This was my first book to read by Courtney Walsh and I really enjoyed it! I was interested in reading this book because of the fun plot line and the super cute cover. I enjoy books where the MC has to complete a list of things and do things out of their comfort zone so I had a lot of fun reading Isadora’s journey to completing the list! This book was more than a fun plot line though. It went deep. This list took Isadora on a journey that changed her life. I enjoyed reading that journey and watching her character growth throughout the book.

While it took me a little while to get fully into this story, Isadora’s personality kept me interested. I really liked that this book was written in first person because I felt like I got the know Isadora really well. She was a relatable, socially awkward, introverted MC who had a lot of growing to do. As the story unfolds, we learn why Isadora is so introverted, cautious, and insecure. While there were moments I got frustrated at her for reacting to things the way she did, mostly towards the end, I also understood why she reacted that way and my heart broke for her. I got emotional more than once. I really enjoyed watching her character growth. Her journey felt real and raw. I couldn’t help but like her.
I do wish there would have been a little more faith content or at least a little more resolution to Isadora’s thoughts on the subject. That being said, I wouldn’t consider this book Christian fiction since the faith content almost nonexistent. I did appreciate how clean the book was though— no language and the romance was simply a few semi-detailed kisses.

I love that friendship is a big part of this story! I loved watching as Isadora began making friends. Marty, Darby, Delilah, Cal— I loved them all so much! It was so heartwarming to watch her develop unlikely friendships with people who actually treated her well. Again, I got emotional a time or two which I wasn’t expecting.

The romance between her and Cal was really sweet. I really liked Cal from the beginning. While he felt a bit perfect at times, I could overlook that simply because I really liked his character.☺️

Overall, this book made me laugh, tear up, and smile a whole lot. It was funny but also had depth. It dealt with themes like friendship, heartbreak, grief, and insecurity. I loved the friendships in this book and the romance was really sweet. If you enjoy women’s fiction that includes unlikely friendships, a sweet romance, and a mission the MC has to accomplish, I think you will really like this one!

*I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I really enjoyed this upcoming release by Courtney Walsh! It was the lighthearted yet touching read I was looking for.
Introverted researcher, Isadora Bentley finds it hard to make friends and is more comfortable talking to her cactus than another human being. She stumbles upon an article about the 31 Ways to Be Happy and decides to try to scientifically test and disprove it.
It has lots of snark and sarcasm which I love but also had some very heartwarming, tender moments as well which made it a very satisfying read.

Thanks to Netgalley and Thomas Nelson for the chance to read it in exchange for my honest opinion!

The Happy Life of Isadora Bentley by Courtney Walsh was really good! Isadora is an awkward introvert, with many quirks. I loved her and all of the other characters in this book. They're all well developed with lots of growth throughout. The plot was fun and entertaining, and will have you laughing out loud. Loved the overall message of this novel!

I am nothing like Isadora Bentley and yet at the same time... I'm exactly like her.

One of the things I love about fiction is how you can find something that helps you even when the characters are in situations that are very different from your own. Somehow Courtney Walsh takes some very deep topics and treats them well while not being depressing. I laughed A LOT during the reading of this story. It was touching.

So many times I found myself nodding along to Isadora's statements and thoughts. I highlighted so many passages. Isadora's life is what happens when you have been wounded repeatedly by everyone and everything. It's a natural response.

I loved how Marty and Darby and Delilah wouldn't give up on her. Wounded people need friends like that. And I loved what Darby said about Isadora just not finding the right people yet. The hard thing is, after years and years of wrong people, it's hard to keep trying to find the right ones. But this book gave me a little boost that maybe I can find my right people.

There were times when the style of writing just wasn't quite working for me and I felt that sometimes Isadora's pity parties went on a bit long. There was a lot of rehashing the same things over and over that kind of got old. But at the same time, I understand because I do it myself. Still, reading it sometimes started to drag and these are the reasons I gave it four stars.

I think this is an excellent story and could be very helpful to many people. I know it was for me.



Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book. All opinions are my own and a favorable review was not required.

I adooooored this book!!! I felt my heart literally squeeze with emotions for Isadora and that is the rarest of feelings for me, when reading a book.
What a great story and an amazing writing style.
Thank you Courtney Walsh for such a great journey with your imagination!

So, let’s not skip the basics.
The happy life of Isadora Bentley starts on the day of Isadora’s thirtieth birthday. She is a talented researcher, super intelligent, extremely introvert and wired to be unhappy. Or maybe not?
She finds this article on 31 steps ways to be happy and she decides to start her own personal project. What kind of serious psychologist would boil down a universal recipe for happiness and publish it as an article in a magazine? Her research will certainly prove Dr. Monroe wrong.
And so, Isadora starts with her first step: it’s out of character for her, but, hey, what is this unpredictability going on, now?
The die is cast, and events start flowing.

