Wow. If, in life, you are given the chance to have a season of perfect happiness would you take it for the great memories or would you avoid it because you couldn't bear the though of having lost all that happy? That is the premise of this book. Claire, due to a tragic occurrence and loss in life, is scared to live. She doesn't believe that she has earned the right to be happy. After a terrible time in her life, that had repercussions to her loved ones, Claire moves away to another state. There she makes a lonely life, working out, going to the office and coming home in the evening. She has no friends but occasionally talks to her neighbor. She doesn't see her parents anymore but she remains very close to her mother and they talk on the phone daily. When Erik asks her out, Claire goes. As the relationship continues, Claire's secret past gets in the way. As Claire shares her secret with Erik, I became invested in their relationship and Claire's life. This book will suck you in as you sit on edge, hoping that Claire can have happiness. The book is well-paced, and although bogs down a bit in the middle and becomes repetitive, it picks right back up after a couple of chapters. The main topic in this book is not one that is not often acknowledged. Kudos to the author for bringing it up, and allowing the reader to feel sympathy for Claire.
I received a digital ARC from NetGalley and Dutton. This review is my own words, opinions and thoughts.
4 stars--(repetition mid book didn't allow for 5 stars)

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Group for the ARC of A Season of Perfect Happiness by Maribeth Fischer.

This novel left me with so many emotions and feelings. I was angry and confused not any Claire but for Claire.

After an unspeakable tragedy Claire moves her entire existence from the only life she’s known. She disappears into herself because she doesn’t feel as though she should be seen or loved. She does not deserve a day of happiness let alone a season of perfect happiness. Torturing herself with a schedule and a mundane life until the day she ceases to exist is the life she has come to believe she deserves. She is constantly hiding herself in shame and sorrow.

Claire doesn’t expect to not only meet a man but to fall in love with him. A man who comes with children, one with special needs, and a very involved ex-wife. A man who’s best-friends have also intertwined themselves so deeply in his life that they still hangout in a group as though he is married. This foursome, minus Claire, also has a host of unspeakable secrets and trauma no one wants to address.

When Claire starts to realize she deserves love, forgiveness, and the ability to carry on her worst fears come true and her secret comes to light making her again question if she truly deserves to have any happiness. In turn her secrets bring light to everyone else’s secrets out making them question their own choices and what they have considered a “happy” existence.

This novel addresses sensitive topics and things that may be triggering for readers. With that being said it is tastefully written and makes you question what is my perfect happiness and do I deserve it?


Pub Date: August 20, 2024
🌟🌟🌟.5

Wow this book was an emotional rollercoaster. Claire endured an unimaginable experience and escaped to a new place to live so that she would be far away, and build a new life. She is at the point where she is comfortable in the new community and then meets Erik. They begin building a life together that involves his friends and his ex-wife because of the 3 kids they have. Mainly because his autistic son can't handle the house swapping that happens when people are divorced, so they are at the ex's a lot. Claire ends up building a fantastic friendship with his ex wife and friends and becomes an integral part of that community. Then someone comes to town who knows what happened and she is worried that the secret will blow up her current life. While it does make waves that they all have to deal with it was interesting to see how they each individually dealt with it and what the resolutions were and why. I could see that being the case in real life not just in a book. I found myself thinking about it even a few weeks after finishing it.
It's a really good story with heart break, shock and happy times. Be sure to have some tissue near by.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Thank you NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Dutton for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.


Where would you go if you could have the chance for a new beginning? A place where whatever sins were in your past didn’t make people cringe or look at you with pity when they see you on the street. How would you choose that place? When Claire needed that fresh start, she chose Wisconsin because of its shape on the map. A thousand miles from her family and the town she grew up in, she’s created a quiet life, putting the tragedy of the last decade behind her. She even begins to open herself up to others – first a neighbor, then a new beau and his family. She’s very careful to share bits, but never the full story of her past. But when a strange coincidence brings someone from her past to town, the past is suddenly at risk of destroying Claire’s Season of Perfect Happiness.

