Like Happiness by Ursula Villarreal-Moura is an incredibly thought-provoking and captivating read that tackles some of the most pressing issues of our time. Through the lens of its main character, the novel delves into themes of power dynamics, abuse, and the reclaiming of personal agency, particularly in the context of gender and societal expectations.

From the very first pages, I found myself drawn to the main character's journey. The writing flows effortlessly, with a rhythm that kept me hooked from start to finish. The narrative feels intimate yet universally resonant, as the protagonist navigates a world where power is often misused and women must constantly fight to reclaim their voice. The portrayal of the character’s internal struggles and her journey toward empowerment was both beautiful and eye-opening.

Throughout the story, the protagonist grapples with situations that many readers will recognize from news articles and personal experiences—the abuse of power, the silencing of women, and the courage required to break free from oppressive circumstances. What truly stood out to me was how Villarreal-Moura captured the complexity of reclaiming one's power. The protagonist’s journey toward finding her strength is raw, emotional, and ultimately uplifting.

The ending of the book is particularly powerful, providing a sense of resolution that is both satisfying and inspiring. It’s a reminder that personal empowerment and standing up for oneself can be transformative, even in the face of adversity.

Overall, Like Happiness is an eye-opening and empowering read. The novel offers a compelling exploration of resilience, self-discovery, and the importance of reclaiming one's agency in a world that often tries to take it away. It’s a beautiful and timely narrative that will resonate with anyone who has ever fought for their voice or for justice.

3.5 stars.

*Like Happiness* is a slow-burn of a novel, one that carefully and quietly builds tension around its central question: What happens when a fan, deeply entangled in admiration, realizes the person they once revered may not be who they thought? Tatum, the narrator, is complex and compelling—her journey from a young, hopeful fan to a woman forced to confront the dark truths of her past with the famous author M. Domínguez is both engaging and uncomfortable. The dual timelines, one set in 2015 and the other in the form of letters to Domínguez, provide a fascinating window into Tatum’s evolving understanding of their relationship, both in hindsight and in the present.

The writing is rich and evocative, especially when exploring themes of power dynamics, identity, and the ways in which fame can warp our perceptions. It’s poignant and thought-provoking, asking big questions about how we view celebrity, how we view ourselves, and what happens when that veil is pulled back. However, I found some of the pacing a little uneven. The emotional depth is there, but it takes its time to unravel, and at times I wished for a more dynamic push toward closure. That being said, it’s a book that will linger with you long after the final page, especially if you’ve ever felt the dissonance of holding up someone on a pedestal only to see them crack. It's not always easy to read, but it’s worth the journey.

Tatum’s struggle to reconcile her past with the man she once idolized is deeply relatable, even if the specifics are far from common. In the end, it’s a powerful meditation on the intersection of identity, gender, memory, and power—and how the mark of a single, intense relationship can linger, for better or worse.

I loved the dual perspective of this novel. One in the form of a letter flashing back to the relationship, and the other in the present to move along the plot.

The character arc of the FMC is original due to the nature of the letter flash backs. You are able to see the internal growth as she moves through her relationship discovering that it was more abusive than she originally thought.

*Like Happiness* by Ursula Villarreal-Moura is a beautifully written exploration of identity, love, and the complexities of human connection. The author's vivid prose and insightful character development make it easy to become emotionally invested in the story, though at times the pacing feels a bit slow. Overall, it's a thoughtful, poignant novel that earns four stars for its depth and lyrical storytelling.

