(Im)perfectly Happy by sharina harris

This story about four women who meet and become close friends,picks up ten years later as they try to continue fulfilling dreams they had back then. The story delves into the friendships of the four, romances they have and the drama with all of it. I really wanted to like this story but there were some issues that I could not get past.

The story itself did not hold my interest, the flow was not smooth, I was lost at times and trying to figure who was who. The characters were not memorable and yet with that said, it is worth a read based on the interaction of the women. True chick lit.

I would read another book by this author.

Rating 3
Linda C.

This is a fantastically reading tale of four ladies who recommit to their aspirations after realizing they haven't been able to accomplish them the first time around. The author's willingness to tackle tough emotional issues with creative answers in a character-driven narrative that leads to satisfying HEAs for everyone is a highlight.

DNF -Did not finish. I decided not to finish this title. It was not for me. Thank you, publisher, and NetGalley for the early copy!

First of all, I must say I love the cover of this book. Between the bright color and the sprinkles, I had a feeling that I was in for a treat (get it?)!

And this book was a fun treat indeed. It focuses on female friendship, which I enjoyed. I thought the story was paced well and I enjoyed the character development.

Overall, a solid read!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to review this ARC.

love love love a female friendship story & this one is so much fun! Sweet, memorable and filled with a lot of heart!

I read Imperfectly Happy by Sharina Harris & loved it. Reading it felt like I was part of this circle of close friends & I enjoyed being privy to their experiences. The author did an excellent job of portraying all four of them, complete with their own voices, thoughts, & experiences. It made for a very full reading experience. Reading it was like sitting down with your own girlfriends to talk, share, & lean on each other. Well done Sharina Harris, I’ll read more of your books!
Thank you to NetGalley for the complimentary copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.

A fun and witty look at female friendship. Just the laugh-out-loud read I needed
Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for my ARC. All opinions are my own.

ImPerfectly Happy is a book about four old college friends, now in their 30s, who have all stopped pursuing their dreams, but for all different reasons. Together, they make a pact to start pursuing their dreams again and to hold each other accountable.

While the premise of Imperfectly Happy had a lot of promise, I thought the pacing of the book was very slow-going, to the point where a lot of the book was just plain boring in my opinion. I was dragging my feet trying to finish it, which I eventually did after over a month of putting it on hold and then coming back to it.

All in all, ImPerfectly Happy is a book about finding happiness. That being said, I found it more than a little ironic that the title of the novel was IMPerfectly Happy (emphasis on the IM part), but everything turned out pretty damn good for each of the four women. I think the story probably would've been more powerful if that had not been the case and they had to learn to accept only partially achieving their goals, which I feel is more realistic.

Imperfectly Happy almost perfectly creates a modern story of love and friendship as it crafts four women who have successfully continues to be close after years of graduating college. While it focuses on each of these women for what they're struggling through, what they're achieving, what they're saddened about, and what they're enjoying, it also greatly depicts them all together as a fantastic group. With an ownvoices representation of Black women, this contemporary fiction glides through romance, dreams, happiness, and growth in a manner that portrays the characters as distinct personalities while also setting up friendship goals.

I really enjoyed this story overall. This women's fiction follows a group of girl friends whose life hasn't gone exactly how they wanted. They decide to revive their Mastermind's group from college and go after their goals they put on hold. The friend group was amazing and I really enjoyed their dynamic. Each character was fleshed out enough for me to actually care about each woman's storyline. There were times when the book was a little melodramatic for my taste but I still enjoyed the story overall.

This book is fine, if you like books written with 4 main characters, all in first person. At the beginning of each chapter, I have to squint and think, oh, that's Kara, she's the sommelier and in the unhappy relationship. Or, oh that's Rae, she's the radio person and in the unhappy relationship. they are all self centred, and boring and interchangeable, and while it feels churlish to quit with less than an hour to read, I'm also hoping that all four of their husbands/partners get a life without these women. I'd rather quit reading than finishing reading about these self indulgent, pampered women.

Found this book to be a tad too 'glossy' in the sense that the characters didn't feel real and more like 'I think a woman going through this problem should be like that' and that's what we got. The conflicts and life issues also felt very juvenile for women who are supposed to be in the thirties, and then they were so 'not-unique' that it was hard to decipher who was who in scenes where they all met. Sadly, none stood out and this made this story a very forgettable and 'meh' experience for me

Thank you to NetGalley, Kensington Books and Sharina Harris for lending me an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
If you’re looking for your next good read, look no further. This book has the perfect mix of relatable and realistic to keep me invested in the characters. The story follows four friends who met in college during their prime years. Now years later they are finding themselves uninspired and needing a change. I loved reading about a group of women with healthy friendships. Too often we see women written as enemies and it was a breath of fresh air to read about people I recognized in my own friendships. This was my first time reading Sharina Harris’ work and I will definitely be checking out more in the future!

