**Brazen and biting stories show Mary Miller reaching new heights following her "beautiful and large-hearted debut" (NPR on *The Last Days of California*). ** Combining hard-edged prose and savage Southern charm, Mary Miller showcases transcendent contemporary talent at its best. With its collection of lusty, lazy, hard-drinking characters forever in their own way, *Always Happy Hour* confirms Miller as an heir apparent to Mary Gaitskill. Claustrophobic and lonesome, acerbic and magnetic, the women in *Always Happy Hour* seek understanding in the most unlikely places-a dilapidated foster home where love is a liability, a trailer park laden with a history of bad decisions, and the empty corners of a dream home bought after a bitter divorce. Miller evokes the particular gritty comfort found in bad habits as hope turns to dust, and proves yet again her essential role in American fiction.
