Review: Her Own Happiness

As Austen August comes to a close (somehow - where did August go?!?), I’m back with another Jane Austen inspired novel. Eden Appiah-Kubi’s second novel, Her Own Happiness, puts a spin on Emma that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Here’s the book’s description:

Maya Davis is living in paradise until her apartment, her career, and her dreams fall away in a horrible and dramatic fashion. Suddenly she’s packing her life into two suitcases and heading back to her parents’ home in Maryland, scrambling for a plan B. Happy thirty-first birthday, Maya. Right beside her is Ant, Maya’s best friend. While she’s returning home, Ant’s leaving his for the first time. Even though he moved away to start his own adventure, Ant can’t seem to separate himself from Maya―and he’s not sure he wants to. Thinking practically for once, Maya makes her top priority finding a career―or at least a job with health insurance. But when she’s drawn into the orbit of Emme Vivant, the influential girlboss decides Maya has potential. Suddenly there are new contacts, new clothes, and the possibility of a shiny new future that could make this move home worthwhile. But is Maya finally in control of her life, or is she losing it? Just as Ant’s platonic feelings for Maya deepen, his best friend in the world seems to be moving on without him. In this tender and vibrant novel, Maya learns that finding the right path might not matter as much as finding herself―and who’s beside her on the journey.

I knew going into the book that it was supposed to be an Emma retelling but I hadn’t realized that it was going to be a really unique retelling of Austen’s novel. I don’t even know if I want to call it a “retelling” since Maya is not Emma. No, she’s Harriet, the young woman Emma befriends and tries to makeover and convince her that the man she’s in love with (a farmer in the original) is far beneath her. I’ve mentioned before that Emma is not my favourite of Austen’s characters so I was kind of thrilled at Appiah-Kubi’s approach to the novel. I also had a giggle when Maya’s sister outright says that Maya is living Harriet’s life from Emma. Gotta love when a modern adaptation makes a clear reference to the source material!

Her Own Happiness is not just Appiah-Kubi’s second novel, but it’s her second Austen-esque novel, too. Her debut was The Bennet Women which, unsurprisingly, was an adaptation of Pride and Prejudice (and a really enjoyable one, too!) And not only that, Maya is the big sister of main character EJ from The Bennet Women. It took me far too long to make that connection but, in my defense, it’s been awhile since I’ve read the first book! But that doesn’t mean you have to read these books in order. They’re total standalones!

I appreciated that Appiah-Kubi gave some content warnings right off the bat in this book. The one that I was most thankful for was the heads up that the story was set in 2021 when the world was very much still dominated by COVID-19 and all the variants that kept wreaking havoc on our lives. We may be three years out from that time but it was still sometimes a lot to take. It wasn’t done in a gratuitous way and it all made sense for the story but the extra emotions it brought out were…a lot. Be kind to yourself if you read this one and the pandemic is a trigger for you.

There were a few slightly repetitive scenes and lines, which made me feel the writing could have been a little more polished. I also felt a few things may have needed more expansion to fully understand why they were being included in the story. But I did really like that the book was broken up in seasons and wasn’t straight prose. There were text messages, postcards, interviews, and journal entries, too, and I enjoyed that a lot.

I really liked that Maya was a little older than your usual rom com heroine (she’s in her early 30s). On top of that, she didn’t follow the typical (and expected) high school straight to post-secondary learning to a typical job. She took her time to go to college and then spread out her BA over six years, so she was much older than your usual student. (She’s not in school in this book.) Given I also decided to go back to school (again) three years ago at 34, well, it was nice to read a main character who also took her time figuring out her life. 

Her Own Happiness was a delight. It was the modern, queer, Black twist on Jane Austen’s Emma I didn’t know I needed. Eden Appiah-Kubi is an author I’m going to continue to keep an eye on!

Missed my review of The Bennet Women? Find it here.

*A copy of this novel was provided by the Canadian Distributor, Firefly Books Ltd., in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*