Review: Happy for You by Anyta Sunday

Title: Happy for You

Series: Love & Family: Book Three

Author: Anyta Sunday

Publisher: Amazon/Kindle Unlimited

Length: 274 Pages

Category: Contemporary Romance

At a Glance: This book! Gah! So, so lovely and romantic.

Reviewed By: Jules

Blurb: Mort wants his de facto family back. . . .

He knows he doesn’t deserve them. Not yet, anyway. Not without making up for leaving them in their time of need.

But it’s not easy to make amends. Mort must show how much he wants the Rochester family back in his life. When his best friend’s younger brother, Felix, has his license suspended, Mort jumps at the chance to play chauffeur and to win back the family he desperately wants to call his own.

Repairing his broken relationships—with all five Rochester siblings—becomes Mort’s personal mission. Especially with Felix. Felix, who used to follow him everywhere. Felix, who idolized him. Felix, whom Mort has not stopped thinking about . . .

Felix is just trying to keep it together. . . .

With a perma-smile as his armor, he’s determined to make his family happy. Determined to be a positive role model to his three younger sisters, while their mum struggles with depression after her kidney transplant.

Unfortunately, no amount of smiling can save his license when he gets pulled over for the umpteenth time, and he still needs to get his sisters to school, soccer, and dance classes.
The solution to his problem emerges in the return of their prodigal neighbor, Mort. Mort, who left their lives without a word. Mort, who was in love with Felix’s older brother.
Mort, who is the last guy Felix wants charging back into their lives. . . .

Mort and Felix. Two guys bound by a rocky past—

—a past they must come to terms with to find true happiness in the here and now.

Review: I feel like I say the same things over and over when I’m reviewing Anyta Sunday’s books: achingly romantic, slow burn, funny, smart, swoony…I could go on and on. But, it’s all true, you guys. And, this book! Gah! So, so lovely and romantic. I absolutely adored both Felix and Mort. In fact, I’m loving the premise of the entire series. Each of the books in the Love and Family series features a specific family situation or dynamic just as heavily as the romance, and it’s fantastic. In Happy for You, we have Mort, who has been estranged from his de facto family for the past year and is trying to earn his place back; and we have Felix, the younger brother of Mort’s best friend, who has had a crush on Mort for years.

One of the things I loved about this story was how Mort worked to earn back the trust and forgiveness of each member of the family. Of course he wanted to repair things with Roch, his best friend for years, and he did have ulterior motives for making things right with Felix, who he had begun to have feelings for prior to the estrangement, but it was equally as important to him to mend fences with their younger sisters and mother as well.

I also love that even when the subject matter is fairly heavy, Sunday keeps things light. Not to the point of being dismissive of any important topics. Much the opposite, in fact. For me, her witty, fun dialogue, and allowing her characters to be vulnerable and self-deprecating, brings an authenticity to the story, and helps highlight the subject matter without making it tragic. Her books allow heavy situations like illness or family drama to play out in fiction as they often do in real life, with families handling things with humor and love.

I loved this book for how it made me feel deep in my core. I connected on so many levels. The familial love and relationships were beautifully scripted, and the romance was beyond swoony. Like, beyond. Mort and Felix were amazing together, and I loved them both, but Mort, you guys…*siiiiiiiiigh* There is something incredibly special about a book that can make you connect and feel those feelings. Happy for You was that kind of book for me. <3