This story is more about the women who were part of the book club than the club itself, but it made for an interesting read.

I rarely quit a book mid read, but I just had to with this one.

The synopsis that captured my attention was far from the first 50 pages. A woman who owns a bookstore named Happy Endings loves to read the books that leave the reader in a good mood post read. Within her bookstore she starts a book club by the same title and with this synopsis I was hooked. What is left out of this synopsis is the discovery that her dad is a fairy, not gay, a legit member of Fey and for me, this took the book to a place where I just didn't feel like reading.

This is a group of stories about an interesting mix of women who are brought together in a bookstore. The book club isn't the center of their stories, so don't expect a book that centers on books and discussions about them; it's simply the vehicle for bringing a disparate group of women together. It jumps back and forth in time, and between characters. We all hope for happy endings in our lives, and I very much enjoyed watching these seven women working their way towards their own versions of a happy ending. More importantly, as the author points out in her blog, it's about how we see the world and our lives, and how easy it is to lose sight of the important things in life. I was torn between 3-4 stars for this one; reading Jane Tara's story of the events in her own life that inspired her to write this book bumped it up to 4 for me.

Thanks to Netgalley and Momentum Books for providing a copy for an unbiased review.

I am sorry I was unable to read this book within the timescales of it being published, thank you for the opportunity, should I read it in the future I will review it online

My Thoughts:
Recently, I've been trying to read more contemporary books. It's not usually a genre that I read a lot of. For whatever reason, I am much more likely to pick up a fantasy book. However, I have decided that I'd like to broaden the genres that I read. Therefore, I picked up The Happy Endings Book Club by Jane Tara. I thought it was an okay book. Honestly, I found it a little disappointing.

My biggest problem with the book is that I found the title to be very misleading. Although the book does mention the book club, it wasn't really about the book club. In fact, the book doesn't really talk about books very much at all. Instead, the book was about the ladies of the book club. Due to their ages and the things they were going through, I couldn't relate to them at all. It made me feel very distanced from the story itself. The book should have taken me about 24 hours to read because it was a small book. Instead, it took about three days because I just didn't care about any of the characters. Then when I did start to care about the characters, their storylines were never finished. It would switch to a different character story which made me angry. It made the book feel like it was a jumbled mess.

There was something that I did like about The Happy Endings Book Club though. One of the character's storylines had magical realism in it. I really liked that. It shocked me and surprised me, but in a good way. It was the last thing that I expected to read in a book like this. Out of all of the women, it was the only story that felt complete. I almost wish that the author would have just focused exclusively on Paige's storyline. I think I would have liked the book so much better. She could have still use the other characters but made their storylines minor, like side characters. I also liked how the author ended the book. I had never seen an author write their book into a book before. I thought that was so cool.

All in all, I found The Happy Endings Book Club to be very disappointing. I had high expectations for it but my expectations fell flat. I just wanted so much more, and never got it. The magical realism in the book is probably the only reason that I even finished it. I do own Jane Tara's other book, Forecast. I do plan on reading it eventually, but after how disappointed I was in this book it will be a while before I get to it. If you do decide to still read this book, I recommend going into it with low expectations.

I give The Happy Endings Book Club: 3/5.

A sweet book. But I didn't feel like it's was particularly original. Glad I read it though.

I am not going to be reviewing this book, but thank you for the approval.