Something Like Happy. Eva Woods

Published: Harlequin - Graydon House
Date: 5th September 2017
Format: e-ARC
Pages: 384
Genre: Mainstream Fiction
Source: Publisher via NetGalley and Little Bird Publicity
Rating:
        

Annie Hebden is stuck. Stuck in her boring job, with her irritating roommate, in a life no thirty-five-year-old would want. But deep down, Annie is still mourning the terrible loss that tore a hole through the perfect existence she'd once taken for granted—and hiding away is safer than remembering what used to be. Until she meets the eccentric Polly Leonard.

Bright, bubbly, intrusive Polly is everything Annie doesn't want in a friend. But Polly is determined to finally wake Annie up to life. Because if recent events have taught Polly anything, it's that your time is too short to waste a single day—which is why she wants Annie to join her on a mission…

Something Like Happy could have been a sad, emotional read, and to some extent it is, however it is also enchanting and uplifting. 

Annie has gone through a lot and really is in a dark place, she struggles through each day not really caring.  And to make matters worse Annie's mother doesn't recognise her as she has early onset Alzheimers. Until one day she meets up with the inimitable Polly. Polly who is keen to live one hundred days doing something happy every day. However Polly has a journey to make as well - she has a brain tumour that means she on some level knows her days are short.

Polly is quite madcap, yet it turns out she is the best thing out for Annie. Through her Annie begins to come back to life while it slowly ebbs from Polly. The things they do are mostly simple but the proof is in the changes that come into Annie's life. And for Polly she has a new found friend who stays with her in her bid to live out her last days fully. They make a formidable team.

Much of the story takes place in a hospital and we meet the chocolate loving, Scottish doctor - Dr. Max and another one who seems serious but when you scrape the surface has his own burdens to carry. Polly has a brother George and Annie has a flatmate - Costas, both characters who come to life and are very much part of the story. 

For me this book worked. At one point I wondered if  I would keep going as I have a sister with a brain tumour so it felt a little close to home, however the story is told with the right amount of irreverence, compassion and love that it became a celebration of life and the reminder that each of us have  a limited time in which we can choose to live all the sad and happy moments of life with whole heartedness.