Being pushed to go home to help her father and his business, Klara finds that her offbeat personality doesn't lend itself to keeping a construction company going despite all best efforts.
Alex is trying his best to recover from a deep depression caused by the death of his brother.

This book was interesting and layered in an unexpected way. I'm usually really good at sniffing out the twists and turns of the story but it had some twists that I didn't see coming. I love how it all came together in the end.

#netgalley
#thehappinessblueprint

The Happiness Blueprint covered a lot of ground. Depression, anxiety, autism, cancer. But it wasn’t a sad book. I really enjoyed the quirkiness of Kiara and the thoughtfulness of Alex. I wouldn’t mind a sequel!

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this ARC publication for an honest review.

Hmm, not sure about this one. I appreciated the main characters both dealing with medical and mental health issues. But the story felt very slow, and the romance was so far out in the book I just didn't feel very invested. This is a Swedish book, so not sure if this added to the disconnect. The book blurb sounded very promising, but the actual book felt completely different from what was promoted.

2.5 stars

Klara and Alex are quirky twenty-somethings both going through some things. Klara has returned to Sweden after living in London for several years to run her dad's construction business while he undergoes cancer treatment. She has lived with type 1 diabetes since she was six, has been stuck in a dead-end customer service job, and has never had a successful relationship. Alex has been struggling with depression since his brother died in a bicycling accident. He's quit his job, distanced himself from family and friends, and blames himself for his brother's death.

Klara sees the world in ways that are different from most people, but Alex almost immediately seems to get that. They connect via sharing their electronic calendars after Alex gets a job with the construction company. There are many misunderstandings along the way as Klara and Alex's relationship as it moves from boss/employee to friends to love.

This is a cute, modern romance and I really enjoyed it. The characters are complex and believable. I was rooting for Klara and Alex and I think anyone who reads this will be, too.

ugh, another 3rd act breakup? please. i also did not enjoy the writing style and it made me keep re-reading whole paragraphs.

I hope this one gets a good editor. I loved the story and inclusion of wonderful characters with different disabilities! I feel like she represented both autism and Down syndrome well and showed the positives of both. However, the typos and formatting were terrible.

Klara is living in England working a dead-end job. She moved there to go to school to become an architect, but has been unable to pass the English test. When her father falls ill, she moves back home to Sweden to run his construction company. Just after starting, she fires one of his employees for being disrespectful to woman and hires another. Alex, is not a woman, but she has no choice but to hire him or face discrimination charges. Alex has his own issues he is dealing with. His brother was recently hit while riding his bike and left to die. They have found the driver of the vehicle, but are looking for a witness that can prove he knew he had hit him, yet left the scene anyway. Alex is dealing with grief and guilt. Klara is not only living with type 1 diabetes, but she suspects she might also be autistic, which explains a lot of her anxiety and social issues. Can Alex and Klara help one another and balance each other out? Is romance possible between two people who are not looking for relationships?

The Happiness Blueprint was a fun and enjoyable story. Using calendar entries to tell parts of this story was a unique premise and it worked well. Klara and Alex are both dealing with issues that are not common place. While Klara's are medical, Alex's are mental health. Since his brother's death, Alex has been dealing with depression brought on by grief and guilt, also frustration while trying to find witnesses to help convict the killer of his brother. He takes the job working in the small construction company to try and move forward, suggested by his counselor. He and Klara share a calendar and their entries bring them together. Klara has trouble controlling her blood sugar so when Alex shares her app watching her sugar, he gets even more involved with her. Klara has had social issues all her life and when her sister suspects that her nephew could be autistic, this opens Klara's eyes to the possibility that she might also be on the spectrum. All this explains some of her behaviour, but really doesn't change her life. She is very insecure and worries about every decision she makes for the company. The longer she is there, the more she enjoys the job and isn't sure if she wants to leave when her father gets better, but she really wants to be an architect/designer. She and Alex begin as friends, but as they open up to one another, that becomes deeper and they begin to fall in love. He loves everything about her, even her quirks, that she is self-conscious about. This is a story of forgiveness, self-acceptance, finding yourself, following your dreams, living with health issues, depression & grief and romance. There is humor mixed with seriousness that brings this story to life. It is not all deep and brooding, but hopeful, light and fun. I was pleasantly surprised with the debut and will look for more books by Ally Zetterberg.

