If It Makes You Happy

by Julie Olivia

Contemporary Romance

Small Town

Single Parent

512 Pages

"The banter had me laughing out loud and the slow-burn romance made me want to move to Vermont immediately."

Synopsis

After a devastating divorce, the last thing our protagonist expected was to find herself running her mother's bed and breakfast in the tiny town of Copper Run, Vermont. She's just here temporarily—three months to get the inn running before her sister takes over and she returns to her big promotion in Seattle. Simple, straightforward, temporary. Except her next-door neighbor Cliff is making everything complicated. He's the town's golden boy, a talented baker, devoted single dad to two adorable daughters, and annoyingly good at everything. He also thinks her scones are garbage. Despite her best efforts to keep things friendly and platonic, there's an undeniable chemistry brewing between them. With flannel shirts, small-town charm, and those distracting baker forearms, Cliff is becoming impossible to ignore. But she's leaving in three months, he's rooted in Copper Run with his daughters, and getting involved would be a terrible idea. So why can't she stop thinking about kissing him?

Our Take

If It Makes You Happy delivers everything we love about small-town romance with a generous helping of spice and heart. Julie Olivia crafts a protagonist who feels refreshingly real—she's messy, healing from divorce, and hilariously out of her depth running a B&B. The chemistry between our heroine and Cliff crackles from page one, but what makes this romance sing is the slow burn. Olivia doesn't rush the connection; instead, she lets these two wounded souls circle each other, building friendship and trust before the heat turns up. The Vermont setting is cozy perfection, and the single-dad trope is executed with genuine tenderness rather than cliché. Cliff's relationship with his daughters adds emotional depth that elevates this beyond simple rom-com territory. The banter is sharp and genuinely funny, the steam is satisfying without overwhelming the emotional journey, and the stakes feel authentic. Fans of The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren and Beach Read by Emily Henry will devour this charming, heartfelt romance about second chances, chosen family, and finding home in unexpected places.