Kristin Billerbeck brings another delightful rom-com to the table with “The Theory of Happily Ever After.”
Dr. Maggie Maguire is extremely accomplished, yet miserable. She has written a bestselling book about the scientific study of how people find joy in life, so you’d think she’d be an expert on happiness. But after being dumped by her fiance so he can marry another woman, and losing her mojo for her work, she’s far from happy.
So when her two best friends — personal trainer Kathleen and Haley, who just happens to be Maggie’s publicist — drags her off her couch and her away from her beloved Hallmark Channel to speak on a single’s cruise about finding your bliss, Maggie is horrified.
Going begrudgingly, everything Maggie seems to do just makes her seem more and more incompetent, allowing her to fall deeper and deeper into her insecurities. Will meeting the handsome and fun loving bartender Brent and the enigmatic and also handsome Sam turn the tide for Maggie? And what deeper role do Sam and his sister Jules, also attending the cruise, have in Maggie’s life?
“The Theory of Happily Ever After” is a great Chick Lit novel that will leave you laughing one moment and tearing up the next. Billerbeck does a great job of injecting tongue-in-cheek humor and even self-deprecating moments that we can all relate to, but then turning around and serving up some seriousness that we all need to hear.
This story may be a romantic comedy, but it also reminds us of the importance of finding our bliss and what makes us happy. It shows us the necessity of finding our purpose in life, and what can happen when we lose that purpose; we need to stop running from our problems; we must learn to trust in not only ourselves and loved ones, but in God and His purpose for our lives; and that there are always consequences for our actions, and those consequences can hurt not only ourselves but those we love.
“The Theory of Happily Ever After” is a great feel-good story, and I’d love to see it made into a movie (maybe featured on the Hallmark Channel?!?!).
Five stars out of five.
Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group, provided this complimentary copy for my honest, unbiased review.