The book started off quite slowly and melancholy and grey and ... you name it. Not really engaging. I found myself checking the remaining pages and started to ponder how much longer should I read before giving up. But I held a bit longer and, wow, was it worth it!
With hindsight, the beginning really makes sense, it sucks you into Isadora’s lifestyle and it prepares the setting for better understanding what is going on with her project.

After the slow beginning, it picked up very quickly, and what astonished me was that it didn’t need anything super dramatic to remain captivating. This is something I find rarely, an author that can write irresistible pages without over-using big drama events or out of characters reactions. Courtney Walsh created superb characters, who interact delicately yet charmingly. Sometimes the side characters are fillers for the main characters stories, but in The Happy Life of Isadora Bentley all characters had a well-defined personality. I enjoyed reading them all, I did not feel like they were taking away pages from Isadora and the handsome professor. Even if the side characters were not really in my mainstream preferences, they were so well depicted: the way Isadora interacted with them made me discover new sides of Isadora that I enjoyed reading.

Most of all I loved the perspective, the metaphors, the general take on life. When I find a nice metaphor or a concept expressed in a witfully effective way, I highlight it to be able to savour it later. I usually highlight 5-6 paragraphs tops in a good book. Here I lost count, I felt like I was taking notes on every page! I loved the funny comparisons, the dry introvert sentences, the revelations, the awkwardness, the scientific approach to everything.
“My parents were submarine Christians – they only came up for air twice a year, on Easter and Christmas”
« I reset my face to factory settings and sigh »
« the hygienically impaired sales clerk »
« I’m totally counting that as a full-on workout, though, because the calories I burned worrying about it warrant it »
I am definitely going to re-use so many of them !

Maybe, the only thing that felt a bit off is the fact that there was no steam. I did get the feeling that it was a choice, and I like chaste books as much as steamy ones, and I do get that some authors prefer to keep stories less explicit. But I did not even get a hint if there had been any « follow up », to the point that I felt it was an important part of Isadora’s evolution with her love interest to know what was going on in that department. Even without writing explicitly about any scenes : she is thirty years old, after all, and you do wonder if that’s all they did and, if not, how it affected the relationship. It felt a bit like a teenagers kind of love, at times, in contrast with the depth of their great and profound personalities.

This book is one of those few ones that I cannot put down and read avidly and, 10 pages to the end, I start reading super slowly because I am not ready to leave the characters. By the end of book I was almost angry with Isadora, for leaving me : I felt like I was invited to her lunch bench and now she is cutting me out. That’s how good this story has been for me. Such a great gift of good meaningful emotions : what an unfrogettable journey.
Thank you Courtney Walsh.

4 🌟
I enjoyed reading this book especially the aspect of the character development that intertwines with the plot. Isadora is a quirky and socially awkward researcher and her other half, Cal is opposite of her but they complement each other so well. I love the founding family aspect to this book and the plot being so deep and thoughtful is what I enjoyed as well.

I absolutely LOVE Courtney Walsh's writing! This story was really deep and I found my heart caring for the main character so so much and was rooting for her during the whole book. This story line was completely different for Courtney and I think she did it justice!

Favourite quote:
" What is we are supposed to be the light? what if I am supposed to be the light?"
"I would never think his kindness was a small thing. By living his life and being himself, he opened up a whole world for me, reminded me that I'm alive."

Truly meaningful and such a powerful story!

This was an enjoyable book about found family and searching to know yourself better. I flew through it and while it's not my absolute favourite, it was an enjoyable read.

Review: The Happy Life of Isadora Bentley by Courtney Walsh

Publish date: June 13 2023

I am determined Courtney Walsh can do no wrong. This book was so good! This is also my first book of hers that wasn’t a holiday story and I am here for it!

First impression is- why am I on the cover of this book and secondly this book is beyond relatable.

I haven’t felt a connection with a character like I did with Isadora. Buried under trauma and unsure if life at one point was ever meant to be happy.
Isadora is smart and quirky and real. But when she turns 30 she finds herself loading up on snacks in aisle 8 and grabbing a magazine with the article of “31 ways to be happy” as an academic researcher Isadora set out to disprove this article but what she didn’t expect to happen was the life hiding in plain sight.

Watching Isadora break out of her constant comfort zones made you feel a roller coaster of emotions. At times I felt myself smiling uncontrollably, laughing out loud and even finding myself tearing up. I just understood the connections she was having and how she was able to break herself from those traumas.

The relationships that Isadora builds throughout the story are beautiful and unexpected. From her loud outgoing neighbor with 4 kids to the old man in the quad at the university to her swoon worthy love interest.

