First off, thank you to NetGalley and Avon for a digital ARC in exchange for my honest opinion. I really wanted to love this book. While the cover is super adorable and the plot was promising I couldn’t connect with any of the characters, it just wasn’t the book for me.

This was a sweet book. I loved the strong female characters in Trixie and Kesha. I love that it's a second chance romance, that's a trope I am not reading enough right now. The backgrounds of the characters and multiple entrepreneur storylines were also pretty great. I didn't love that Trixie's sex toy business seemed to be an MLM-inspired business ala pure romance. I do not like the impact MLM's have on women, so the undertones of the MLM business throughout the story made it hard for me personally to root for Trixie.

Thank you Net Galley for the chance to read this one!

This dual POV romance book delivered everything I wanted and more. You got me with second chances, sex positivity, and heroines fighting for their future. But Happy Endings delivers a feminist romance which celebrates love, following our dreams, and pleasure. I loved Trixie from the beginning. Struggling with her parent's expectations, Trixie is committed to not only de-stigmatizing female pleasure, but also safe sexual health. Shes caring, loyal, and committed to her dreams.

At the same time, Andre is a character who instantly had my heart. Convinced he has to bear the weight of his problems on his shoulders, he has to figure out how to make peace with the past. You'd think someone who broke up via a Post-It Note would instantly be on my bad side. But, Andre ends up showing the readers his vulnerability, how guilty he feels, and how difficult it is for him to open up. About how we need to escape the chains of the past and to realize it isn't always as simple as we believe.

Okay, I really enjoyed this! This was an own voices story with a tough female lead, who discusses and celebrates sensuality. Not only with women in their 20's and 30's but with women of all ages, women in their 40s, 50's and beyond are represented and I loved that.

The female friendships were another of my favorite parts about this story. Trixie and her friends are there for each other and have each others backs, from the very start of the story.

When starting the book the story of Trixie and Andre's breakup is very one sided. We only get Trixie's side of the story causing an immediate judgement of Andre. But, we soon find out there's more going on and reading more of Andre's story and what he's going through and the journey of them finding their way back to each other was such a good journey.

Thank you Net Galley and Avon Books for this advanced e-book copy!

The first 50% was five stars, then the second was three. So I guess that averages out to a four. I don't have too much else to say about this one, honestly, it was a fun concept that didn't quite stick the landing for me.

This book is something special. I loved the focus on family and diversity. Our main protagonist Trixie is a strong independent boss babe. . I can’t wait to read more.

As you might guess from the title and the fact that the female main character sells sex toys, this book is super steamy. Trixie is the newest member of the Boss Babes, a group of women entrepreneurs who support each other both in business and their personal lives. She also teaches sex ed at a local clinic, as she works to empower women.

This is a second chance romance with Andre who left her when he suddenly left New Orleans. Andre feels a need to fix things for others and struggles with asking for help. He grows over the course of the book, but there were times I found it difficult to like him.

I found the way this book tackled issues around gentrification and neighborhood character fascinating. Andre's mom ran Mama Hazel's, a soul food restaurant, in a neighborhood in DC that is rapidly gentrifying and pushing out old businesses. The book also highlights the challenges Trixie faces in navigating a balance between her parents' Vietnamese and American culture. The balance of these serious aspects with romance was great.

Thank you to Avon and NetGalley for the advanced copy. These thoughts are my own.

Second chance romance is one of my favorite tropes so I was excited about this one, and it had a lot of potential, but it fell flat.

While this was an overall miss for me, there are things I liked about it that kept me reading when I considered quitting. I enjoy stories with a strong sense of place and that was consistent throughout the book. Andre struggles with guilt for having left his family for a few years. Now he is committed to saving his mother's restaurant after her death. The community plays a huge role in that.

I also liked the sex positivity! Throughout all the talk of vibrators and sexual medication of senior citizens, there's no sex shaming. There's a little embarrassment but everyone comes to terms with it and the people surrounding Trixie recognize what important work she does by educating and empowering women in her classes.

The biggest bummer about this novel is it reads like an early draft that would benefit from some strong editing. The writing is repetitive and the dialogue often feels forced. It's like the author didn't trust the reader to remember things and connect the dots so she needed to explain everything over and over. The sex scenes are fun, though I was expecting them to be even hotter because of the sex toys - that was a missed opportunity - and those scenes start and end abruptly. The characters don't have much depth. I could understand their motivations but I didn't connect to any of them or truly empathize with their plights.

I wanted to like this book but I couldn't get past the weak writing. There are much stronger romance out there, so I can't say I'd recommend this one.

Thank you Netgalley & Publishers for an ARC copy of this book.

