If you’re looking for something fun, marathonable, the right amount of messy, and full of queer love polygon drama, then look no further than The Happy Couple. I listened to this as an audiobook (a short and snappy 5.5 hour experience) and I found myself always looking forward to my next drive or run just so I could hear what happened next.

Celine and Luke are engaged, and their wedding date is quickly approaching, but will they go through with it? Luke is a pretty obvious serial cheater and Celine is so focused on the work of being a concert pianist that she has just ignored it. Yes, the oh so happy couple. Additional layers of drama unfold as more and more angles of their love polygon are exposed. Archie is Luke’s best man as well as Luke’s ex-lover who is definitely still in love with the groom-to-be. Celine’s ex, Maria, shows up at the engagement party and stirs the pot. Celine’s sister Phoebe knows Luke has something to hide and is convinced to get the bottom of it. And Vivian, yet another ex of Luke’s, is willing to call people on their craziness and bring some tough love to her friends in this mess.

Buckle up, folks. This cast of wild characters really brings the drama that can only be fully encapsulated by interrobangs. Luke doesn’t show up to his own engagement party?! It’s hours before the wedding and Luke needs a new shirt but who comes to switch shirts with him other than his ex-lover, Archie?! Celine’s ex is having long heart-to-hearts with Luke?!

The Happy Couple felt like reality TV in the best way. I was immersed in this story’s twists, turns, and reveals that provided a welcome distraction when my brain needed a break from the current world. But what I loved most is that it didn’t just feel like gossip that pulls me in but at the end of the day makes me feel icky. Naoise Dolan writes her indeed flawed characters with a kindness and nuance that allowed me to see them for more than their often infuriating actions and reflect alongside them in the gray decisions they find themselves having to make. It was a delightful balance of unhinged meets kind.

If you’re driving home for the holidays and need a book you can finish in one road trip, I highly recommend pressing play on this one!

Content warnings: toxic relationships, drug use and abuse, infidelity, suicidal thoughts

I loved the narration of this audiobook but the story and characters fell a bit flat for me. Still, a compelling concept and interesting friendships and dynamics.

THE HAPPY COUPLE features the relationship between Celine and Luke, who are Irish millennials that are engaged. I really enjoyed the audiobook format, with dual narration. They really did a great job performing each character.

*many thanks to Harper Audio and Netgalley for the gifted copy for review.

Celine and Luke get engaged, and the rest of the novel is driven by the question of whether or not they will actually get married. As the story goes on, the point of view keeps changing between their friends and exes. Dolan does a great job leading readers on by slowly revealing different perspectives on individual characters little by little.

Terrific narrators in the audio book. Other than that, no strong feelings either way, it's fine. No one is very likeable.

quirky quirky quirky. Irish writers are quickly becoming my favorite reads for those uncomfortable realties we can't face.

There was a lot I enjoyed about this book. While the focus is on Celine as the protagonist in third-person for the first portion, there's a switch in which we hear from her fiancé in first-person, and from another character. I think in audio format this is well done with the use of two readers. In terms of story, it's a messy exploration into queer romances, old loves, emotionally unavailable people, and longing. Everyone is flawed but relatable. I finished this one quickly and felt incredibly invested.

Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced copy of this audio book in exchange for my honest review.

I was really excited to read The Happy Couple by Naoise Dolan because I really enjoyed her first book Exciting Times and I really enjoyed this novel too! It’s about a couple, Celine and Luke, who get engaged. I loved the Irish humour and the two narrators on the audiobook Ayoola Smart and Bert Seymour were really good!! The part about the Irish dads was so funny! I enjoyed how this novel is told in two parts; Bride and Groom. It was nice to get both of their perspectives on the relationship. It was great to as the representation of a queer couple as both were bisexual. This is a great modern romcom!

This audiobook was well done, with good narration. The story itself and writing was pretty good, though character development was lacking in some areas. The pace was good, and was not too cliche or predictable. Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for giving me the chance to listen to this audiobook

I've often heard Naoise Dolan compared to Sally Rooney and while I can understand the reasoning--they both write about Irish millennials grappling with romance, careers and life in general--I think that Dolan deserves to be recognized on her own considerable merits. In "The Happy Couple," she gives us the eponymous Celine and Luke, who in the very first chapter seem to be on the verge of a breakup and instead decide to get married. What follows is their rocky road to the altar, told from the varying points of view of Celine, a concert pianist who isn't fully over her long-term romance with fellow pianist Maria; Phoebe, Celine's sister and Luke's devoted antagonist; Archie, Luke's Oxford classmate who has carried a torch for him forever but is now thrust into the role of best man; and Luke, the ambivalent groom who sees nothing wrong with having a few one night stands along the road to marriage--including with Archie. I loved this polyphonic chorus, peppered with text messages and bristling with arch humor, as each character provides a bit more backstory to the central Celine/Luke relationship and deepens the will-they-or-won't-they suspense. Of course I won't reveal the outcome here, but suffice it to say that Dolan kept me guessing and intrigued until the very end, and I'll be looking for more of her novels in the future. Note: I listened to the audiobook version of this title and found the two narrator female/male format effective and Ayoola Smart and Bert Seymour excellent readers.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Harper Audio for providing me with a audio ARC of this title in return for my honest review.

