this is what happy looks like by jennifer e smith

Graham is convinced that he can help her overcome her financial woes in order to make her dreams come true. He wants to be with her, and he wants to help her achieve her dreams – Ellie, a good student, was accepted into a Harvard poetry workshop that she couldn't afford. Despite this, Graham is dedicated to Ellie. Ellie feels that dating a famous movie star would ruin everything for which both her father and her mother have worked. After Ellie was born, her mother moved to Maine to live a reclusive life away from the spotlight. She is also overwhelmed by the idea of drawing attention to herself, because she is hiding a family secret – Ellie, it turns out, is the illegitimate daughter of a prominent politician who is now running for the presidency.

Ellie is shy, and she is embarrassed that she has been revealing so much about herself to someone so famous. However, everything doesn't go to plan when Graham shows up at Ellie's house to tell her the truth about her email friend. At dinner, Graham, realizing his mistake, tracks Ellie down through Quinn in order to tell her the truth about his identity and his presence in Henley. Quinn is wearing Ellie's shirt, and Graham mistakes her for Ellie – he asks her out to dinner, and Quinn immediately says yes. One afternoon, Ellie leaves Sprinkles just before Graham walks in. He and his crew arrive, along with a horde of paparazzi, which Ellie and her friend Quinn mock while they work together at a local shop, Sprinkles. The more they talk, the more Graham begins to fall for Ellie.Įventually, Graham convinces his producer to stage his new film in Henley, Maine, so he can meet Ellie in person. He is lonely in Ellie, he finds someone down to earth and honest, and he feels he can confide his real emotions to her. Graham is relieved to have a relationship with someone that doesn't revolve around his success or his money. Unbeknownst to Ellie, her new email companion, Graham, is a movie star – Ellie never finds out his last name and Graham never mentions his fame, so the secret remains hidden. Lonely, Graham is happy to find companionship in Ellie, and for the next three months, they start an online friendship, exchanging information about their daily lives, thoughts, and feelings. When Ellie receives the email, she isn't sure who the sender is, but she's curious – she responds, finding herself communicating with seventeen-year-old Graham, who lives in California with his pet pig, Wilbur. A typo causes Graham Larkin to accidentally send an email to Ellie O'Neill, a teenaged girl living in the small coastal town of Henley, Maine. The book looks at issues of love, vulnerability, and family secrets, exploring the complicated nature of love between people from widely different backgrounds.

Smith’s young adult romance novel This is What Happy Looks Like chronicles the budding relationship between teen heartthrob Graham Larkin and small-town Ellie O'Neill after a typo sparks an ongoing email correspondence.

This is what happy looks like by jennifer e smith