To say that Klara and Alex have trouble connecting is an understatement. For most of the book we keep wondering if they will ever figure out how the other one feels. Both characters have endearing quirks and struggles that they must overcome during the course of the book, it's only once they start to grow in their friendship, that they begin to realize just how much they've come to depend on one another. 

When Klara finally discovers that Alex is not in fact married, their relationship finally changes from friendship to romantic... only to have fate/tragedy send them their separate ways. Want to find out if Klara and Alex get the happy ending they deserve? You'll have to read the book to find out!

Sadly I wasn’t as thrilled about this book as much as I wished. This book took forever to get started. It took almost 100 pages just for the characters to meet. Then we had a miscommunication trope for way too long and finally got together and still had time for a 3rd act breakup. It was just way too much.

I also really didn’t like her family for most of the beginning of the book which is a bummer but I am glad it got better by the end.

I did really loved this question about adulthood check: Can you think of three topics for small talk in a minute?

My answer yes I can! Surprisingly!

And this scene in the book did make me laugh out loud
“i broke up with Tom” says one love interest
“Thank fuck for that” responds the other

While I didn’t enjoy the book. I am extremely grateful to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for the arc. I will be on the lookout for another book by this author to try.

The writing style is something that I am not used to and just not for me. The overall story itself was fine, it was just the writing style made it a struggle to read. So unfortunately I would not recommend The Happiness Blueprint, and I also won’t be reading anymore books by Ally Zetterberg either.

I really struggled with this one. I really liked that the characters were going through real life experiences and issues. The characters and their relationship just seemed real, which was refreshing. That being said, this book moved painfully slow. Like the first half of the book was probably unnecessary. I loved that the main character was neurodivergent - the glimpse into life and how to overcome obstacles thrown their way was wonderful. The story is sweet, the issues real, but at times it was a struggle to pick this up and read. I powered through, and the last 30% the pace really picked up, but I wish it moved that way through the majority of the book. If you are looking for a slower paced, adorable, real book, give this one a try!

Thank you netgalley for my advanced reader copy.

Oh how I wanted to have loved this. It had so much potential, the premise was cute. I don't know, it just felt really dragged, like I was just watching two people randomly live their lives daily and nothing would really happen.

I started this book then dropped it because the reading wasn't flowing for me, but then decided to give it a try again. I really tried to enjoy it, and at the last, say 20%, it started to get a little more interesting, but still, it was all very random and scarce.

I will say though, there were aspects I did like. The side characters were well done in the story. I really liked Dan, Paul, Hannah, and Alex's and Klara's families. They were fun and contributed to the main characters' storylines. I really liked the google search and calendar entries that would also help and make sense to who are Klara and Alex.
If there's one thing I really enjoyed was the mental health rep, in all aspects. It was treated in a real, fair and respectful manner. I enjoyed the characters development throughout the book and how they found love, peace and belonging in each other.

If this book was maybe 40% shorter, I'd probably have enjoyed it more.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

A solid debut that was strong on mental health rep (depression and grief) and disability rep (type 1 diabetes and autism). I really enjoyed this romcom/women's fiction story set in Sweden that sees Klara drawing the short stick and having to go take care of her dad undergoing cancer treatment as well as helping run his construction business.

As the new boss, Klara gets put in charge of hiring replacements for the misogynistic employees she fired and ends up meeting Alex. Recently coming out of the fog of his grief and depression and taskes with trying to get back to living his life, Alex takes on the job and finds himself befriending and eventually falling for Klara.

This was a sweet, kissing only romance that had likeable characters I couldn't help rooting for and an adorable ending. I especially liked Klara's journey to an autism diagnosis and learning how to accept that she needed to ask for accommodations required for her to start a new degree.

