Happiness for Beginners A Novel

this is now my fourth? katherine center book, so by now i think i understand her MO. i obviously enjoy her books, considering i've read four of them, but this one might be the weakest to me so far. i found jake a little too childish in the beginning of the book prior to the actual hike — perhaps a little too childish for helen to believably have fallen in interest with, at the very least, by that point — and i thought the transition from helen seeing jake is her kid brother's best friend to her seeing jake as a romantic partner was a little rocky. i loved jake once we got on the actual hike and saw him being so competent and charismatic out in the wilderness, and i really did enjoy helen's emotional journey on the hike. i didn't really have any issues with the hiking arc! but i did feel like overall, helen's actions felt too immature for her age. the way she got so angry at jake to the extent that she wanted him to pretend not to know her felt childish and really mean for no reason. i also felt like she spent so much time just waiting for jake to do something instead of communicating what she wanted or asking jake for herself. she still felt so passive in her relationship with jake, which, granted, she did think he and windy had a thing, but she could have also asked him openly... like girl your previous marriage didn't work out so you have to take some lessons away from the experience! i wish we had gotten more sweet moments with helen and jake that weren't colored by windy once the hike actually started and helen started realizing her feelings ran deeply, because i felt like too many of their interactions were layered with helen suppressing her feelings for windy's sake. i did resonate with the bits about being older — i have thought to myself many times that some early 20s kids just need to be roughed up by life a bit to understand life past 25 haha BUT i am around helen's age and simply cannot believe someone from our generation has not heard of the cupid shuffle. EVERYONE OUR AGE KNOWS THE CUPID SHUFFLE. we had to do the cupid shuffle at like every single middle school and high school dance... bar and bat mitvahs... weddings... HELEN WHERE WERE YOU. i ALSO wish we had seen more of helen and jake beyond that month together in the epilogue, especially considering so much of their future was up in the air. anyway. overall i feel like, yes, women can be flawed and very mean and they are still deserving of love. but i don't have to like it! i do find that i am really really adoring how truly caring and kind and down bad katherine center's mls are, so i will obviously continue reading her books lol i can't stop now. on to the next one!