A touching debut novel, told in a unique way and is one of those books that you will continue to think about long after the last page.
A young Tatum becomes infatuated with a celebrated author after reading his book, Like Happiness and it resonates with her in a deeply personal way. Moved to write him a fan letter, she is shocked to receive a reply, setting them on a decade long all-consuming relationship. When a reporter reaches out to her years later, in regards to an assault accusation against Mateo, it is in retrospective that Tatum analyzes the relationship. Initially, she defends their friendship and rationalizes Mateo’s relationship with her. But in hindsight, Tatum comes to several realizations.
The story of their relationship unfolds through Tatum’s letter to Mateo that she writes more for herself.
Was Tatum abused or groomed? Was she used? Was it nefarious, or was he just arrogant and self-absorbed. Will you argue that she allowed it to happen, that she was a willing participant? Or was she so slowly strung along that she, and even I as a reader, would hope Mateo would become the loving partner she was so hoping for?
A novel that delves into the dynamics of power, gender and fame. It will resonate with so many who have wasted much too much time on someone who wasn’t worth it.
This isn’t a book filled with action or gut-wrenching emotion. It slowly develops and its in the nuances that the power imbalance exposes itself.

This was a beautiful debut novel! I am so excited to read more from this author as her writinng style and her ability to make her reader conenct with her characters.Mateo and Tatum's relationship develops as the book progresses and you begin to question the validity of their realtionship and how toxic both of these characters might be for each other! The dual plot model makes the writing even more engaging as you see the view points annd into the minds of many characters.

When Tatum Vega writes a fan letter to her new favorite writer M. Dominguez, she never expects the letter to be answered. In Like Happiness by Ursula Villarreal-Moura, she embarks on a decade-long relationship with the writer who writes about the Latino experience in a way that resonates with her. Years later, a reporter approaches her about her association with him because he has been accused of an assault. She must come to terms with the relationship she wanted to forget and make sense of it after all these years.

This book centers on a seemingly charming beginning when Tatum cannot believe that she and the writer become friends. As a college student in Massachusetts far from her Texas home, she hasn't found the camaraderie and understanding from the few friends she has at school. When she picks up the author's book of short stories called Like Happiness, she finds the solace that she was looking for and reads the book over and over. Any lover of books can relate to how an author or a book can make you feel less alone and like you're making an important connection. Tatum feels that and practically falls in love with the author.

Unfortunately, Mateo jerks Tatum around for years, calling her mi vida, paying for trips and even a college debt she accrued, yet never cementing their relationship. They're not lovers yet they're intimately involved and the relationship starts feeling toxic after a while even though Tatum continues to be a part of Mateo's life. Some may say she was groomed, but that doesn't seem accurate because she is an adult and chooses to embark on this relationship. Once she hears of the alleged assault, it makes her reflect on their long-gone association.

I liked the juxtaposition of the chapters. Some cover her present day life in Chile where she lives with her girlfriend Vera and works at an art museum while she figures out how to talk to the reporter about her relationship with the writer. Others are narrated by Tatum and directed to Mateo in recounting their years together and how she's trying to make him see how cruel he has been to her in subtle and not-so-subtle ways. Throughout the novel, you're not sure whether this relationship is truly toxic or could become something special.

I also felt that the characterizations of the different places from the cold, Waspy Massachusetts college town to the warm and inviting Chile to the bustle of New York and her ill-fitting home in Texas with her religious parents was very well done. You can sense how the different places feel to Tatum as she struggles to see where she fits in. This also can be said about her quest to figure out her sexual orientation, which does not fit into the boxes she sees in the world.

My only issues are that I never knew how this story would play out. While that's good, I wasn't sure if this story was going anywhere. Once I reached the end, I was shocked by the turn of events. Also, I felt like some stories were not tied up, and I wanted more information about some of the characters and a come-uppance. Plus, I wanted to know more about how Tatum met her significant other. I'm assuming there wasn't much to tell and the fact was that with all her unsuccessful attempts at relationships, the one with Vera stuck and was easy.

I found this to be a very engaging book and interesting. It wasn't like a lot of books on toxic relationships in the structure and the way it pans out. I would love to try out any of the author's other books because this was surprisingly good.

This felt disjointed to me--I struggled with the two storylines and how they interacted. I also felt somewhat disconnected from the main character.

