Happy and You Know it is a FEISTY page turner filled with laughter and darkness. How a book can encompass both of these things is beyond me but the author successfully added this unique flair and I am THRILLED about it. While reading, I was frantically turning to pages to see what would happen next and I didn't want to put the book down. That my friends is how all well written books should be. Grab this book!

Actual Rating: 4.5 stars
Full review to come closer to release date on the blog!

A great read! Even though I am not a mother, I could relate to the characters very easily and found them very entertaining. The story and the characters felt very realistic. I loved how easy and capturing the story was as well. 4.5 stars.

This book had some nice little twists in it. It was a little slow at times and overall had me thinking about life as a new mom in a big city. How isolating it is and the added allure of having unlimited funds to do things doesn't seem so appealing when you have a small child.

Happy and You Know It is a fun, easy read about a mommy/baby playgroup on the UES of NYC. With an interesting cast of characters, all with their own secrets, you alternately root for and against them. An interesting twist and an even more interesting ending. I recommend.

Very entertaining and readable - plot is not meant to be believable, so the over top coincidences & resolutions didn’t bother me. Characters could have been drawn a little better, but all in all this is a fun read.

Engaging, quick read. I enjoyed the characters and the plot that cracked the veneer of the ‘perfect’ rich.

Claire lost her gig with a band right as they hit it big. She is down on her luck and in need of a job. So when a upper class mommy group needs a singer? She is on it!


Once she gets into these women's lives she realizes that maybe they aren't just the upper class housewives that she originally thought. (view spoiler)


This book is just pure fun. Especially if you a nosey, catty heifer like I am.


Then plot twist...I actually started to like a few of these women.


Booksource: Netgalley in exchange for review.

LOVED this book. Seriously, what a great read. I read the entire thing in one sitting because all the characters had some depth, relatability, and issues that I could see why they had even if I didn't live their lives...and what a fun story--Claire was in a band that kicked her out just before they blew up. She now has to sing for a playgroup with a group of moms who has some hidden issues. And it's magical how the stories intertwine, how the secrets unveil themselves and how it all comes together. I loved this book and would highly recommend--it has so much relevance to the culture of mommy shaming, perfection, motherhood as a whole, being single and wanting to be a mom (or not)...amazing.

There's lots of domestic fiction out there that especially appeals to moms, but Hankin's focus on the musician pulled into the mommy group is a fun twist on the genre. Claire's former band is hitting it big without her and she starts playing music to children to make ends meet. When she gets sucked into the mama drama of some NYC moms who seem to have it all - Insta-perfect babies, hot hubbies, and expensive real estate - she realizes her missed shot at fame is the least of her problems.

Cute and fun read about a mommy playgroup and their new hired entertainer. There is some slightly deeper side plots regarding the singers past, as well as various issues among the moms (and the very real topic of how hard is it to be a mom in this day and age). While the book was lightweight, it kept me hooked and reading until the end.

A Peyton Place for the Upper East Side mommy set, this story about a recovering rock singer and the parents of the children she leads in the Hokey Pokey is full of jealousy and intrigue. The characters are surprisingly rich for a takedown of the wealthy members of an infant and toddlers playgroup.

I didn't bookmark anything--or Adobe Digital Editions didn't save them, just as likely, so I don't have anything specific to cite. I'm troubled that the Bluefire Reader seems to lose graphic content (e.g., characters' text messages). Adobe has a slow page turn, which flashes white when you're reading on a black background like I typically do. I wonder if I can open those files in Libby???

I like that it's not a romance, but the protag gets laid.

There is something about a good, strong "Women's Literature" book that deeply appeals to me, and this definitely lived up to all I hoped it to be. As a mom, J could relate.to the recurrent theme of not being ENOUGH, not doing ENOUGH. This was an engrossing, well written novel about well off mommies behaving badly, keeping secrets, and betraying the ones we love. An easy read and an even easier sell.

This book was such a fun twist on the bored housewife theme. The book centered around a group of rich mothers who held playgroups weekly. These playgroups were not your typical group in that each time they hired their own singer/guitarist to sing songs for the children. This is when Claire is brought into the group. She is an outside perspective that begins to notice a few fishy things... Overall good book.

Wow, are there people like this out there??? What a group of insecure, materialistic but totally human women. A lot of situations to learn from here! Having said all that, I enjoyed it!

Oh, this is an unexpected book. I was intrigued by the premise and got pulled in deep and fast. When it started, I thought this was going to be a friendship drama, and then it twisted in a delightful way.

