Sorry - forgot to post this review, now going through reviews had written and saved, yet not posted:

A very brave subject matter for a debut author. Perhaps what obtained the publishing contract? Anyway, this was an enjoyable book that bodes well for the author's future. I wish her well.

Beautifully written book about dementia and friendship.  This deals with a sensitive subject well.  Would highly recommend this to my older students to read.

Although this book has mixed reviews, I found this book fear warming, light and really funny in parts. I really enjoyed it and feel It should have more credit than it's got.

Please note that this book is not for me - I have read the book, However I had to DNF and because i do not like to give negative reviews I will not review this book fully - there is no specific reason for not liking this book. I found it a struggle to read and did not enjoy trying to force myself to read this book.

Apologies for any inconvenience caused and thank you for the opportunity to read this book

A love story, a touching study of a brilliant woman losing her mind and an exploration of what love really means feature in this well written novel. At times moving, uplifting, entertaining and funny, it's impossible to put down.

I had the pleasure of meeting Sophie Jenkins at an event and I bought her book soon after. I've only just got around to reading it - sorry Sophie - but it was a lovely, heartwarming read about loneliness, finding yourself and friendship.

I wasn't really sure what this book was going to be about exactly - I was intrigued by the idea of Lana (28 yrs old) becoming a house mate with an 80 year old woman. Once I began to read this book I was just hooked straight in - it felt like coming home, I just instantly clicked with the character of Lana.

Maybe it helps because Lana is a writer and I am always intrigued by writers. We also get to follow her to the publishers for a little chat about her newest book and other writer type things. I just loved it! If that wasn't enough she then she moves in with Nancy who is an octogenarian famous writer - two writers in one book!  I just loved the description of Nancy's house too. Unfortunately Nancy has dementia and there was a whole other side to the story with her forgetting most of the time what she was doing and getting muddled up. I felt that the dementia aspect was very true to life and well written. 

Lana has a bit of a writers block but she needs to pay her way in the world so she begins to teach a writing course and I found the little insight into writing techniques fascinating and it became a book within a book. There were also the would be writers on the course and their stories too along with Nancy who Lana invites along. Lana feels if she could only take some tips from Nancy, get to know her technique she could be a better a writer.

Aside from all the girl fan writing stuff there is a love story here too. Nancy has lost a love but maybe she's found another - or has she. A little bit of will they won't they which by the end had me racing to find out - well will they or not! 

A lovely gentle read which I was sad to finish. I just loved it - did I say that already! I'm giving it five out of five stars.

Reading this book felt like having a very long chat with a friend after I hadn't seen her for a while. 

The characters are very real and I enjoyed seeing how Lana coped with her life after her boyfriend left her, her second book was rejected, and she faced homelessness.

What a wonderful story that shows us true love, sadness, compassion and human spirit.  Lana Green was a fantastic character and the story telling of dementia was so accurate and heart breaking.  I read it in a day.

Reading the synopsis, this book seems like a heartwarming story of a woman who's finding inspiration and friendship from an old woman, right?

Wrong. This book is none of those things. The plot never picked up and doesn't really make sense. The main protagonist, Lana, is one of the weakest I've ever read. She's bland, she's self-centered and doesn't care about Nancy at all. She always thinks of Nancy as this famous author, source of information and a person to learn to, which is her main motivation to cohabitate with her. And when that doesn't work, she read her journal. And in the middle of this, there's Nancy's step son. At its core, this book is a romance between Lana and said step-son, with Nancy being used as an excuse for them to spend time together. And in the end, Lana doesn't feel like she has any growth at all, she still unlikeable and bland, and the plot never really picked up and grab my attention either. I don't know the meaning of the title either, since there's no guide in the story or whatsoever, and what grates on my nerves more, that false synopsis.

A must read for fans of Giovanna Fletcher and Sophie Kinsella.
The perfect book for when you feel like you need a hug.

This was a DNF for me. I just found the pace too slow for my liking and I found it hard to care about any of the characters or where they ended up within the narrative. 