Great on audio narrated by Heather Long and Joe Jameson and perfect for fans of authors like Chloe Liese or Maggie North. I'm excited to see what this new author writes next! Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital and physical ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Steam level: kissing only

I really appreciated the disability rep and the neurodivergent rep. Unfortunately, I just found this one really slow. It's hard to get invested in a romance when your main characters aren't even on page together for half the book. I won't immediately write off future books by this author, but I don't think I'll seek them out based on this one either.

A really enjoyable palette cleanser. I did feel it started a little slow but once I got into it, I was in. I really enjoyed the romance and seeing the world through a different point of view from mine 🥺🩵

I think this is a book with multiple layers: there's the witty part but also some sadness under the witty and self-deprecating parts.
It starts with a woman who's facing her perfect sister and her mother who are forcing her to be in charge of the firm her ill father manage.
Klara is a complex character: she's considered weak but I loved how she faced her situation and never stopped trying.
Alex is characters that is starting again to live and fight.
There's a lot of witty banters and I loved their character's arcs and relationship. They become strong on their own.
It made me smile and think, I laughed and rooted for the characters.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this ARC.

I enjoyed this book. It did start off slow and gradually got better. A good pallet cleanser. Quick and easy read.

The Happiness Blueprint unfolds slowly for me to begin with, but then begins to unfurl and really get going. At first I wasn't connecting with the story, but ever so cleverly  the characters, especially Klara and Alex, won my heart.

Klara is a delight, at first I couldn't see how she would be a success in her new role in her father's business, but it all works out well for her and in a way she finds herself as she gains in confidence. She has had to deal with diabetes since she was a child and also is beginning to think she might be on the autistic spectrum.

Alex has lost a brother in an accident just recently, it has seen him spiral into depression. He sees a pyschiatrist who gets him to write three tasks per day to carry out. He doesn't start off too well with this but eventually gets there. How Alex and Klara meet up and what happens to them, I will leave to the reader to find out.

This book explores loss, depression, autism, family - parent/child, father/daughter, sisters, brothers. It's a lot but the story handles them really well.

I especially loved Klara's exposition of the importance of technology in modern life, all so positive and true.  I also enjoyed the setting which is mostly in Sweden. There is romance in the book, and that romance was just perfect. However this book is far more than mere romance. Graeme Simsion says on the cover it is charming and it is. But as you know if you have read Graeme Simsion, he also writes books with an autistic character.

I was excited about this book from the first time I saw the cover with the main character wearing a CGM- an adult main character with type 1 diabetes is a rarity in fiction, and I was happy to see that representation. The book is set in Sweden and London, and it's not your typical romance. The main characters don't even meet until a good bit into the story (and it takes quite a bit longer for them to acknowledge any attraction), but this means that readers really get a chance to get to know Klara and Alex as individuals before they start to connect. They are both dealing with heavy issues and traumas, from Alex's depression after the death of his brother, and Klara's father's cancer that has brought her home. The story has representation for mental health and neurodivergence, as well as chronic illness, and it's all handled sensitively while still demonstrating how worthy of love and knowing everyone is.

The Happiness Blueprint starts off with quite an unhappy tone as we meet Klara, who has to take over her father's construction company while he undergoes chemotherapy, and eventually being the alternating POV chapters as we meet Alex, whose brother recently died in an accident. As with most rom-coms, I appreciated that we really got a sense of each character as individuals--what pushes their buttons, what motivates them, and what they value in other humans. As Alex and Klara's paths cross, they come to realize that the way they each view the world, the way they expect their life's path to take, can all be flipped upside down for better or worse--but it's all about how you react.

I really enjoyed this read--very sweet and pretty quick. I figured out where things were headed fairly early on, but it was still enjoyable to see how things played out. I related to and empathized more with Alex, despite his coming across quite mopey a lot of the time (granted he has a good reason), but I found Klara over-the-top whiny and a bit too self-absorbed. I suppose that was the intended character journey, but it grew boring after a while and overall, I hoped the pace would be a bit quicker.