I quickly realized I wasn't too fond of this book, although I hate giving books anything less than 3 stars.

Don't be alarmed by the rating, this book had a creative premise, it was the execution that wasn't too interesting. I didn't buy into the relationship at all. I'm not sure if it was the flow of the novel or the dialogue but I couldn't connect with the characters or truly care about any of the subplots.

Enjoyable read at a time when we desperately need to promote Own Voices works. I live in the area where the book is set, so I thought both Falls Church and NE DC were authentically represented. The plot and conflict are very good, and the adult scenes are very spicy and numerous, and I thought the diverse representation was, well, real. However, I thought the story was a little too plot-driven, and could benefit from more descriptive world-building. I was also a little thrown by the mix of real and fake locations - I get why the characters' businesses are made up, but there were some things that were made up and I knew what the reference was/didn't understand why the real location wasn't used. Overall, I was very pleased to read this book and look forward to the author's future works.

This one was cute, definitely not my favorite, but cute! I loved reading an #ownvoices romance! Also loved how this story was sex positive and had some good female characters! The food descriptions included were also to die for, made me so hungry! Thank you Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest thoughts!

“When people break bread together, they break down their walls and talk to each other. Never forget…food is family.”

Happy Endings by Thien-Kim Lam is right up there with my list of new favorite romcoms that revolve around food.

The story follows Trixie, a Vietnamese-American sex toy entrepreneur, as she navigates starting her own business with the help of her friends, the Boss Babes. As Trixie competes to win the funding for her own sex toy boutique, she comes face to face with her ex Andre Walker. The two navigate communication, business, family, and food as they struggle to make their dreams come true as gentrification takes hold of their surroundings.

This book has it all: a badass female protagonist, delicious food (scorched rice shimp etouffee, anyone?), amazing chemistry, and supportive female friendships. I will be reading this one over and over again!

Thank you @NetGalley and @AvonBooks for this fantastic #ownvoices novel! I know I will be reading this one again!

PS, There are bonus recipes at the end!

Trixie Nyugen is determined that her sex toy business is a success—she wants to set up her own boutique, teach people about sexual pleasure, and force her parents to accept she can be successful as an entrepreneur. However, when she runs into her ex, she finds that her heart is full of feelings she just can’t shake…and it might mean the end of her dreams. Or maybe, the beginning?

I really enjoyed this one!

The Goodreads ratings suck, which is a fucking shame because while Trixie and Andre’s relationship outside of the steaming hot sex was a bit underdeveloped and rushed (particularly towards the end), they had a shit ton of chemistry, and I loved the story itself.

I really, really liked this insight into being a small businessowner in DC—from Andre’s POV as the heir to a beloved soul food restaurant to Trixie starting up.

Both are battling gentrification and the past, but in different ways.

Andre is tackling his mother’s legacy, trying to preserve it and honor her (and his guilty feelings of not being there), along with his duties as the oldest son and man of the household (for his younger sister, who is twenty-six and not the baby he thinks she is). At the same time, he’s torn between maintaining the past and moving forward into the future. How can he honor his mother and put his own spin on recipes? Will his recipes change the restaurant? How will he keep them afloat and bring in more business to an area that is floundering the face of the gentrified district two blocks over?

Andre then, is stuck the past, and driven to prove himself to his community.

Trixie, on the other hand, is moving forward and trying to prove herself.

She’s found her footing at last, after failing pharmaceutical school, getting ghosted by her boyfriend of two years, and moving to DC from New Orleans. However, her footing is selling sex toys—an occupation her parents look down upon. But Trixie has a dream, a plan, and a solid group of friends.

While she understands the dangers of gentrification and how they remove the original occupants of a place for something “better” (hint: not better), she also sees how this process can also bring a kind of revitalization, if done with the original community’s interest in mind.

I loved, loved, loved how sex positive this book was.

Trixie is open, honest, funny and approaches sexual pleasure head on, with no embarrassment or sidelong looks. She is so dedicated to teaching women—particularly women of marginalized communities and of older generations—that sex is not taboo, and that sexual pleasure is their right, and sexual safety is something to be enjoyed and demanded.

Andre, on the other hand, is not as open-minded, particularly since he is scandalized by the thought of bringing sex toys into his mother’s restaurant, among his mother’s friends and the senior community (mild spoiler: they love it).

I really enjoyed the pop-ups, the meetings with the boss bitches, and everything else Trixie was doing to build a community—and integrate into an already established community—and pursue her dreams. She meets the community she’s gained where they are and provides what they need how they need it. She is the thoughtful outsider, coming in to help and not just profit or exploit.