Luke and Celine- the so-called "happy couple"- get engaged at the beginning of the story. The cast of characters is rounded out with Archie, the best man, Phoebe, a bridesmaid and Celine's sister, and Vivian, a wedding guest and friend. As the wedding day approaches we see all five characters going though the motions and trying to find what they think is their happily ever after.

Forget all about Sally Rooney, this is where it's at!
It was such an incredible novel, so smart and incredibly well written and thought provoking.
It is about being a couple and what makes a couple work, finding out if you're actually made for each other and you get to see all of this playing out from the MCs' points of view as well as the perspective of their friends and family.
Absolutely in love with it.

I love the cover of this book.
It went downhill from there.
The story is very basic. Celine and Luke are getting married. But are they? From various points of view, we get the backstory of their relationship and their motivations. The characters were a bit like a bisexual Millenial Breakfast Club. Instead of the Jock, the Weirdo, the Nerd, the Criminal, and the Princess we have the Cheater, the Cokehead, the Philosopher, the Meddler, and the Virtuoso.
Naoise Dolan is a good writer. I enjoyed her debut novel, Exciting Times. This one carries some of the same themes, but I didn’t feel anything for the characters in The Happy Couple. This might be partly due to the deadpan delivery of the audiobook narration.
There is no emotion. I felt no emotion.

One thing about me… I absolutely love a messy book full of messy characters. I could simply read a thousand books about people who waste so much time in their lives because they can’t ask for what they want, won’t communicate, put up with the worst behavior from objectively meh men, and create absurd messy situations because of it.

I loved *almost* every single character in this book, even when they were being so silly. The characters were so funny and witty (still thinking about when a character describes herself as a “major league doubt benefactor”) and I really loved the queer rep. The struggles felt relatable in ways that made me both relate to the characters and also be so frustrated by them (but in a really good way).

I listened to this on audiobook and really loved the narrators, I felt like they captured the characters so well. At times I felt like I was listening to long voice notes left for me by friends explaining (and complaining) about their lives.

I really enjoyed this book! An interesting character study about two halves of a couple deciding how to progress with their relationship. The characters were interesting and the dynamics were fresh. This story didn't have many salacious twists or turns, but instead hit familiar beats with insight and reflection.
The audiobook performances were perfect - characters had distinct voices and rhythms, comedy was delivered excellently, and accents were flawless. I loved having two different voices, and the narrators kept things moving at the perfect pace.

The Happy Couple was a witty, fast-paced story that kept my attention the whole time. I HAD to know what happened. My favorite books are books that teach me something and I learned about the world of classical pianists and Irish culture. The relationships in the book are so realistic and raw. The voices of each character were unique. The narrator was excellent. The author managed to create a tense story full of humor and heart about a couple who are not sure if they're in love or not. I loved it!

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperAudio for the audiobook in exchange for an honest review!

This book is so very well written, but I am unsure if it translates well with audio. At some point the narration was hard to follow and I don't think I would have the same problem if I were reading it as a book. With that being said, I think the relationships in the book are very human. Humans are very messy when it comes to love sometimes and I think this book captures it wonderfully! This is my first book I've read by Naoise Dolan and I'm thinking of picking up another!

Oh my gosh, I'm blown away! Naoise Dolan's The Happy Couple is incredibly smart and very, very witty. To be honest, I'm a little bit speechless right now. I've never read anything quite like this one, and I'm wondering why all books aren't this incredible?

I loved the way Dolan explores the relationships between these characters. The folks who surround Celine and Luke are quirky and real, and I couldn't wait to hear who would say what next.

Completely unique, and endlessly clever, I highly recommend Naoise Dolan’s The Happy Couple.

For an extra treat, enjoy this one in audio. Beautifully performed by Ayoola Smart and Bert Seymour, these wonderful narrators absolutely bring this amazing story to life.

I've been finding it really hard to distill all my thought into a coherent review for the Happy Couple.

Luke and Celine are engaged. For all intents and purposes a happy couple - although Luke is a serial cheater and Celine is more interested in piano than domestic life.

The book is told from five different perspectives - Celine, Luke, Phoebe (the maid of honour), Archie (the best man) and Vivian (the wedding guest). As each of the perspectives is told as a chunk, reading this book felt like looking at a fractal, as the different perspectives give a new lens on the circumstances and story as a whole.

I really enjoyed this work. I feel it was almost more driven by character study and motivation than the overarching narrative, but it's very well crafted and was highly intriguing.

The Happy Couple follows Celine and Luke through the year before their wedding day. Told through multiple POVs, this book shows the ups and downs of many different types of relationships and ultimately sheds light (if not understanding) on each character’s decisions throughout these relationships.

The Happy Couple was marketed as a humorous story, but unfortunately I did not find it so. The red flags appeared pretty much immediately and as Celine and Luke’s story was told from more perspectives it became apparent that everyone in this story is deeply flawed. While not always intentionally hurting those around them, every character in this book had very problematic habits surrounding their relationships.

Ultimately, this story wasn’t for me, but the narrator did a great job differentiating each character. I would recommend it for fans of Normal People.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing with a copy of the audiobook in exchange for my honest review.