Happiness For Beginners by Katherine Center is a great vacation read! It's got a bit of adventure, some romance and even a few "stifle-your-giggle moments" too.

I must admit there had to be some suspension of disbelief on my part as I found the premise that Helen would take on such a monumental hiking challenge completely unprepared a little far-fetched but, it was all in good fun and helped to quickly develop a relationship and romance between the two main characters for the audience's sake so I could overlook that little bit of a stretch the author took.

Overall it was a sweet story with some great characters.

I'd had this book on my list for awhile because of a recommendation from a friend but I wanted to crack it open now once I heard that Netflix had made it into a movie. I'm a read before you watch kind of gal and I gotta say, I'm glad I did. The movie really lacked a lot of the character development I enjoyed in the book and removed most of my favorite scenes!

So, my recommendation is you read the book and skip the movie or, read the book and watch the movie while you're sewing up your next Gus + Steel pattern. You won't miss much but you'll have something new to "half-watch" while you work!