Winnie’s summertime plans derail when her name ends up in the hat to be Merry Haven’s annual Summer Queen, and Dallas and Kara both volunteer to battle it out for the right to be her official consort.
It also allows her to assign herself deliveries to Dallas, a high school basketball player and her secret crush. She’s overjoyed at her flashy new title, Co-Assistant Manager, and how it enables her to smack down entitled customers. At the top of her list, working at the family diner with precocious baby brother Winston and flaky cousin Sam/Samantha. For Winnie’s last summer before college, she wants to do all her favorite things in the small town of Merry Haven. Winnie is a high school senior who has mapped out her future-getting a hospitality degree, taking over her grandma’s diner, continuing her platonic relationship with “ungirlfriend” Kara, and falling in love with someone else in the far-off future. Warning: the absolute worst thing about this book is the title because every time I picked it up, Sheryl Crow’s 1990s hit lodged itself in my brain. Reading it was what I imagine a private Lizzo concert might be absorbing, revealing, and bad ass. This is the book I desperately wish I’d had access to as a teenager. While the primary romance is m/f, the story is embued with queer references. I have never read a book about a fat Black queer girl that felt as complex, layered, and authentic. In that regard, If It Makes You Happy exceeded my hopes. When I saw her next book had a chubby heroine, tendrils of hope grew that this might be an author who could write fat characters well. I adored Kann’s debut, Let’s Talk About Love, and number 96 on my list of why is how body positive it was.
This was my most anticipated book of 2019, and I was terrified that it wouldn’t live up to my expectations. Archetype: Athlete, Beta, Diverse Protagonists
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