I tried. I picked it up every day hoping the pace would pick up or something interesting would happen within the story, but at the 50% mark, I decided I was going to stop reading. 

For this reason, I have left a starless DNF review on Goodreads but I have not featured it on my book blog.

Thank you to the publisher for the opportunity to read it.

Firstly a massive thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and author for a digital copy in exchange for a frank and honest review.
I loved this book it was warm, funny and genuinely uplifting.  The characters were like-able and at the same time unconventional.  Yes it's a feel good romantic read but the central relationship between Lana and Nancy is much more interesting than you might expect.  Definitely one to read and Sophie Jenkins an author to look out for!

Lana Green writes romance novels--or at least one, the best seller Love Crazy. Her second romance, Heartbreak, has just gotten a thumbs down from her publisher. The reason? It's bleak and bitter, hardly the stuff of romance. Except Lana was just writing what she knew. And what she knew was that the hero of Love Crazy, photographer Marco, had dumped her the heroine Lauren, just as Lana's photographer boyfriend Mark had dumped her. See where this is going?

And to be sure, for the first few chapters, Sophie Jenkins' The Forgotten Guide to Happiness is chick lit, plain and simple. Numbing her broken heart in a pub, Lana meets a scruffy IT guy, Jack Buchanan. Over wine and a beer, she confesses she needs to find a new hero for her second book--and Jack sets out to become that hero. Romance ensues.

But, wait a minute ... not so fast.

It turns out that Lana is also looking for a job and a place to live, what with the fact that she didn't get her book advance and all.  And Jack has just the thing. His step-mother suffers from dementia and has become increasingly difficult to manage; social services is threatening to intervene. Add to the mix that his step-mom is none other than the famed feminist writer Nancy Ellis Hall, and Lana quickly agrees to become her companion and caregiver. At first, Lana is convinced that Nancy, who carries around a black notebook and scribbles in it furiously, is still writing. (In fact, Lana even thinks she might be able to help the ailing Nancy write a new book.) And while Lana's denial is based on her infatuation of the writer Nancy used to be, she soon comes to love the Nancy who is--and that Nancy draped her head with sheets of toilet paper and insisted she was eight years old; she kept a pastry brush in her purse and set the table with clothes pins, a book, and a ruler; that Nancy quoted the bible as her own work and bit the woman who ran the London Literary Society where Lana tutored--Nancy, the woman she cared for and loved, might seem strangely out of touch, but Lana "knew what [Nancy] meant. Language is just a means of communication, and she could communicate and I could understand her."

It's got to be a tricky business to write about a character with dementia, but Sheila Jenkins handles the character of Nancy tenderly, lightly, always with compassion--just as Lana does. And I hope that someday, should my aging self need a minder, I encounter someone with just as much love.

And about that love story Lana is trying to write--Does Jack get a role to play? Does Marco return and win back Lana's love? Will there be heartbreak or more crazy love? I think its fair to say The Forgotten Guide to Happiness has plenty of love to go around.

Lana's second book was rejected by her publisher because heartbreak and bitterness aren't appealing. So Lana goes in search of a hero, a feel-good-factor; she meets Jack who offers to step in and be her fictional hero because then he gets to date her without the emotional mess. Jack has enough on his hands with his Stepmother Nancy, in the early stages of dementia, who the police deem too vulnerable to live alone. Lana broke without her advance offers to move in with Nancy to look after her and keep her safe in exchange for a place to stay. Seems everyone needs a hero, the question is what qualities really make a good one? 

This novel has heart, it's not your typical boy meets girl they live happily-ever-after story. It's funny, charming but it's also thought-provoking and full of spirit. Nancy is the life and soul of the book her zest of life, the way she commands attention and her ability to bring the other characters together is a joy to read. The scenes detailing her dementia and the way society treats a declining health are poignant. This quirky read written from a struggling writers point of view is certainly worth a read and guaranteed to keep you entertained on these gloomy grey days.  
  
