A complex elegant tale of a toxic relationship- and how it echoes even after the victim has moved on. Tatum who has often felt less than found herself in a relationship with Mateo Dominguez, a famous writer and before she recognized it, he had groomed her into something she was not. Now, though, she's living happily with her partner Vera but the past is out there because he's being exposed for what he is by a journalist. This moves back and forth in time to tell Tatum's story. While you might think you know what happens, this is more nuanced than most in the genre. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. For fans of literary fiction.

I absolutely loved this book! The story kept me hooked and the writing was wonderful. I loved that it's kind of similar to other stories we've heard before but with a surprise twist no one saw coming. And I loved the latinx representation as well.

After 10 years in a unhealthy relationship with an older author, M Dominguez, Tatum is finally living her dream, she is working in a museum, living in Chile and in love with her girlfriend Vera. One day a journalist calls to ask her about her relationship with M, because he has been accused of assault. Tatum decides to tell her story for the first time, not because she believes it will corroborate, but because she feels it’s time, and through her reliving her time with M, she begins to have revelations of what her relationship was really about and how truly toxic it was.

There were many parts of this novel I enjoyed, the writing was great, the concept of the relationship was super cringey and I appreciated (but didn’t enjoy) it. However the main character of Tatum was frustratingly annoying and to the point where it ate into my enjoyment of the book at times. I listened to the audio more than I ended up reading and I thought the narrator did an excellent job. This book kept reminding me of Asymmetry with the lack of equality in the relationship where one is an older famous author and the other is a younger somewhat fawning woman (and the cringe element). In the end I felt that her unhappiness was often self induced and I don’t have a ton of patience for that.

3.5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Celadon for the ARC to review

Like Happiness is a beautifully told story about a power dynamic between two people while also touching on topics like codependency and navigating sexuality. This was such a relatable and realistic look into relationships and what they can cost you.

The story begins when young Tatum sends a fan letter to her favorite author M who is an older man. She is elated when he writes back and we watch their relationship over the course of a decade. The story switches between past and present so we are able to see it in a multi faceted light. I enjoyed this book from start to finish!

Thank you so much to Netgalley, Ursula Villarreal Moura, and Celadon Books for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review. I can’t wait for everyone else to read this on March 26th!

I have posted my review on Goodreads, in my Facebook book club, and will post a Tiktok review the night before it releases.

Title: Like Happiness
Author: Ursula Villarreal-Moura
Genre: Literary Fiction
Rating: 3.75
Pub Date: March 26, 2024

I received a complimentary eARC from Celadon Books via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. #Gifted #Ad

T H R E E • W O R D S

Fluid • Obsessive • Introspective

📖 S Y N O P S I S

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. She loves this new life, but more than anything, she loves it for helping her forget the decade she spent in New York City; the years she spent orbiting the brilliant and famous author M. Domínguez.

But 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 by another woman, and the reporter is looking for corroboration. Tatum agrees to tell her story, but she begins with a clarification: while there are similarities, what happened to the other woman is not what happened to her.

💭 T H O U G H T S

Like Happiness came onto my radar earlier in the year while I was browsing NetGalley for upcoming spring releases. I love discovering new authors, was intrigued by the premise, and am on the lookout for dual timeline narrative. With this one, I was invested from the very first line.

Told in a unique epistolary format - a slow retelling of their relationship - this debut is a quick and accessible read that remind me of a lighter My Dark Vanessa. It's a quiet story exploring an imbalance of power in relationships and the toxicity these relationships can have on our lives. It also explores Latinx, gender and sexual identities but to a lesser degree. I could have easily used a little more character development.

From the beginning, the reader is privy to knowing there will be some sort of reveal. I was able to predict the what it would be about a third of the way through and my rating likely would have been a little higher if not for that. Regardless, the writing style helped build the suspense until everything is revealed near the end. With all of the slow build, I did find the ending felt a little rushed but it didn't bother me that much.

Like Happiness is one of those quiet stories that is thought-provoking and will be lingering in the back of my mind for months to come. I cannot finish my review without mentioning it being an ode to booklovers and the incredible power a book can have on our lives. It would make for lively and interesting discussion among book clubs. I will definitely be keeping my eye out for future works from Ursula Villarreal-Moura.

📚 R E A D • I F • Y O U • L I K E
• My Dark Vanessa
• coming-of-age stories
• debuts

⚠️ CW: toxic relationship, gaslighting, grooming, sexual content, classism, racism, infidelity, cursing, religious bigotry, child abuse, physical abuse, alcohol, sexual assault, drug use, drug abuse, addiction, overdose, body shaming, fatphobia

🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S

"What I’ve shared with you is proof that I still remember, but in writing this, I find that my memories are releasing their hold on me."

