What a deliciously devious delight this was! Claire has recently lost her job as a lead singer in a band. To pour salt in the wound the same band has just skyrocketed to major fame. but Claire cannot let her family and friends back home know that she has failed so she needs to find another gig in the big apple. This is how she finds herself singing “When You’re Happy and You Know It“ to a penthouse full of glamorous mommies and their privileged babies. Whitney, Amara and there fellow beautiful mommies have bonded over their new little ones. they show up to their playgroup with their hair and makeup perfect, drink some wine, sing some songs, and take pictures. Claire finds herself warming up to this group of women and before she knows it she is sharing her own secrets with them. but under their shiny façades these ladies all have some pretty big secrets of their own that could destroy everything at a moments notice.

what a wildly fun ride this was! These moms were all such a hot mess. Really makes you think about how we really do not see the truth when it comes to social media. The story bounces between Claire, Whitney, and Amara and I thought this was the perfect blend it really kept the book moving. I was so invested in the story I found myself talking to these characters while I was reading. And can you believe it they did not listen to me? this book was absolutely better than I was anticipating. Definitely made me clap my hands!

This book in emojis 👏🏻 🎸 👶🏼 🤱🏻 🍷 📸

*** Big thank you to Berkley for my gifted copy of this book. All opinions are my own. ***

This is one of those books that jumps out of nowhere, slaps you upside the head, and demands that you read it. With good reason! Happy and You Know It is incredible.

i was hooked immediately! I rarely find a book that surprises me these days but this one does and I loved it! After that first intro I needed to know more about this story. The cover is fun but it does look like it is directed at a younger audience than the book.

3.5/5 Stars. This was an interesting contemporary mystery. I will be checking out more by this author in the future.

If you find yourself wanting to more closely examine this cute cover, you’re not alone—and the book is just as entertaining to read as it is to look at. Laura Hankin’s witty, offbeat novel centers.on a young, struggling musician who takes a job singing to the babies of a group of wealthy Manhattan mothers. As she gets pulled further into the world of juice cleanses and Park Avenue penthouses, she soon realizes there’s a darker side to the women’s glamorous lifestyle.

I really enjoyed this book and the characters. I would read other books by this author. Thank you for the ARC!

This was a bit different from what I normally read. It was a nice break from what I’m used it. I liked following the characters around in this unrealistic and overprivileged lifestyle. I recommend.
**I voluntarily read and reviewed this book

Thank you for the Advanced Reader Copy. This read was quite a gem and the plot twist had me gasping. If the global pandemic has you wondering what can get you out of your reading funk- it’s this one. Just be careful who you friend.

Not only did I receive this from NetGalley, I also purchased Happy and You Know It from Book of the Month and gifted it to friends saying if you want to fully understand new aspects young mothers have to experience while parenting in the 2020s read this book! Social Media compounds the angst one feels. Add the setting of NYC and the melodrama of the “Real Housewives” franchise and you too will be talking about this book! If you loved the friendships which culminated in Big Little Lies, you will appreciate the relationships between these characters.

I really enjoyed Happy and You Know It! It made me laugh, it made me cringe, and it made me really glad that I wasn’t one of the moms in this play group! The story was fast paced with interesting characters and I loved that they lived in such an out of touch reality. I’ve already recommended this one to several of my mom friends and definitely will be recommending it more in the future! Thank you netgalley and Berkley for my free copy.

The Nanny Diaries meets Bergdorf Blondes in this funny and thought-provoking novel from Laura Hankin. Relatable characters, friendships, and even a minor mystery make this the perfect novel fans of Abbi Waxman.

I was fortunate to receive a free ARC of this book from Netgalley. The above thoughts, insights, or recommendations are my own meek musings.

Given the premise of this novel, I had a feeling I was going to enjoy it. However, I enjoyed it even more than I was even expecting. It was a fun and creative story that reminded me of Crimes Against a Book Club in some ways.

Laura Hankin did a great job with descriptions and dialogue in order to move the story along at a nice pace and give it a genuine New York City feel. There were a lot of interesting surprises throughout, along with a huge game changer tossed in. I enjoyed the steamy scenes, as well. Not because of who was involved, but more because of how they were described. In terms of characters, I liked Amara the best out of the mom group. I was glad to get Wendy and Gwen's stories, as well. I would have enjoyed hearing Meredith and Ellie's narratives, but neither would have moved the story along. They were fun as side characters.