I have such mixed feelings about this book. On one hand, it's very well written and engaging enough for me to read the entire thing pretty much in one afternoon. On the other thing, it left me mostly annoyed, because I kind of hated the characters. AND they weren't interesting enough (and much too predictable in their tragic pathos) to override the hatred either.
So I'm splitting the difference in my rating and trying to write down some of my thoughts about the book, all the while very aware that to say anything negative about a book that deals with such hot topics as race and #MeToo is to pretty much a crime or at the very least a misdemeanor, and yet ...

(Oh, yeah, reader beware, crucial plot points will be discussed below, so proceed accordingly.)

While the author uses race in a mostly cogent and relevant manner, her implications of abuse don't quite ring true. This may and likely will vary from reader to reader, but the book I read told a story of a presumably intelligent young woman who makes a series of misguided/stupid/reckless choices to orbit an unavailable and possibly not even a very nice man.
The man is an author to whom she writes a fawning letter in college and proceeds to fangirl over him for the next decade to the detriment of her own personal development and life.
The author is never anything other than himself, which is insecure noncommittal mess, dining out for entirely too long on the same novel, because he has managed to tap into a rare Latin American market.
Throughout the course of their relationship, despite the very rare sex, there aren't really any romantic undertones. It's more of a somewhat toxic codependency that the protagonist takes much too far. It is very obvious to everyone but her that he isn't the kind of man she can have a future with.
Entirely unsuitable as a romantic partner, in the end, he isn't even a good friend.
But in the meanwhile, he does pay off 20K of the protagonist's college loans and flies her out routinely to interesting destinations, all of which she gladly accepts. So exactly how sorry are we supposed to feel for her when she decides to revisit their relationship some years later in light of recent abuse allegations from another woman and recast herself as a victim?

It's entirely too easy to rewrite history; one's own and others, much easier than to take responsibility for it. But which protagonist are we reading? Someone with agency and character or a tagalong pushover? Which does she want to be? Because she can't really be both.

In the end, so much of her focus - of her life -revolves around this author that it rather seems that her being used as a character in his novel (as morally reprehensible as it is) may actually be the most interesting thing and the grandest accomplishment of her life. Which is, of course, its own tragedy.

Thanks Netgalley.

A searing debut about the complexities of gender, power, and fame, told through the story of a young woman’s destructive relationship with a legendary writer.

It’s 2015, and Tatum Vega feels that her life is finally falling into place. Living in sunny Chile with her partner, Vera, she spends her days surrounded by art at the museum where she works. More than anything else, she loves this new life for helping her forget the decade she spent in New York City orbiting the brilliant and famous author M. Domínguez.

When a reporter calls from the US asking for an interview, the careful separation Tatum has constructed between her past and present begins to crumble. Domínguez has been accused of assault, and the reporter is looking for corroboration.

As Tatum is forced to reexamine the all-consuming but undefinable relationship that dominated so much of her early adulthood, long-buried questions surface. What did happen between them? And why is she still struggling with the mark the relationship left on her life?

Told in a dual narrative alternating between her present day and a letter from Tatum to Domínguez, recounting and reclaiming the totality of their relationship, Like Happiness explores the nuances of a complicated and imbalanced relationship, catalyzing a reckoning with gender, celebrity, memory, Latinx identity, and power dynamics.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publishing Team for this Advanced Digital Readers Copy, I thoroughly enjoyed this book!

Ursula Villarreal-Moura's Like Happiness is a poignant and beautifully written novel that explores the complexities of family, love, and loss. The story follows Lucia, a young woman who is forced to confront her past after the death of her estranged mother.

Moura's writing is both lyrical and evocative, capturing the emotional depth of Lucia's journey. The author skillfully delves into the intricacies of grief and the challenges of rebuilding relationships after years of estrangement. The novel also sheds light on the importance of family and the enduring power of love.

very cool book, one that i personally absolutely adored reading. thanks so much for the arc, would recommend it

This was a wonderful, literary story. Of friendship, of societal expectations, and of books.