Maribeth Fischer is back with such a striking tale of hope, grief, and trauma in A Season of Perfect Happiness. Set in locations dear to her both in Delaware and Wisconsin, Fischer’s characters feel like they could be people we know – neighbors or even family. Her ability to draw you in, yet keep you guessing, throughout the book is outstanding and found me more than once unable to put this book down. Fischer was not afraid to tackle big subjects like mental health and postpartum depression, as well as parenting children of special needs and coparenting in a blended family. This is a book about the lasting trauma the past can leave us with and how one mistake, one regrettable action can upend the world.

I give A Season of Perfect Happiness 5 out of 5 stars. If you have followed along here for very long, you’ll see that mental health and honest portrayals of it in literature are very important to me. I appreciate the way Fischer tackled both the root cause of the mental health crisis and the honest view at what treatment looked like both in terms of length and activity for Clarie’s character. I also appreciate the way Fischer worked in the mental health struggles for some of those around Clarie, too – the guilt and tiredness of parenting a special needs child and the struggle to bond with him. I did struggle with the ending of this book. Without giving too much away, it felt as though a small section had been removed towards the end or the ending may have been altered at some point – the storyline just needed to be explored a tiny bit more to fit with the cadence and development done throughout the remainder of the novel.

If you liked Liane Moriarty’s Apples Never Fall or Rachel Hawkins’ The Heiress, you will love this book. Part mystery, part romance, part self-discovery, this novel appealed to so many of the genres I appreciate! With themes of mental health struggles and childhood trauma, this may not be the best book for all readers and should be directed to more mature audiences over 16. This would make a phenomenal book club choice or even a girlfriend read-along book – I found myself having to read sections of it to my husband just so I could discuss it with him!

I initially chose A Season of Perfect Happiness because of the cover. With a beautiful sunset, string lights, and a gorgeous backyard setting, the cover drew my eye immediately. I was excited to read the description of the book though and to connect with the storyline before even reading one word, and I think you will be, too.

A beautifully written story of friendship, redemption, and a second chance at love.

Claire suffered from post-partem psychosis, the result of which ruined her life and caused her to uproot her life from Delaware to Wisconsin where no one knew her. I don't want to give much away but we follow her life for years as she has created another life for herself . She found love again, then friendships, but she kept her earlier life a secret from the friends, Would she ever tell them and how would they handle the truth.

The whole story was very believable, it was written in a way that you knew things were going to fall apart but not how. My first book by Maribeth Fischer and I really enjoyed it.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for this honest review.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Dutton for providing me with an advance e-galley of this book in exchange for an honest review. Look for it in your local and online bookstores and libraries on August 20, 2024.

Have you ever loved someone so much and so selflessly that you gave them up in the best interest of their future? That is what A Season of Perfect Happiness is all about. It's about loving others, but also about learning how to love and forgive yourself in the way that you deserve. We all make terrible mistakes and we are the people we were before the mistake and who we became after the mistake and always trying to reconcile the two. This book is about self growth, friendship, marriage and both being a parent and still being the child. I loved this book on so many levels. I felt so connected with the characters. Felt that they were all so well explored and allowed to develop within the story. They felt real. This book deals with tough subject matter, but in such a thoughtful and gentle way. Highly recommend!
Thank you for allowing me to have an ARC in exchange for this my honest review.

Wow! I loved this book so much! Iy was so beautifully written. The characters were perfectly flawed, all harboring secrets, saving each other from them. The foreshadowing was done flawlessly and kept me flying through the pages. The ending was satisfying, sad, happy, and all conclusive. This book would appeal to the likes of Diane Chamberlain.

Claire is our MC and she is haunted by a past of her own doing. When she moves to town, she is definitely running from her past and looking to start over. Erick is a single dad of 3, who is very much still friends with his ex. When Claire and Erick fall in love, Claire gains so much more than just a partner, but a ready made family and a group of friends. The only question is, when they find out about the past she’s running from, will love be enough to hold them all together?

This family drama was so heartwarming, and my favorite part was the attention to the mundane life habits, it made me really take in some of my own life’s “small things” and appreciate the familiarity with a new light! That’s the effects of a great book!

This book does deal with some heavy topics, and it is certainly an emotional read. Characters are realistic, flaws and all. The overarching theme is one of happiness, as well as second chances, forgiveness, and love. It did start off quite slowly and took me about half of the book to really click with the characters and storyline, which is longer than it generally takes in books I read. I never quite understood why she wouldn't share what happened to her and why she felt the need to keep it secret. Those elements dragged out a little too long.

