Ask a Bookseller: ‘If It Makes You Happy’ by Julie Olivia

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now.Sometimes, you just want to escape into a book. For those who enjoy a cozy romance, Marissa Mills of Luminary Books in Gardnerville, Nevada, says her recent favorite is the novel "If it Makes You Happy" by Julie Olivia.  Think “Gilmore Girls” meets “When Harry Met Sally.” Set in a small town (of course!) in Vermont in 1997, this friends-to-lovers novel is a sweet story with a bit of spice. Michelle is taking over her mother’s bed and breakfast. Cliff, the single dad next door, is a baker who starts teaching Michelle how to bake so she can handle the breakfast part of her new venture. Mills says the book has grumpy/sunshine, black cat/golden retriever energy. She appreciates that Cliff’s daughters are key characters in the book, as is Michelle’s dog, Rocket. It’s not a coincidence that the cover, with its couple strolling near a town-square gazebo, evokes “Gilmore Girls." Julia Olivia has many romance titles to her name, but “If It Makes You Happy,” published by  Penguin Random House, is her first break into major bookstores. Bookseller Mills says that after their store book club read it, “they fell in love with the author and her writing, and they went back and started reading all of her other works.”