This debut novel by Luci Adams is a cute and wholesome tale about love - romantic love, love for yourself, love for your family, and love for your friends. Bella, the heroine of the story, is an absolute hot mess. She is a bit irritating at times, usually in a charming way, and Luci’s sense of humor when writing Bella had me laughing. The pacing was a little slow, and the plot was fuzzy, but the situations Bella got herself into along the way were quite entertaining. I enjoyed Bella’s character development, though it was cutting it close - a few more chapters of Bella being completely clueless in how selfish she was being would have tipped the scales for me - but she had a good self-realization at the end and it made for a decent ending. I wish that the “love story” portion of the novel had received more spotlight, but it’s clear that this book was about more than just romance, and her soulmate is truly her best friend. Overall, this is a cute, quick and funny read that I recommend to quirky and somewhat cheesy rom-com lovers. 🤍
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Side note, the narration by Josie Charles on behalf of Macmillan Audio was wonderful and did a great job at bringing Bella to life and injecting even more humor to Luci’s writing. (There was a part at 86% where the narrator stumbled and it wasn’t edited it out.)

There are so many (written and unwritten) rules in romance, and this one breaks a bunch of them.

And I loved it.

A perfect binge read.

Bella is frustrating, immature, childish and hypocritical. The beginning of her trying to idealize a man she doesn’t like who is clearly using her for one thing while trying to envision a blissfully future is cringeworthy.

Her further dating ventures aren’t as bad but her internal vitriol for a man writing about his bad dates whilst doing the same thing are just one of many self-created problems that makes it impossible to empathize with her.

I didn’t really like Mark (her best friends fiancé) but honestly briefly hearing how Mark has experienced Bella I get why he acts the way he does towards her. I still think he was a judgmental twat though. I do feel that he did own up to being the bigger person by apologizing to Bella which did somewhat redeem him.

The romance subplot I was hoping for in the first half but the further the book went on for far too long without anything happening between Bella and this character. This left me frustrated and just not caring nor feeling like she really deserved their affection before going to a lot of therapy and doing a lot of self-reflection (which is reflected in how she treats this person in the moment).

The audio narrator was fine, no strong opinions on their performance.

2 stars

⭐️⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for the Audio-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I have so many mixed feelings here! I absolutely couldn't put this audiobook down, but I also found the protagonist infuriating. All in all, this was a fun play on some classic fairy tale stories. I felt like the redemptive arc was good, and the protagonist (FINALLY) learned her lesson by the end of the book, but boy howdy was it a wild ride. Plus I always love a bookish story, so the publishing house was a fun part of the story for me!

The audio was wonderful, and I would 10/10 recommend the audio to anyone looking to read this book!

Overall, I really like it!

Not That Kind of Ever After was a rough book for me. The main character Bella is just the absolute worst. She is selfish and makes everything about her and I dint care if she actually found happiness.

The plot is adolescent and honestly just desperate. Bella wants to be a writer and she starts crafting her book chapter by chapter and putting them online. The chapters are taking fairy tales and putting a one night stand twist on them. The one night stands are actually true, Bella is going out to find guys to write about.

Bella seems like she just craves attention and needs to be validated at all times. As she starts to gain more and more followers she got more and more annoying. Bella was lucky enough to have so many good people around her and she continued to treat them like trash. She really infuriated me.

The only thing that saved this story was this simple quote. “Trick question I always want pizza”. Same girl. I always want pizza.

I almost did not finish this book. Is it worth reading all 400 pages? Personally, I don’t think so.

From the start I found the female main character to be unlikeable, annoying, self-centered, and frankly…rather naive. While her chatterbox ways entice the reader to want to read more, the book had a tendency of being wordy with overboard descriptions. While being able to fully imagine everything that happens in a book is a great thing to experience, this caused the pacing to feel off for most of the book. The pacing would have been spot on if there were about 30-50 pages less.

I did, however, think that incorporating these children’s tales into Bella Marble’s love life was a cute play on both the dating scene and bringing childhood stories into adulthood. Marty was my favorite character - I was rooting for him the whole time.

The audio on this read was done really well. The narrator’s (Josie Charles) voice is what kept me enticed enough to continue on when I was unsure whether I should or not.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press- Griffin and MacMillan audio for a gifted copy in exchange for an honest review.

2.5/5

Not my favorite, though I liked the concept. The narration was well done and easy to follow even switching between our main POV and the more stylized fairytale retelling of encounters.

Story-wise I struggle to find anything I truly disliked, the concept and characters were unique. Ultimately I think for me the follow through was a little off, it was hard at times to emphasize with the characters which lessened the emotional impact a little.

