The Happiness Collector (publication day December 2, 2025) by Crystal King has an interesting premise–combining modern fantasy with Greek mythology. It was completely weight-neutral as well!
As the book opens, Aida, a historian, finds out that the company who was to publish the book that was a necessary part of her graduate work was folding, and so she would have to find another publisher if she is to finish her PhD. She and her live-in partner, Graham, are planning a wedding, and money is tight. She soon receives an offer from a mysterious foundation to go study in Italy, and it seems too good to be true–they will pay for her housing in a spacious palazzo, and a hefty salary as well. She decides she has to go, but for just long enough to get enough money for the wedding, even though she also has to sign an NDA, she really has no idea who is behind the foundation, and they have strict policies about using personal devices and being available to them.
She loves the work, which involves visiting various historical sites, interviewing the curators, and recording her impressions about how she felt when she was visiting them. As she goes to various places around Italy, she finds that something always happens to the places she’s been–they mysteriously close, or there’s a fire, or in one horrifying event, an earthquake fells a famous structure that has been standing for nearly two millenia. When things go awry at home, and she is betrayed by two people she thought she could trust, she goes all-in with the foundation.
But something isn’t right. Her best friend is able to move to Rome for a short time, and she is Aida’s lifeline and able to set up some protected communications and help Aida figure out what’s really going on. She keeps forgetting the places she’s been, though–why can she not remember places that seemed to make her so happy? When she meets a mysterious woman who remembers a place that she also does, but it’s gone, they are able to figure out what’s happening, and, as the mysterious woman happens to be a Greek goddess, she offers Aida some protection as well.
There is some romance with another Happiness Collector, and they have to go on a quest and evade the foundation in order to fix things for the rest of the world, and in the meantime, the COVID-19 pandemic happens and it seems like all of the happiness in the world is already gone.
While I enjoyed it, and appreciated the fact that it was weight-neutral, and I loved the descriptions of living in Italy, I thought it probably went on a little too long. It is a solid contemporary fantasy, though, and has some similar adventure elements as The Da Vinci Code, but it’s quite a bit slower-paced.
Reading While Fat 