The only downside was Andre’s complete character change in the final third of the book. It was a little much, out of character and driven to provide more tension for the final scenes. However, it did work (I just didn’t like it), although the ending is an absolute deus ex machina (and an answer to gentrification, although one that is rather unrealistic and implies more altruism than I feel people have).

Ultimately, however, this book was about community. How local businesses bring people together, how they knit together, and how children can carry on and improve upon their family’s legacies while also building something new just for themselves.

Definitely an engaging contemporary romance to read—particularly since the sex scenes were really, really hot.

I received this ARC from NetGalley for an honest review

Happy Endings releases May 18, 2021, from Avon

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an EArc in exchange for an honest review!

DNF @ 89%

I feel slightly bad DNFing an arc, but as you can see I REALLY tried to finish this book, but I was genuinely so bored I had to put it down to move to greener pastures. I thought it would be beneficial to show my pros and cons for this book.
Pros:
-Great sex scenes. Trixie sells sex toys, and they made the sex scenes really different from what I've read before and I loved them! They were better than many other romances I've read but obviously, a book needs more going for it than that.
-Delicious food. I was so hungry reading this book! It was a mixture of Vietnamese food and soul food, and it all sounded amazing, it may have even inspired me to try a few recipes myself!
Cons:
-The writing was so flawed. So much dialogue felt very robotic and a means to an end (advancing the plot). Obviously dialogue should be relevant to the plot but it was SO robotic and awkward I didn't enjoy it. It also felt like things were overly explained to us, like their breakup (they are exes at the beginning) was brought up and explained sooo many times and it made this book very repetitive and boring.
-The characters and their motivations were boring. I feel like this goes hand in hand with poor writing, because I feel like they could have been made interesting if the plot and writing was improved, but I'm reviewing this book and this book was hard to pick up because I did not care what happened to the characters and their relationship.
-This is nitpicky, but the main character has a friend group that calls THEMSELVES the Boss Babes. Not only are they giving themsleves a TITLE for their friend group, but it's Boss Babes??? I cringed every time I read it.

Overall, I was really underwhelemed and bored by this book. I ended up reading it for the sex scenes and sloughing through everything inbetween them. It's honestly a shame because the premise of this book was very exciting and different, but it was poorly executed. I personally feel like there are much better romance STORIES that also have great sex scenes that are more worth people's time, but give this a go if you really like the premise!

I loved the premise of this book and the second-chance romance between a restaurant owner and a sex toy saleswoman, but it just fell short for me. The dialogue seemed awkward and stunted, and there was little to no resolution of Trixie and Andre's abrupt breakup two years before the events of the book. I would still be interested in reading follow-up books about the Boss Babes, though! There's a lot of fun characters here and I'd be curious about another book.

Happy Endings is a really cute second-chance romance, about Trixie Nguyen, a a confident sex-positive business woman who is restarting her life in Washington DC when she runs into her ex-boyfriend, Andre Walker, who broke up with her in a post-it note when he left her and their whole life together behind in New Orleans. When they accidentally reconnect at Andre's family soul food restaurant, Mama Hazel's, their connection is undeniable.

I found this book to be a roller coaster because I *really* loved Trixie. I loved her dedication to sex positivity and having frank and open conversations about people, no matter their gender or age. I loved her commitment to building her own business, and how her female friendships in DC helped give her the confidence to follow her dreams. The evolution of her relationship with her family, dealing with her guilt over the rift with her parents over her career choices, is really authentic and moving. It's a really important view into the issues that are unique to the experience of being a child of immigrants -- and a testament to the importance of ownvoices authors so we can see these stories be told authentically!

The romance element of this book was perhap the weakest for me because I did NOT love Andre. For most of the book, he's a hard headed asshat who insists on keeping secrets from his family and friends about the restaurant's business woes, determined to solve them by himself and refuses to ask for help. It's peak toxic masculinity tbh. I wish that Andre had had more evolution over the course of the book but I was so into Trixie's journey it didn't matter. That being said, the steam is REAL and I honestly loved the incorporation of scenes with sex toys!

Also, as a current District resident, I loved that it was set in DC. It's always fun to read a book set in your neighborhood -- and it's a really apt setting for the book's discussion of gentrification.

I received an eARC from NetGalley for the purposes of this review.

This book had a lot of excellent moments and elements, but the book as a whole did not blow me away. The main problem for me was that I didn’t feel convinced that the two main characters were better together than they were apart. There was also a focus on the main male character, Andre, keeping secrets from the other characters, which I found frustrating. I also felt like there was a little bit too much going on which meant that it was difficult to get attached to any one storyline. The subplots to me didn’t feel as cohesive as I would have liked.

