"Everyone is someone's true love."

Wow! I need to stop for a moment and allow myself to draw breath. I feel quite worn out after that rollercoaster ride of emotions and non-stop action!

A great beginning, a totally unpredictable storyline, and an ending I never saw coming, albeit a bit more up in the air than I would have liked it to have been. Who can complain about the format of this book? No boring or conventional around here! Maybe a subliminal portent of a follow-up story being on the horizon?

I really enjoyed Stewart's style of writing: short, razor sharp chapters with eye-catching titles; punchy, witty narrative and dialogue from an unforgettable cast of characters who almost defined themselves and told their own life stories; and a multi-layered storyline full of life, emotions, intrigue and  interest from beginning to end.

I don't think I have ever had the privilege to meet such a powerfully portrayed and eclectic mix of supporting characters before, including Page's disastrous couple of dalliance's with one-night stands. In fact my initial reaction was 'whoa! do people like this really exist in real life, and all in one place?' Then I paused for thought and came to the conclusion that in such a large and cosmopolitan city like Washington DC, this probably is a true reflection of a cross section of the population, with maybe just a smidge of over-egging and exaggeration by Stewart - in a nice way of course!

I really found myself caring about this larger than life, profusion of characters as if I knew them personally and found myself amazed at just how much they took Page to their hearts so quickly, not judging her, genuinely wanting to take care of her and protect her, each in their own individual way. In return, Page also played her part in uniting this small, disparate group of people, who didn't really know one another, their only commonality being their dogs and visiting the 'doggie park', this notion made even more comical by the fact that Page was the only one there without a dog of her own, until she manages to 'borrow' one!

When the chips are down and Page needs to move forward quickly on her plan to open her own gallery, all of her new found friends rally around to offer their help and support and it is only then that both we (and I suspect they also), discover talents many of them never knew they possessed, giving them a real sense of purpose in helping Page see her dream come to fruition. I think they all discovered a true sense of community and belonging, which Page seems blissfully unaware she has played such a huge part in making happen. No more solitary, silent sitting in the doggie park for this little team!

There is also a second, much deeper storyline running in parallel for the main protagonists. One of family ties and values. Of new beginnings and not judging people until you have put yourself in their place and walked in their shoes. The personal struggle and journey of discovering what really matters to you, what you want from your own life and how much you want those close to you to be a part of that new beginning.

Page's bond with her brother Brady is strong and unbreakable, unlike the relationship she has with her widowed, slightly alcoholic mother and Brady's partner Jane. Brady has the same passion for food, as Page has for the arts, but unlike Page who is drifting from day to day, Brady is very self-assured and has channelled his passion into a successful and challenging career. He longs for the time when Page comes to define herself and accepts that dreams in life can and must adapt and change, as he knows that she can be happy and successful, if only she will open up her heart and mind, to let it happen.

However, when things get really tough and Brady is fighting for his very life, it is Jane and Page's mum who rally together and begin making the practical decisions, forcing Page to recognise that she has been too quick to judge them in the past, without asking herself why and on what evidence she has based her opinions. After bearing witness to some profoundly touching, soul searching private moments by Page, we witness her really stepping up to the plate, despite the very draining nature of the challenge, both physically and mentally. She also quickly realises that far from impeding her new self-imposed caring regime, Jane and her mother are more than willing to play their part and in fact Jane's organisational skills, far from grating on Page as they might have done in the past, are just what they all need to maintain a level of calm and structure.

As I mentioned previously, the ending whilst not totally unexpected and perfectly acceptable as endings go, did come upon me quite suddenly as something of a surprise, leaving quite a few loose ends and unanswered questions. I do think there might be real mileage in Stewart pursuing a follow-up story, although I didn't feel short-changed in any way.

From Page once being a very small fish in the very big lake of NYC, to her becoming a big fish in the small and intimate pond of her local community, this read was pure perceptive and intuitive escapism, with some laugh out loud moments, some cry baby sad and emotionally draining times, some life lessons well learned, and many new beginnings and friendships forged.

Definitely a rom-com to escape into, full of heart and humour, and definitely with added pizzazz :

Happily Whatever After is a perfect light read just in time for the summer holidays. Having recently become single myself, this book definitely came into my life at the right time. Page is a wonderful protagonist who shows that it is necessary to go boldly out into the world and strike out on one's own. As a dog lover, I was instantly endeared by the number of dogs that showed up in the book and perhaps made me a little biased in the books favour. Overall, I would happily recommend it but I wouldn't call it a classic.

This story was a great escape from the daily challenges and I enjoyed it quite a lot. The humour in it made me laugh out loud so much and there are so many great things to think about while reading it.
I recommend it for a great summer reading night.

Really enjoying this book so far! Can't wait to finish it! Super excited to see how this all plays out ❤

The pandemic has put me in exactly the right mood for lots of happy, light romances. This certainly is that (and, dogs, too!). But, the relentless plot and constant quips just didn’t quite hit for me here.