Thank you to NetGalley, Dutton Books and Maribeth Fisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of A Season of Perfect Happiness.
This contemporary novel kept me thinking about the plot and characters for quite awhile after I finished reading. The writing is poetic and filled with emotions about marriage, secrets, decision making, consequences and just life in general. The main characters are well developed with just enough missing to keep you invested in the story. I enjoyed that the chapters ended on little cliffhangers that kept me wanting to read just a little bit more.
Some of the decision making is questionable. Could some of this drama been avoided if honesty played a more important role? Who am I to judge but it is difficult to hide important events in our past and be able to maintain friendships and marriages without worrying about loyalty and commitment. This is a great read with potential for lots discussion and possible disagreements as there are no perfect solutions and no perfect life. But maybe we need to be grateful for a season of perfection!

A Season of Perfect Happiness by Maribeth Fischer coming out August 20 will gut its readers as it tells the story of Claire who left her home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, 10 years after an illness and an accident for which she punishes herself. She starts over in Wisconsin, where she has lived a quiet life all to herself until she met Erik, a project manager at Ten Chimneys, the once summer retreat for theatre actors Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne.

Even from Erik, Claire keeps her past a secret, until she realizes that to move forward with this new relationship, she must risk revealing what happened to her back in Delaware. After telling Erik her secrets, her truth is more than he can handle at first, but given some time, Erik realizes the truth of what her doctor told her: “…what you did is not who you are.”

Soon Claire is swept up in Erik’s life where he has three children, an ex-wife, and a set of longtime pals. Recognizing that her life can once again be joyful, she chances becoming a wife, a step-mother, and a friend.

Claire’s former life catches up with her when her once-best friend undertakes an opportunity to be a director of a play at Ten Chimneys. Not realizing that people in Claire’s circle of friends are unaware of what happened in Delaware, the former friend reveals part of the story, the details of which get back to Erik’s ex-wife, who blows up Claire’s new life.

Maribeth Fischer skillfully keeps the tension on as she puts off revealing what actually happened in Claire’s past until one-quarter of the way into the story. She keeps readers invested in the story to the very end.

This is Fischer’s third novel after The Language of Goodbye and The Life You Longed For. In addition, Fischer is an essay writer having received two Pushcart Prizes for “Stillborn” in The Iowa Review and “The Fiction Writer” in The Yale Review. She lives in Lewes, Delaware.

My review will be posted on Goodreads starting July 13, 2024.

I would like to thank Penguin Group Dutton and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in return for an objective review.

Thank you so much to Dutton Books for the ARC.

This was definitely one of the most thought-provoking books I've read recently. It's really hard to describe without giving anything away, but I think what it came down to for me was this: is love enough to overlook someone's past? Is love truly unconditional? Can you forgive others if you don't forgive yourself?

The book starts out with an adorable whirlwind romance. Claire moved to Wisconsin from Delaware to get away from her complicated past. She begins to fall in love with Erik and he quickly welcomes her into his family (3 children and an ex-wife) with open arms. The majority of their dates take place at Kopp's which is a custard/burger joint outside of Milwaukee and a Wisconsin legend! I loved how accurate everything Wisconsin related was in this book from all the street names to the landmarks, etc. I could picture where everything was taking place and I LOVED that!

Everything seems perfect, but Claire is keeping something major from Erik that she feels could unravel their entire relationship. She finds herself so closely intertwined with his children and closest friends and she knows by telling the truth she could risk losing it all.

This book deals with HEAVY HEAVY topics and saying what they are would completely spoil the plot. This is not a light and fluffy rom-com, this is a hard and serious look at extremely intense issues.

I was absolutely glued to this book. The story itself was slow and delicate but I appreciated that as it really gave me the time to get to the know the ins and outs of the characters. The only reason this isn't 5 stars for me is that I wanted a little more at the end. I feel like so much of the book was leading up to a particular moment and then after it happened, I was left longing for a tiny bit more . Maybe it's simply that I became extremely attached to these characters.

This one definitely won't be for everyone, but I really appreciate what Fisher did here and am eager to see what she does next.

