Book Review: Happy Hour

Author: Michele Scott
Title: Happy Hour
Publisher: Createspace
Publish Date: Oct 2009
Rating: 4 Stars
Book Blurb: Four friends working in Napa Valley, Sundays are for fellowship, good food and wine. Jamie is editor-in-chief at "Wine Lover's Magazine," and a single mother. Before her husband died, she lived a fairy tale life. Guilt from his death keeps her from moving forward. Kat is a sommelier, and co-owner of a restaurant with her chef husband Christian. Although deeply in love they deal with a myriad of issues, including ex-spouses, Kat's teenage sons and her new age mother Venus. Danielle is a vintner who finds herself entrenched in both an identity and family crises when her eldest daughter returns home from college with a bombshell of a secret. Alyssa is an artist and gallery owner. When a tragic past event catches up with her, she must face the skeleton in her closet and rely on her friends to see her through her darkest hours. These women discover that friendship is the right prescription to get through the hard times as well as for enjoying the wonderful moments together.

Review: Happy hour is the kind of book that makes me feel some discontent. I want friends like these women. Maybe not these women as friends, but a group of women that get together and share their lives with each other over good food and wine.

Danielle, Kat, Jamie and Alyssa all have their ups and downs, some seem to have more downs then ups, but they muddle through, mostly with the help of each other. They learn to get their lives into focus and they learn to accept love into their lives again. For Danielle who is still bitter over her divorce and Jamie, who is having a hard time dealing with the loss of a husband, that is something that isn't too easy to do.

They all have problems, just like you and me, and likely there's something everyone can relate to in at least one of these women, whether it be relationship woes, financial strain or the frustrations of being a parent. It is all there in these four women.

Some times the issues they face seem to resolve themselves too easily but this is chicklit and with a small dash of romance tossed in, so a happily ever after is something that is required by the last page, but the resolution isn't forced so all is good.

By the time you do reach that happily ever after, you'll be wishing you could have a happy hour with some friends.