Today I’m joining the blog tour for Happy Is The One. My review is written with thanks to Anne Cater for inviting me on the tour and to Orenda Books for my copy of the book.

Blurb:

What if halfway through your life was just the beginning?

Robin Edmund Blake is halfway through his life.

Born in 1986, when Halley’s Comet crossed the sky, he is destined to go out with it, when it returns in 2061. Until that day, he can’t die. He has proof.

With his future mapped out in minute detail, a lucrative but increasingly dull job in the City of London, and Gemma to share his life with, Robin has a plan to be remembered forever.

But when Robin’s sick father has one accident too many, the plan starts to unravel. Robin must return home to the tiny seaside town of Eastgate, learn to care for the man who never really cared for him, and face the childhood ghosts he fled decades ago.

Desperate to get his life back on schedule, he connects with fellow outsider Astrid. Brutally direct, sharp-witted and a professor at a nearby university, she’s unlike anyone he’s ever met. But Astrid is hiding something and someone from Robin.

And he’s hiding even more from her…

For fans of Hazel Prior, Rachel Joyce and Jonas Jonasson.

Review:

I really enjoyed Everything Happens For A Reason a few years ago, so I was really excited to see what Katie Allen would do next. She’s a wonderful writer who mixes humour and emotion really well, and ensures that both these elements come through the pages really strongly.

The protagonist of Happy Is The One is Robin, and despite him often appearing distant and calculated, and being very logical and mathematically minded, I actually related to him quite well. Katie Allen has developed his character brilliantly, and I found it interesting to read as he adapted to a number of incredibly difficult situations. The novel is written in first person from his perspective and I loved being able to get under his skin to try and understand his feelings and behaviour. The object profiles that are dispersed between the chapters also give us insight into his childhood and the events that made him the person about whom we are reading in the present. I should also mention Robin’s friendship with Danny, where Katie Allen has depicted male friendship in such a beautiful way.

The plot of Happy Is The One is mostly character driven and it is quite slow burning, particularly in the beginning. I had no idea where the story was going, but I’m glad of this, as it meant that there were some moments that really hit me hard. I must admit to shedding a tear towards the end and I will be thinking about the characters long after I finished reading.

Happy Is The One is available from Amazon.

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