This will be available on August 20th.

Maribeth Fischer’s A Season of Perfect Happiness is a deeply moving exploration of motherhood, identity, and redemption. The novel follows Claire, who, ten years after fleeing a tragic past in Delaware, has built a quiet life in Wisconsin. Her serenity is disrupted when she meets Erik and becomes entangled with his family and friends, forcing her to confront her buried secrets. Through Claire's journey of bonding with Erik’s children and facing the arrival of someone from her past, Fischer sensitively addresses themes of mental health, second chances, and the scars left by fleeting happiness. The novel’s exquisite writing and emotional depth make it a compelling read about the complexities of human relationships and the power of forgiveness.

I thoroughly enjoyed this one. The writing was beautiful. The story was tragic. Giving this four stars for two reasons:
1. The ending wrapped up a little too neatly
2. Nearly every chapter ended with “but just wait, the Really Big Thing is about to happen and ruin everything” and I just wish it had been alluded to less or even less obviously.

Wow, I loved this books and all the characters in it. Clare left her home in Delaware because of a tragic accident that involved her daughter. She went to Wisconsin to start a new life. Here found friends and fell in love,


Oh I just adored this book and characters. Claire had to leave her home (Delaware) because of a horrible accident that happened with her daughter. She flees to Wisconsin to start a new life where she falls in love and meets her best friends.... the only thing is- she hasn't told anyone about her past. Clare had not told anyone about her past. For Clare to come clean with her friends she has to come clean with herself and forgive herself. This was a wonderful story of a woman finding herself and happiness again

* spoiler alert * I don’t know how I feel about this book. It took me a while to get through it. The characters are super complex, one of them is borderline psycho. I don’t care how deeply emotional Annabelle was about everything, it was not an excuse to go 180 on her best friends one minute and a full 360 the next. If I had a friend like that, I’d walk away. That’s not a real friend.

I still don’t know if Erik really loved Claire and if she stayed with him because she had no one else or because of the kids. I feel like Claire gave more in that relationship, she grew as a person but she could’ve walked away. Why did she want to keep putting up with Erik’s ex makes no sense to me. Taking care of his kids sort of fill that motherly void in her but to what cost?

I liked Gabe, Eva and Kelly the most. Overall it’s a good read but I expected more at the end.

A Season of Perfect Happiness
by Maribeth Fischer
Pub Date: August 20, 2024
Thanks to the author, publisher and Netalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
A Season of Perfect Happiness fundamentally questions what makes a “good” mother, with a propulsive and heartrending portrayal of one woman’s efforts to find her voice.
I just adored this book and characters. Claire had to leave her home (Delaware) because of a horrible accident that happened with her daughter. She flees to Wisconsin to start a new life where she falls in love and meets her best friends.... the only thing is- she hasn't told anyone about her past.

It is a beautiful book about friendships, secrets and pasts... 4 stars because I truly don't understand why she wouldn't share what happened to her and why she felt it was such a big secret.

Highly recommend!!

Claire has rebuilt her life after a terrible tragedy (concerning her baby) in her hometown. Despite moving from Delaware to Wisconsin, she cannot cancel her past. It is there she finds herself in love with Erik, a divorced father with 3 children. She is finally able to be fulfilled with a life full of love for her husband and children, until a friend from her past shows up. Her secret is revealed. She almost loses everything, but life has a way of smoothing over even great tragedies and her season of happiness might just continue.

I enjoyed the book, but I found the topics very dark. I understand the author’s need for closure, but I felt that all the foreshadowing might have been better transmitted by an epilogue.

I think many book groups will enjoy this and find lots to discuss. Thank you Netgalley for this ARC.

I loved this book! Being from Wisconsin, I thought this was a great setting for a "fresh start". I also loved knowing the characters in full - both positive and negative - to really see them as a full person. Claire was someone I would want to be friends who, and it was so easy to understand why she made such difficult choices. I loved the ups and downs and emotional rollercoaster of this entire story!

This author has flown under the radar far too long. She has a way to bring her story to life and hit on the issues in marriage that are all too common but not often discussed. The characters are well developed and very relatable. I could not put this book down. The best book I have read in 2024!