Friday 22 July 2016

Read in 2016 - 23: Happy Hour

"Happy Hour" tells the stories of four very different women who are close friends, meeting regularly for - you guessed it - a happy hour of sharing meals, wines and catching up with each other.


Alyssa, Danielle, Jamie and Kat are all in different life situations. One is widowed, two are divorced, one of them has remarried and another one never tied the knot but broke off her engagement for a mysterious reason that is revealed as the story unfolds.

Their respective children, former and current partners, ageing parents and in-laws and sometimes people at work make sure there is not a minute of boredom in the women's lives.

The book covers only a few months (with a glimpse into the characters' past every now and then), but a lot happens in those few months. New jobs, new places to live, life-threatening illness, the birth of a first grandchild, teenagers moving out, works of art created and new hobbies found along with new love - it's all in the story, and told in a credible manner. Sometimes entertaining, sometimes touching; for me, it was not always easy to relate to the four women, as my life couldn't be more different from theirs.

I did enjoy the fast-paced storytelling and the change of perspective, the chapters alternating between the four friends, the end of a chapter often leaving the reader with a mini cliffhanger.

The language is not particularly elegant, just average contemporary fiction level, nothing highbrow (not that I expected or wanted that anyway). When the characters get angry, the f-word is sometimes used, but thankfully, there is no overuse of vulgarities.

Everything ties up nicely at the end of the book. There is an epilogue (I do like epilogues!), and even an interview with the author, which I found really interesting.

This book was free from Amazon's kindle store. I am probably not actively going to look for books by Michele Scott, but wouldn't mind reading more from her if I happened to come across another freebie.
You can find out a lot more about the author and her books here on her website, where she also has a blog.

6 comments:

  1. Sometimes a book like this just hits the spot.

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    1. It was a comfortable travelling companion, not challenging at all.

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  2. Sometimes it's nice to have a book which takes you into other folks' lives, so long as nothing very much is happening in them. A bit like listening to "The Archers" - although I suppose you don't have that in Germany!

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    1. Quite a lot does happen in the lives of the four women during a few months, and I sometimes had to shake my head at how they kept bringing difficulties upon themselves, but I guess people do that in real life, too.
      "The Archers" is on BBC Internet Radio, I think, but I have never listened to them.

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  3. It sounds like a good 'summer at the cottage' book.

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