Sweet and uplifting, without ever veering into saccharine Hallmark Channel territory! The Key to Happily Ever After is like the perfect marriage between a wedding planning reality show and a family drama.

Sisters Mari, Jane and Pearl have been left their family's wedding planning business. Each one is balancing their role in the business (boss, peacemaker, little sister) with their role in the family. Sometimes those lines get tangled. Over the course of several weddings, the Key to Happily Ever After delivers a heartfelt message about the enduring power of sisterhood (and family), even when you're making each other nuts.

The book is very definitely women's fiction. While the romantic relationships are there, they're totally secondary to the relationships and drama among the sisters.

Tif Marcelo has crafted a truly beautiful and relatable story of friendship, love, and family. The depth and authentic voices brought each of the characters alive for me. By the end, I felt like I had known the three sisters for years. I found Pearl charming and relatable, as a younger sister myself, and I truly enjoyed watching her journey to find her own niche within the family and tap into her innate talents. I found Mari frustrating simply because I am a little sister and have been subjected to the executive decision type thinking that she utilized with Pearl.

A delightful, heartwarming story with family and romance, The Key to Happily Ever After will definitely be a book I recommend.

The Key to Happily Ever After by Tif Marcelo is a heartfelt story about three sisters navigating a business while figuring out their own lives. While the focus is on the sisters and their new responsibilities, the sisters set out to find their own happy endings, as well.

For years, the de la Rosa family has been creating happily ever afters in their wedding boutique, Rings & Roses. The torch is being passed down to Mari, Jane, and Pearl, to continue the successful legacy. Each sister has an equal share in the business, but differences in how to run the business, will prove to be a test for the de la Rosa family.

Mari, is the oldest sister and used to calling all the shots. She’s very organized and a rule follower. Jane, the middle sister is usually the mediator between Mari and Pearl, the youngest sister. Each sister brings something vital to the business, but with one sister ready to branch out on her own, how will all three sisters cope?

The sisters get so caught up in worrying about small issues, while a bigger problem is manifesting in the background. Once this is realized the three come together and show what it means to be a family. It’s very clear from the beginning that the sisters work better together, instead of apart. I love how much the sisters loved each other and wanted to be a part of each other’s lives.

While trying to figure out how to maintain the business, romance gradually happens for each sister. The romantic elements are sweet, yet realistic and if the de la Rosa sisters want to be successful, they need to find the perfect balance between their personal and business lives.

It’s very easy to lose yourself in this story. The Key to Happily Ever After, is a captivating and charming tale full of strong family ties. Recommended read!

Such a great book! I love reading about the dynamic between the three sisters. The way that they handled problems together and grew as a family through it. Wonderful book.

I do love a good ROM COM , and The Key to Happily Ever After is that and MORE.
So many great things about this book. I have a sister and I love stories about sisters, especially when they are so well written, honest and REAL.

I loved that the sisters were wedding planners that was an unexpected part of the plot that I really enjoyed. The characters were complex and likeable. The story was beautiful, emotional and sorry for repeating myself here, but REAL. I really enjoyed the author's style of writing.

5 beautiful stars to The Key to Happily Ever After

Thanks to Gallery Books and NetGalley for providing an eARC of this title.

I picked up this book from NetGalley based on a rec. from an author I follow on Twitter. It is the story of three sisters, Mari, Jane, and Pearl, and the wedding planning business they have recently inherited from their parents. Though marketed as a romcom, this book focuses more on the family dynamics, especially between Mari and Pearl than either of their romances.

I think this slight misalignment of my expectations might be why this one didn't totally click for me. I liked the cultural details from the sisters' Filipino heritage, the wedding planning (though, honestly, there could have been more of this), and the family stuff, but I thought the romances were totally underbaked. The characterization of the middle sister, Jane, also wasn't the best.

This one just didn't quite sparkle for me, but I think people who are looking for more of a family/sister story might really like it.

DNF at 25% Maybe for very, very diehard chicklit fans, but not for me. Everything about The Key to Happily Ever After never geled into something I wanted to continue reading.

I am always drawn to books about sisters, as there are always conflicts and challenges with love at the base of it all. That is true for Mari, Jane and Pearl, partners in the wedding planning business, Rings and Roses. Add in some romance, some secrets, and some sisterly rivalry, the book is a light read.

This was an easy "chick lit" read but unfortunately lacked a true connection to the main characters. I thought the character of Jane was deserving of more time within the novel as Pearl and Mari took up more of the main character slots. I wish we knew more about their actual childhood and upbringing and that there was just more family history overall. I did enjoy that the romantic storylines were not the main point of the girls' story and that, instead, it was more focused on family and understanding. Overall, this was entertaining enough but a bit one dimensional where the characters were concerned and could've used depth overall in the majority of the main plot and side plots.

