The Keeper of Happy Endings

An enchanting novel about fate, second chances, and hope, lost and found, by the Amazon Charts bestselling author of The Last of the Moon Girls.

Soline Roussel is well schooled in the business of happy endings. For generations her family has kept an exclusive bridal salon in Paris, where magic is worked with needle and thread. It’s said that the bride who wears a Roussel gown is guaranteed a lifetime of joy. But devastating losses during World War II leave Soline’s world and heart in ruins and her faith in love shaken. She boxes up her memories, stowing them away, along with her broken dreams, determined to forget.

Decades later, while coping with her own tragic loss, aspiring gallery owner Rory Grant leases Soline’s old property and discovers a box containing letters and a vintage wedding dress, never worn. When Rory returns the mementos, an unlikely friendship develops, and eerie parallels in Rory’s and Soline’s lives begin to surface. It’s clear that they were destined to meet—and that Rory may hold the key to righting a forty-year wrong and opening the door to shared healing and, perhaps, a little magic.

Genre

Historical Fiction (World War II)

415 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 1, 2021

Literary awards

HOLT Medallion by Virginia Romance Writers for Novel with Romantic Elements (2022), Feathered Quill Book Award for Women's Fiction (1st) (2023)

My Verdict

This is one of those feel-good, curl up with a good mug hot chocolate on a cold and rainy day kinds of books. I didn't know it would be that at first, though. At first I thought it would be a tear jerker tragedy. It is told in alternating viewpoints and by about halfway through the book I was pretty sure I knew where it was going, but I was okay with that.

The last few chapters of the story were pretty cheesy, filled with too-perfect happy endings, and on-the-nose dialogue in which each character says the sorts of things nobody would actually come right out and say. I enjoyed it though and I couldn't help thinking that, of course, the happy endings were perfect. She gave it away in the title after all. I enjoyed this book but the cheese keeps it at a 4 star rating for me.