Still a solid story with plenty of great attributes, the audiobook was a great way to pass some time

I really enjoyed this and I loved the narrator! She kept me entertained and wanting to listen to more. This was perfect ro listen too while I was walking and cleaning.
I just reviewed Not That Kind of Ever After by Luci Adams. #NotThatKindofEverAfter #NetGalley
[NetGalley URL]

Bella is looking for her Prince Charming but she seems to be kissing a lot of frogs. She’s been trying all the latest dating apps and not making any connections. She works as a receptionist at a book company and in her spare time she writes, and one day she writes about her latest bad date with a very hairy man and gives it a funny title like from a fairy tale. She takes a chance and puts it out on an amateur writer app and hopes that some people will see it. But when people start seeing it and wanting more, Bella starts putting her standards aside in order to get a story and sleeps around in order to get more content.
Unfortunately, Bella acts quite immature and she isn’t a very good friend which makes her hard to like as a character. I did like once the romantic part of the story came into play, but it was totally predictable who she would end up with from the beginning. I think it probably would have benefited from being a little shorter as well.
The narrator did a good job of keeping the story entertaining and engaging.
Thanks to McMillan Audio and NetGalley for this audiobook arc in exchange for my review.

DNF at ~25%. This book begins with far too much exposition. The amount of time spent on a terrible first date and one-night stand was painfully cringe. From there, there her deep insecurities and immaturity took center stage. I would hope that this book explores her growth and development, but unfortunately I do not have the patients to wade through her voice in the meantime. The bar for fantastic romance and contemporary fiction is so incredibly high right now, and this doesn’t meet it.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s for the opportunity to listen to this audio ARC!

I did not expect to end up loving this book because I was mildly annoyed with Bella through the first half of the book, but Marty and his one liners saved the story for me. I adore Marty and the moment when Bella realized she did too was a game changer. They are so funny together and the witty banter between them made my heart smile. They are one of my favorite couples and I was sorry to see their story end. The audiobook is a fabulous way to enjoy this novel and I highly recommend it.

The following review was posted on my blog two days ago, on Thursday, March 2nd, 12 days before publication. It was shared on Instagram twice, once on Friday, March 3rd, and once today, on Saturday, March 4th, and has already been posted on Goodreads. It will be shared again the day of publication. The blog post includes links to order the books and to its Goodreads page, so readers can add it to their to-be-read books.





“It’s our own classy ending to our own classic story, and I now know with absolute certainty that it’s better than any fairytale out there.”

Author: Luci Adams
Narrator: Josie Charles

Genre: Romance, Fiction
Actual Rating: 5 stars
Spicy Meter: 1 fire emoji
Content Warnings: Discusses cheating and contains some self deprecation and slightly unhealthy relationships. Contains sexual content, but isn’t too explicit.

“Not That Kind of Ever After” follows Bella Marble, an aspiring author and current receptionist at a publishing house, as she struggles through her changing life and, after a fit of writer’s block, decides to start writing autobiographical-ish fairytale one-night stands. Little did she expect that she’d go absolutely viral as @B.Enchanted, now she must look for more fairytales (and one-night stands) to rewrite. But this isn’t like her. And most people around her can see it, Bella just isn’t willing to hear it.

This audiobook caught me off guard to begin with. I was not expecting Josie Charles’ British accent but I must say I ended up being pleasantly surprised. Josie’s accent was soft and whimsical and I could surprisingly listen to it at 2.5x speed and still understand what she was saying perfectly (I usually can’t do more than 1.5x speed with a British accent, my ears just aren’t trained for it, I’m sorryyyyy).

This is the weirdest 5-star read. I found Bella annoying but at the same time I loved it? I was down for watching her fail and then redeem herself (multiple times), but I always knew she’d have her Happily Ever After.

This isn’t a closed door romance per se, we know Bella gets down to business a few times but we don’t see much of the details on it, if you know what I mean. It was still a super cute story and I totally see why it’s classified both under romance and under general fiction—it’s a little bit of both.

I would highly recommend this book if you’re looking for a fun read about dating in this day and age—with a cute lil’ trope at the end, but not giving that one spoiler away. All you need to know if Bella gets her Ever After with quite a guy.

If you click here, you’ll be redirected to Goodreads, so you can add the book to your TBR list.

Or you could click here, and be redirected to Amazon, so you can order the book.

ARC provided by NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.

Publication Date: March 14, 2023

This book was absolutely hilarious. But I struggled with the choices the main character made throughout the novel. That kept it from being as amazing as I had hoped. Definitely a fun read, but not one of my favorites. For the audiobook, the narrator was fantastic!

This wasn't a book for me. Not that Kind of Ever After had a lot of potential, but fell short in execution. I didn't connect with Bella as a character at all, and I got frustrated with her lack of maturity. Additionally, the plot felt overly predictable, even for a romance, which got exhausting.