The cover and blurb are so eye-catching! I had trouble really getting into the story, which didn't help with the slower pace.

Huge thank you to Celadon Books for sending me a #gifted ARC copy! All opinions are honest and my own.

I honestly flew through this book and was rooting so hard for Tatum to take her power at the end of the story & the end of her letters. I loved the dual POV with the two timelines and seeing how her life had transpired before she left New York City. Very coming of age, very powerful, and very sad to think about how many women throughout time who have shared a similar journey to Tatum’s.

“For the longest time, I felt like everything would remind me of you – that I was doomed to relive our story and never regain my footing. What I’ve shared with you is proof that I still remember, but in writing this, I find that my memories are releasing their hold on me.”


I’m so glad I read this, I both loved and hated how many parts I could relate to.

Thank you to NetGalley & the publishers who sent me this ARC to read & review!

a quick read that mildly interested me

this book follows tatum, a young woman who gets wrapped up in a toxic relationship with a famous author when she's young and later, an older tatum who decides to tell her story to a reporter reporting on the famous author's sexual assault. the plot was intriguing and interesting from a glance, and i thought the writing moved at a brisk pace. tatum and the author's relationship is a very slow unraveling rather than a big fallout, which i thought made sense, especially in the context of the novel. how their relationship ends is truly shocking to me; i never even imagined that ending. i was unable to fully connect with tatum, however; she seems like a character i would dislike or feel indifferent to in real life, but i felt that her relationship and the power dynamics were nuanced and well-handled. i really enjoyed how she was able to find agency and firmly realize that this idol of hers was a false reality at the end. i just found some parts of the book to be boring, especially since i wasn't a huge fan of the mc. i am giving this book 3 stars.

thank you to netgalley and celadon books for this arc!

A coming-of-age story as Tatum is forced to remember her younger life when a reporter calls for an interview about a past acquaintance whom she once adored. A raw enticing journey through what relationships become. As she falls in love with a book and its author a relationship blooms between them. A young Tatum retells how their relationship began and how she believed it was more than it was. Ursula Villarreal-Moura had me pondering relationships and how they are viewed from our perspective and true to life in this fictional story of one's journey to find oneself and letting go of someone who didn't care as much about the relationship as she did.

Literary Fiction with a depth that surprised me based on the fact a debut author created it. And I don't mean that in a negative connotation but rather impressed that this debut dissected power in a relationship born with destructive traits from day 1. A reader (Tatum) reaches out to an author who wrote her most cherished book and shockingly he responds. What follows is a relationship that teeters in complex and destructive ways.

The story is weaved together with 2 time spaces: one is the unfolding relationship we are reading about and the second is in 2015 where Tatum is living in Chile with her partner Vera. A reporter has reached out to her to get information on M (Mateo) but Tatum isn't sure how she wants to contribute to the story or if she wants to share that piece of her life with anyone else.

In part, it felt like a coming-of-age (adult version) and in part it felt like My Dark Vanessa. Flip-flopping between both themes in equal measure.
It's toxic, obsessive, and somehow a love letter to readers....not sure how that's possible based on my description. guess you'll have to just read it.

Impressive debut. 3.75 stars rolled to 4.
thank you for the gifted copy in return for an honest review.

Tatum is living with her partner in Chile and has a settled life when she receives a call from a journalist to rehash her past. For a decade, she had a relationship with an author that started with a fan letter. This book breezes back and forth between the past and present to tell her side of the story and what she has been through at the hands of her idol. I feel that this book did a good job exploring a relationship that is not only toxic, but also exhibits a power dynamic at play.
Tatum was a well developed character that is very complex and provides the brunt of what this relationship was like and how she was completely disarmed and lost her autonomy to the whims of this person that she not only admired, but was intensely in love with. I felt this book offers something different when it comes to manipulation and control in a relationship. This book is definitely worth reading and I will remember this ending for quite some time. Thanks for the ARC, BookishFirst.

This novel started off a bit slow for me as I was unsure as to what direction it was going. It didn’t take long to pick up and completely engage me, however. This was heartbreaking on so many levels, yet inspired hope. The way it was written made the story feel all the more personal. I could feel Tatum’s emotions seeping out of the pages.

I do wish we got more explanation or resolution regarding the Mateo situation, BUT I do think it was a cognitive decision of the author to not make the villain the focus. This story was Tatum’s.

This book did not speak to me. I enjoyed the writing, but I never connected with Tatum and felt much of her misery was self-induced. It’s an interesting character study that many will relate to understand, but it just wasn’t for me.

