Secrets to Happiness [NOOK Book]

Secrets to Happiness is sharply funny and yet still sweet and warm hearted!

What is the secret to happiness? This is a question you'll hear a lot these days! Holly thinks that she knows the secrets until her husband leaves her. She's back at the drawing board and with a hunky, young lover, a sweet, ill dog, and a cheating best friend all to help her figure it out.

This book starts (and ends) with great, quirky, loveable characters. They are all flawed and each trying their best to find the ever elusive happiness. I love that Sarah Dunn explores all the options. Sure, for some, the secret to happiness is a white picket fence. But in the modern world it can also be a sad, sweet dog, the man your best friend is having an affair with, or the job you thought you hated. You have to open to happiness from anywhere, you never know when it will strike!

Secrets to Happiness is sharply funny and yet still sweet and warm hearted. Sarah Dunn pokes fun of her characters even while she is guiding them down the path to happiness. I really enjoyed this book. It was smart enough to keep me reading and warm enough to make me feel good in the end.

4 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

Hilarious Read

If you want to laugh this is the book for you. Sarah Dunn's characters are hilarious and her voice just makes it funnier. The story is great and moves along at a great pace. I have passed this book along to two friends and each one loved it as much as I did. I couldn't put it down and I laughed out loud and even laughed so hard I cried a few times. I will re-read it once I get it back.
It also has a lot of meaning about what we expect from life and the roles we think we need to play and what actually happens. Even though it takes place in New York, I think anyone who like a funny read about relationships will get a kick out of it.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

unanticipated

I sat down with this book not expecting much - I did buy it for the cover. I ended up flying through the pages and enjoying a few emotional moments where my heart ached and tears swelled in my eyes.

2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

The Universe has a Way of Working Things Out

Holly Frick, the main character, believes in the basic goodness and morality of humanity but finds herself more and more disappointed as she sees the failings and shortcomings of those closest to her. In a humorous expose of her misadventures, Holly finds herself busy trying to keep those around her on the straight and narrow. Meanwhile, she misses opportunities for her own happiness until she realizes the secret is letting go of her expectations of others while learning to live with and accept the imperfections of humanity.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Not very good

Was not into this book at all!

Their is no Secrets in Secrets to Happiness

The characters were so dis-organized and heading no place. When reading a page turner you want to keep going and see why they are doing what they are doing, in this book you never cared what the people were doing. Their is no plot or purpose. Half way threw the book i kept thinking about the poor sick dog in the apartment that is spoke of in maybe 4 pages. This sick dog is who knows where? He is dropped from the story for the next 100 pages. I bought the book because of the high reviews. Save your money! Save your time!

Cute, but still not worth it.

This book was cute, but expected. The writing is OK. Not a page turner though.

Quirky

I liked the quirky characters and the twists in the plot. Very relate-able to any NYC woman!

cute story!

I loved all the unexpected twists and turns of this novel. It was a fun read with funny characters. I loved Holly's character and how determined she was to do the right hing even living in such a big modern day city. Looking forward to the next read by Sarah Dunn!

Loved This Book!

It was such a fun read.

This SUCKED!!

It was horrible!! DO NOT waste you money!! I was so disapointed!!

0 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

So-So

The book cover was the best part. Not the worst book I've read but pretty lackluster.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

funny and charming

good summer read, but was expecting a better ending. Holly is a funny character.

Sarah Dunn- Secrets to Happiness

Sarah Dunn's Secrets to Happiness is chick lit. I know, it's fashionable these days to cease designating any novel that features women in LA or NY who are struggling to find boyfriends who don't embarrass them in public, who find pets adorable, who shop for brand name shoes and fashion, who are insulted if someone thinks they even look like they might be a size 6, and whose friends, both male and female, are as witty and bon mot-filled as they are as "chick-lit." But I'm sorry. The genre does have it hallmarks and this book has all of them save the rabid concentration on shoes. Prada is mentioned but not Jimmy Choo that I recall, but the desire to mention them is constant.

There are several heroines in Secrets to Happiness, none of which are happy to any significant degree. There's Betsy Silverstein who is caught in a cycle of dates that end in fellatio because she's developed a reputation for being good at it. There's Amanda who has a darling toddler, Jacob, and a dutiful and witty husband, Mark, but she prefers sleeping with Jack. There's Holly, probably the main character, whose husband has dumped her and whose ex-lover, Spence, is a chronic womanizer and liar. Of course Holly also sleeps with Jack to keep characters in touch with each other. There's Crazy Molly who takes incriminating photos of herself with Spence and emails them to Spence's current girlfriend, who is also unhappy.

Chick lit generally and consistently implies or avers that happiness is found in the arms of a constant lover and thus endeth Secrets to Happiness. The genre may demand it, but for those female authors who object to classification as authors of chick-lit, with its implications of second-rate literary quality, bite the bullet: if it looks like chick-lit and reads like chick-lit and continues or advances the conceits of chick-lit, then it IS chick-lit. Cash your advance and be happy. To deny that the genre exists, or to claim that it is falling out of popularity in favor of "literature" or that it is anything but romance fiction dolled up in Manhattan clothes and budgets is simply a waste of breath. One wonders at the level of defensiveness about it among women authors and readers.

Secrets to Happiness is skillfully written, everybody is smart and quick and capable of great things. It is just not much more than another example of women talking and talking and cheating and cheating and blaming men for it. I like to read it once in a while, if for no other reason than to prove the genre alive and, if not well, at least not terminal. Oh. And the adorable beagle on the jacket? He comes in at the end but there is another dog to fill in the emotional space for those of you into dogs and pets. As faithless as the men are in chick lit, so must the pets be loyal and true.

delightful

I picked this book up after Emily Giffin (another author I enjoy) recommended it as a "satisfying summer read" on her twitter page, and I'm so glad I did. I really enjoyed Dunn's characters, candor, and wit. It was funny and touching at the same time -- an overall charming read.

Sex And The City, Move Over

Holly Frick has just endured the worst kind of breakup: the kind where you're still in love with the person leaving you. While her wounds are still dangerously close to the surface, her happily married best friend confesses over a bottle of wine that she is this close to having an affair. And another woman comes to Holly for advice about her love life--with Holly's ex!

Holly decides that if everyone around her can take pleasure wherever they find it, so will she. As any self-respecting 30ish New York woman would do, she brings two males into her life: a flawed but endearing dog, and a good natured, much younger lover. She's soon entangled in a web of emails, chance meetings, and misguided good intentions and must forge an entirely new path to Nirvana.

From the author of The Big Love, Secrets to Happiness is a big-hearted, knife-sharp, and hilariously entertaining story about the perils of love and friendship, sex and betrayal--and a thoroughly modern take on our struggle to be happy.


This was a very enjoyable read. Fast-paced and interesting, you won't be able to put this one down as you follow the threads of each of the characters, especially Holly in her quest for love. We all probably know a Holly Frick even if our Holly days are far behind us. This is a great summer read and recommended for anyone navigating the shoals of love and relationships.

Amazing!

This book was just as great as The Big Love. I went through it in one sitting and it's a must read.

Even better than The Big Love.

Sarah Dunn truly knows how to pen a story and folks who enjoyed The Big Love will be greatly pleased with her newest effort. Secrets To Happiness is easily readable and enjoyable in every way.

If I could give it 4 1/2 stars, I would. Well-worth getting in hardcover and adding to your library.

LOVED IT!

did not want to put it down....

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