HAPPY HOUR BY MICHELE SCOTT

I just had the pleasure of reading this fantastic chick lit book, and let me tell you the title for this book is perfect. This is one book that any woman would love to sit down with and have a great glass of wine. Which is not to be expected from this author who has put out 9 books with Berkley Prime Crime publisher, and has sold 100,000 copies of her books.

Every woman has that group of friends in her life ~ her "go to girls" The friends that she can turn to who "get it." The ones who are there for you no matter what. The ones who laugh with you and cry with you. The ones that will always be there. These are the women of Napa Valley.

Jamie is the editor-in-chief of Wine Lover's Magazine, a single mother and caretaker to her senile mother-in-law ~ a woman who thinks her daily caregiver is Dean Martin. Jamie is still recovering, financially and emotionally from the death of her husband several years earlier. And when she finds what could be the key to happiness, can she open the door and let it in? Or will her feelings of guilt and betrayal hold her back?

Danielle is a vintner and the divorced mom of two. She's basking in what she knows is going to be a successful launch of her new wines. Wines she created on her own after her divorce. But what she doesn't expect is for her daughter to come home with news that will shock her to her core. Will an old flame help her accept the changes that are coming and find the love she's been missing in her life for so long? Or will a tragedy that no one sees coming change their lives forever?

Kat is a sommelier, co-owner of a magnificent restaurant with her chef husband, and mother of a blended family. But is being deeply in love with your husband enough to get them through the teenage years, step-children and exes? And what happens when old faces return and she's faced with the knowledge that not everything is what you thought it was. What happens when she finds she was mad at the wrong person and finds out the "right one" was in the wrong? Can she forgive and move on? Can love overcome everything and truly bring a family together?

Alyssa is an artist and gallery owner with a secret of her own. One she was hoping would stay buried deep in her closet. But the time has come for her to put someone else first, to face the past and to deal with her demons. What she never expected to find was love and her "home."

No matter what is going on in their own lives, no matter the heartache or joy they're experiencing these four women are always there to love, support and encourage each other.

The book begins with a kind of prologue that set up where all the characters are, then it skips to 3 years later. each chapter is told by one of the four characters and tells of their lives and what they are going through. From the first chapter of the prologue the author had my FULL attention. I also really enjoyed that the author told a real story about love, lose, and friendship. The things that happen to these characters are more real than most chick lit stories out there, like in most the main character finds her true love in a multimillionaire that sweeps her off her feet and gives her the world. This is so far from the truth in this book. As the synopsis above shows Jamie has to deal with a husband death, raising her daughter after the fact, and her deceased husbands sick mother. Not much of a fairy tale, but through her friends and there love of wine that brought them together she tried to get through it and survive. As well as even the friends that have what on the outside would like fairy tale lives, we see that on the inside that is right the opposite. And though this book is not a mystery novel in the sense that we are trying to find a killer, its a mystery in that the author leaves clif hanger after clif hanger on what is going on with each character and their little secrets they are afraid to tell, and let me tell you she does and excellent job at keeping you guessing on these secrets. It is a book that will make you laugh out loud and cry all at the same time. So i highly recommend it to anyone especially a woman who has great friends where she can relate to these four women.

If you go to the website there is a short video on the book, but i did not include it since it does give away some of the story and the girl's secrets