They’re were so many things I loved about this book! First of all, I love reading books about sisters, and the relationship between the three sisters in this book, Mari, Jane and Pearl was so complicated and honest. Second of all, I loved the setting of Washington D.C. and the fact that the girls were wedding planners, running their own bridal business added a very unique spin to this story. I also loved learning about the Filipino culture, something I was not familiar with. Lastly, the romantic elements felt organic and real and not easy...just like in real life. All of those elements added up to an endearing, sometimes thorny story that kept me turning pages way past my bedtime!

This was a light read but not altogether enjoyable for me as I did not connect with any of the characters even after reading the first several chapters. The plot seemed to be trite and somewhat meaningless to me. However, the dialog is especially well written.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author and publisher for an advanced reading copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

A very enjoyable book! It reminds you how complicated family and friendships can be. Throw in work issues and romance and add more problems! Love the characters and how they changed.
Definitely recommend

The de la Rosa family and their wedding planning business have been creating happily ever afters in the Washington, DC area for years, making even the most difficult bride’s day a fairytale. But when their parents announce their retirement, the sisters—Marisol, Janelyn, and Pearl—are determined to take over the business themselves.

But the sisters quickly discover that the wedding business isn’t all rings and roses. There are brides whose moods can change at the drop of a hat; grooms who want to control every part of the process; and couples who argue until their big day. As emotions run high, the de la Rosa sisters quickly realize one thing: even when disaster strikes—whether it’s a wardrobe malfunction or a snowmageddon in the middle of a spring wedding—they’ll always have each other.

This was the perfect blend of sisters and weddings, if you have sisters and love weddings then this is the story for you! I'm so glad I got to read this just in time for Valentine's day. A cute and fun read.

Thank you #NetGalley for the ARC of The Key to Happily Ever After by Tif Marcelo
Pub Date: 14 May 2019

This was such a delightful read, perfect for anyone with sisters or who loves weddings! I loved the depiction of both familial and romantic relationships in this book, and how both contained so much humor and heart. I would absolutely recommend this to fans of classic rom-coms like "The Wedding Planner." This was the first novel I've read by Marcelo but I am looking forward to seeing more of her work!

Three sisters recently inherited a wedding planning business after their parents recently decided to retire. The youngest sister Pearl is hoping she will become a lead wedding planner but her eldest sister Mari is constantly doubting her abilities and she is getting ready to just walk out. Mari is stuck when one of her top client has an awful fiancé that reminds her of a very abusive relationship. The middle sister, Jane is juggling being a single mom and being the mediator with her stubborn sisters. While the sisters were all dealing their own love interest, the story was mostly centered around their business, their differences and how the come together in the end when they finally realized that they are stronger together. It was a lovely read.

3 sisters. A wedding planning business. #Romance. The independent, gloriously complicated women in @TifMarcelo’s charming The Key to Happily Ever After who share a brownstone and a business are women you want to spend time with, women you want to make your best friends, women whose story you don’t want to end. https://amzn.to/2MHqmES #TallPoppyWriters

Birth order rivalries and placement play a role in this engaging and cute book about three sisters taking over the family wedding business. When the women work together as a unit, it all runs smoothly. Hurt and stubborn attitudes create warring ambitions that threaten to ruin not only the business but also the relationships. While Mari the oldest and the baby, Pearl, butt heads and bicker it throws the whole business into turmoil. Peacemaker, Jane, tries her best to get Mari and Pearl to calm down.

Thank you NetGalley for my ARC. I loved this book....such a fun, easy read! Reminded me some of Nora Robert's Bridal Quartet Series from back in the day.

This book is about three sisters who own a family bridal planning business. It goes into the challenges of wedding clients, both bride and groom. It also focuses on the challenges of working with family and finding love. One thing doesn't change though....they will always have each other to lean on. A feel good read that I would definitely recommend!

4.5 Stars!!!

I was on the lookout for a novel that was would keep my attention at the same time wasn’t dark or a downer and Tif Marcelo came through big time with The Key to Happily Ever After!! This novel centers around three sisters, Marisol, Janelyn, and Pearl who have recently taken over the family business of wedding planning. As the ladies struggle to figure out their new roles in the business, they find separating work-life and home-life harder than they ever thought. That alone would have made for a great novel, but Tif Marcelo added romance/love into the mix which propelled The Key to Happily Ever After into a fantastic read! I would honestly love to see this novel turned into a series!!!! Tif Marcelo did a wonderful job with mixing of the romance and women’s fiction genres—love that! Being that I’ve never read Tif before I am looking forward to reading her prior books and looking forward to future novels!