Like Happiness is a expertly crafted debut about a toxic relationship between a literary giant and a young fan. This novel was unexpectedly compulsively readable for a character driven story. I think that is due to the vividly drawn characters that you quickly become invested in and the fluid prose that let you ease into the novel. I can see this being a hit with fans of Anita De Monte Laughs Last and My Dark Vanessa.

This is a semi-epistolary novel about a young Latina woman from Texas who enters into a decade long friendship (that definitely crosses the line into relationship) with a famous author she sends fan mail to. It shows their toxic and obsessive relationship from its conception to its inevitable demise.

Like Happiness has interesting commentary on race, gender, and sexuality through the eyes of a woman figuring out her place in busy New York society. It’s a deeply introspective novel and we spend most of the time in Tatum’s head listening to her thoughts years later about the relationship that shaped much of her 20s.

This is a book with heavy themes so be aware of that going in. However, I think this is a powerful book and would highly recommend it.

i feel like people who love the craft of writing tend to be people who fixate on certain moments and turn them into something else altogether. what is a memory of discovering a book for the first time that really makes you feel seen (in tatum's case feeling closer to her mexican identity) can become a turning point to an open world of possibility. it is only until we reflect upon our 20s and 30s with a new lens do we start to see that the relationships we may have held dear was toxic. this is the reality for tatum as she remains connected to a writer of whom she sent a letter to after discovering for the first time for over 10 years. there really isn't anything surprising here, but the writing is protective almost in the way villarreal-moura chooses to include revelations and i simply love this book for that.

A captivating novel about a toxic and obsessive relationship between a young woman and an established author. The relationship begins with a fan-girl email and a quick response, and spans nearly a decade before ending.

The main character Tatum is an avid reader who is immediately captivated by the novel Happiness by M. Domínguez. Tatum is a Mexican American college student, originally from San Antonio, who discovers this book while struggling to belong in her majority white college classrooms in the East Coast. Domínguez is a Puerto Rican writer and professor whose writing gives a voice to the broader Latinx community with a fanbase of largely female readers.

Domínguez serves as almost a lifeline for Tatum, who is struggling to realize her career aspirations, her financial situation, and her identity. Throughout her twenties, their two lives orbit each other, but there's always an imbalance of power at play.

Tatum is revisiting her past after a reporter reached out following Domínguez being accused of assault. The story is told solely from Tatum's perspective alternating between present day and a letter she writes to Domínguez, recounting their relationship.

I loved this writing structure because it allowed Tatum to reclaim her power by telling her story, while also allowing her to reflect and reexamine the toxic and unhealthy nature of their relationship. This structure also made the final reveal of what exactly went down between the two more suspenseful and explosive. I'm pretty sure I gasped and flew through the last chapters without looking up.

This was a phenomenal coming of age story that tackles themes of power, gender, fame, and identity. I also love that the author, who was born and raised in San Antonio, was able to incorporate and capture the beautiful city that I now call home.

I was surprised as to just how much I enjoyed reading one. Dual timelines spanning the recent years and relationships of Tatum Vega. She is a complex character navigating toxic relationships, gender roles, and power struggles, with Latinx cultural aspects. In an academia setting, Tatum becomes involved with a famous author after writing him a fan letter. The ups and downs of this relationship, and seemingly mundane everyday life trials are quite fascinating, Ursula Villarreal-Moura makes us feel as though we are a part of their lives. The writing is done beautifully, and this coming-of-age story will have you wishing for more of Tatum's memories and current life. Bravo for this debut!

Some have said this book reminds them of my dark Vanessa. I can see some similarities in a relationship between an older man in power and a much younger woman/student. However this is much less graphic and while I did find the relationship in question dysfunctional I’m not sure i found the male character quite as abusive. The writing in this book is good though a little odd because most is written like a tell all letter. And the main character is both naive and from a lower class world but yet speaks so eloquently and brilliantly. It’s made for interesting passages and frankly kept me reading even though some areas that were slow. The climax certainly was interesting and I think it paid off at least for me.
Recommend this for those that like more character driven novels, obsessive “love” stories and coming of age.

Tatum Vega has been called by a journalist to speak to the decade she spent knowing famous author M. Dominguez. As she reexamines the past, she begins to understand more about their relationship and why she was so enamored.

While I did enjoy this one enough to finish it, I feel like it went over my head. I didn’t quite get it; not much seemed to happen to me. I was waiting for the shoe to drop the whole time. Instead I think it’s a very deep and slow portrayal of a relationship with an unequal power component. I liked how the narrator was looking back and discovering things about herself as she examined the past relationship.

“Toxic relationships are like ticking bombs. Once I pull the pin and acknowledge your disregard, your disingenuousness, your betrayal, we could never rewind and begin again.”

Like Happiness comes out 3/26.