The Theory of Happily Ever After by Kristin Billerbeck After a famous happiness expert gets dumped by her fiancé, she’s still expected to be the speaker on a singles cruise. Can a handsome stranger help her find her own bliss? The Theory of Happily Ever After  Paperback, hardcover, ebook May 1, 2018 by Kristin Billerbeck Paperback: 288 pages Publisher: Revell ISBN-13: 978-0800729448 According to Dr. Maggie Maguire, happiness is serious science, as serious as Maggie takes herself. But science can't always account for life's anomalies--for instance, why her fiancé dumped her for a silk-scarf acrobat and how the breakup sent Maggie spiraling into an extended ice cream-fueled chick flick binge. Concerned that she might never pull herself out of this nosedive, Maggie's friends book her as a speaker on a "New Year, New You" cruise in the Gulf of Mexico. Maggie wonders if she's qualified to teach others about happiness when she can't muster up any for herself. But when a handsome stranger on board insists that smart women can't ever be happy, Maggie sets out to prove him wrong. Along the way she may discover that happiness has far less to do with the head than with the heart. Filled with memorable characters, snappy dialogue, and touching romance, Kristin Billerbeck's The Theory of Happily Ever After shows that the search for happiness may be futile--because sometimes happiness is already out there searching for you.   My thoughts:  THE THEORY OF HAPPILY EVER AFTER is  a bit slow and more introspective driven than character or action driven. Maggie is a nerd and proud of it. She envies the guys who have the ability to interact and engage people in conversation and win the crowd over in a flash, but she hasn't got that gift. In fact, when her co-worker boyfriend dumps her for a trapeze artist Maggie is pretty sure her life is over. She has a book deadline, she can't focus, and all she wants to do is eat and watch sappy romance movies. We all need downtime, but Maggie took it to a whole new level and her friends, in desperation, booked her as a speaker on a singles' cruise.   Except, well-laid plans of mice and men and all that.  What could go wrong, you know. Her publisher is on board the ship. Her ex is calling too often. A fire, a hot guy her best friend wants (but Maggie does too) a bartender who is everything Maggie wants to be but isn't.   There is snappy dialog, a lot I can relate to as an introvert author who gets freaked out by the ideas of author pictures (deer-in-the-headlight look) let alone interviews (kill me now)  It also is slow. Easy to put down. But also engaging to the point that even though it took close to a week to read this instead of mere hours I kept picking it up to see how she'd be forced out of her comfort zone next and see how she interacts with both the hot guy and the bartender. For the more conservative readers: Maggie does not drink. There is no drinking in this book. There is only a bartender.    I was given a copy free. All opinions are my own.