I am looking forward to sharing this book with my friends when this book comes out in June.

Thank you so much @netgalley @thomasnelson and @courtneywalsh for allowing me the opportunity to review this book. I received this complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed are entirely of my own.

I first fell in love with Courtney Walsh's holiday books--Merry Ex-Mas, A Cross-Country Christmas, and My Phony Valentine. When I saw The Happy Life of Isadora Bentley I knew that I had to read it. It had all of the same heart, fun, vulnerability, and self-discovery that run through her holiday-themed books, but I may have loved it even more.

In the beginning, I felt like I knew exactly where the book was going. Simple, quiet, routine-loving university researcher, Isadora, embarks on a research project to disprove an article she reads about 31 ways to be happy. As Isadora uncovers what, exactly, being happy means to her and what's been standing in her way, it helped me reframe some beliefs that I held about happiness, too. The book was so clever, well thought out, and enjoyable!

Thank you, NetGalley, for the ARC. It was an absolute treat!

I enjoyed The Happy Life of Isadora Bentley, but it wasn't a book that I couldn't put down. Started slow for me. I could have used a little more about Isadora - is she autistic? She seemed neurotypical to me, but I wasn't sure. I enjoyed the cast of characters, and the hint of love story.

Isadora could be maddening, but I stuck with her seeing her through the eyes of her lunch crew. I didn't care for the frequent Sir David Attenborough inner monologue at the beginning of the book, and was glad it died down and let the story unfold. The relationships she makes with varied side characters (aka: the lunch crew-I loved them all) is was brings a unique depth to the story of Isadora's happiness experiment. I loved that the relationships were mutually beneficial. The story brings home the importance and blessing of meaningful human connections.

Thanks #NetGalley and #ThomasNelsonPublishing for the ARC e-book.

I won’t lie. It took me almost the first third of the book to get into the story, mostly because I didn’t identify with the main female character, Isadora, at all. She was so miserable and so focused on her own problems, and her brand of humor didn’t resonate with me at all. Thankfully, the story got better and I got hooked, and had a hard time putting it down! Isadora learns a lot and ends up being the kind of person I wouldn’t mind being friends with.

"I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own." #TheHappyLifeofIsadoraBentley #NetGalley

[arc review]
Thank you to NetGalley for providing an arc in exchange for an honest review.


Sheldon's Amy meets Eleanor Oliphant in this heartfelt and hilarious romantic comedy of Courtney Walsh.
After reading her previous books I already expected the author's laugh out loud sense of humour and I can tell you...this story delivered!
Isadora is such a loveable character and I loved her banter. The one thing I didn't appreciate was the delivery of some funny scenes. I wish there were less funny scenes!!!! I hope this makes sense LOL...after I while you just dont find the situations funny anymore because there is no pause in them...it becomes overwhelming after a while. Like eating to much chocolate! If you overeat you are not enjoying it anymore!

#netgalley #arcreview

As an single introvert who spends a lot of time alone and turns 30 this year, Isadora resonated with me from the jump.

I have read a lot of “lonely person meets someone new and comes out of their shell” books, and it’s a genre that I generally like. And I did like this book, but for the first half, it didn’t quite click for me. I felt the whole time like something was just on the verge of happening, without it actually happening (like that really uncomfortable moment when you’re about to sneeze but can’t— I just wanted the satisfaction of the sneeze).

However, by the second half, I felt the gears catch, and it became sweeter, more poignant, and harder to put down. In the end, it had me confronting some of the same issues as Isadora, which was uncomfortable but good for me.

Overall, a sweet book but it took me longer to get through that most because I just wasn’t dying to keep reading, but it ended on a strong note.

A very good surprise !
This book keeps getting better with each new page ! Even though Isadora is funny and witty from the start, I found it difficult to enter in the book because of her inside voice who speaks like a documentary and his very present at the beginning of the book .
But once she starts to meet our found family/friends the book really takes a turn for the best. I found it so relatable, I too feel the pressure of doing something impactful, I too sometimes wonders if it's better to be alone than to be heart broken ... This book gives hopes and some precious reminder on happiness !
A very happy read thanks to netgalley who provided this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Pub Date: June 13, 2023

Courtney Walsh hits it out of the park again! I loved hearing Isadora’s thoughts throughout the story. She’s quirky and relatable, and really overcomes some challenges. This is a story of self-love, friendship, and romance all rolled into one. This is a fun, uplifting read, and will be a great one to take with you on vacation this summer!

