Welcome back to Book Break!
My mission in this video is just to give you something that will make you smile.
All of the books I'm talking about in this video all have happy endings.
So of course if you are strict about spoilers, then do tread carefully because I am going
to reveal that all of these books do end happily, but they're all lovely happy books that you
probably guessed were going to end well anyway.
So starting with a classic, pretty much the master of the happy ending has to be Jane
Austen.
I could have picked any of her books but I've gone with Persuasion, I think that's a particularly
good one for this, because up until the happy ending, this one is actually a little bit
more melancholy than Jane Austen's other books.
This was the last one to be written, and the protagonist in this, Anne Elliot, is a little
bit older than Jane Austen's usual protagonists.
And in this one, she has already had the great love of her life, and then lost it.
Before the book even starts, Captain Wentworth had proposed to Anne Elliot, nine years or
so before, and she had wanted to accept but her family had persuaded her to turn him down.
And now in this book, she is alone, filled with regret, and Captain Wentworth has just
come back into her life.
It is absolutely wonderful, and the heartache from earlier in the book just makes this happy
ending even more joyous.
And while we're on the Jane Austen theme, I've got a much bigger book here.
This is The Other Bennet Sister by Janice Hadlow.
So this is a retelling of Pride and Prejudice.
Pride and Prejudice obviously had a happy ending for Jane and for Lizzie, but not such
a happy ending for poor Mary Bennet, the middle sister who nobody much likes or pays attention
to.
So at the end of the book, she is stuck at Longbourne with a father who humiliates her
and a mother who is basically just exasperated at her for not being as pretty as her sisters.
So in The Other Bennet Sister, Janice Hadlow has rewritten this world from Mary's point
of view.
So the first half of the book retells the events that we know from Pride and Prejudice,
but all from Mary's perspective.
And then in the second half of the book, we go above and beyond as Mary goes into the
world and has adventures of her own.
So this book really tells her into a real person, instead of just the comic figure that
she is in Pride and Prejudice, and gives her a happy ending of her own to boot.
And then for a totally different Pride and Prejudice retelling, of course there's Bridget
Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding.
And this one is so much fun, I absolutely love this book, as do so many other people.
And if you know the film off by heart, like I do, but have never picked up the book, I
really recommend it.
There are quite a lot of differences so it does feel like a whole new experience, but
of course it's just as wonderful, just as laugh out loud hilarious, and all of your
favourite characters are still there.
Bridget Jones is just so silly and so relatable.
It just feels timeless, there's a reason that this book has already made it to classic status.
And of course, it has a happy ending, though one that would probably make Jane Austen blush.
Now, moving away from Jane, one of the most delightful and happy books I've ever read
is Dear Mrs Bird by AJ Pearce.
I mean literally just from the opening sentence I was smiling so much.
It describes a woman living in London during the Blitz, and just talking about how she's
had this very cheerful day, despite the inconvenience of the Blitz making her late for work, but
she'd managed to get hold of an onion, which was very good news for a stew.
And I actually once saw a woman reading this on the tube, and smiling ear to ear, and there
was a man standing on tiptoes behind her to look over and read the pages, and he was smiling
as well.
So you just, it's infectious how happy-making this book is.
So the story follows a woman called Emmy, who, during the war, she wants to get work
as a foreign correspondent, but the only job she manages to get is working for an agony
aunt figure called Mrs Bird, who gets all of these letters but refuses to answer anything
that she deems inappropriate.
So people might be asking her desperately for advice about love and sex and heartache
and adultery and all of these issues going on, and she will just refuse to answer, and
so secretly, Emmy starts answering the letters herself.
And there are sad moments, absolutely, I mean it's set during the Blitz so it comes with
all of the terrible tragedies and loss of life that came with that, but this book really
harnesses that Keep Calm and Carry On wartime spirit, and wraps it all up with a wonderfully
happy ending that you just can't help but grin the whole way through.
Next I've got P.S.
I Still Love You by Jenny Han.
And this has got the Netflix adaptation coming out any minute now, it's one of the films
I'm most excited about this year.
It's the sequel to To All The Boys I've Loved Before, which I also loved the book and film
version of that.
So these are just really fun, YA novels, about a Korean-American main character called Lara
Jean Covey, who writes these love letters to all of the boys that she falls in love
with, and then just keeps them privately for herself.
Until one day, her sister breaks into her room and sends out these letters, and suddenly
all hell breaks loose.
