Happiness for Beginners

As seen on Netflix - from the New York Times bestselling author of The Bodyguard and Hello Stranger

Helen Carpenter can’t quite seem to bounce back. Newly divorced at thirty-two, her life has fallen apart beyond her ability to put it together again. So when her annoying younger brother, Duncan, convinces her to sign up for a hardcore wilderness survival course in the backwoods of Wyoming—she hopes it’ll be exactly what she needs.

Instead, it’s a disaster. It’s nothing like she wants, or expects, or anticipates. She doesn’t anticipate the surprise summer blizzard, for example—or the blisters, or the rutting elk, or the mean pack of sorority girls. And she especially doesn’t anticipate that her annoying brother’s even-more-annoying best friend, Jake, will show up for the exact same course—and distract her, derail her, and . . . kiss her.

But it turns out sometimes disaster can teach you exactly the things you need to learn. Like how to keep going, even when you think you can’t. How being scared can make you brave. And how sometimes getting really, really lost is your only hope of getting found.

Happiness for Beginners is Katherine Center at her most heart-warming, captivating best—a nourishing, page-turning, up-all-night read about how to get back up. It’s a story that looks at how our struggles lead us to our strengths. How love is always worth it. And how the more good things we look for, the more we find.

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Published Sep 1, 2020

352 pages

Average rating: 6.88

136 RATINGS

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Wildish Women Book Club

We’re not your average book club & we like it that way. We’re loud, friendly, & never afraid to get a little rowdy over plot twists.

Community Reviews

abookwanderer
Oct 09, 2025
10/10 stars
Gah. I loved this book. I wish I would have read it sooner, but I'm glad I finally picked it up. I wish I would have read it before I read What You Wish For because I would have liked Duncan even more. Plus I would have avoided some spoilers. But even knowing the outcome, I still loved the book.

#popsugarreadingchallenge2022 (prompt #40f - A book by a local author)
Lirpa67
Aug 15, 2025
8/10 stars
Loved this book and the characters ❤️
JoyousBookworm
Aug 12, 2025
8/10 stars
Nice how the emotions unfold with the backstory
jenmay
May 22, 2025
8/10 stars
I think we all concluded that we enjoyed the character development in the book. The Netflix movie was just...not great...
JL Reads
Jul 17, 2024
7/10 stars
Similar to Cheryl Strayed’s book about hiking the Pacific Creat Trail but with a group of raucous twenty something year olds and thirty two year old Helen as the protagonist. I enjoyed this fun, finding yourself book with a badass female lead. Book #39 in 2024

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