I definitely understand the Sally Rooney comparisons, but to me this one may have been a little preferable, I really liked the way that each character was developed enough that they generated empathy, no matter what their role in the proceedings was. I felt that this book accurately highlighted the complexities of both romantic and familial relationships.

The Happy Couple, aptly titled for lovers of puns, was fascinating to me because it described a relationship with a lack of investment that I think is really rare in literature. We see a relationship developing where it doesn’t seem to be the clear priority to the characters involved and we see the characters doing things they must know will hurt each other. There’s a level of denial that must be involved in the romantic leads’ reactions, but also a quieter anger or sadness than would often be expressed in similar situations. I think each of these responses felt really in character and made it feel more real and interesting than if the characters had behaved or acted in more of a way that might have been expected of them, and I would have been happy to continue to read about these characters’ maybe doomed relationship for far longer than the book went on.

I loved the way this story rotated through which characters it was focused on to give us a fuller picture of what was going on and how it expanded what was impacting the relationship far beyond the purview of the two main characters. The writing was gripping. The characters were original and flawed in the most intriguing ways. I loved every section and would have loved to read more.

**Thank you to Ecco and Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review**

I enjoyed this character-driven millennial novel focusing on Celine and Luke, an engaged Irish couple that are navigating the months before their wedding. We hyper focus on certain days of their engagement - their engagement party and day before and day of wedding in particular, hearing their thoughts and decisions they are weighing, as well as from those around them. It doesn't sound like much happens, and that is true, however it is riveting all the same. We definitely do NOT have likeable characters here, but in that way they do feel real (frustratingly real).

This is for fans of Sally Rooney, as others have made this comparison. I would also say for fans of all millennial literature.

While I was reading, I kept thinking that this would make a great movie—in the best way possible! THE HAPPY COUPLE follows a bride and groom, from the moment of their engagement to their wedding day. Cycling through multiple perspectives—the couple, and a few important wedding guests—we begin to understand their relationship and why the wedding might not be as smooth sailing as they’d hope. It’s giving 2000s rom com (but more gay) and I NEED a screen adaptation rn!

This novel is full of dysfunction, laughs, and sweet moments, bringing Dolan’s thoughtful writing style to a lighter place. I just had such a fun time reading this & couldn’t put it down! It’s such fun romp that leans literary while still eliciting a laugh or two.

EXCITING TIMES was one of my favorite books of 2020, one I've revisited several times since. It remains as fresh, funny, vivid as it did the first time I read it. Which is why I was so excited about THE HAPPY COUPLE, which wrestles with similar themes---relationships/intimacy/(in)fidelity---all with the same punchiness that made EXCITING TIMES sing. This time, however, I see Dolan experimenting with structure/form and POV. There are many more characters, all of whom get their own section to the novel. It's an entertaining, reward read, and I look forward to picking up her next novel.

Thanks to the publishers for the e-galley!

Another 100% slam dunk from Naoise Dolan. I adored her first novel EXCITING TIMES, and was so thrilled to get an early copy of THE HAPPY COUPLE. It certainly did not disappoint. I gobbled it up in less than 24 hours, enthralled by Dolan's unique writing style, her incredibly vivid characters, and a story of a couple that is filled with secrets, regrets, hang-ups, and present exes.

One of those books that I could so clearly as a movie or mini-series, I was desperate to know what was going to happen next and thrilled in each new revelation about the cast of characters Dolan slowly introduces. A cast of characters that are, arguably, insufferable and make you feel lucky you aren't stuck with any of them as friends.

Dolan's magic trick is still making you care, picking who you want to end up together and zipping through the pages to see how it all plays out. She is an incredible author, and I can't wait for what else she has in store for us.

This book is spectacular. It gives a 360 perspective of a newly engaged couple featuring the point of view of the couple, and some of the people closest to them. Came for the irishisms stayed for the unraveling.

Okay this was much more entertaining than I had expected. I expected average relationship drama but this brought all the fun twists too! Dolan has some profound lines and outstanding humor throughout this wild ride from engagement to wedding day. I was so invested in what was going to happen to these characters. While the POV continued to change, new and better information was brought to light and really reeled me in. I could see this being a movie haha it was a fun, easy/quick read!

At one point a character says that he “finds it irksome when book blurbs say right at the end : ‘It’s also very funny,’ as if humour were an afterthought and not the central force that prevents us from killing a) each other and b) ourselves.” So I’ll be sure not to leave Dolan’s humor as an afterthought here. Actually, I’ll do her one better and say that I think it’s her sharp and distinct sense of humor that distinguishes her among the many other incredibly talented female authors of her generation.

I didn't finish this. I couldn't really get into the story and felt disconnected from the characters. It starts with Luke and Celine getting engaged, and I got as far as the engagement party, which Luke was absent from, and just didn't really care to read any more. Not rating anywhere else since I did not finish.

Somewhere between 3 and 4 stars for me! This fresh take on the marriage plot follows an ensemble cast through a drama-filled year, culminating in the wedding of the "happy couple" themselves, Celine and Luke. I loved Naoise Dolan's witty, perceptive writing style—she masterfully creates messy, complex characters, all with their own distinct voices and motivations. While I enjoyed Celine and Phoebe's sections, I felt increasingly distant from the characters as the story went on. I think the idea of complicated relationships and how they might be viewed through different people's eyes is so fascinating, but at the same time, I felt like the amount of POV's readers got almost created less of a connection to the characters and a chance to fully get to know them. Still, this was an enjoyable and entertaining read, and I would definitely be interested in picking up more of Dolan's works in the future! Thank you to NetGalley and Ecco for the ARC.

