Happy and You Know It by Laura Hankin (Review by Bruna Looby)

Reading this book is like sneaking a peek into the lives of rich and beautiful New York mothers; so glamorous and perfect on the outside, but ugly and dark on the inside. I thought this would be a silly cute story, but it really hooked me. I ended up thoroughly enjoying it! It’s a nice light read but it also brings up important matters such as exposure to social media, the concept of perfect motherhood, and judgment among women, mothers or not. Whitney is a glamorous beautiful mother and her life appears to be perfect; at least that’s what her influential Instagram account shows. She has a handsome rich husband, a gorgeous apartment and lovely well-behaved babies. Whitney organizes activities for the playgroup with other rich mothers and their kids. One of the activities includes a singer playing songs and interacting with their kids while the mothers can peacefully have a glass of wine. Claire is a talented but broke musician who recently got kicked out of her former band. When the opportunity for the playgroup gig comes up, she accepts. She quickly finds out the playgroup is much nicer than she expected them to be. Due to Whitney’s Instagram, the group is always doing something new or receiving free stuff in exchange for a review and a nice post. One of their newest products to test are pills made for mothers, promising to make them feel their best self, be active and have a great metabolism. Claire gets closer and closer to the group and she soon finds herself in places she’s never stepped foot in before like a fancy spa. She is astonished by this other world that they live in. But eventually, Claire realizes things are not as perfect as they seem. When Claire accidently takes ones of the pills the group have been taking, she realizes the pill contains speed. Have these women been taking that on purpose, or have they been set up? The discovery about the pill unveils an ugly truth about these women and how far they’d go to protect their image.