---2/5

Thank you to netgalley for providing me with a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

I did not finish this title and am switching to print format. Something about the narration is making me feel like everything the main character says is whining. I gave it to 10% but I have been hating to turn on the audiobook and a book that I would normally finish in two or three days I am barely interested in after nearly a week.

I'm confused....
Was this supposed to be a romance?

The book is about Bella. Her age is confusing. The book mentions she is late 20's.... But she mentions she knows her best friend for 29 years. and she is supposed to be around 29? So I guess she knew her friend from the second she was born....

Bella wants her own prince charming. So she goes on this dating app and nothing is working out.

So instead she writes a chapter about her very unfortunate dating experience and things start to spiral from there. Bella suddenly forgets her standards and what she really wants and instead is focused on sleeping around with different guys and writing her chapters about her encounter in form of fairy tales. Including an uncharacteristic out-of-the-left-field threesome, after making several comments about it prior.

Bella is a really annoying character. She acts like she is in a sorority instead of being a damn adult. Her behavior is really immature for most of the book.

She is a shit friend. She cannot admit when she is wrong and is a total jerk to her best friend's boyfriend. She owed him an apology and he came to her to apologize instead. Honestly, she was so nasty to him that I half expected Bella to proclaim feelings for her bestie, at least then this animosity would be more understandable.

I think it's just hard to enjoy the book if you just downright dislike the MC.

The romance plot happened in the last 20 % of the book and she was still awful till about 10%? Her actions in the end really annoyed me

This really just didn't work for me.

Got a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review, all of the opinions are my own.

Not That Kind of Ever After by Luci Adams was a cute and fun rom com with a mix of fairy tale romance mixed in. I really loved the short chapters which helped me to get into the story but could not believe there were 100 chapters in this shorter read.

Josie Charles did a fantastic job with the narration and there were parts where I actually laughed out loud.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for this copy in exchange for an honest review. It is one that I might not have picked up on my own but one that I definitely enjoyed.

I would recommend this one if you are looking for a light, romance with dashes of fairy tale vibes and a friends to lovers trope.

I like the concept of the book, and I loved the ending so much. I, however, found the main character so annoying and self-absorbed. I almost stopped reading so many times because I just didn't like her at all. Then she goes through a major growth and becomes someone I was actually rooting for. The book was very good and entertaining.

Little girls are told to find their handsome prince and happily ever after over and over and over again as children so it is no surprise that so many grow up thinking that they are going to find their "one" with ease and grace. This story is definitely not that. Our hilariously realistic heroine, Bella, is just one bad experience after another and continues to make her own life crazy, miserable and fun at the same time. This is the real story of fairytales that should be told to all women everywhere. FYI: If catastrophic one-night stands and dating app meet ups isn't your thing, then go read something else and leave this book to those with a great sense of humor! I must say that I highly recommend listening to this book as the narrator absolutely brings Bella to life and makes you feel her cringeworthy, yet hilarious antics all the way into your bones! I had never read/listened to any books by this author before, but you can absolutely bet that I'll be looking for more of her writing to delightfully entertain myself with in the future.

I don't even know where to begin. I am happy, I am angry, I am annoyed. This story follows Bella and her downfall for 90 percent of the story, and then in the last 10 percent you get Bella slapping a band aid on her messes and calling it good .Bella almost burns all of her bridges with her friends, she's having one night stands left and right to exploit in her online book she is writing, and she can't see all the good happening in the world right before her eyes.

When I first began this journey I was so happy. Bella was relatable as all her friends lives are moving forward while she feels stuck in a rut. She was the friend looking for love while everyone around her had relationships fall right into place. Bella embarks on finding her one and only, so naturally she starts going out with men time and time again. Most of these dates end up with one night stands. (Although kinda sad, also relatable in todays dating scene) With Bella's bad date roster piling up she takes to writing about her adventures. Initially, I found this so entertaining but then it just got repetitive and depressing. Bella starts having random hook ups for the sake of a story and not for her enjoyment. This is where everything really starts to fall apart for me.

So basically Bella's intimate relationships are trash, and now she has to go an burn every friendship she has in the book. Bella's best friend Ellie gets engaged and Bella becomes a monster. Bella is filled with jealousy, she hates here besties new fiancé, who literally is nothing but an angel speaking the truth. Eventually Bella and said fiancé, Mark, get in a verbal argument where Mark literally tells Bella what everyone else wants to say to her but won't.

After everything that Bella does, in the end everyone apologizes to her??? I literally lost it at that point. Bella did realize that she messed up but it was literally in the last 10 percent of the book, after everyone else's grand apology. I hoped Bella would humble herself a bit more, but alas that never happens. Then she gets the boy. I was furious at that point. any chance of this book being relatable left once she was able to be the selfish monster, and STILL get the boy.

I really was hoping to enjoy this book more than I did.

Thank you soo much NetGalley and MacMillian for this DRC.