Four friends since college, Kara, Nikki, Rania and Sienna are navigating life . Nikki is a stay at home mom, but wondering what would it be like if she hadn't given up music. Kara's plans to be a master somilier was put on hold when she has a devastating loss. Sienna is standing behind her man as he runs for office, but secrets that end up coming out make her wonder in what direction she should move in next. Rania's radio show is a hit, but her telling the truth can be more than she bargains fore when the higher ups don't like it.

The story was a very enjoyable read. With what's going on, I've been a little emotionless. This book almost took me out of that. The characters were very relatable and It was a joy to watch their journey. It was engaging It was definately a page turner, and I will be looking for anything else this author comes up with.

Set in Atlanta and focused on four women who’ve been friends since university, Harris has created a story that displays the best qualities of friendship and support, even when we aren’t being our ‘best selves’ in every situation. Four women with vastly different views on how the world should work for them, and goals that may have seemed unobtainable after choices dampened some of the resolve and options wide open some ten years earlier, there is something for everyone to relate to here.

From dreams passed over in favor of another choice, to fear of moving forward, grief, infidelities, relationship struggles and truly finding their lost “mojo” that was forefront and loud when leaving school, we see each character go through struggles, changes, challenges and self-examination: from learning to deal with grief, to finding your own purpose, even things as simple as redefining a marriage or finding a new job that doesn’t wear on a daily basis. Stay at home mum and frustrated singer Nikki, Radio Host Raina, grief-stricken Kara and lawyer Sienna all have challenges and choices thrown in their path: the beauty of this story is the way in which they tackle those choices and challenges, and find strength, course corrections and camaraderie within the friend group.

The voices and the characters are compelling and universal: the beauty of diversity in fiction highlights BOTH the differences and similarities, and allows readers to vicariously experience a situation or circumstance that may be similar to their own, or very different but compelling in the way the character attacks the problem. Harris has cracked a window into a secret that many readers just instinctively know (and that everyone should experience). We are more alike than different, it’s simply the circumstances and appearances that make us different. And, despite those differences, we can all learn from one another, as we are developing a new view of the world and people around us.

I received an eArc copy of the title from the publisher via NetGalley for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.

Review first appeared at <a href=” https://wp.me/p3OmRo-aHe /”> <a> I am, Indeed </a>

I liked this tale of 4 friends who grow apart and need each other as they mature. They become friends again as they try to reach their dreams. This was cute, but I didn’t love it.

This book was a quick easy read. Although there were a few twists in it the story overall was quite predictable and did not keep me interested.

This is a fun read about four college friends who have lost their mojo.

While in college they had goals, they were ambitious and focused. Fast forward years later and their lives have turned out much differently than they had planned. So the four friends form a plan to get their lives back on track.

There has been a lot of discussions online about seeing positive reinforcement of women bolstering each other up. This is a prime example of one such book. We have four college friends, each with their own paths and one pair being closer friends than the other. It has been quite a few years since college and everyone has strayed from the original idealistic plan they had for their futures. One lousy day leads Raina to bring their old group back into focus and start to egg each other to do better.

All four women were black as were most of the supporting cast, which is also something I have not read since most mainstream books from the US that I have read have one or two characters maximum. This was, therefore, a new experience, something that I liked. I will not go into the details of the four women for two reasons, one is that there is enough in the blurb and the other being that each woman defines her life and goals in their own unique fashion and it is better to meet them one at a time. It might not appeal to people who do not like multiple voice narrations because we have four, pretty distinctive voices. Each has their own struggles, some they choose to share and the others they hold closer to themselves. I like the fact that their friendships had some realistic boundaries. The story also spans more than a single year giving us and the characters settle into their changes.

Overall, I would recommend reading it for the women and their bonds as well as for their journey. To anyone who has had a group of friends, enduring for years with only subtle changes, this will bring back memories of one form or the other. Finally, I should warn that at the end of the day, there is some form of happily ever after when it comes to the romance department for all of them. I like sappy parts, but given the depth of discussions previously handled not everyone would be happy with that style of ending. With this forewarning though, if it is something that appeals to you, I would recommend giving it a shot.

I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience.

This book follows four friends from college who are all now in their 30's and trying to do their best to navigate life. They decide to officially revive their group meeting where they all plan out how they can better their lives/careers. I simply "liked" this book and thought it was okay. It's a book about friends trying to help each other out, but I didn't feel an attachment any of the characters or their stories. Since the book rotates between their four POVs, I feel like you're not really able to completely get a true sense of who each character was.