Review+Discussion: This is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith

Author: Jennifer E. Smith

Publisher: Headline Book Publishing (UK edition)

Publication date: October 23rd, 2013 (UK edition), first published October 2nd, 2013 (US hardcover edition)

Genre: Contemporary

Pages: 404 (UK edition)

Synopsis: If fate sent you an email, would you answer?

When teenage movie star Graham Larkin accidentally sends small town girl Ellie O'Neill an email about his pet pig, the two seventeen-year-olds strike up a witty and unforgettable correspondence, discussing everything under the sun, except for their names or backgrounds. 

Then Graham finds out that Ellie's Maine hometown is the perfect location for his latest film, and he decides to take their relationship from online to in-person. But can a star as famous as Graham really start a relationship with an ordinary girl like Ellie? And why does Ellie want to avoid the media's spotlight at all costs?

Goodreads

Spoiler free review:

This book was certainly out of my comfort-zone, but I loved it. I mean, I don't read a lot of contemporaries. My TBR pile is full of contemporaries I have yet to read.

But when I finished Heir of Fire, I felt like a reading slump was coming.

That was the most awful feeling in the world.

And then after some days, I got in a contemporary mood (strange, I know), and so this was how I picked it This Is What Happy Looks Like.

And this story was amazing. The plot is definitely not the most original (we already saw email stories), but there's something special about it that made me read it in 3 days.

Yes, 3 days, people, 3 days. (I told you it was out of my comfort-zone.)

The characters didn't know a huge character development, but they were so cute. Like, so so so cute. So, if character development is important to make you like/love a book, you may or may not like it, because I love character development, and yet I loved the book. Ellie and Graham were amazing characters. They make mistakes, they mess up everything sometimes, they're normal teenagers, and I really loved that about them.

The writing style was simple, but catching and special. It's so easy, but the author added the email conversations in the prologue and at the beginning of each chapter (which are really short if you want to know), that made it original. It made me jump into the story from the first pages.

I loved this book. It wasn't the most original book I've read, but I really loved it.

Did you read this book? What are your thoughts about it?