You’ll enjoy this story if you like:
📝quirky main character
📝friendship with unlikely people
📝a little bit of romance
📝self-discovery
📝College campus setting
📝Chicago

I absolutely loved this book from start to finish. Watching a character who is so much like me learn the secret to happiness was quite an eye-opening adventure. I loved getting to know Isadora's quirky nature, loved her inner monologue, and loved learning through her that I don't have to change who I am for other people to like me. Just be me. But also that we can choose our happiness. I laughed and I cried (literally) and loved every moment.
I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I’ve read 3 books by Courtney Walsh so far. My most recent read was My Phony Valentine and it was so good that when I saw her post about her new book, I was super excited to check it out. I was even more excited to see it on NetGalley and to see that my request was approved. I didn’t see that this was listed as a contemporary Christian romance before I requested it. If I’m being honest, had I noticed that before I requested it, I probably wouldn’t have requested it. And even more likely, would’ve never read it at all. I’ll be the first to say that I am not the target audience for Christian romance. Not by a long shot. I’m glad I didn’t see that little tidbit before requesting this book because I would’ve missed out on an incredible read.

This book follows Isadora Bentley, an academic researcher. She keeps to herself and lives life by the book, nothing more and nothing less. On her 30th birthday, buying junk food she rarely allows herself, Isadora spies a magazine boasting a list of 31 ways to be happy. Isadora thinks the author (despite being a Dr.) is full of it and sets out on a personal project to disprove the author. Of course, Isadora actually ends up discovering her own happiness along the way. For the first two chapters of this book, I was pretty unsure about it. Isadora and her inner monologue are A LOT. Her journey in the grocery store was very stressful for me. I’m glad I pushed through because the rest of the book was not nearly as stressful. I found myself tearing up more than once. I found myself relating to Isadora and I feel like a lot of people will feel the same way. We all want to be happy. We all find happiness in different things. For Isadora, she didn’t think happiness existed for her and that’s really sad. I enjoyed reading about her happiness journey and watching her make friends and open herself up for the world.

As for the Christian aspect of this book, actual praying is only done once in this book. And there’s only a handful of other prayer/God mentions that run along the lines of “I prayed for a friend like this when I was kid.” I’m glad the faith aspect of this Christian romance was not any more prevalent than it was. As I said before, had I known this was a Christian romance, I wouldn’t have picked up this book. But I’m glad I did pick up this book, and to me, it does not read like a Christian romance at all.

Cal is someone that I would probably classify as a cinnamon roll hero. He was EVERYTHING. He was so sweet to Isadora, despite how prickly she was. He was patient and kind and just an all around good guy. And instead of expecting her to change or being explicit in saying “I love all your quirks”, it seemed like he just liked her. All of her. Not because of her quirks. Not in spite of them. Just all around, really liked Isadora’s company and her brain and just everything about her. Midway through this book, I was fully expecting a third act breakup, but I’m happy to report that didn’t really happen. The conflict, while annoying, was very realistic and expected coming from Isadora. By the end of this book, I felt inspired to view my own life with a different lens. I really enjoyed reading about Isadora, her rag tag group of friends, and the happiness journey she took with all of them. Overall, I really did enjoy this book. It was a romance novel, but truly it was that and so much more. I found myself getting emotional more than once. I was very proud of Isadora by the end of it. While I did love Isadora and Cal and how good Cal was to her, I think the happiness message from this book is what is truly going to stick with me.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an ARC of this book.

Isadora Bentley is a research assistant whose life has not followed her plan. She thought she was in a great relationship with Alex, but he threw her under the bus after she had done massive research for his publication. She is now looking down the barrel of her thirtieth birthday and decides to visit Aisle 8 (the candy/junk food aisle) for her celebratory snacks. What she was truly planning to do was to eat herself into a sugar coma. At the checkout, she sees one of the women's magazines with an article about 31 ways to find happiness. Isadora cannot say she is happy by any stretch of the imagination. She wants more of her life and finds this article offensive. As a researcher, she knows the best ways to test hypotheses. She decides to test this one out with the goal in mind to prove the author wrong. Along the way, she makes some new friends, she climbs out of her little shell, and she rails at the injustices of her life.

The society we live in today has created people who are so blind to their own faults but are so willing to pick at the faults of others without looking to see if they are even accurate. These people tear others down in order to build themselves up, and, in the meantime, create chaos and havoc wherever they go. There are a couple of characters like that in this book. But every book needs its dastardly villain.

Courtney Walsh has basically thrown herself into Isadora's character and made her so realistic and believable. Some of the other characters were not as likable, some were endearing, some were clueless. One thing I absolutely loved was the David Attenborough narration of her life. I have a friend who says that if someone were going to narrate her life, it would have to be Samuel L. Jackson, because she needs the swear words thrown in for good measure. This was a great addition to the book. There were some parts of the plot that moved slower than others, but overall, this was a great read. Four Stars.

Thomas Nelson provided the copy I read for this review. All opinions expressed are solely my own.