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When I have a writing deadline approaching, you'll probably find me in the kitchen. It's horrible, I know, but when I work with a deadline, I tend... Continue »
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Secrets to Happiness

by Sarah Dunn

Secrets to Happiness Cover

ISBN13: 9780316013581
ISBN10: 0316013587
Condition: Standard
Dustjacket: Standard
All Product Details

 

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

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.

Review:

"Dunn charts several New Yorkers' lives in this snappy novel. The spotlight most often falls on Holly Frick, a 35-year-old divorce whose egg walls 'are taking on the consistency of tissue paper as we speak.' A writer whose cheeky first novel bombed, Holly now resides low enough on the TV totem pole to be cranking out after-school dreck with her gay pal Leonard. Meanwhile, her best friend, Amanda, is cheating on her husband, and Holly adopts Chester, a cute little dog with cancer whose hopeful approach to life mirrors Holly's. While Holly's love life follows a formula-familiar trajectory, Amanda's romantic flailing ensnares Holly, and Chester's destiny takes an unexpected turn that means big changes for both of them. Although cliches pop up (the supergay friend, a $1,200 purse splurge), the energetic and witty prose speeds along the narrative. It's smarter than the usual single-in-the-city fare, and funnier, too." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Synopsis:

Holly Frick just went through the worst kind of divorce: the kind where you're still in love with the person divorcing you. Alex had left her on January 3rd, like a benevolent CEO who holds off the pink slips until after the holidays. Holly is left to wonder if she'll everfind happiness again. Like Jane Austen's Emma Woodhouse, Holly is intimately involved in the lives of those around her, and she's compelled to give advice with unwavering moral certainty. And, like Emma, she is often completely off the mark. Soon, her advice will get her in over her head, and she'll find herself playing therapist to her ex-boyfriend's new girlfriend while at the same time falling for her married friend's lover. Smart and touching, SECRETS TO HAPPINESS is a hilarious look at the funny things people do to be happy.

Synopsis:

Like Jane Austen's Emma Woodhouse, Holly Frick is intimately involved in the lives of those around her. Soon, her advice gets her in over her head, in this hilarious look at the funny things people do to be happy.
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What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 1 comment:
Denise Morland, May 3, 2009 (view all comments by Denise Morland)
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.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780316013581
Author:
Dunn, Sarah
Publisher:
Little Brown and Company
Subject:
General
Subject:
Divorced women
Subject:
Contemporary Women
Subject:
Love stories
Subject:
Humorous fiction
Copyright:
2009
Publication Date:
March 2009
Binding:
Hardcover
Language:
English
Pages:
277
Dimensions:
8.45x5.73x1.06 in. .87 lbs.
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Related Aisles

Secrets to Happiness Used Hardcover
0 stars - 0 reviews
$6.95 In Stock
Product details 277 pages Little Brown and Company - English 9780316013581 Reviews:
"Publishers Weekly Review" by , "Dunn charts several New Yorkers' lives in this snappy novel. The spotlight most often falls on Holly Frick, a 35-year-old divorce whose egg walls 'are taking on the consistency of tissue paper as we speak.' A writer whose cheeky first novel bombed, Holly now resides low enough on the TV totem pole to be cranking out after-school dreck with her gay pal Leonard. Meanwhile, her best friend, Amanda, is cheating on her husband, and Holly adopts Chester, a cute little dog with cancer whose hopeful approach to life mirrors Holly's. While Holly's love life follows a formula-familiar trajectory, Amanda's romantic flailing ensnares Holly, and Chester's destiny takes an unexpected turn that means big changes for both of them. Although cliches pop up (the supergay friend, a $1,200 purse splurge), the energetic and witty prose speeds along the narrative. It's smarter than the usual single-in-the-city fare, and funnier, too." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)
"Synopsis" by , Holly Frick just went through the worst kind of divorce: the kind where you're still in love with the person divorcing you. Alex had left her on January 3rd, like a benevolent CEO who holds off the pink slips until after the holidays. Holly is left to wonder if she'll everfind happiness again. Like Jane Austen's Emma Woodhouse, Holly is intimately involved in the lives of those around her, and she's compelled to give advice with unwavering moral certainty. And, like Emma, she is often completely off the mark. Soon, her advice will get her in over her head, and she'll find herself playing therapist to her ex-boyfriend's new girlfriend while at the same time falling for her married friend's lover. Smart and touching, SECRETS TO HAPPINESS is a hilarious look at the funny things people do to be happy.
"Synopsis" by , Like Jane Austen's Emma Woodhouse, Holly Frick is intimately involved in the lives of those around her. Soon, her advice gets her in over her head, in this hilarious look at the funny things people do to be happy.
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