Lolly Crocker lives in the isolated small town that gives this series its name, Sweet Home, Alaska. Apparently, being a long way from everywhere means that the population isn’t big enough to support the progressive school budget. Lolly teaches home economics, and in HAPPILY EVER ALASKA, she starts the day with bad news. The school can’t renew her contract.

Many of the young generation left for college or work. Lolly broke up with her high school boyfriend when she left for college all those years ago, and in turn, he went to Houston for a job with computers. Shaun Montana happens to be on his way back from Houston, as his mom hasn’t been well and he intends to put in a year of work fixing up a few houses for the family. While his mom Patricia used to adore Lolly as a young girl, she feels any girl who dumped her son isn’t worth speaking to.

Poor Lolly, distracted and uneasy, tells her friend Piney who runs the general store that she’ll have to look for another teaching job, which would mean leaving town. Maybe even leaving the state, since summer’s about ended. Her two hobbies, quilting and baking, won’t pay the rent. Seeing Shaun around town just makes situations embarrassing, anyway. Lolly will just bake for a forthcoming wedding and that’s the lot.

A few themes come together nicely in the sweet romance – a second chance to date an old flame, and the universe closing one door but opening another. Lolly always intended to open a bakery, but after college, she hadn’t the capital or credit needed for such a venture. That dream just fell by the wayside as she enjoyed teaching baking instead. Shaun and Lolly each dated other people but the relationships ended, and they aren’t really in the mental space for starting a new relationship, despite well-meaning friends trying to set them up together. That must be so annoying!

I enjoyed the unfolding of the personal stories and connections. Despite not having read the two earlier Sweet Home, Alaska books, I found the background worked well and I was interested in several of the side stories and secondary characters. Maybe because this is a summer story, it didn’t include that much detail about Alaskan life; a moose wanders through a yard and we get mentions of tourism shutting down all winter. Patience Griffin provides a gently inspirational romance in HAPPILY EVER ALASKA, which may provide readers with the impetus to start a new venture. Sometimes we’re only brave when we have to be brave.