HAPPINESS SOLD SEPARATELY by Lolly Winston

I finished vacation book #2 – Happiness Sold Separately, by Lolly Winston. It definitely fit the bill – nicely paced plot, good story, well-written. As I noted in my last post, I needed a female writer after three male authors in a row.

Happiness_3 The book is about a couple in their early forties who has been suffering through infertility and estrangement. The husband embarks on an affair, the wife finds out, and the book covers their separation and attempt at reconciliation, as well as the husband’s relationship with the other woman. It sounds heavy, but it’s not. Typical Lolly Winston – keen observations about relationships, parenthood, infertility and suburban living; snappy writing; and some good humor thrown in as well. Her characters, as in Good Grief (which I reviewed here) are flawed but likable. There are a few plot developments that don’t pass the reality test, but in general this is a good read. Between Good Grief and Happiness Sold Separately, I’d probably recommend the former more strongly, for the poignancy of the descriptions of widowhood. But this book also deals with pain and loss, in the form of infertility, and I definitely found that it struck many personal chords.