The Happy Life of Isadora Bentley by Courtney Walsh is the cutest clean Christian contemporary novel. I bought it with a Barnes and Noble gift card knowing nothing about it. I’m so glad I did! It had me laughing and crying and smiling. I often couldn’t put it down! It reminded me a little bit of “A Man Called Otto” since it’s also about a lonely person finding friends. I’ll definitely be reading more of Courtney Walsh’s cute contemporary romances in the future!

Audience

Women. I’d say it’s appropriate for older teenagers and up.

Genre

Contemporary Fiction

Author

Courtney Walsh

On Isadora Bentley’s 30^th birthday she realizes how unhappy and alone she is. She decides to conduct a research project on happiness. For research she follows a list of “things to make you happy” found in a magazine. She’s determined to prove those things don’t actually work, but some small part of her hopes they will. As she pushes past her comfort zone by smiling at a stranger, attending a workout class, and many other things she collects a group of friends. Her first ever group of friends that truly loves her and cares about her. Getting to know them helps her unpack baggage from having a mother who was never pleased and a boyfriend who only used her for her research skills.

A few of my favorite things…

• The whole idea of basically having a bucket list of things to do and seeing if they can bring happiness. In a roundabout way they do, because doing the things brings friends into Isadora’s life.
• Isadora’s inner voice. Her inner voice sounds like a narrator from Animal Planet and made me laugh many times.
• Darby, the chaotic mother of 4 who lives across the hall from hermit Isadora and quickly becomes her best friend.
• Delilah, Darby’s daughter who’s just a little girl with an old soul.
• Marty, the old man Isadora meets in the park. I teared up every time he talked about his dear wife who had passed.
• Dr. Cal Baxter’s sweet welcoming family.

Know that…

• There are mentions of a previous bad relationship.
• Isadora thinks a character is really attractive and sometimes thinks about kissing him.
• …and there’s kissing.

Bottom line- it’s a clean contemporary romance. I appreciated how the focus wasn’t solely on the romance, but on friendships and pushing past fears as well. It definitely could have gone deeper if faith aspects had been weaved in, but I’m just happy to find a clean book that made me laugh!

Perfect for…

Any woman looking for a light, happy, cute and clean contemporary romance!

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