{Title~ This Is What Happy Looks Like}
{Author~ Jennifer E Smith}
{Pages~ 405}
{Publisher~ Poppy/ Little, Brown and Company}
{Other Books By Author~ The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight,
The Geography of You and Me}
Jennifer E Smith has become one of my Top Authors just from reading two of her books. This is What Happy Looks Like is very much about self discovery, finding what you truly want in life and making the choice to let people in. Ellie (Protagonist #1) has gone through some tough times with her mom, having her dad out of the picture for publicity reasons. Because of that Ellie has reasoning for not wanting to be in the spot light for anything. She works two jobs at an ice cream parlor and at another shop with her mom. Everything is just plain and simple until Graham emails her. Graham is like the epitome of the public eye. He's being watched all the time as one of Hollywood's rising stars, so when he shows up with a troop of unrellentless photographers and an entire film crew behind him, Ellie's little beach town is about to be turned over. Now everything would have been fine if Ellie only hadn't been speaking to Graham for months without even knowing it. Writing to each other through email, Ellie gets to know Graham (and his pig Wilbur) in a whole different light. I'm really sad though that Ellie didn't get to meet Wilbur I mean COME ON Wilbur was the whole reason they ended up speaking together! #propstowilbur!!!!
So that is the basic beginning of the story. I mean usually I would have thought "oh god he has a pig this is going to make for a stupid story" but I was really surprised after reading this book to find out that we really should be thanking that terrific, radiant, humble pig!
So enough about Wilbur for the moment.
It's clear that both Ellie and Graham has family issues. Ellie is running and hiding from her past and then Graham trying to reconnect with his family and live his own life. Now the only problem I have was that Quinn was a butt face. I mean I get that she didn't tell you something but jeez take a chill pill, don't like completely do a 360 on her and ditch her when she needs you the most. Okay that was just me ranting and I completely get that it adds drama and what not. I have to say though Quinn was also unrellentless in the silent treatment.
Now for the other unrellentless characters in the book. The paparazzi. Oh my gosh I would have popped them one too, a LONG time ago. So without spoiling anything, those characters were portrayed correctly, I mean just look at the ones stalking Justin Bieber in real life, I mean can it get any more accurate?
Alright so the relationship between Graham and Ellie is sort of rocky at first, rightly so being they only knew each other over the internet. You could make out the awkwardness between them whenever they were talking, like it just wasn't the same as over email. I totally get that because that does happen in real life, the weird situations where you don't know what to say. Later on though it becomes a smooth relationship with jokes and the amazing bets of Whoopy Pies (I swear I'll find one one day!!!). The action flow throughout was great, there weren't too many pages that I got bored at, and everything just clicked in place like pieces of a puzzle.
Graham though is definitely one of my favorite characters, I mean I did call him a dufus for avoiding her but it makes sense, a girl needs space, especially a red head (I know, I am one). He is just the perfect gentlemen, minus the part where he ditches Quinn on their date but hey he thought it was Ellie. But looking through Graham's eyes it was clear that no matter what you think you know about a person, you will never know the full story. Sometimes we imagine what a person may be like but when we really get to know them it's different. I like though that Jennifer didn't make Graham the perfect star she could have, she made him have shape and back story. He had memories of the time before he became famous, when he was in school with his pals and went fishing with his dad. Jennifer could have easily disregarded all that giving him the past of a movie star, but instead she added depth to him. I like the Graham that I saw in this book, better than the one he could have been.
Now something I enjoy personally is when a character makes a joke and throughout the story the joke keeps being referred to-- like the Whoopy Pie. Theirs book though ended wonderfully, like this is seriously my favorite ending of all the books I've read, and I've read a lot. The cover is again spectacular I mean, what's better than two people in a boat looking too adorable? So in short this is the subject's ratings.
Cover- 10/10
Summary vs Book- 10/10
Characters- 9/10
Setting- 9/10
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