep her flawless life from falling apart. Caustically funny, recent stay-at-home mom Amara who is struggling to embrace her new identity. And old money, veteran mom Gwen who never misses an opportunity to dole out parenting advice. But as Claire grows closer to the stylish women who pay her bills, she uncovers secrets and betrayals that no amount of activated charcoal can fix.

Filled with humor and shocking twists, Happy and You Know It is a brilliant take on motherhood – exposing it as yet another way for society to pass judgment on women – while also exploring the baffling magnetism of curated social-media lives that are designed to make us feel unworthy. But, ultimately, this dazzling novel celebrates the unlikely bonds that form, and the power that can be unlocked, when a group of very different women is thrown together when each is at her most vulnerable. (summary from Goodreads)

Review

While some might take a look at this book and think ‘how unrelateable’ others might take a look and realize they know some moms like this. I was in the ‘I know someone like this’ camp even before I started reading it. So many moms and small mom businesses made motherhood look so amazing and trust me, it’s not when it’s 2 am and you are scrolling through Insta and haven’t showered in 3 days.

The world of stay at home moms is full of those trying desperately to show they have their shit together and social media only exploits that so when I saw that this book was going to take a closer look at that perspective I was intrigued.

This one started out so great. It has a captivating opening and there was just so much promise in the first part of the book, but then toward the end it started to fizzle out for me. The disconnect in pace between the first half and second half is what kept me from giving this one a higher rating than 4 stars.

As I expected or hoped, as a stay at home mom, there was a lot for me to relate to and I loved so many of the scenes. I laughed a lot and some of the scenes and situations caught me right in the feels. This was a very well written story, but I just wish the pace stayed more solid rather than getting bogged down a bit toward the end. Overall I really enjoyed reading this one and it had a lot of substance and heart which is exactly what I was looking for and expecting from this one. Is the hype worth it—for me it absolutely was.

Book Info and Rating

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