This book is much longer than it needed to be. I liked following the farm life but I didn’t care much for the love story aspect.

If you are after a feel-good read this summer, then look no further. A charming, captivating and uplifting novel that I thoroughly enjoyed. Supporting roles by Anthony the anti-social sheep and Tina Turner the alpaca with attitude are very definitely a bonus.

You are always guaranteed a great read by Carole Matthews- and I think this is my favourite so far.

Molly runs Hope Farm as an alternative education centre and I absolutely loved reading about the troubled teens that she helps and their various needs. The animals are lovely characters in their own right. I could identify with Anthony the sheep, as the day farm my daughter attends has a very similar character! Having spent a lot of time watching my daughter blossom under the care of a delightful centre I could visualise Hope Farm very vividly. Carole has done a lot of wonderful research for this book as it was so true to my experiences that I felt totally immersed in the story and so sad to have to leave them behind.

Absolutely great book. Great characters, loved the descriptions of the animals with their own quirky natures. Perhaps slightly twee ending but it left me with a smile on my face and there's nothing wrong with that. Lovely.

Carole Matthews is one of my favourite writers. I always look forward to reading her books. Molly - the main character, had a difficult childhood. She lives on a farm with her animals. Molly uses the farm to help children who struggle with mental health. They come and help her with the animals, have lessons, but everything is very relaxed and children enjoyed it. The book is funny, witty and definitely one to read.

It was easy to become emotionally invested with Molly, Bev and Shelby Dacre. The relationship that brought me most joy (and pain!) is the one between Molly and Lucas. Molly is so patient and gentle with Lucas, not judging but building trust and admitting her own mistakes. I must admit to shedding a few tears.

Carole Matthews humorous writing is very much in evidence, not least because of the quirky animals who have found a home at Hope Farm because they’re not wanted anywhere else. Characters in their own right, I did chuckle at a few of the scenes.

I enjoyed the opposites of glamour and farm life. Molly and Shelby are a catalyst for each other as they learn about the different worlds and adapt their own approaches to life and what is important.

I’m a fan of Carole Matthews writing and Hope Farm (all that it represents) is close to my heart. Young people with learning differences are portrayed sensitively and accurately and Molly, well Molly is everything that’s right about inclusion. There should be more settings like Hope Farm available for our vulnerable children and I love Carole Matthews for highlighting the difference these alternative provisions make to young people’s lives.

If you’re looking for an uplifting and feel good read, don’t miss Happiness for Beginners. You’ll experience a host of emotions whilst cheering on these fabulous characters.

Happiness for Beginners was another great book by Carole. I have yet to read a book by this author that I have not enjoyed and this book was fab. I was hooked from the first few pages and I really struggled to put it down. It was funny, witty and full of happiness.

What a lovely book this was! A perfect read for Spring.

Molly lives on a farm that she ‘inherited’ from her Aunt Hettie. The farm is rented from a local landowner and is no ordinary farm as its inhabitants are mainly unwanted or damaged animals. In addition, Molly and her two trusty helpers (Alan and Bev) open the farm to children with problems who don’t settle in mainstream schools. Molly is a 38 year old near recluse who lives on the farm in her aunts old caravan and doesn’t own a TV or have proper washing facilities on site!!! Her life is entirely consumed with looking after the animals and the children.

A local superstar turns up one day with his wayward son to see if Molly can help get through to him. Molly immediately identifies elements of herself in Lucas and feels compelled to help. Everyone thinks that he has a charmed life as his dad is an actor in a major soap opera and he lives in a massive house but Molly can see that Lucas is lonely and craves his dad’s attention despite him saying otherwise. His dad is always working or out partying and if he isn’t then he’s out with his much younger girlfriend and co star that Lucas hates. Molly is desperate to reconcile Lucas and his Dad but will she succeed?

This was a fantastic book which I recommend to all. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced read copy of this book in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

If you have ever come across Carole on Twitter, or seen her beaming smile in her promotion photos, you KNOW that Happiness for Beginners will be an upbeat and (mostly!) feel good story. She just exudes positivity and a generous spirit (and I haven’t even met her!).

Molly runs Hope Farm, from her battered caravan. She largely took over when her Aunt Hettie, with whom she grew up, passed away. Molly had a difficult childhood with a mother who was fond of too many tipples and Hettie took her under her wing. Now at Hope Farm Molly wants for nothing, her pleasure is giving the wayward animals in her care a good enough home.

