Love comes easy to some people; for others it can be an agonizing process. Everyone knows a couple that seem meant for each other, whose courtship was effortless and whose relationship seems to float along, free of bumps and snarls. However, for every couple like that there is another fighting against all odds to stay together. In Happy All the Time, Laurie Colwin portrays two such couples. Guido and Holly could be brother and sister, and they glide into love and into marriage; Guido, at least never looking back. By comparison, Vincent and Misty's courtship is like a drawn-out argument.

As these two relationships grow, both Vincent and Guido learn that things are rarely what they seem to be on the outside. Guido's idyllic existence with Holly is interrupted as she flies off to France alone, leaving him desperately lonely, angry, and confused. Meanwhile, Vincent discovers Misty's soft, vulnerable side as well as her colorful background. Both men realize that the women they love possess layers of feeling and personality, and Colwin cleverly reveals the way love evolves as a result of these revelations. Her novel is constructed like a delicious sauce, with details added as deftly as ingredients, stirred with subtle action. The result is a rich nuanced brew of a story whose happy ending is as satisfying as a final filling mouthful.