This was loads of fun, and quirks...had no idea in which direction the story was going but just happy to be on the "ride". And then it totally took a huge turn...great ending!

What a fantastic story. After reading the description, I thought the book might be a frivolous quick read about rich mommies. It was so much more. I loved the setting and the characters. I didn't see the twist at the end coming and found this to be a great read. I look forward to reading more from Laura Hankin in the future. Thank you to the publisher for the advanced copy. I will definitely be recommending this book!

I really enjoyed this and didn't see the twist coming! The author did a good job of making the characters come alive and showing how awkward mom relationships can be. It was a fun, quick and easy read. I would have loved an epilogue though!

When a musician subs in as children's musician in a playgroup for the 1%, she's reeling from the reality that the struggling band she helped build has hit the big time -- without her. Claire is surprised to find herself embraced by the Instagram-famous playgroup moms she is paid to entertain. But there are secrets under the veneer. When Claire accidentally discovers an invisible hand guiding the women, she finds herself the moral center and awakens her own voice. While one one hand a sharp satire of Manhattan's elite, the underlying pathos is impossible to ignore.

Poor rich mummies. All that money but all desperate to prove they can be the best mother. If you can afford to pay ridiculous wages to a woman who comes to sing nursery rhymes to your kid, then surely you can afford a part-time nanny! It was pretty hard to like or feel any empathy for these privileged women. But maybe that's the point? It makes their screw ups much more entertaining to read about! Claire was a hot mess with her heart in the right place. But I also wondered if she just liked to jump in and stir everything up.

So even though I didn't like any of the female characters (Daniel was a sweetheart) I still really enjoyed this book. It was sharp, cutting and a little bit wicked. i would have enjoyed seeing some of the side characters getting more book time, especially Vicky (why did she never speak!). But the story was clever and unexpected. I will definitely look for further novels.

Thank you Netgalley for my ARC.

Clap your hands for this book! And I hope to surely show you how much I enjoyed this novel.

I savored every page because each one is filled with heart and understanding. Yes, there are plenty of closeups of our current times, and snapshots of what it’s like to be mother of a baby when you were used to being an independent woman. In an Instagram world, are we still real?

We meet a playgroup of Mom and their babies, the lifestyles of the rich in New York City. We also get know Claire, a young musician who entertains the playgroup. Their worlds aren’t as disparate as they first believe. Each Mom in the playgroup is a well-developed character, as is Claire.

At the beginning of the story, we are part of a wild scene which is not resolved until the end. Even though we know that there is some kind of problem, there are more twists and turns in this tale than a Chutes and Ladders game, as the wheels on the bus come off.

Engaging, insightful, fun exciting- I highly recommend this book. And I’m also glad that my kids are adults and fine! Thanks to Netgalley and Berkley Publishing Group for a digital review copy. This is my honest review.

I thought this would be a silly, light read but it took me completely by surprise in the best possible way. There was never a dull moment which I fully appreciated and it kept me so interested that I never wanted to put it down. Happy & You Know It covers the important topics of social media influence and parenting without getting to deep and intense. I highly recommend that you add this to your TBR pile. You won't regret it.

I had hopes for this novel by Laura Hankin; hope that the novel would have strong characters that I could connect with, since the premise is one of a mommy play group. I struggled to connect with the moms though, at last settling that I could perhaps connect with Claire, though I felt it was a forced connection.

I appreciated Claire was hyper aware of all the oddities from the moms in this playgroup, and in the end Amara was one that finally came around to be admirable. I just struggled to connect with the characters and the choices each woman makes. No judgement, it just wasn’t for me.

I felt at times the swearing in the novel was too much. I do not consider myself a prude in that respect, but I felt it was sprinkled at inopportune times in a effort to reach a different readership demographic.

The only somewhat surprise element was Gwen, and even then I just kept feeling sorrow for her children and disgust of her as a character.

Claire is an out of work musician whose former band just exploded on the charts. When her finances start looking bleak she takes a job leading a music class for a Manhattan play group full of gorgeous, rich, competitive, and rich stay-at-home mommies. That's when things get weird.

Happy & You Know It is partially a treatise on how hard it is to be a mom and partially an indictment of "super-mommy" culture. But then it's also a full of drug use, illicit affairs, and secrets. SO MANY SECRETS. It's like if Sex and the City took place in a playgroup with a high instagram following.

I couldn't put it down.

I really enjoyed the complexities of the characters. At first, they seemed one-dimensional but as you read further you learned why they are the way they are and the many secrets they are trying to hide.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Claire gets kicked out of a band and is forced to sing for elitist mom playgroups in order to earn a living. Although she gets off to a rocky start, she bonds with several of the women only to face betrayal. The ending is a but unrealistic, but very satisfying.

A down and out musician, Claire, takes a job leading singalongs for a playgroup made up of rich, privileged women and their babies. But of course Claire soon discovers that the women and their lives are not as perfect as they appear on the surface. Smart, entertaining novel that refreshingly had no romance element! Very enjoyable!

I thought I might be reaching my saturation point for witty takes on privileged playgroups and Instagram moms -- but this novel was a pleasant surprise. Observant, entertaining, and delightfully unpredictable, with characters I came to like (or like to hate) and an ending that was satisfying without tying everything up in too neat of a bow. A quick and mischievous read -- I'll be looking for more from this author!

Happy and You Know it is a FEISTY page turner filled with laughter and darkness. How a book can encompass both of these things is beyond me but the author successfully added this unique flair and I am THRILLED about it. While reading, I was frantically turning to pages to see what would happen next and I didn't want to put the book down. That my friends is how all well written books should be. Grab this book!

Actual Rating: 4.5 stars
Full review to come closer to release date on the blog!

A great read! Even though I am not a mother, I could relate to the characters very easily and found them very entertaining. The story and the characters felt very realistic. I loved how easy and capturing the story was as well. 4.5 stars.

This book had some nice little twists in it. It was a little slow at times and overall had me thinking about life as a new mom in a big city. How isolating it is and the added allure of having unlimited funds to do things doesn't seem so appealing when you have a small child.

Happy and You Know It is a fun, easy read about a mommy/baby playgroup on the UES of NYC. With an interesting cast of characters, all with their own secrets, you alternately root for and against them. An interesting twist and an even more interesting ending. I recommend.

Very entertaining and readable - plot is not meant to be believable, so the over top coincidences & resolutions didn’t bother me. Characters could have been drawn a little better, but all in all this is a fun read.

Engaging, quick read. I enjoyed the characters and the plot that cracked the veneer of the ‘perfect’ rich.

Claire lost her gig with a band right as they hit it big. She is down on her luck and in need of a job. So when a upper class mommy group needs a singer? She is on it!


Once she gets into these women's lives she realizes that maybe they aren't just the upper class housewives that she originally thought. (view spoiler)


This book is just pure fun. Especially if you a nosey, catty heifer like I am.


Then plot twist...I actually started to like a few of these women.


Booksource: Netgalley in exchange for review.