The Keeper of Happy Endings

Written by Barbara Davis

Narrated by Robin Siegerman and Hope Newhouse

An enchanting novel about fate, second chances, and hope, lost and found, by the Amazon Charts bestselling author of The Last of the Moon Girls.

Soline Roussel is well schooled in the business of happy endings. For generations her family has kept an exclusive bridal salon in Paris, where magic is worked with needle and thread. It’s said that the bride who wears a Roussel gown is guaranteed a lifetime of joy. But devastating losses during World War II leave Soline’s world and heart in ruins and her faith in love shaken. She boxes up her memories, stowing them away, along with her broken dreams, determined to forget.

Decades later, while coping with her own tragic loss, aspiring gallery owner Rory Grant leases Soline’s old property and discovers a box containing letters and a vintage wedding dress, never worn. When Rory returns the mementos, an unlikely friendship develops, and eerie parallels in Rory’s and Soline’s lives begin to surface. It’s clear that they were destined to meet—and that Rory may hold the key to righting a forty-year wrong and opening the door to shared healing and, perhaps, a little magic.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Release date: Oct 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9781713614739

Barbara Davis

Barbara Davis spent more than a decade as an executive in the jewelry business before leaving the corporate world to pursue her lifelong passion for writing. She is the author of When Never Comes, Summer at Hideaway Key, The Wishing Tide, The Secrets She Carried, and Love, Alice. A Jersey girl raised in the south, Barbara now lives in Rochester, New Hampshire, with her husband, Tom, and their beloved ginger cat, Simon. She’s currently working on her next book. Visit her at www.barbaradavis-author.com.

Reviews for The Keeper of Happy Endings

[Kathryn Arnold · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Kind interesting characters. Way too predictable & too perfect end.

[Mina Sheikhha · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Gave up a couple of times because the narrator's voice was really on my nerves but ended up pushing through and I am glad that I did. It ended up being a fun read.

[danna · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I loved every minute of this book. A magical rambling tale that helps me believe in happy endings!

[hadley3meek · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

This is awful to listen to. The story might be great, but I can’t get over the terrible narrator.

[Zoelle Maria · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

It s just a book, a ordinary one, I don t get it why you gave it so many stars?

[Leshia Gann · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The beginning was slow and I almost stopped listening. Not one to give up, I continued to listen to the story. It’s turns out, it was a good decision. The interwoven characters come together to create a story of loss, betrayal, hope, family and love.

[Igor Jakubowicz · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Lovely book, great performance, stirs the heart, well suited to audio format.

[Jill Ann · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A beautiful story with rich characters, adventure, romance and magic that spans 3 generations. Definitely worth reading! I hope to find more books by this author to enjoy.

[nyiper · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

What's not to love with a title like that? Loved the characters and the evolution of the story. Definitely a tear jerker at times, at least for me. A novel allows the author to provide all kinds of happenings....and this book is definitely full of them.

[Laura Black-Farrar · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Awesome book- with romance and twists and plot turns I didn't see coming. I love the moral "there are no curses, only patterns to be broken" an all around feel good romance with...you guessed it, a happy ending!

[Jessica “Jess” Megrant · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Fantastique ❤️ absolutely lovely, couldn't wait to listen great end

[terran_9 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This book has the most apropos title ever--if having a happy ending is the most important part of a book. At first, the characters were likeable and the historical part was interesting, but I began to figure out how everything was going to play out quite early. I think I kept reading it because I just couldn't believe that it would turn out to be sooooo predictable.

[Julia · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Great book with interesting plot twists. But the ending is somewhat foreseeable.

[Brigitta Dehring Maingard · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Lovey heartfelt story. Fantastic!! Well done to the narrator too.

[Marcella · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Enjoyed the first half of this book, but once the ‘twist’ was revealed half way through, the plot became obvious and twee.

[Angie · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I made it through 17 chapters but I couldn’t take the narrator any longer. It’s so sad because the story itself is great. But the accent which is supposed to be French… Sounds like Asian French and something else…

[Karina Pentecost · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

What a fun book! So sad at parts, mystery and happy endings. It was wonderful!

[Terry Heidt · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This was such a great story. So many lessons learned

[Thomas Arnold · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Thoroughly enjoyed this novel. Great character development and a well developed storyline.

[Grace L · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This review is about the audiobook.
The story was ok if rather predictable but I think I would have enjoyed the book much more. I didn't like how it was performed. The narrator for Soline had an awful, thick french accent that sometimes made it difficult to understand (English is not my native tongue and that made it harder) and when she cried it was too melodramatic for the telling of a story. The narrator for Rory used such a trembling voice that she seemed to be on the verge of tears all the time.