The Happy Couple by Naoise Dolan was such a great character study. I know people like to say her writing is very much like Sally Rooney but I find something so unique about how she creates characters and brings them to life. It's a very rare thing to read about characters that feel so different from everything that is out there.

I really enjoyed this book. I found the characters to be very well developed and the story enthralling.

First I would like to thank Ecco for sending me an ARC of this book!

I really enjoyed Dolan’s last book and this one is no different. This book is a work that is dissecting modern relationships without feeling overdone. I often find novels about doomed relationships to be too cynical, but this book is able to hold both a tenderness with its side of cynicism. Although our two characters have their problems and clearly aren’t meant to be no party is fully to blame or demonized. They are all human to a fault.

The pacing of this novel was so good - I was instantly hooked. I thought it was a much stronger showing than Dolan's first book which I also loved. The characters were very human and relatable and I couldnt wait to get the to the end to see how things with this happy couple would shake out. A great read.

I was excited to see this on NetGalley since I read Exciting Times a few years back and really enjoyed it. The Happy Couple did not disappoint! I love Dolan’s writing, and she’s so drily funny that I found myself chuckling out loud throughout. I like that she doesn’t take any of the characters and their melodrama too seriously, and each character feels fully formed and well thought out. Dolan’s an expert at capturing the angst, self-absorption, and follies of being in your 20s in the modern world. Looking forward to what they write next!

This book is very, very good. But people already knew that. The uncertainty of it was uncomfortable but I guess that was the point.

Initially I thought the opening to "The Happy Couple" was strong, and I was hooked on the idea of a bi guy and a bi woman getting married, as well as the idea that they're both messy, toxic people with messy families and troubled past relationships. But although I found the characters interesting at first and the prose had some good moments, I thought the plot and the story was boring and I found myself racing ahead to finish.

Luke, a serial cheater who is incapable of making decisions about his own life, falls for Celine, a concert pianist who finally forces him to make a decision because he doesn't want to lose her but he's not sure he's happy with her, either. This is a story of unrequited love, two people who like the idea of being in love with each other but they don't really like each other, but on the surface they seem like the happy couple. When really, Luke's in love with both Celine and an ex of his, Archie, his best man, a cokehead who follows Luke around like a lovesick puppy.

I couldn't understand why all these people kept getting obsessed with Luke when he didn't treat any of them all that well.

I like the idea of messy, awkward people you don't particularly like in a queer cast, though; that part kept me reading. And I found it refreshing that this was kind of an anti-romance. You were actively rooting for the "happy couple" not to go through with the wedding and to finally see themselves for who they really were and not just as reflections of who they were with.

I read this in one sitting; the pace was fast. It wasn't all that funny for a book billed as a dark comedy, more just irreverent and a little erratic in parts. But I found I just didn't really care about the characters in the end. I don't need them to be likable, but I do need them to be interesting and complex, and I felt like there wasn't enough character development here. There has to be something more there than they're a disaster queer, for me. It was nothing more deep than a surface-level anti-romcom.

This wasn't the book for me but it did have good things going for it if you don't mind my personal pet peeves.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance review copy. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

One wedding and a calling it off. Glib? Yes, but so is this novel, quite often, with its story of two not desperately attractive people choosing to end a doomed relationship. Yes, there are flashes of panache and yes the author broadens the canvass to include some other characters. But overall it’s a narrow perspective, comic at times, but also irritating and ultimately pointless. And a bit too self consciously Irish.

Naoise Dolan's second novel begins as a tightly woven, quippy tale of a woman far inside her own head. This is the novel at its strongest. Quippy, atmospheric, and hilarious, I find the character Celine quite likeable. The way the author describes settings using music, describes Celine's pain as the lack of an internal soundtrack, grounds her character as a member of the world she is building, not just an observer of it. Show don't tell done well. I end the section quite liking Celine, something that is subverted in further chapters as I get to know her from outside perspectives. I think this is done well. Celine as a character is so wrapped up in her own world she is unaware of the burden she places on others. However, I don't think the novel as a whole benefits from only having Celine's point of view at the beginning and end. For one, we don't see her emotional transformation from the beginning to the end. The choices that she makes are grounded in an evolution that has happened "off screen" as it were.

I enjoyed Celine's and Phoebe's sections the most, and as I read on I couldn't help but feel that the novel lost some level of quality, until ultimately I arrived at the Luke section and it read to me as rambling hot takes I would send to my friends in college. It was sporadic but not in an interesting way. I found myself starting to skim.

I think the novel would have benefitted from 2-3 points of view, instead of the several we get. Having only one small section to get to know someone disables you from getting attached to them or really understanding them wholly. Because of the novel's length and structure, each section begins to read as, "here's what you need to know about this character for the plot to advance. Small plot things happen, change of POV, repeat." If we had gotten larger sections and less shifting of POV, we may have ended up with a much more poignant novel than we got.

It's clear that Dolan possesses incredible skill with the written word. Each character has their own distinct voice (again, some stronger than others) and the author uses fun and quippy literary elements to introduce each character both in word and form. I just couldn't help but feel like she was a bit scattered here with all she was trying to do, and would have appreciated a more grounded, fleshed out novel with a smaller scope.

If you are looking for a fun Sally Rooney-esque novel to tide you over for the weekend and then forget about, this is the novel for you.