There is a lot of humor and heart to this story and I've been recommending it a lot. I would definitely read more by Laura Hankin.

Movie casting ideas:
Claire: Vanessa Marano
Amara: Emmy Raver-Lampman (While watching Umbrella Academy, I knew she would be a good fit!)
Whitney: Rachel Brosnahan
Gwen: Imogen Poots
Christopher: Chris Hemsworth
Daniel: Michael B. Jordan
Grant: Jamie Dornan
Meredith: Tamsin Egerton
Ellie: Kacey Rohl
Vicki: Skyler Day

This ARC was provided for review, but in no way affects the following impartial and unbiased review:
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3*
Pros: This is the equivalent of a Real Housewives season, a full-on reality show-type of story starring rich and young mummies in New York City. Fun, intriguing and captivating narrative. Natural and flowy dialogue. Feminist and showcases modern issues. Focuses on life as a young mum, the new problems, expectations and life-adjustments, as well as problematic marriages and financial woes. A chic-lit story with lots of twists and drama.
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Cons: Although fun, there's no real depth to it.

I enjoyed reading this book because of the fact that it felt like a reality television show, but it wasn't an over the moon title for me. The ending felt super strange, and it seemed disconnected from the rest of the book. I love the idea of reading books about "perfect" people and the lives they lead. For me this book read like a Desperate Housewives episode, but the ending was slightly disappointing for me. I expected more out of it.

The opening of Happy and You Know It promises a romp in NYC, with a rich looking woman in a fur running wildly down the street, vomit crusted on her person. However, I was just not drawn into this evil mommy group tale.

Reminiscent of Big Little Lies, we have a group of rich women meeting for play dates and an outsider (their playgroup musician who was kicked out of a band that is now super popular and successful). I know there are women who would be psyched to read about the elite and their dirty little secrets, but I just didn't get sucked in by any characters nor the writing itself.

I was laughing and gasping the entirety of this book. It was so much fun, and I know many readers who will love it.

This was delicious! It was like settling in with a glass of wine and my real housewives on Bravo, except this was a book. I devoured this in one day and I wanted more. Drama was rampant with all of the women, even the playgroup’s musician who thinks she is good enough to be one of them, oh, if only…

Y’all, this was exactly what I needed, it was SO MUCH FUN! Nothing like a group of fictional women losing their minds to help me keep my sanity in these pandemic times. I enjoyed each of the women and their stories, and what they had all gone through, and a few were still going through.

I cannot say enough good about this one, I highly recommend it. Read it for female friendships, ups and downs, good times and bad, and for an escape that you didn’t know you needed. And obviously, pair this one with wine. (Or whatever drink of choice you prefer!)

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley for the egalley to review!

Happy & You Know It was dramatic women’s fiction, story of newbie mothers, their playgroup and a playgroup musician who changed everything in their life. It was about motherhood, new moms’ feelings, emotions and mental health, friendship, betrayal, and scam.

Now that I finished this book I really feel great that I wasn’t part of any playgroup or anything that brings loads of competition and make me fret over all milestones. I don’t understand why moms feel they need to push their kids at such young age so that they can do better than other kids or moms! Back to review-

Writing was easy to follow, captivating and emotive. It was multiple third person narrative from Clair, Amara, Whitney and Gwen’s POV. Setting of NYC and houses of rich privileged mothers worked perfectly with the storyline.

It started with epilogue that made me think which mom was running and why and what happened. First few chapters introduced characters and their present life along with the back stories of each characters and how they joined playgroup and met each other. As soon as I started reading book, I knew there was going to be lot of drama. I was curious to find out what will happen in this playgroup and how Clair joining as playgroup musician changed their life and what she did that they might regret hiring her later, and that we don’t know until 60% of the book.

Let’s meet mommies or members of the playgroup- (Amara and Clair were my most favourite characters.)