A dog lover dream story. It’s every bit and piece of life among the furry four legged set. A very pampered four legged set. Page is trying to reset her life after losing her job and boyfriend at the same time. She moves in with her brother and finds friends in a dog park that caters to a rather select clientele. So her story begins a new chapter. As doors start to open so do her possibilities. And just when a new beau comes her way,fate starts to laugh and puts her on another course. Happy reading

I was actually looking forward to reading this book unfortunately I didn't even make it halfway. I DNF-ed it at 45%

Happily Whatever After was a quick read that I enjoyed enough to finish, but didn't super love. There were a LOT of characters and a lot of things going on. The story was very fast-paced with short chapters which kept me turning pages. I felt like there were a lot of unnecessary details that drug the book on at times, but without those side things it would have been incredibly short. I suppose I have been spoiled with fantastic rom-coms lately and this one fell a little bit flat for me, but I'm glad I read it!

Thank you to the author Stewart Lewis and NetGalley for my ARC in exchange for my honest opinion. This book is available now!

This book is a hard one for me to rate. I thought it was funny (at times), quirky, and very different from what I've been reading. I flew through this book in a day which I'll give bonus points for because that rarely happens to me. I liked Page's sarcasm and felt like I "got" some of her humor.

On the downside, there were some things in this book that were huge problems for me. The whole thing with the iPod was wrong on so many levels and every time she'd talk about hearing BR's messages, it really creeped me out. And the stalking thing...I know I'm not alone when I mention that I had an issue with how it was handled. Also, I really cringed when Page went snooping through Kevin's place, which is how she found the tapes and his drawing. I also got tired of the inner monologue of the dogs. The first few times it was funny and then it got old.

I think part of the reason I breezed through this book was because there wasn't much substance to it. Everything felt very superficial and there wasn't really a character I felt I could root for. There were a lot of characters/scenarios included that I felt did nothing to advance the plot.

Overall, it was a quick, breezy read, but I have a hard time recommending it because of the issues mentioned above.

Thanks to NetGalley and Lake Union for the ARC in exchange for a review.

Thank you to the publisher, Lake Union Publishing, and NetGalley for providing me an e-ARC of this book. All thoughts are my own.

This is my first 1 star review… and honestly, I’ve always been hesitant to post low-rated reviews just because I know how much work goes into writing a book. But in the end, I felt like there were genuinely questionable aspects of this story that deserved to be critiqued, so that’s what I’m here to do.

I’ll start by saying I really did want to like this book. But a lot about this story just rubbed me the wrong way.

Before going too in-depth into the parts of the book that had me cringing inside, I’ll state that I thought it had a good start. I enjoyed all the different descriptions of dogs from the dog park, and I was genuinely rooting for the protagonist, Page, to figure her life out after hitting rock bottom. Unfortunately, the more I got to know Page, the more I didn’t like her.

Now, normally I don’t need a super likeable main character to be engaged in a book, but a lot of things about Page genuinely bothered me.

To give specific examples, I really didn’t like how she was essentially a kleptomaniac with no regard for other people’s privacy. Her holding onto the daughter of her love interest’s iPod just to listen to the audio recording he made for his daughter was full-on creepy. When she thought her brother was cheating on his long-term girlfriend her first thought was that she had to help him come up with a better alibi and she glorified peeking into the men’s locker room at her old country club when she was a teenager.

But by far the most problematic part of this novel was the blatant normalization of stalking. Specifically, one of the male characters goes about full-on stalking his ex-girlfriend – with a video camera and everything – and it gets simply brushed off as a non-concern because he (apparently) doesn’t wish her any harm…

I don’t normally mind a little grey-area in my reading (sometimes it’s impossible to avoid, unfortunately) – but this book felt high-key problematic to me.

Based on the way Page acted, I felt like this story would have worked better as a thriller than a romantic comedy. At least then I would have known the intention was for the protagonist to be creepy.

I finished Beach Read by Emily Henry and HAD to grab another rom-com! This one fit the bill! I really enjoyed the banter between characters and, especially, the main character’s inner monologue. She is hilarious!
A woman who’s life looked in shambles was still able to find a little bit of happy and even love!
I enjoyed the descriptions of the side characters and even the passers by, especially the dogs.

This book was a breath of fresh air! I am slowly trying to work my way into romantic comedies... I've never been a fan of steamy romance novels, but I do like a cute romcom every now and then (light on the steam, of course). This was such a fun read -- and totally unexpected! When the author reached out to me via Instagram about reading and reviewing this book, I had never heard of it (like I said -- not a romance reader). But it ended up being such a quick and fun book that I devoured in a day!

