Title: If it makes you happy
Author: Julie Olivia
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Genre: Romance
Pages: 513
My Rating: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
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If It Makes You Happy
Michelle Cadell is a businesswoman who loves her job in Seattle. She recently got divorced, and her mother Birdie passed away. Initially, Michelle’s sister Sara was going to take over the B&B, but she has to finish school first. So now Michelle is running the B&B for a few months. But it turns out to be harder than she expected. She isn’t good at small talk, and baking isn’t her best skill either. Luckily, her neighbor Cliff, also divorced and raising two daughters, steps in to help her.
Review
Obsessed!!! No, I am dead serious. This book was pure perfection. At first, I wasn’t sure. The cover looked very cute with perfect fall vibes and a cute dog, but it also had around 500 pages, which is a lot for a romance novel. Most romances are around 200–400 pages, so I was a little worried there would be too many boring parts.
The setting is different from other books I’ve read lately. It’s still a small-town romance, and I read a lot of those, but this one takes place in the 90s. I was born in the early 90s, so I basically grew up in those years, and this book brought back a lot of amazing memories, like taking photos with a disposable camera, renting movies, and all that. Those were some of my favorite things as a kid.
The characters are great. Michelle is a businesswoman, but she doesn’t know how to run a B&B and she isn’t great at baking or small talk. Cliff, on the other hand, is amazing at those things. I loved how everyone helped each other. Michelle is new, but people still want to support her with running the B&B, which is one of the things I love about small towns. Cliff’s daughters, Emily and Brittany, were adorable too. Emily is a teenager who just got her first boyfriend, and Brittany is a lot younger and loves Rocket, Michelle’s dog.
This book gave cozy fall vibes and nostalgic 90s vibes, which was pure perfection. My two favorite things in one book. And honestly, the 500 pages didn’t feel that long. It was such a cute love story. I loved how there was an epilogue from Rocket’s (the dog’s) point of view, which was both fun and adorable. And that extra chapter about New Year’s Eve 1999 was amazing. I was only seven at the time, but I still remember how big of a deal it was that we went from 1999 to 2000, and people were afraid computers were going to crash.
If you’re looking for a book with cozy fall vibes set in the 90s, you should definitely read this one. I know it’s only September and I still have a lot of fall romances on my list, but I already know this will be one of my favorites.