Harvey seamlessly blends past and present stories in an interesting and satisfying way.
At the bequest of her mom and uncle, Keaton ( how I love southern names) travels down to Beaufort to get the generational family home ready for sale. No one has lived in the house since her grandparents, whom she never met, disappeared 50 years ago. The house looks lived in and someone just stepped outside for a moment. Keaton has help from her grandmother’s friends and the brooding guy next door with the adorable little boy. She feels like she’s getting to know her grandparents for the first time through their friends and journals, as she falls in love with Beaufort and the guy next door.

Beck St. James in 1976, happily married for 40 years to her soulmate, loves her life. She loves her grown children, her ability to fly a plane, her charity work, and most of all her infamous dinner parties where an invite is always coveted. She has an amazing life and when that’s threatened she must decide what to do about it.

A generational family novel that’s satisfying on so many levels and a lovely read.

4.25 out of 5. – A beautiful town. a beautiful seaside and a beautiful man are always a good combination, and this is what this book brings. The kid next door was adorable, and it elevated the meet cute to extreme cuteness level. Also the band of women in the town are funny and powerful and great comic relief. I loved the guide Becks leaves, such, even if a bit antiquated but still relevant advices in being a hostess, they were quite adorable. My only issue: Why was the house referenced as a narrator at the start only, i felt like that was a lost great narration technique and we just got a taste of it. A great book to read by the water this summer, with some beautiful family depth to it.

This is a charming love story that we witness for over a span of forty years. A charming little southern community is the setting for the mystery as to what happened to this couple. Keaton, the granddaughter is tasked with getting the house back in shape and ready to sell. She becomes enamored with the small town life and the residents while also maybe finally finding true love. Secrets, love, and personal growth are all entwined in this novel as it flips back and forth to revealing their lives and all their feelings. A sweet story that is sure to be a summer hit!
#AHappierLife #KristyWoodsonHarvey #NetGalley

After loving Summer Of Songbirds, I was thrilled to receive the opportunity to read this latest from Kristi Woodson Harvey, who is a must-read summertime author for me. I loved this one.

A Happier Life is a dual timeline novel written by author Kristy Woodson Harvey. Keaton is the protagonist who is jilted by her boyfriend and suddenly unemployed. She is tasked with cleaning out and preparing her Grandparents home for sale, which her Mom and Uncle have not visited in years. We follow the story between the timeline of present day Keaton and the past, with Becks, her lively, party hosting Grandma. We are transported to the coastal town where life is what we make of it and true love can be found. The story, the setting and hopes for a second book, with Anderson, Bowen and of course, Salt!

The setting is a special place to me and is accurately captured.

Thank you to Netgalley for allowing me to read and review this book!

Kristy Woodson Harvey delivers another southern small town hit! She sets A Happier Life in her own town of Beaufort, NC and evokes such strong ties to the actual town, and personal references such as naming the dog after her own dog, Salt. It makes you want to travel there and feel the small town magic for itself. It's an age old tale of a woman fleeing the city after a breakup to a small town where she finds her passion and heals her heart. But it's taken to another level by 2 things: the way she ties in three generations of the Saint James family with an interwoven thread of mystery and the addition of personal connections to Beaufort, past and present. I loved reading the Acknowledgements as well. A perfect read for summer!

I am a fan of this author- Kristy Woodson Harvey and her Peachtree Bluff series. This book did not disappoint in terms of fulfilling my expectations of a heartwarming southern charmer.
The story is told in alternating viewpoints and timelines which I found engaging. We alternate between Keaton in the present and her late grandmother Becks in the 1970s. Keaton's grandparents died before she was born leaving behind the mystery of their deaths. Keaton travels to Beaufort, NC to clean out their house and finds a little romance, interesting townspeople and a beautiful setting.
This was a such a nice escape from reality.
Thank you to the author, Gallery Books and Netgalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

What a beautiful book about the life and deaths of Becks and Townsend. A sweet love story of their relationship, secrets they kept about themselves to protect the other, Becks wonderful dinner parties and a suspicious man living next door. The book goes back to the 70s and also in present time when their granddaughter comes to Beaufort to get the home cleaned out and ready to sell. She has her own problems to work through. A great cast of characters that kept me interested in how they all turned out. Thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the ARC

Wow! I absolutely loved this book! I laughed, and I cried. This book really touched my heart. It's mostly about love, real love, sacrificial, honest, life changing love.

The characters are wonderful! I genuinely liked and related to Becks, Townsend, Keaton, Harris, Bowen, and Anderson. Their circumstances, losses, and gains touched my heart.

I will be pondering this book for a while. It's wonderful and I can't wait to read more books by this author!!

I was provided a copy of the book from Gallery Books, Simon and Schuster via Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

A Happier Life
by Kristy Woodson Harvey
Pub Date: June 25, 2024
Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
The New York Times bestselling author of The Summer of Songbirds and the Peachtree Bluff series presents a tender and touching novel about a young woman who discovers the family she has always longed for when she spends a life-changing summer in North Carolina.
This one is sooo good!
I highly recommend it for your beach bags this summer but have a few kleenex ready as well.
A HAPPIER LIFE will tug at your heart strings. But it also will put a smile on your face many times throughout the novel, and I believe you will laugh often; because there really is nothing Kristy Woodson Harvey does better than writing conversationally just like you were an old friend at the dinner table: her gift of storytelling is one for the ages!

