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Welcome to my stop on the blog tour celebrating the release of Happy & You Know It by Laura Hankin! Thank you to Berkley Publishing for the invitation!

About the Book:

A dark, witty page-turner set around a group of wealthy mothers and the young musician who takes a job singing to their babies and finds herself pulled into their glamorous lives and dangerous secrets….

After her former band shot to superstardom without her, Claire reluctantly agrees to a gig as a playgroup musician for overprivileged infants on New York’s Park Avenue. Claire is surprised to discover that she is smitten with her new employers, a welcoming clique of wellness addicts with impossibly shiny hair, who whirl from juice cleanse to overpriced miracle vitamins to spin class with limitless energy.

There is perfect hostess Whitney who is on the brink of social-media stardom and just needs to find a way to keep her perfect life from falling apart. Caustically funny, recent stay-at-home mom Amara who is struggling to embrace her new identity. And old money, veteran mom Gwen who never misses an opportunity to dole out parenting advice. But as Claire grows closer to the cool women who pay her bills, she uncovers secrets and betrayals that no amount of activated charcoal can fix.

Filled with humor and shocking twists, Happy and You Know It is a brilliant take on motherhood—exposing it as yet another way for society to pass judgment on women—while also exploring the baffling magnetism of curated social-media lives that are designed to make us feel unworthy. But, ultimately, this dazzling novel celebrates the unlikely bonds that form, and the power that can be unlocked, when a group of very different women is thrown together when each is at her most vulnerable.

My Thoughts:

Happy & You Know It is such a unique read! It centers around an elite group of mothers who hire a musician to sing to their children.

Claire is the musician hired to perform for a play dates for these Park Avenue moms. She never imagines she’d fall in love with this work, but she does. She even grows to like the well-to-do moms.

Each of the moms has some drama and secrets of her own. Claire becomes closer and closer to them, and what she finds is a darkness she never could have imagined.

Happy & You Know It has humor in the unexpected places. It addresses some important contemporary issues such as judgments on motherhood and social media-laden lives. But mostly, I thought it was a story of friendship and the powerful bonds women can form with each other. Overall, it’s a feel good book with plenty of depth and cleverness.

I received a gifted copy. All opinions are my own.

About the Author:

Laura Hankin is the author of HAPPY & YOU KNOW IT and has written for McSweeney’s and HuffPost, among other publications. The viral videos that she creates and stars in with her comedy duo, Feminarchy, have been featured in Now This, The New York Times, and Funny or Die. She grew up in Washington, D.C. and now lives in New York City, where she has performed off-Broadway, acted onscreen, and sung to far too many babies.

Have you read Happy & You Know It, or is it on your TBR? Happy Reading! ~ Jennifer THR