Thanks to Netgalley and Avon Books UK for sending me this in exchange for an open and honest review.

My Thoughts

‘... It’s not what you’ll do for love, but what you’ll give up. This was my test and I wasn’t going to make the same mistake this time.’

The Forgotten Guide to Happiness is enjoyable and heartwarming with its touching storyline, solid characters and an easy to read writing style. It is most definitely not the typical formula for a romance book, which was good. There are a range of tales to be told here, that will undoubtedly engage you on more than one level. 

‘Love. What was it all about? I thought about my dad and Jo-Ann’s unlikely alliance and whether love amounted to nothing more than finding someone you could watch Netflix with.’

The main character Lana is ‘challenging’, but her flaws are what make her more real. She is a writer searching for a subject for her next book, after her initial book about her whirlwind romance with a travel photographer was a hit. In her search for a story/hero (plus a search for a place to stay and money to pay for things) she befriends a famous feminist novelist from years gone by, who is suffering with dementia and the stepson that cares for her. So you see, apart from Lana’s journey, there is the journey of Nancy and her battle with dementia, plus Jack and his saddened view of love. More than the one proverbial string to this bow as I stated. 

‘It’s not right, is it? What are we saving her from, Lana? What are we saving her for? So that she can live a long old age locked up in a place that’s not her own?’

The story was travelling along pleasantly enough until just over the halfway mark when, in my view, Lana completely lost the plot. I know .... I  know ... it was her journey, her lessons to be learnt - but seriously! For all her complaining, this particular event was a little hard to swallow. This twist in the tale did not make sense to me at all.  It was like Lana became a completely different person. This is where the story lost its way a bit for me. 

‘We both had our baggage, and even though it wasn’t actually matching, it was definitely the same brand.’

The characters that kept me engaged to the end were Nancy and Jack. He is a good soul with so much heart. Nancy added the flamboyance to the tale  and more of her story would have been beneficial to the overall storyline. Not only her history, but her battle with dementia and its impact on those around her. Overall a good tale about love and the power of friendships. 

‘These are the reasons that I like to write: it’s safe. It’s so much easier to make sense of the world in fiction, where there are rules and regulations and the writer has total control over people’s actions. The problem I’ve always had with real life is, you never know what’s going to happen.’




This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher and provided through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.

Apologies this has taken so long to review. I loved this story - it's different to other books out there at the moment which is very hard to achieve. My book club is now reading. Thanks.

Lana writes a book about her perfect love affair with Mark and it becomes a best seller. When he leaves her she writes another book and it’s rejected as being vindictive and sad. With no money for rent she moves in with an elderly lady with dementia, Nancy. Jack, Nancy’s stepson arranges their meeting and things start looking up for Lana. As friendships develop the story let’s you feel the failing health, a light romance and life moving forward. Set in England the books flows toward an expected end with a twist. I received a copy of this ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This book was certainly not what I expected it. I definitely found myself liking it more than I thought I would. I found the plot enjoyable but the characters are, in my opinion, what really made this story. They are interesting, entertaining, and makes the story worth reading.

I have to be honest and admit that I wasn’t quite sure of what to expect with this book. I read the synopsis and it certainly sounded intriguing, but I was sort of unsure as to whether or not a book featuring a character with dementia could be funny and uplifting. In this case I was more than happy to be proved wrong.
At the start this story, we meet Lana a successful but skint author of one book. Her book was written from experience in her own life and of course, the hero in the book has just broken her heart in real life so when she writes the follow up it’s fueled with bitter tones and is deeply depressing. With her life in a mess, she looks for inspiration for a rewrite of book 2.I
I loved the plot and although it’s relatively simple it is so satisfying to read because not only does it have a lovely romantic heart, the conceit of writing as a catalyst for the book is perfectly handled, so that it is actually a very useful book for aspiring writers as well as a warm, compassionate and engaging story.
The Forgotten Guide to Happiness is such a lovely book. It has unexpected depth as well as a lightness of touch so that it’s a perfectly balanced and wonderful read