A down on her luck musician finds a job as a playgroup musician (who knew this was a thing?!) for a group of wealthy New York City playgroup. The unofficial 'leader' of the playgroup and her 'perfect' life has taken Momstagram by storm and the playgroup gets to try a variety of products to enhance the Mom experience. In this world of wealth and privilege all is not what it seems. Will the playgroup survive?

This is a WONDERFUL novel. For the first part of it, I couldn’t figure out why I was turning the pages too fast to take notes, which I usually do when there are this many characters are involved. There’s Claire, who was unceremoniously dumped by her band for another singer who was curvier and sexier, which would have been rough on its own, but what’s worse is that shortly after they made the change, they catapulted to fame and have the number one song in the country, while she’s taking on unglamorous jobs like being the singer for six excessively wealthy New York stay-at-home moms who spend an extravagant amount of money on things like health supplements.

The novel is told from some of the moms, too. I had more sympathy for some of them than others: Missing having their day jobs while maintaining their skinny physiques and pretending there are no challenges with being a mom, even to a child with a behavior disorder because, of course, they are perfect in every way.

The novel gets to be even more of twist-and-turns page turner with a supremely satisfying ending.

Highly recommend.

Thanks so much to Netgalley for the opportunity to review this novel, which RELEASES MAY 19, 2020.

This book was received as an ARC from Berkley Publishing Group in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

My first take on this book was thinking that it was going to take a different direction but this book did a complete 180 that surprised me in the best possible way. Happy and You Know It reflects on the life of Claire, a former musician and band member turned playgroup musician befriending a group of wealthy, fitness junky mothers. They all embrace her and accept her especially when they offer to take care Claire's bills. Claire thinks that this is too good to be true until one day she uncovers secrets of betrayal that really makes Claire question her life choices and will her group of friends really appreciate her for who she is not for who she was. This was an entertaining read that will tickle your funny bone and tug on your heartstrings.

We will consider adding this title to our Adult Fiction collection at our library. That is why we give this book 5 stars.

A wonderful send-up of the mommy influencer culture, with more of a feminist sensibility than I expected. Characters were not as one-dimensional as they could've been. The climactic "chase" scene was hilarious. Will definitely recommend.

Welcome to the universe of “Super powered trust fund Manhattan penthouse moms”! They can’t be defined as regular stay-at-home moms. They are full of energy with their shiny, beautiful hairs, wearing their designer clothes (especially blouses) or casually Lululemon yoga pants, drinking wines, already lost their pregnancy weights, running around from different activities to another social gatherings.

Now they created a play group for their children but instead of their babies, they all play no work and of course that situation makes them not dull but so entertaining group of people. The group leader Whitney, once upon a time white trash girl, now a sophisticated, beautiful momma played her cards right and charmed a handsome, rich husband Grant. She is now an instagram star sharing the group photos and telling how she is having an amazing life.

Now they need a musician play songs to entertain their babies and we’re introduced Claire, replaced by another singer from her old band, jobless, penniless, rejected, ex- church singer and ex-rock star, welcomes into those mothers’ world to sing their babies: “If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands!” where the book’s title coming from.

Slowly Claire feels motivated by those mothers’ positive energy. Even she stands still after seeing the hostility of Amara, one of the mothers resigned from her job on popular late show, raising her problem child, caught by Claire at the bathroom of Whitney in inappropriate position. She gets used to quirkiness of Meredith and Ellie, the arrogance and know-it-all attitude of Gwen and silent, peaceful antics of Vicki. Those women turned into her best friends and she starts to enjoy her time spending with them which helps her to forget her regretful past and her failed carrier attempts.

She befriends Amara and shared her secrets about her wounded past. But one day she also finds out the biggest secret which will turn her world upside down and helps her see from a different angle of those shiny mothers’ world. Nothing as it seems, everything she knew about them is bucket of lies.

So what is going to happen? Will she face with those mothers? Is one of them conducting a master plan? Are they both liars, cheaters? Which one she could really trust? Did she put her life in danger for trusting them so much?

This book is getting darker at each page and full of surprises and twists that you never see it coming. The final revelation connects with prologue perfectly. I liked the dark humor of the story and author’s sarcastic approach to the rich young penthouse’s mothers’ lives. It was more enjoyable than any “Real housewives” series.
The character development is fantastic. I mostly liked Amara and her relationship dynamics with her husband, her failures and her fears about being a bad mother, her efforts and natural way of dealing with her problems earned a place in my heart. Of course I also loved Claire, her efforts to be better version of herself and chasing her dreams.

I liked the chapters, the stories of these different women and conclusion of their stories. It’s a fresh break to read dark humor, women’s fiction genre which I really enjoyed the intelligence and writing style of the author.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing to share this amazing ARC COPY with me in exchange my honest review.