There is Anthony the anti-social sheep, the trio of Alpacas, Little Dog and Big Dog, Dick the cockerel and so many others, all awkward animals with troubled histories and individual quirks. At Hope Farm, however, they can find redemption and love. Children and young adults – who are struggling to fit in at school and society – come to learn about animals and work through their own difficulties under Molly’s watchful eye and tutelage. For both children and animals this is the last-chance saloon….

The farm is on a financial knife-edge. Molly still lives in a caravan with no facilities to speak of. One day Lucas arrives with his father Shelby Dacre. As Molly doesn’t own a TV she has no idea that this man plays Gordon Flinton, the main character (and farmer) of Flinton’s Farm, a very popular TV soap. The irony is not lost on anyone – this is a man and actor who is allergic to animals!

Shelby is dropping Lucas into her tender care because he has seemingly been misbehaving at school, even accused of arson but Molly is just the person to bring him round. Soon, however, Shelby is spending a little more time than necessary at Hope Farm, although he is officially dating stellar actress Scarlett Vincent. Life is never simple!

The future of the farm is under threat from the HS2 development (a demonstration of the impact this costly development will have on ordinary folk!) and a fire takes hold in one of the barns. The bottom falls out of Molly’s world, what can she do, how can she save what she has? Might she just find a knight in shining armour coming to her rescue?

This is a delightful and uplifting novel, written with the author’s hallmark cheeky humour and there are plenty of wry observations. The setting is bucolic England with lovely characters, both animal and human, careening across the green and pleasant land.

I really liked this book - reminded me of Carole Matthews earlier books which I absolutely loved. I liked the relationships between the main characters which were believable.

This was an easy five star humor filled book for me. The story is told all in the first person with minimal dialogue which I am normally not a fan of. In this instance not only am I a fan but I wanted more! The author’s talent to keep you engaged through out the entire story while making you laugh out loud in some cases and get a bit teary eyed in others was fantastic!

The love that poured out of Molly for her farm and students was heart warming and the way she took all of her challenges to grow and move out of her comfort zone was a joy to read!

This is my first but not the last book I will be reading by Carol Matthews!

I so enjoyed this book. Carole Matthew's books always leave me happy, warm and bit a glowy. The animal characters with their unique personalities played as big a part in the story as the humans and made me giggle out loud and the relationship between Molly and Lucas was so beautifully written I had to take deep breaths so as not to well up in public places. This one is definitely a sleep stealer, but is so worth it!

I loved every page of this book. It had it all. Fun. Romance. Tears and a Fabulous story.
I read this book over a weekend and it really brightened up a dreary time. The characters were well written, the cover, I adored.
Everyone needs at least one Carole Matthews on their bookshelf.

I love Carole Matthews books and have really enjoyed and can highly recommend every single one. I was so looking forward to reading Happiness For Beginners. I wasn't disappointed. This book is Carole Matthews at her very best - like a warm cosy hug I loved it.

I loved the setting of Hope Farm - a home for all the animals no-one else wants. A fantastic cast of wonderful characters who I could identify with, strong plot and great ending. I was drawn in from the start and almost read it in one sitting. A fabulous book perfect for a Sunday on the sofa or a perfect holiday read. I can't recommend this book highly enough and can't wait for the next one!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Reading this book made me remember why I’ve always loved Carole Matthews’ writing – she can be very, very funny (combine that with a clutch of animals with distinct personalities and wills of their own and you have a definite winning combination), but also handles a range of emotions and a number of serious issues with absolute ease. The characters in this book – human and otherwise – are just superb. Carole’s books do tend to have a charismatic heroine at their centre, and I loved Molly from the very first encounter – she has such a passion for the animals and children in her care, still feeling sad after the loss of her aunt, crippled by awkwardness and shyness, living a solitary life in her ramshackle caravan and really well overdue to find some happiness of her own.

Hope Farm is a wonderful setting, vividly described, providing a home for the farm animals – the damaged, difficult and demanding – that no-one else wants: and it also provides an alternative for young people who’ve had problems in mainstream education, introducing them to the whole concept of caring for others while having fun, with the less popular conventional lessons in the afternoons. When difficult and misunderstood teen Lucas joins them, and Molly slowly breaks down his barriers and defences, it’s just the start of a brush with a very different world – TV sets and stardom, charity events and mansions with extensive estates larger than the farm itself – that brings about so many changes to all their lives. I’m sure you’ll have guessed that Lucas’ father Shelby is the potential, if unlikely, love interest – I just loved the fact that he’s the star of a TV soap set in a farming community, but severely allergic to animals and more comfortable in fashionable loafers than a pair of wellies. He has a badly fractured relationship with his son – and can be an unsympathetic character at times, which is rather brave – but I really enjoyed the way this was worked through as the story unfolded.

