This short and sweet review is for you, fans of chick lit!
Helen Carpenter is a 32 year-old teacher struggling to put her life back together after her recent divorce. Her younger brother Duncan convinces her to sign up for a three week, beginners hiking course, and surprisingly, she takes his advice. Helen is expecting to rediscover herself, but instead realizes that this 'beginners' course is actually one of hard-core wilderness survival. She finds herself surrounded by college kids, covered in blisters, and falling in love with her brother;'s best friend Jake, who just so happens to have signed up for the same survival course. Life does not always happen as planned, but that is sometimes the beautiful part of it.
Happiness for Beginners was a fun, quick read! I thought there was great character development, moments of self-awareness, and acceptance of the hard things life throws at you. There were no open-door romantic scenes, although there was a bit of language sprinkled throughout. I plan to go back and read Center's other books because I enjoyed this read so much.