South of Happily

By: G.A. Anderson

Narrated by: Lisa Bozek

Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's summary

In the coastal town of Dufferin Beach, Katy Kiss wants more from life than flinging food in her family's Hungarian restaurant. She's searching for the hope she had as a child when her immigrant grandmother would pinch her cheek and say, "go finding your happily."

But Katy isn't feeling the hope with her philandering husband, who communicates in angry emojis now that their marriage is headed to divorce court. And if she's being honest, even on her wedding day, the only thing she felt was queasy, like when you eat bad shrimp.

Therapy might get her closer to feeling happy, but surviving 50 minutes of psychological interrogation is hard without obsessing about raspberry donuts or wondering why the couch, carpet, and wall color in her shrink's office are all the same shade of kill-me-now-beige, and why every decision she makes is wrong.

When a crisis sends her far away from home, the secrets hidden in the Kiss family closet begin spilling out. Secrets that change everything Katy knows. Suddenly, finding happily is the last thing on her mind.

©2023 Black Rose Writing (P)2023 Black Rose Writing

A self-sabateur with a breifcase full of secrets

GA Anderson’s South of Happily checked all the boxes. Katy is relatable as a loveable, self-saboteur. We, who have shot ourselves in the foot by getting involved with that beautiful boy who we knew was a bet, is going to see ourselves in Katy.
At the start of the novel, Katy is seeking legal counsel to extricate herself form her truly terrible marriage. She didn’t just get involved, she got married to the train wreck. Jess, the lawyer, was Katy’s best friend through college, although they’ve lost touch since Katy fell in with the train wreck, aka Dylan. As a stipulation of Jess representing her, Katy must see a therapist.
From there we learn about Katy’s complicated family. Her parents are Hungarian by birth and have been US citizens for twenty-five years. They built a restaurant and now Katy is left to run it as they travel out of the country “before they die.”
This novel goes a long way around the family drama and at no point did I feel that I knew exactly where we were going. If this is written to some formula, I couldn’t see it, which, if you know me at all, you know that is high praise. The characters are full of personality and attitudes but not to the point of being caricatures. They read as authentic, people that I would love to sit down for a coffee with. All except for Dylan, who I probably already had coffee with at some other point in my life.
This is a story of self-evaluation, love, loss, family secrets, connections, friendship, and so much more. It is told with humor and subtlety.
I listened to this book via Audible and have to send a shoutout to the narrator, Lisa Bozek, who navigated a variety of accents and character tones with the perfect balance of animated but not overacted.
I enjoyed South of Happily so much the first time that I started it over. It’s even better the second time around.

Beautifully layered story. All the emotions!

Wow. The narrator really grew into the roles with this book. It took a minute, but after a while, it read like a movie. South of Happily is layered with emotion, just like real life. Nothing is simple, and Katy's troubled situation is no exception. I laughed out loud in so many places, and cried from the raw emotion the author delivered so well. These characters are beautifully developed, deep, realistic and again, raw.
I loved the setting too, from Florida, to the parts of Thailand we wouldn't see on an expensive tour. This book felt real, I was there with the emotion and humor and ups and downs. It reminded me a little of Eleanor Oliphant in the writing, but not as tragic. I recommend this audio book.