[Karen Chandler · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Amazing love story with believable and likeable characters. Almost unreal but written in a way it is like magic, an unknown force pulls it together and will make the ending feel magical. I enjoyed this book and recommend it.

[Anita Hundley Prisbrey · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I held on to every word needing to know what happened next but I didn’t want the book to end. The best book I’ve listened to in a long time.

The readers brought the characters to life so well that I felt them in my soul. Terrific story.

[K G · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

4.5 stars rounded up due to solid narrators. The .5 knock is due to a bit of implausibility.. though given life can often be stranger than fiction I’m willing to give it a pass.
Nearly all characters are rich and well developed - though some take longer than others to be fully fleshed out.
Highly recommend and will definitely look into the author’s other works.

[micareads · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Thanks to Netgalley and Lake Union Publishing for the opportunity to read this advanced copy in return for an honest review.

Souline Roussel is a young French girl learning the trade of her family, she creates beautiful wedding dresses with special charms to ensure the happiness of the couple. After her mother's death from tuberculosis during World War II, Souline volunteers to help care for injured soldiers and it is there she meets the love of her life, Anson. Very quickly he must send her away to America for her own safety. Although he sends her to stay with his family, she quickly realizes that she is unwelcome. Once it is known that Anson is MIA, his father quickly gets rid of her and the baby she is carrying. Souline then makes a name for herself in Boston as a premier dress designer.

Rory Grant is a young woman going through her own traumas and must figure out how to move forward when her fiancé goes missing in a foreign land. She decides to move forward with opening a gallery for unknown artists. As she is walking down Newbury St in Boston she feels called to open in a townhouse previously owned by Souline and reaches out to lease it. Over time, Souline and Rory become close and get to know each other and their pasts. What neither realizes is that they may be closer than just friends.

I thought the story was well told and written. Like all good historical fiction, the dual timeline shows the symmetry between the characters and allows the reader to understand the impact one character has on another. I found the story different from other historical fictions set in the same time period as there were no details of concentration camps although the author did make mention of significant milestones such as Kristallnacht, the night of broken glass. The ending was a bit obvious but it was still lovely in the way that it unfolded and anyone looking for a happy ending will find one here.

[baochuan-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

There are so many coincidences/connections that kind of weaken the story line. I am not sure that I will remember someone after 40+ years without seeing them from time to time.

[kimkimkim-7 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Faith is the essential ingredient.”I had complete faith that this book was going to be my salvation on an unexpected day off. After putting away the vacuum and duster I got lost in this story which encompasses over 40 years of love, tragedy, loss, spell weavers and echoes. I loved everything about this story, the people, the places, the emotions, dialog and characterizations, ups and downs, highs and lows, misses, losses and connections. This is a wonderful story about women who have their lives chosen for them and how they emerge from the sadness and scars.

[susan0316 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This beautifully written book by Barbara Davis is one of my favorite World War II novels. The two main characters were so believable that I felt their pain and happiness. The plot was paced well and the story made me miss some sleep at night to find out how it ended.This novel takes place in two time periods - World War II and 1976 in Boston. The main characters are Soline during World War II in Paris and Rory and Soline in Boston, 1976. The chapters skip back and forth between timelines and characters but it was no problem to keep up with.Soline is a wedding dress seamstress in Paris. Her mother and grandmother had the power to predict happy marriages and people in Paris said that the only way to be guaranteed a happy marriage was to have them make your dress. With the war going on, Soline wanted to find somewhere to volunteer her time to help the war effort. At the American hospital, she meets an ambulance driver from Boston who is volunteering his time to help. They fall in love and when she flees Paris, he tells her to go to his family home in Boston. His father is extremely cruel and believed that she was only involved with his son because of his money. When she leaves his home, she settles in Boston and starts making dresses again until her shop is burned down.Rory always wanted to open an art gallery and when she sees the burnt bridal shop, she just knows that is where the gallery should be. She's also an artist who has been discouraged by her mother and given up on her artistic endeavors. She is still grieving her boyfriend who has disappeared from a hospital where he was working with Doctors without Borders. As she begins to repair the building, she finds a wedding dress and letters and knows that she needs to find Soline to return them to her. By this time in her life, Soline has become a recluse but Rory finally tracks her down. Both women have tremendous sadness in their lives over the loss of the person they loved and feel that their lives will never be happy again. They are both stronger than they think and their friendship makes them even stronger and helps handle some sad and also some happy events.Barbara Davis's new book is beautifully written and well researched. It's a story of love and friendship and hope brought about by second chancesI was given an advance copy of this book.