A perfect summer read full of secrets and heart. It is a multigenerational story set in Beaufort, NC where the author lives. A Happier Life is full of emotions and a family that you will love.

A Happier Life by Kristy Woodson Harvey was the perfect mix of modern beach romance and 1970's dinner party vibes. After Keaton loses her corporate job and boyfriend in New York City, she takes the opportunity to visit the family home that has sat empty since the disappearance of Becks and Townsend Saint James and prepare it to be sold. She ends up learning about her family's history and figuring out what the next steps for her life will be. A Happier Life has everything I love in a good book. I always love that Kristy Woodson Harvey's novels have multiple perspectives and the back and forth between Keaton's current day and the lives of the grandparents who died before she was born kept me enthralled. Of course I always love the addition of an adorable dog and a cute kid. Salt and Anderson definitely delivered in that department. I also loved the Deckhouse Dames, the well-meaning busybodies that befriend Keaton and help her acclimate to her new surroundings. The Beaufort setting, the references to current businesses, and the connection to one of my favorite town events, The Old Homes Tour, added to the magic of the story for me because I could easily picture every scene. If you love Beaufort, books that are a little sad and a lot happy, and you want to see if Keaton finds a love as sweet and magical as her grandparents, then you absolutely need to read A Happier Life!

Dual narrator, two timelines, family drama, some romance, quirky side characters and a little mystery....what's not to like?!? A Happier Life was fun and easy to read and I could see it being a big hit this summer as a great beach read.

A Happier Life is my new favorite book by Kristy Woodson Harvey. I loved the small town coastal setting, the past and present time lines, and multiple points of view. A must have for your beach bag this summer.

Advanced Book Review! Thank you @kristywharvey, @uplitreads, @gallerybooks & @netgalley for sending me this book for review. Opinions are my own.
Kristy Woodson Harvey is an auto-read author for me so I was excited to be selected for this Uplit Reads book tour.
“A young woman discovers the family she has always longed for when she spends a life-changing summer in North Carolina.”
When Keaton goes back to her mother’s childhood home in the town of Beaufort, North Carolina to prepare the house to sell she doesn’t expect to find a house frozen in the 1970’s. After Keaton’s grandparents’ tragic deaths in 1976, Keaton’s mother and uncle never returned to their family house. The book alternates between Keaton’s life in the present and her grandmother, Becks’, almost fifty years earlier. What Keaton finds there will change her life forever.
I loved this book. I love the concept of finding this house, stuck in the past, like a time warp. Kristy Woodson Harvey says this part is based on a true story. I love the descriptions of the house that Keaton calls “a museum of the seventies.”
Through Becks’ perspective, Keaton and the reader both learn about her wonderful life with Townsend, and some of the secrets that died with them. The reader is taken on a journey with Keaton, her brother, and the friends she makes in Beaufort, to try to find out what really happened to Becks and Townsend.
I loved learning about Becks’ life in Beaufort in the 1970’s and the things she loved – her traditions, her committees, her parties. I really enjoyed reading about Keaton getting to know her grandmother through her journals and friends, and keeping Becks’ memory alive in harmonization with her own goals and aspirations, as she contends with her own next steps.
Through it all, of course, is the romance plotline with her next-door neighbor and his adorable son.
I didn't love Becks' and Townsend's ultimate demise but this might be my favourite book from Kristy Woodson Harvey yet.
4.5 stars rounded up to 5 for this review.

Kristy Woodson Harvey always keeps me interested and reading. This one was a good family story with some love mixed in. It had a good cast of characters and was set in a southern town like all her books. I wasn’t crazy about the ghost story aspect and figured out the ending early on but that being said-I still enjoyed this book.

Oh my goodness! This is the best book by KWH that I've read! I love everything she's written, but thought her last one, The Summer of Songbirds, topped them all. This book, A Happier Life, is even bettere than that one.

Keaton is such an interesting character and I loved how she jumped right into getting her and uncle's family home in Beaufort, NC, ready to sell. The mystery of what happened to Keaton's grandparents and the terrible sense of loss and grief her mother and uncle felt led to the home being maintained, but left empty for many years.

I found myself absolutely charmed by the little boy next door to Keaton and his father. All the characters were great, so alive they pretty much jumped off the page and said come be my friend! The way the small town of Beaufort and all her mother's old friends welcomed Keaton was heartwarming and the story of how she slowly found out what happened to her grandparents made it so hard for me to put this book down. I couldn't wait to return to Beaufort and I'll bet other readers will feel just the same.

Kristy Woodson Harvey does Southern Fiction like no other so do yourself a favor and pick up A Happier Life. i think you'll be glad you did!

Thank you to Netgalley, the author, and publisher for an ARC at my request All thoughts are my own as always.

Kristin Woodson Harvey at her best! The setting of Beaufort, NC is idyllic enough with its gorgeous historic homes, but throw in some family secrets and legendary summer suppers by the one and only Rebecca "Becks" Saint James, and you, my reader, are in for some fun. Having cleared out a family home myself, complete with secrets, I can totally relate to Keaton Smith. Great beach read by one of today's shinning stars, Kristy Woodson Harvey...a must read!

Perfect book, I love Kristen Woods HArvey and anything she writes

Thanks to NetGalley, , and the author for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Great book on family by blood and the family we find and make our own. A book that makes your or forces you to confront the past that was hidden for so long to make sense of the present so you can move into your future. Eyes Wide upon, at times heartbreaking to confront but worthwhile to head through and reach the other side. Worth the gander….