#FlashbackFriday – The Ingredients of Happiness by Lucy Burdette #Review #Giveaway @LucyBurdette @severnhouseimprint

On Flashback Fridays I will share with you
the books I was not able to review
when they were first released which have been screaming at me
from my To-Be-Read bookshelf.

The Ingredients of Happiness
Contemporary Women Fiction
Setting – Connecticut
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Severn House; Main edition (July 4, 2023)
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 272 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1448311144
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1448311149
Paperback ‏(March 26, 2024) ‎
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1448311721
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1448311729
Kindle ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0BTTGB7L6

Is there a recipe for the perfect life?

Thirty-two-year-old ‘happiness guru’ Dr Cooper Hunziker has it all – a dream job as assistant psychology professor at Yale University, a soon-to-be published self-help book, The Happiness Connection, and the perfect man. But there’s a problem. Cooper isn’t happy.

Of course, it doesn’t help that she’s facing cut-throat competition for her tenure at Yale, an accusation of plagiarism that could cost her everything, or that her new book has irritated the department chairman, who assigns her to co-lead a happiness group at the New Haven Library.

As her friendship with the other women in the group flourishes, Cooper finds herself questioning her choices. Forced to face a life-changing betrayal and her own traumatic past, can she navigate a path to happiness with the help of a gargoyle’s wisdom?

Dollycas’s Thoughts 

Happiness guru Dr. Cooper Hunziker should be beyond happy with the job she has strived for, the “perfect man”, and a self-help book, The Happiness Connection, soon to be released. Being an assistant psychology professor at Yale University is more ruthless than she imagined as 3 then 4 people are fighting for one tenured position. Add to that, Cooper has been accused of plagiarism for a quiz she published in a magazine. A quiz that launched her into writing her book.

A good thing about her job is that Cooper was assigned to co-lead a happiness group at the New Haven Library. It starts out a little rocky but soon friendships bloom with the woman in the group. She may learn more from them than they learn from her. It’s time to reevaluate her life. She deserves to be happy and wisdom is received from an unusual source.

Ms. Burdette steps into alter ego shoes as a clinical psychologist and away from her cozy mystery chops to deliver a novel that makes you think about your own life as we follow Cooper through hers. Each chapter begins with a quote from Cooper’s book, The Happiness Connection, attributed to a real-life expert.

Dr. Laurie Santos like to say there are two things in life, the stuff you can control and the stuff you can’t. 

Cooper Hunziker is a conundrum – she writes about happiness but she isn’t happy. The focus of her research is mother-infant attachment but she lost her student assistant and appears to be in no hurry to replace them. She also has a class to teach but doesn’t prepare. She is nervous about doing a book tour with interviews and signings but her anxieties are off the charts. She needs to take the advice in her book.

I was so happy that Cooper was assigned to the library happiness group. She met women who were also unhappy with their lives for different reasons. Antimony, Betty, and Linda were struggling as was Cooper’s co-leader, Judd. The meetings took Cooper’s focus off herself and opened her up to some true friendships. The members of the group were complex with complicated lives like most people in real life. Cooper’s life has not been easy either, her father “bailed” on her and her mother but left her with family legacy pressure. We also met her half-sister and her stepmother who were not what I expected. I enjoyed how everyone grew throughout the story.

Ms. Burdette doesn’t completely leave her mystery roots behind as there are mysteries to solve in this story. Why did her department chair and his assistant treat her so poorly? His assistant was the worst. And how did she plagiarize a magazine she had never heard of?

The author touches on several different issues in this book – mental illness, divorce, big-time betrayal, loss of a loved one, self-sabotage, and more. As I said, the people in the story are dealing with real-life everyday things and they can run the gambit.

The Ingredients of Happiness is a book the author says has “percolated for fifteen years”. It is a book that challenges the reader to take in Cooper’s journey to find happiness but to examine our own lives for ways to strengthen our happiness. Many of the chapter quotes resonated with me. With so many stresses in our lives today sometimes something as simple as:

“Gratitude can do a lot to boost happiness.” Sonya Lyubomirski study shows “people who actively expressed optimism and gratitude felt happier and less depressed than those who didn’t.” 

I know it can be hard to find things to be grateful for or optimistic about with all that is happening these days, but reading Cooper’s story I see that gratitude for some simple things or people in your life can “reset your stress button”. There is another quote about that too.

I was unable to read this book when it was released but while reading and after I finished I realized I read it at a perfect time for me.

I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. Thank you to Severn House and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC.

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