So Happy It Hurts, by the debut novel by Anneliese Mackintosh, centres around a heroine who's looking to sort out her life. The summary says: "'I want to be a good person. And I want to be happy. So happy it hurts. I need you to help me with that.'
Ottila McGregor is thirty years old and has decided it's time to sort her life out. She's going to quit drinking, stop cheating and finally find true happiness. Easy, right?
Of course not. For a start, there's Grace, her best friend, who believes self-improvement is for people in their forties. Next there's Mina, her sister, who is mentally ill, and it might be Ottila's fault. And then there's Thales, the Greek guy who works in the hospital cafeteria. He's probably the best, most dangerous person Ottila's ever met.
To make sense of it all, Ottila keeps a scrapbook of everything: emails, receipts, tickets, letters, her therapy transcripts, a boyfriend's note rescued from the bin... The result is an infectious one-off of a novel that makes you wince and laugh in equal measure, and which asks the question: what does it take to be so happy it hurts?" So Happy It Hurts is out in July 2017.