Can you be coached into being happy if you are unhappy? The question plagues many people and is one of the reasons people seek therapy. Daisy is not a therapist (as she repeatedly tells her client) but does help people become happier in their lives. Daisy is a happiness coach. She is just starting her business and has one client in the book. Daisy has a degree and paperwork for her client to work on as homework. I believe if I met Daisy in real life, she would be an excellent happiness coach.

Daisy’s life is not perfect. Her friend is crashing on her sofa, she has a will they/won’t they thing going on with her local coffee/budding pizza guy. She hates her former boss, who happens to be in a relationship with her sofa crasher. Throughout all of this Daisy is figuring out who she is. I enjoyed her story and how the book comes together with a few surprises. It is a cute romcom that will let you escape into its pages. Perfect for reading anytime!

Kirstie Pelling is ace with developing interesting, quirky characters and this second book of hers didn’t disappoint. I especially loved Vince’s bold personality. Daisy’s vulnerable interior masked by her desire to promote happiness was endearing. I thoroughly enjoyed this read.

This wasn’t for me. Daisy is one of those fake nice people who is fry mean behind everyone’s back. Although it’s done under a sly disguise. Honestly standing in line trashing other customers with the owner of a coffee cart? Tacky. Also do people even still do unicorn hair? How very bold of Daisy to add a new color to her hair every year after she’s turned 18. Sounds like a mess to me. Nothing about this worked.

Thank you Embla books for an early copy of The Happiness Project. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. 🤍

I thought that the blurb of this book was too interesting to pass on. It had a slow start and while this is a romance novel, it felt quite flat for me - lacks chemistry. I loved each character though, especially Daisy - she's quite quirky, but quite too much.

I felt like I was reading literary fiction than contemporary romance with this book though, just a heads up.

Rating The Happiness Project ⭐⭐⭐/5. Releases December 1st, 2022

I tried to like this book but the writing style is just not for me. It was all over the place and kind of hard to read.

2.5 Stars The Happiness Project by Kirstie Pelling was listed as a rom-com, but I think that it would be more fitting to be categorized as “women’s fiction.” This one fell a bit flat for me, mostly because of the romance (or lack thereof) aspect. The main character was described as quirky, which is almost always a quality that I like, but she was a bit too much and also immature. There was a lack of chemistry between her and the hero.

Thanks to NetGalley and Embla for the ARC. I voluntarily read and reviewed this book.
I started this book several times and could not connect with the characters. I did finish it but will admit to having skipped through a lot of it. The writing style didn't appeal to me - it was kind of all over the place. I didn't like Daisy, and while I liked the character of Joe, there was no chemistry between them and I think the twist that involved him could have been better executed. This one fell flat.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for this eARC of 'The Happiness Project' by Kirstie Pelling.

'The Happiness Project' is a lovely contemporary and I did enjoy the subplots entwined with the main plot. The romance wasn't that important in Daisy's story to me and I feel a bit gutted because I expected more from this book.

I liked the premise but sadly, the execution wasn't for me.

Overall the Happiness Project was a solid 3 star read. I thought the premise of this book was great. And there were moments where they book moved at a good pace and I was enjoying the storyline, but unfortunately, other moments fell very flat for me. Daisy's character...she was a little too quirky...I like quirky, I am quirky, but she was soo stereotypical free spirit quirky, that I found myself agreeing 100% with Aurora's rant about Daisy at the fair. And she lacked maturity too. And since this story was in first person POV, it made it hard for me to love this book. But I did love Joe and he was a good foil for her.
Thanks to Embla Books and #NetGalley for the ARC.

Thank you to the NetGalley, author and publisher for the ARC to read The Happiness Project. I thought the premise of the book sounded fun and interesting and the comparison to romance authors I have read and enjoyed was a draw.. After two full weeks of nightly reading The Happiness Project I am only 54% into this book.. It is a very slow and overly descriptive story. I can't say it is romance yet but won't be continuing to find out. I really wanted to like it but it is taking too long to have anything happen. The disjoint story lines with Daisy building a business she had no training in, quitting her old job but still being in contact with her old boss, her friends and the Joe situation that is hopefully developing the romance aspect, there was just too much to talk about with nothing really going on.

The Happiness Project was really cute and fun in spots but didn’t hit the mark for me. It had some spots where the action was too slow and didn’t hold my attention. I loved some of the parts with the dog especially. Overall I gave this book 3 stars because it was a fast fun read.

I received this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

As others have mentioned, the descriptions are very intense to the point that they pull you out of the story to focus on minute details. Push through and it is an enjoyable read but maybe not worh the effort.

I absolutely loved the story line and character development. I knew right away Daisy would be one of the women I’ve gotten to “know” that I wish was a friend in real life. On a side note, her worries about bad omens is totally me and I’ve NEVER read a book with a main character who was conscious of those things - it’s always a side character.

Typical rom com but I enjoyed it being based not in America. It was fun to put myself into different shoes. My only issues is it was so so so slow at the beginning. I almost DNF it multiple times but I wanted to be able to give accurate and honest feedback, which I didn’t think I could do without finishing it. But very slow start. If I had bought this book, rather than get it as an ARC with feedback, I would have DNFd it. Once the plot starts picking up, right around when Daisy starts working with Vince. But even then, it took a while.

My other issue - and it’s typical romcom, so no biggie - was that Vince is SO comfortable with Daisy right from the start. My favorite romcoms are the ones where the lead up is believable. Even Daisy and Joe see far more comfortable than what would see appropriate and normal based on the buildup at the beginning of the book.

I need a Daisy in my life. I could use some major happy. Although this story took me a few to get into I did enjoy it once it started going. The cast of characters were cute and the ending was well done. Great short little rom con.

I had a really hard time getting into this book. I did not finish it as it felt hard to follow along. While it was very descriptive, it was distractingly descriptive. I did not post this review online so not to bring the star rating down.

I had a good time with this story! I found the characters sweet and endearing and enjoyed their story. I found the beginning was a bit slow and I had a hard time getting into it, but once I did I flew through. I loved the concept and their dog?! So sweet!

This book was good, but not great. It took a bit to get into the writing style. Overall this is not a book I would choose to read again

I loved the sound of this one, but I really struggled to get into it. The writing is very difficult to follow, and I found it exhausting to try and keep up with what was going on.

The conversations between characters were too long, they rambled, and I found a lot of it unnecessary.

All that aside, the story was good and the twist was a surprise. I liked Daisy, I thought her character was quite cute.

Overall, it was unfortunately a bit of a miss for me.

This was a tough one to get into, the writing is so descriptive, in some ways too descriptive as I felt lost in the detail of the scene or coffee characters that I didn't understand who was who. Within the first chapter we're dropped nuggets of information which seem important but are glazed over, like her Dad being a busker at 6am in the morning, I found it hard to just breeze past. The idea is great, I would have liked to see the relationship with Vince explored as I favoured him as the romantic interest.

Unfortunately this one did not work for me. I attempted to read as much as I could but i had to sadly DNF at 20%. The writing and I did not click and I could not get into this story.