I feel a little weird reviewing this genre, to be honest, mainly because I'm not used to the genre and I'm not completely comfortable with it. I still feel the same way when reviewing fantasy - like, it's so complex I don't ever know where to begin. But something I do like about a good romcom is that it's kind of predictable -- but in a good way! It was also wildly unrealistic -- also in a good way. So, we have Page -- recently fired from her art gallery job and newly single. She decides to move to DC to stay with her brother and try to get her life back in order. Lover of dogs that she is, she spends her days reading trashy romance at the dog park; however, she doesn't own a dog. She ends up meeting a bunch of over the top characters (including an uber rich guy and his young, fashion designer boyfriend, cute yoga instructor who's in a an abusive relationship with "mean face", an ex-Austrian who has been exiled and disowned for his "lifestyle", and of course the guy she has a huge crush on whom she names BR for Banana Republic because as much as she chats with him, she never catches his name).

All of these characters become some of Page's best friends and each one helps her to find herself and her calling. I thought it was a cute and unique storyline with a lot of dark humor (my favorite kind of humor). Page was hilariously snarky; I loved her interactions with the other characters and her charming IDGAF attitude towards life in general. I think it helped her weed out the bad and let in the good. If you're looking for something light and quirky, this is definitely the book for you.

Will be posting my review to Goodreads, my blog, my Instagram, and Amazon. Will update with links.

Page has had to move to DC to live with her brother after she breaks up with her BF in New York. I liked the character of Brady and the fun people she meets at the dog park but felt like it was all a bit too easy for everything to come together. It was a quick and easy read.

This was a quick and easy read that provided me with some escapism for an afternoon. I enjoyed Page’s sarcasm however, I also found her to be very judgmental. Her harsh thoughts of everyone around her struck me as odd seeing as her life isn’t exactly together at the moment (single, jobless and almost homeless). Although this book is light and at times fun I found there wasn’t enough romance in the actual book for me. This hindered my enjoyment quite a bit. Overall, this book was just okay. I didn’t love it but I didn’t hate it either. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-arc.

In most adult romances you get a picture perfect romance between people who have their lives together, more or less. Well in this book that is not the case. Page is a thirty four year old women who just got dumped by her boyfriend and fired from her job in the same week. She then has to move in with her brother so that she can figure out what to do with her life. Something as simple as going to the dog part was her way of healing herself. In doing so Page found so many things she wasn't expecting nor did she think she could find.

Page is at the best time of her life, she has an amazing job at a New York City art gallery and a lovely boyfriend. but her life is crushed when she loses her job and her boyfriend at once. ⁣
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To start a new life, she moves in with Brady, her brother, in Washington DC. She spends most of her time at the dog park and befriend dog owners. Other people found it very weird that she was there all the time without any dog. At the same time all she can think of is her dream of having her own art Gallery and someone to love her!⁣
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I found Page and Brady’s character loving, friendly and delightful. Stewart Lewis has created fully developed characters and I was able to connect with them easily. ⁣
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Brady has a restaurant named Elbow, He is a loving, friendly, successful and caring person. I enjoyed reading his conversation with Page. I loved the Looser to Winner chapter ⁣
I really admired how page took charge of her life after all the things that happened to her in New York City⁣
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The set-up of the story was very welcoming and the details were carefully crafted. This Romantic Comedy Women’s fiction made me smile, laugh and emotional at times. I read the “What not to do at my funeral” several times. It was funny and touching.⁣

Page has found her world upended, and after moving in with her brother in Washington, D.C., Page decides to pass the time by going to the dog park, without a dog.Yes, you heard that right. Although, to be honest, they're often much better than people. Through her adventures at the dog park, she meets a cast of characters, and an owner of a vineyard, who just happens to be extremely handsome. The cliches abound in this book, and while it may be perfect for a light hearted read, this book fell short for me. It felt a bit like Groundhogs Day, and it felt as if I was rereading a previous chapter only to find out the book had moved on, but the story was repeating itself.

This book would be great for fans of romance novels with a light, airy tone to them. The author is definitely skilled at making the reader laugh, but this novel was not in my wheelhouse. I DNF at 50%, and for that reason, I'm not adding a star rating or a Goodreads review. Netgalley has asked that I leave a star rating here, so I have complied with the request. Thank you to Lake Union, and the author for allowing me the opportunity to read this book.

An enjoyable read. Some bits were strange to read in the respect of a male writing as a female so some of the bits didn't quite add up for me.
Never the less it was an enjoyable read

Review for NetGalley and the publishers -
This book didn't pull me in at all! It's not a 'bad' book, it just wasn't that exciting. I think the descriptions of every dog in the park got boring after a while. Overall an okay book, but not one you'll struggle putting down.

I’m sorry. I really tried to get through this, but I just couldn’t. It just didn’t pull me in. I was confused by who was who, and it wasn’t what I was expecting. It didn’t work out for me, but maybe it will work out for you. I’m going to DNF @ 45%.