So the first two books are just full of love triangles and misunderstandings and complications,
but also so much fun.
And while the first book does end with everything still a little bit messy, P.S.
I Still Love You gives the readers the happy ending that they've been waiting for.
And there is a third book so I can't wait to read that one, and I just can't wait to
see if the Netflix version of this book, gives Lara Jean as happy an ending as the book does.
Next, Miss You by Kate Eberlen.
This is kind of One Day meets Love, Rosie.
So two teenagers meet in Florence for just one day before returning to England, and then
the book follows them over the next sixteen years of their lives, and sees how their paths
cross.
And they do cross a few times, but they never really get the chance to properly meet and
get to know each other.
But it's a really romantic book, and there are parts that will absolutely break your
heart, but hang in there, I promise it does deliver a happy ending.
And this author has another lovely romantic book coming up later this year called Only
You, so this is just your first chance to fall in love with this author.
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell has been absolutely beloved, I'm sure you've seen so many people
raving about it online over the years.
So this one is about twins Cath and Wren, who have been completely inseparable until
they go to university.
And Wren, who's much more outgoing, has the absolute time of her life, going to parties,
meeting new friends, but Cath is an introvert and she really struggles with the expectations
of university.
What she likes to do is write fan fiction, which is something that her new English professor
is really scathing about.
So she just suddenly feels really out of her comfort zone.
So it's basically a coming of age story about Cath figuring out who she is, and what she's
ready to open her heart to, and I've seen introverts in particular talking online about
how much they love this one and how much they relate to Cath, so if that's you, you will
absolutely love Cath and you will love her happy ending.
Little Big Love by Katy Regan is really quite emotional, so you will cry a lot as well as
smile through this one.
So this is about a woman called Juliet, whose love of her life goes missing without a trace
one night, just a few weeks after their son Zac has been born.
And then ten years later, Juliet inadvertently admits to her now ten-year-old son that she's
never got over her love for his father.
And so little Zac decides to go on a mission to find him.
And there are a lot of heavy issues in this book, it covers grief, it covers bullying,
it covers alcoholism, but rest assured, it does all build up to this really uplifting
and hopeful ending.
Now a really super positive book is No Big Deal by Bethany Rutter.
So this is about a teenager called Emily, who knows that she's fat, and knows that she
loves herself, her body and her personality to match.
But she's always kind of caught up in a bit of a battle with her mum, who's always going
on these fad diets and is very very body conscious, so Emily doesn't always have 100% confidence
in herself, when she's living in this world that isn't comfortable with her body.
But ultimately she knows that she loves herself and knows that she can convince herself that
it's no big deal.
And going on Goodreads and seeing some of the reviews there, I really loved seeing how
many reviewers who identify as fat, say that this feels like a very real and very positive
portrayal of their lives.
So I think that anyone of any size will benefit from quite how wonderfully body-positive this
one is.
The Girl Who Reads on the Metro by Christine Feret-Fleury, is a really quirky translated
book, set in Paris, about a woman called Juliette who spends her commute time on the metro watching
her fellow passengers and trying to work out things about their lives based on the books
that they're reading.
And then she meets this very mysterious man, who owns a bookshop, and thinks that Juliette
is the perfect person to help him with his mission to give the perfect book to each person
at the exact right time of their life.
So it's all about the power of books to change your life, which is a theme that you really
can't go wrong with for book lovers.
And finally, back to another classic, Shakespeare isn't exactly known for his happy endings
but he did write some I promise, and one of those is A Midsummer Night's Dream.
This is a comedy, and it's got fairies, it's got love potions that get mixed up, it's got
a man whose head is turned into a donkey's head, it has got all manner of chaos throughout
this one midsummer night in a magical forest.
But for once, all's well that ends well, but you will have to read it to find out how Shakespeare
manages to resolve everything, and end up with a big wedding party in the woods.
So hopefully any one of those books should cheer up your winter blues, and do please
leave recommendations below of other books with happy endings.
We realised while trying to compile this quite how many books we read that end really sadly,
so now I'm looking to try and cheer up my reading a bit, so do give me your suggestions.
And coming up next week, we're celebrating Chinese New Year with a video all about books
by Chinese authors, so we've got some really great ones on that list as well, do hit that
subscribe button below to make sure you don't miss out on that one.
And you can always go and follow us over on Instagram @bookbreakuk.
See you next time.