I love this - a searing portrayal of modern romance. I read cover to cover in a day. Looking forward to seeing what Calder writes next.

This is a very good and current character drive novel.
Loved the wiring style, straight to the point and at times blunt , really loved it
The book follows Joey and Chuck who meet in a nightclub. Chuck is older than Joey her early 20s him mid 30s just out of a long term relationship.
Although not much happens plot wise, everything happens character wise. I thought it was very real , how relationships can mean so much to one party and almost nothing at all to another.
I also very rarely read male authors (not sure why just personal preference nothing sinister lol) however I loved the book cover with the list of things that make people happy. I was very impressed with how well he could do the different point of views

Will definitely be recommending and looking for more to read from this author

Set in London, I Want You to Be Happy follows a mismatched couple, who spend the night together after meeting in a bar, embarking on something that can’t quite be called a relationship. Chuck’s thirty-five, a lead copywriter, as he’s careful to tell Joey, recently split from his fiancée after twelve years together. Joey’s twenty-four, a barista living in a single room she can barely afford, in a flat share with people she doesn’t like. He seems oblivious to his privileged life, ordering expensive takeaways delivered to his five-room apartment, drinking too much and thinking of Joey more as a distraction than anything else. As they spend more time together, she ignores her friends’ careful warnings, allowing herself to think about a future.

Calder’s narrative shifts between Chuck and Joey, capturing the awkwardness of the beginnings of a relationship which seems unlikely, even to them, with a painful acuity and wit. Both characters are sharply portrayed: I found Joey very much more engaging than Chuck but perhaps that was the point. I enjoyed Calder’s writing which was as smartly astute as I remembered from Reward System, his linked short story collection. Happy to read his second novel when it appears.

highly readable and vividly real, I WANT YOU TO BE HAPPY is a sharp portrait of modern relationships and our increasing isolation in a digital-first world

this might be a bit of a marmite book; if you like the cover, i think you’ll like reading this - contemporary, hyper-specific while maintaining distance, a little tongue-in-cheek about its own predictability

i was rooting for Joey, resenting Chuck as i know i was supposed to. it can be very hard to make phone usage in books feel genuine and be interesting, but this was accurate and amusing. i’m looking forward to reading more by Jem Calder

thank you very much for Faber & NetGalley for the ARC!

- posted to Goodreads and will post something similar in my monthly reading wrap up on Instagram

I was asked to review this by NetGalley. Wow I loved the characters and this is modern dating, just how the modern world feels with lack of dIrection, relationship hang ups.

Interesting story of dating today and lonliness too. I have to say I so loved Chuck.

Recommended read but not due for publication till May 21 2026.

Got so attached to these characters, particularly found the character of Chuck to be so perfectly portrayed I swear I saw him on the tube last week. Really enjoyed this and how accurately it depicts modern relationships.

This was such a compulsive read about relationships, loneliness, miscommunication and the exhaustion of trying to exist in the world. I was so gripped but also felt so uncomfortable and stressed at times, especially watching Chuck trying to wade through the general mess of his life. I loved and felt for Joey so much! A really addictive and thoughtful read.

Jem Calder's debut novel is a contemporary love story between Chuck and Joey. Despite their age difference, these two souls adrift in the London dating scene find each other and a romance blossoms. Calder is very good at characterisation - I felt I knew both these people by novels end, and was keen to learn more about them the more I read. So an engaging story, well told, if a little familiar - but aren't all love stories? This is a good one though and recommended.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC.

I love books like this. A modern tale of a relationship: intelligent, incisively observed, funny, raw details, honest. I ate it up. Super refreshing (I liked that the central relationship was not that romantic, at one point I thought the story was going in one direction but it took a sharp U-turn and didn't, subverting my expectations), relatable issues, flawed characters. Quite Sally Rooney-esque. Really enjoyable - highly recommend. Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read.