I really enjoyed how the author captures two characters through time, and we really get to know them both. Did I love the characters? Yes and no. I loved Tatum’s coming-of-age story and how she found herself and her own voice as she matured. I didn’t love her relationship with Mateo, or that it took her so long to realize they had different expectations. Did I love Mateo? No. He’s a selfish jackoff who is too similar to so many men today. His whole life is about himself.

Why four stars and not five? While I very much enjoyed this, I kept waiting for something consequential to happen. A twist, or an ultimatum, or anything that would move the story along. In the end, the reporter being that decision point didn’t feel like it was what I was hoping for.

Overall, a good story with well-developed characters and lyrical writing!

DNF - I was eager to read this one & heard so many positive things about it as a whole but, I found that I struggled to get into it. I'd put the book down & lack enthusiasm to continue. The writing style just didn't work for me though, I can appreciate why so many other readers found this their cup of tea.

I was drawn to the main character, Tatum because her background and experiences in higher education similar to mine. Parts of the book were set in Texas and during the time that I was also in college, which brought back alot of my own memories. This book is told in two timelines, in the past that tells the story of her strange relationship with her favorite author and the present where she is being interviewed about allegations concerning said author. I'm sad to say that the realtionship between the two wasn't all that engaging and I don't remember how the book ended.

Thank you NetGalley and Celadon Books for an ebook of "Like Happiness" by Ursula Villarreal-Moura in exchange for an honest review. This queer contemporary fiction is for anyone who loves a coming-of-age story. The way this is written is so unique, I was unable to put it down. It is very heavy, and I would recommend reading the trigger warnings! A large theme that it discusses is imbalanced power dynamics.

Like Happiness by Ursula Villarreal-Moura is a collection of short stories exploring happiness’s fleeting and often elusive nature. Each story delves into the characters’ lives, grappling with moments of joy, despair, and complexities. Set against various backdrops, the narratives weave together themes of love, loss, identity, and the small yet significant moments that shape our lives.

Ursula Villarreal-Moura’s Like Happiness is a sharp and insightful collection that masterfully captures the intricacies of human emotions. Each story in this collection is a snapshot of life, filled with vivid details and keen observations that make even the ordinary feel profound. Villarreal-Moura has a gift for creating characters that are both relatable and deeply flawed, reflecting the messy, beautiful reality of existence.

The strength of this collection lies in its ability to evoke a wide range of emotions without resorting to sentimentality. The stories are often bittersweet, offering no easy resolutions but a sense of acceptance of life’s unpredictability. The writing is crisp and unadorned, yet it carries a quiet power that resonates.

Like Happiness is not a book that promises easy answers or neatly tied-up endings. Instead, it offers a contemplative look at what it means to seek happiness in a world that is often indifferent to our desires. Villarreal-Moura’s storytelling is honest and unflinching, making this collection a rewarding read for those who appreciate the complexities of the human condition.

Coming of age novels with two different timelines don’t always work for me, but this one did. Following Tatum as she tells a journalist of how she came to know Mateo and what their relationship really was enticing. I would find myself saying oh, just a bit more. I can read one more chapter before I set it down.

The chapters were like Cheeto chapters, but juicy. So good you want just one more.

A beautiful debut novel about a Chicana who is reflecting on her toxic past with a famous author and the power dynamics between them. Tatum meets M. Dominguez in college after sending him a fan letter; in alternating timelines between early 2000s to 2015 we learn of the complicated relationship between them. Villarreal-Moura’s writing is mesmerizing. The way she captures what it feels like to fall in love with a book was so spot on. This novel encapsulates how naïve we truly are in 20’s. I really liked this novel and can’t wait to read more from Ursula Villarreal-Moura. Many thanks to NetGalley & publishers for a digital copy to read.