The Keeper of Happy Endings by Barbara Davis

The Keeper of Happy Endings by Barbara Davis

According to her biography, Barbara Davis gave up working in the jewelry business to follow her passion and write novels. Just over a decade later, she published her ninth book in 2025. The Keeper of Happy Endings is one of her more recent novels, published in 2021, and is a HOLT Medallion winner, awarded to romance writers. It deals with bullying, child abuse, death, gun violence, homophobia, panic attacks, blood, vomit, trafficking, kidnapping, grief, pregnancy, fire and injury, gaslighting, war, and classism.

Rory Grant is dealing with the loss of her fiancée and the crippling depression that has followed it. She can barely get out of bed, don't even mention cleaning or showering. She's given up on most things, including her dream of opening a gallery for up and coming artists. When she is forced out of bed (and out of the house) by her mother, she passes an abandoned building that sparks her interest. It used to be the shop of a famed Parisian turned Boston dressmaker Soline Roussel, but it hasn't been open for the last few years. Rory makes an offer and is beginning to rebuild not only her dream, but her entire life, when she finds a box of Soline's personal items hidden in the shop. Returning it opens Rory and Soline up to an unlikely friendship with one another as they compare their lives - which mirror each other in an eerie way. Together, they may be able to heal wounds left open for too long, and maybe even right some wrongs along the way.

I stumbled across this book a few months ago and it intrigued me enough to put it on by list to read. I've never read anything by Barbara Davis. Something about an enchanted wedding dress sparked my interest, but I was left a little disappointed. There was something about this book that just didn't hit. Both Soline and Rory's stories are extreme but not out of the realm of possibility, especially Soline's. I enjoyed the way they had parallels but were not too similar. I thought that Rory's relationship with her mother felt very realistic for the most part. And I am not adverse to the slightly magical feeling is imbued into the story. I'm not sure what exactly the problem was - maybe the dialogue didn't feel authentic enough, maybe it glossed over things too much and I needed it to hit a little harder, maybe it's that the story moved too slowly. All I know is that I didn't love it. An interesting premise, I would've thought it checked the boxes for a story I would have loved, but I was left feeling underwhelmed.

I'm giving The Keeper of Happy Endings by Barbara Davis 3.5 out of 5. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't great and left me feeling a little meh.

For more from Barbara Davis, check out https://barbaradavis-author.com/

Pairs well with roasted red pepper crostini and knowing the worth of a dress with a Roussel bow.

My favorite quotes:

"'People always find a way to justify their hate - and give others an excuse to fall in line.'"

"There is a grief worse that death. It is the grief of a life half-lived."