Goodreads: A year after getting divorced, Helen Carpenter, thirty-two, lets her annoying, ten years younger brother talk her into signing up for a wilderness survival course. It's supposed to be a chance for her to pull herself together again, but when she discovers that her brother's even-more-annoying best friend is also coming on the trip, she can't imagine how it will be anything other than a disaster. Thus begins the strangest adventure of Helen's well-behaved life: three weeks in the remotest wilderness of a mountain range in Wyoming where she will survive mosquito infestations, a surprise summer blizzard, and a group of sorority girls.
Yet, despite everything, the vast wilderness has a way of making Helen's own little life seem bigger, too. And, somehow the people who annoy her the most start teaching her the very things she needs to learn. Like how to stand up for herself. And how being scared can make you brave. And how sometimes you just have to get really, really lost before you can even have a hope of being found.
This book is just a novel that touched my heart in some weird way. And that's all that matters to me.
“Don’t be a Helen.”
Melissa's Quote: Happiness for Beginners wasn’t just a story, it was a journey. This author will take you on a journey of epic proportions. It’s witty, fun, and fantastic.
I wanted to amaze everybody, including myself. My own personal campaign of shock and awe.
Helen Carpenter has just made the list as one of my favorite heroines ever. This thirty-two-year-old divorcee decides after a year of being alone, she needs an adventure. So she goes on the adventure of a lifetime. Forget the fact that she’s not a hiker, isn’t huge into nature and has never done anything like this before… she decides to take a walk on the wild side. To go on a retreat into the wilderness. For three weeks! She has her reasons, things she wants to accomplish and she’s bound and determined to do it.
• Find a deeper spiritual connection to nature.
• Push myself beyond my physical and emotional limitations.
• Rise up from my own ashes like a phoenix.
• Toughen the hell up.
• Become awesome.
• Kick the wilderness’s ass.
• Earn a damned certificate.(I really, really wanted a Certificate.)
Helen isn’t alone on this three-week long survival course. Nope. Her brothers best friend who happens to be ten years younger than her is going too. When she finds out that Jake will be there, she’s not excited in the least, but she comes around. Jake is in his early twenties and has had the biggest crush on Helen since the moment he met her. Jake is a wonderful hero and even though he can be a little dense at times, I still loved him to pieces. I truly loved the relationship Jake had with Helen’s brother Duncan. How he taught her to see him a different way. It was one of my favorite things about this one.
“You’re going to start seeing him with kinder eyes. I know you are.”
“I am?”
“Yep,” Jake said, nodding. “Once I show you how to see him the way I do, you won’t go back.”
Though there is a great love story incorporated in this book, that is not the focus. Helen and her journey and growth is the focus. These three weeks in the wilderness make up the bulk of the book. It’s a fabulous journey with some fantastically fun characters who have crazy nicknames for one another and have a heck of a lot of fun together on this crazy trip. As I finished the book and was talking to a friend about it, she mentioned how she thought this would make a great movie. I agree wholeheartedly. This would make a fantastic movie. I would love to see this story on the big screen!
Helen achieves most of her goals during her time in the wilderness. I’ve got to tell you, I think she is just an epic character. She was snarky, funny, and completely relatable. I want everyone to read this book if only to meet Helen! She made me laugh and I just adored her. This isn’t the kind of book I normally pick up so I’m glad a friend recommended it and I made time to read it. I really loved it and give it a 5-star rating!
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