Official Review: Happiness, Hurt and healing

[e-tasana-williams]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Happiness, Hurt and healing" by Louise Garrett.]

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2 out of 4 stars

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Louise Garrett's short romance novel Happiness, Hurt, Healing opens with protagonist GeeGee meeting Vic at a banquet her cousin is hosting. She is an adult education instructor and he is an accountant. They hit it off instantly, and begin a whirlwind romance. Even though they have a physical connection, GeeGee suspects Vic is not as committed as she is to the relationship. Family entanglements, insecurities and past mistakes all conspire to make GeeGee and Vic unsure about where their relationship will end up. If they want to make it work, they will each have to overcome the barriers getting in their way.

Told from GeeGee's perspective, most of the book reads like a series of scenes from a romantic film. They are often disjointed, though, which hinders the flow of the story from one scene to the next. The dialogue is often missing quotation marks, so it can be hard to follow where one character stops talking and another one begins. The last dozen pages of the book are mostly GeeGee making observations, and it starts to feel like reading someone's stream of consciousness journal.

There are some good aspects of the book. Telling it from the first person perspective lets Ms. Garrett use GeeGee's character to give relationship advice to other characters in the book while indirectly giving that advice to the reader. GeeGee is a strong heroin. She respects herself in romantic relationships, and she urges others to do the same. There are long monologues where she encourages her friends not to rush into any situation, but to spend time enjoying things that bring them joy in life.

Happiness, Hurt, Healing is not a raunchy romance novel. There are several places in the book where GeeGee says she and Vic had sex, but explicit descriptions of sex acts are not included in the book. If it were a movie, these are the parts where the screen would dissolve into hazy outlines and fade to black.

There are a few instances of profanity in the novel. Some words are written with dashes instead of being spelled out, but people who do not like profanity in their reading may not want to choose this book. People who like romance novels could enjoy this book after Ms. Garrett works on it a bit more.

I rate Happiness, Hurt, Healing 2 out of 4 stars. The abundance of editing oversights made it difficult to get through. It contains a kernel of a good story, but professional editing is required in order for it to earn a higher score.

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Happiness, Hurt and healing
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[spluficvictory]

Sorry you had to go through the poor editing while reading this book. I agree that a measure of descriptions of sex acts should be included in a romance novel. I do enjoy romance books sometimes with a bit of adventure so i think I'll be sitting this one out. Thanks for the review. I hope the author works on the mistakes detected.

[kandscreeley]

I appreciate that there isn't any gratuitous content, but the disjointed nature is off-putting. Your review is interesting and enjoyable, but I don't think I'd find the book equally as enjoyable. Thanks.

[Kaitlyn Canedy]

I like how this story does not have a lot of explicit content; I feel that it takes away from the cute romance side of couples. I am not sure if I would enjoy basically a "stop and go" storyline as it would be too hard to follow. Hopefully, the author will take your advice and polish the book up so it can get a better score!