Amara was not as rich as other mothers, and was struggling with her wailing difficult son, Charlie, who was underweight and was slow to achieve milestones. She felt tired, frustrated, and angry all the time as she was so close to promotion and had to take break from job, because of judging pitiful eyes of other mothers, especially because of Gwen’s endless advices and her perfect daughter. I like her feminist nature, trying to prove the world being black woman in world of men. I felt for her and rooted for her from the beginning. Her worries about not being better mother, missing relaxed and carefree time she had before child, and not having financial independence was realistic. Her emotional outbreaks and losing control over herself on knowing about the truth was genuine.

Whitney had everything, beautiful baby, handsome husband, money to spend, and was momstgram famous almost like celebrity, but her life was not as perfect as she showed in Instagram. She felt alone and lonely as her husband, Grant, was never there to support, away on business trips more and whenever he was back, they had arguments. He was pompous and arrogant husband who thought he was doing his part, earning money and parenting is Whitney’s job. She had her issues with Grant and I’m not fan of him but that’s no excuse for what she did. I think that was TrueMommy effect but who knows! I might have been okay with it but affair with husband of one of playgroup moms was big No No. I could see how wrong this will go.

Gwen was uptight, rich mom who inherited Brownstone from her parents after they died in accident. Her dad was alcoholic. It had huge impact on her life and biggest reason she chose Christopher as husband as he never drinks. But he had his flaws that Gwen discovered later. She kept showing other mothers how experienced she was and how perfect her daughters are. She was not most likable in group.

Vicki was quiet and dreamy one, lost in her own cocoon with her child who didn’t stay much or involved in conversation. I could relate to her, happy in her own world, not giving f***, just nodding yes or no without arguments and not showing any doubts.

Ellie and Meredith were fun to read. Their inside jokes was funny and I liked their companionship, they fought but also made up. Between two, I like Meredith more than Ellie.

Clair was musician. The band she sang in, Vagabond, kicked her out. We don’t know the reason initially so I was curious to find out what happened. She was wallowing in hurt and humiliation but then her cousin found her job as playgroup musician. Not much but the other option was move back to her parents’ basement in religious town that judged her for supporting her cousin and criticized her cousin for being lesbian. As she started working with glamorous moms, she enjoyed singing for their babies, basked in their praises and also started to know them more. I liked her, she had her flaws, she longed to live better, rich and famous life and she envied mothers for their privileged lives but she was nice. I didn’t like what she did at Amara’s house but what she discovered was shocking.

I loved the way author explored mom culture and captured emotions of each characters. These moms were constantly trying to be better mother and felt pity for the ones who couldn’t handle their kids, and worst bitched those mothers with others. What I didn’t expect when I started reading the book was so many layers along with the main theme– mental health, rich mothers’ life and their show offs, betrayal, affair, social media influence and its impact in life, race, and wellness program and scam.

Mystery was intriguing. I couldn’t guess who was behind the scam and how moms would find out about the real culprit. I enjoyed the drama at climax when moms found out Whitney’s affair and betrayal. I still couldn’t figure out why Amara was so mad at Clair who only meant well for them and felt for Clair in getting tangled in their mess. When I read about culprit’s motive for scam, I was shocked. How could a woman can do that! All events from climax to end, mothers’ development and epiphany was best part the book. End was just perfect.

Overall, Happy & You Know It was entertaining, dramatic, a little dark and deep, and lovable women’s fiction. I highly recommend this to fan of this genre, drama, and to new mommies.

Claire, who was recently kicked out of her band, is invited to be the musician for Whitney’s upscale play group of six moms. Playgroup, for these new moms, is an outlet for them, and also a way for Whitney to become a “momstagrammer”, documenting her life and the “perfect” playgroup. Little did Claire know she would come to enjoy her time with the upscale moms, and even become friends. However, she gets thrown into the middle of some very big drama in the group. A bit of mystery is involved in this story, which adds to the fun. Even if you aren’t a mom, this book is a page-turner beginning to end.

Okay, this was hilarious. An entertaining combination of rich people problems and kickass female friendships. It does touch on some serious issues like how social media affects our lives with the quest to be Instagram perfect even when that is an impossible task as well as just the impossible standards put on women and especially on mothers to be perfect. But it balances these things with strong friendships and great humor that makes the book a surprisingly fast and enjoyable read. It reminded me in a lot of ways of Liane Moriarty's Big Little Lies and Nine Perfect Strangers.