I want to talk about other characters too – the wonderful Bev who is Molly’s rock but also much of the source of human-based humour, hardworking and enigmatic Alan hidden behind his facial hair, and the flamboyant celebrity hairdresser who… but no, you’ll really need to read the book. But I really have to talk about the animals – because although I thoroughly enjoyed the whole book with its relationship issues, moments of real drama and the developing romance, they probably made the book for me. My personal favourite was Little Dog with his permanent smile and close attachment to Molly, but whether it’s shetland ponies, alpacas, pigs, one-legged chickens, orphaned lambs, shire horses or Shadow the barn cat that might make this the book for you, you’ll find this book an absolute joy.

There really is a perfect balance with the drama around human relationships and fears for the future, the day-to-day activities of caring for life’s neglected ones, but with the next laugh never too far away – I raced through this book in one glorious sitting, and found it absolutely enchanting. And it was good to be reminded why the author has so many devoted fans – although it’s sometimes not all it takes to climb to the top of the rom com tree, she’s a very fine writer indeed. Highly recommended.

”I brush the dirt from my hands, my jeans, my shirt. I should introduce myself to you. How rude
of me not to have done it before. I’m Molly Baker. I’m thirty-eight – no idea how that’s even possible. I’m single, but I’m not a mad cat lady. I’m a mad all-kinds-of-animals lady. Welcome to my life at Hope Farm.”

Molly runs Hope Farm, an untraditional farm that provides a home to unwanted animals: Anthony the anti-social sheep, Tina Turner, one of the alpacas with attitude; Teacup, a definitely-not-miniature pig, and a rooster named Dick-the-Cock, a horse that’s allergic to her mane, and Little Dog and Big Dog. Additionally, she offers alternative education to kids who haven't blossomed in mainstream schools. Then the distractingly attractive Shelby Dacre, an actor famous for his role in a beloved soap-opera, turns up hoping to enroll his wayward son, Lucas, Molly isn't fazed, after all she doesn’t even own a television set, so she has no idea who he is. She does, however, immediately accept his son as a student, if only to grow concerned that Lucas might prove to be more of a handful than she predicted. Is believing in Lucas a terrible mistake or will Lucas, like all the others, find a second chance at Hope Farm?

When the farm faces foreclosure, Molly finds herself forced to make more social contacts than she is comfortable with, but she can’t bear to think of losing this farm that she inherited from her godmother-Aunt Hattie.

”When Hettie died I took over the running of the farm and the mantle of family weirdo.”
This is the first book I’ve read by Carole Matthews, and I really enjoyed this. I loved her devotion to these left-behind animals, and her connection to Lucas.

A quirky, loving character, another that struggles with human interaction but was very lovable, this was made all the more entertaining when I found out that a farm owned by a friend of the author was the inspiration for this novel. The culture and philosophy of this farm is very close to that of Hope Farm.

https://www.carolematthews.com/a-litt...


Published: 21 Feb 2019


Many thanks for the ARC provided by Little, Brown Book Group UK / Sphere

I've read all of Carole Matthews' books, and just like her other novels, I enjoyed it immensely. However, it was not my favorite for two reasons. First, it started off slowly. I had trouble getting into the book, or liking the characters much until I was several chapters in. Second, I didn't find the love match that ultimately occurs to be at all believable.

The pros far outweigh the cons, though, and after a few chapters, I was invested in Molly, all of her animals (even the crazy ones), and her story.

This is such a lovely story! Hope Farm is the kind of place I would love to live or work!

The unlikely band of misfits are a fab makeshift family for Molly. The animals were so much fun to read about, especially Anti Social Anthony and Johnny Rotten! Hilarious!

Happiness For Beginners had me laughing, crying, swooning and sighing. It's one of Carole's best yet!

Great story about overcoming fears and being content with who you are. Full of raw "rollercoaster-like" emotions. It will make you both laugh and cry. Definitely recommended.

What a gorgeous story, as cosy as your winter pjs and as warm and sweet as a hot chocolate with marshmallows. Which is probably the best way to enjoy this story. Settle down on the sofa or snuggled under the duvet whilst you read this!

Enjoyed this so much!

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC and the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my review.