Chuck, man, you really put me through it - had to read what this guy was up to through my fingers at times but always rooted for him to do better just the same. Two brilliantly rendered characters - loved Joey, so perfect and so young and exactly believable. Sarah's email broke my heart. Great book, so smart and frustrating (complimentary). I hoovered it in two sittings.

I loved this - wincingly authentic, and beautifully written with the very driest humour. Hugely recommend.

I absolutely LOVED this book - it was heartwrenching and brilliant and the way Jem writes such realistic characters is so fantastic. Will be pushing it into the hands of everyone I know next year!!

this was such a new and fresh book on a relationship. from the moments these two met i wasn't a reader instantly thinking "oh look at these two they must be together" and so you spend the read aching for their Hea, as i do in other romance type reads. for these two there was more to them, their story and life so i wasn't quite sure if this was right for them?
Jem has done such a good job at portraying something so real and complex. its so observant and aware that i could really imagine the scenes, characters and situation between the two.
Chuck is in his mid 30's. hes just split from a long relationship and even more than that, his fiance. hes highly privileged and doesn't seem to see it but definitely lives it. and i could see why Joeys friends were trying to show the swaying possible red flags to him because for me too i was unsure of him.
Joey is a aspiring poet. shes younger than him in her 20's and works currently making ends meet the best she can from pay check to pay check in a coffee shop.
and so yeh, again, it was weird when these two meet not to be having the angst these two must be together kind of vibes to my read. but this made it even more interesting and intriguing for me and i really like how Jem did that for me in this book.
i was rooting for Joey a lot. and didn't like the way she was treated by Chuck a lot of the time.
so was this a brilliant portrayal of a relationship that happens in life but isn't for life? because the two are drawn together. the two are together. so what next?
i loved how this was a raw and unapologetic look at meeting the two characters where they were it. this is no fairy tale or romance of the norm. and thats ok. for this it interested me and pulled me in just the same if not more so because of this look at a relationship of two people.
and the title had so many more thought provoking moments because of the content of whats inside these pages. id love to know what Jem titled it as such for?
the whole had me thinking way more than i thought it might going in. there was so much to these two that as individuals had me with thoughts. together with thoughts. and also what it says about imbalances within two people, our modern world and how messy its become for so many, and also how we see things so differently. differently due to our personal circumstance, our wealthier, job, lifestyle, even different due to just being different humans. and also of course different due to what reader might be reading into it. this would be a great one to read with a friend. id love to dissect it with someone so i cant wait to run to other reviews after ive written mine and see what others thought, a discussion of sorts with others in that way.
id love to read more from this author.

This is absolutely perfect for fans of Sally Rooney (and I can really see why she blurbed it)! I particularly liked 'I Want You to Be Happy''s exploration of art/work through Joey's poetry, and Chuck's general dissatisfaction. The writing really shines in the sex scenes between Joey and Chuck - they're realistic, fixated on the minutiae, and express so much character. The dialogue is brilliant, too!

This is one of my favourite books of the year so far. I loved the original and incisive writing style and the sharp observations. It's both achingly poignant and hilarious. The phrasing lands well and it really captured modern life for me as well as addiction, loneliness and feeling adrift. I loved this.

We follow Chuck, a lead copy writer in his mid-30s who recently broke up with his fiancée. Soon after, he meets Joey, a coffee shop employee in her 20s who aspires to be a poet. The two are drawn to one another despite the significant age difference and the fact that they are at quite different phases of their lives. It's a very well observed character study with plenty to keep readers entertained and reflective.

Calder has done an excellent job at allowing the reader to completely love and hate both characters, depending on which POV you are reading. What a joy to be taken from one end of the spectrum to the other, and feel so convinced in your opinion, until he lets you know the reality of the other. Fantastic and ?I have no doubt this will be a book of the summer.

An extraordinary feat of writing. I felt as if I was inside the lives of Chuck and Joey as their relationship tentatively started and then developed. As Joey starts to feel emotionally committed, Chuck is pulling back and withdrawing, both from his job and from Joey, 12 years his junior. I was fully invested and loved the somewhat ambiguous ending. A writer to watch.