I also felt like Andre’s sister and the main female character, Trixie, had better chemistry and a better relationship and would have made a more interesting and dynamic couple.

All that being said, I did enjoy the read and there were some very strong elements. I loved the fact that this was an Own Voices book, and the strength of that authenticity helped ground the book. I would have loved to see more of Trixie’s career - especially her motivations beyond just wanting to prove herself to others and why her goals to open her own business were so important to her. I loved the sex education and positivity in it. I loved the setting and the focus on community.

Big picture, I think this is a read that a lot of people will like, but I also feel like there are some elements that could have been strengthened. I will be very interested to see how this new author’s career continues to develop as I think she has a perspective that is needed and clearly has some good ideas.

I really loved this book so much! I love the conversation around sex toys, the heroine arc in finding her voice, building her business and reconnecting with Andre. I loved the Boss Babes. This is a hands down 5.star read.

Thien-Kim will b a guest in the show during publication week.

While promoted as a romance, Happy Endings, Thien-Kim Lam's debut is also about strong women supporting each other, sex positivity, and what gentrification does to small, minority-owned businesses.

This debut has such a steamy-sweet vibe between Trixie and Andre. They both feel badly about the breakup and feel an undeniable attraction. But they're also juggling other pressures. Andre feels compelled to live up to his mother's legacy and keep the restaurant going, despite business dropping because of gentrification efforts. Although he's dubious about having a popup sex shop in the restaurant.

Trixie wants her own business and wants to heal the rift with her parents. She wants them to be proud of her accomplishments. She's also a passionate force for educating women about their bodies.

Lots of diversity - Trixie and her roomie are Vietnamese American, Andre and his sister are Black. Lots of body positivity - one of the Boss Babes is plus-sized and she designs lingerie for all sizes.

You've got a second chance romance that starts off as enemies to lovers to friends with benefits.

The small businesses that are more than just a bottom line as they give back to their communities. Andre by providing a weekly community meal to his neighborhood. Trixie with her volunteer work.

I loved that the author is sharing all types of love and caring. And showing that while sex is awesome, it doesn't take the place of communication between partners.

The descriptions of southern food and Vietnamese food made my mouth water.

The title, plus Trixie's sex toy shop, plus the expectation of romances having a HEA were a perfect storm of punnery. Very enjoyable, erotic, own voices story with sex and body positivity, and lots of supportive friendships. For fans of Farrah Herron and Alisha Rai.

In author Thien-Kim Lam’s debut novel, titled Happy Endings, protagonist Trixie Nguyen finds herself unwittingly thrown together with her ex-boyfriend, Andre Walker. Despite their tangled romantic history, fraught with miscommunication and things left unsaid, they must team up and work together to keep their respective businesses afloat. Oh, and Trixie sells sex toys.

I appreciated Lam’s portrayal of an Asian romance novel heroine that is a grown woman and not an angsty YA novel character. (Though no shade to those characters — I enjoy YA as well!) I’m also incredibly pleased by the diversity represented in this book— Trixie is Vietnamese, and Andre is Black, and the supporting characters in the book also represent a wide variety of backgrounds. This type of representation is still, despite it being 2021, relatively rare in mainstream media, much less mainstream romance novels. When it is present, it’s often presented in a tokenized way. I think Happy Endings is a great addition to the diversity and authentic representation so sorely needed within the Chick Lit, Romance, and Erotica genres.

Lam includes many nods to her Vietnamese background, including not-so-subtle references to the culture clash children of immigrants (particularly Asian immigrants), face here in America. As a 1st generation Asian-American myself, I felt quite seen in those moments. Like Trixie, I’ve felt torn between familial piety— that sense of duty that comes with growing up in a more or less traditional Asian household — and my very own American dream and the hangups that come with that bag of bones. I might not sell sex toys for a living, but yup, I glimpsed a piece of myself in Trixie’s character. However, these cultural nuances were explored only superficially, happening mostly during mildly cliched moments of exposition. I wanted more!

I so very much wanted to love this book, but instead, I find that I only liked it, and primarily so for the diversity and representation this book brings to the English-language Contemporary Romance table. While the plot didn’t quite capture my attention early on, I felt the story and characters had developed enough to be adequately entertaining by the time I got to the halfway point.

The storyline surrounding Andre and Trixie’s relationship served mainly one purpose— and that was to provide something around which Lam could write sex scenes. Those scenes were hot as hell, and if you’re into steamy romances, this will do it for you. Ultimately, the sometimes-awkward scene transitions and dialogue left me wanting more of a balance between the graphic sex scenes and meaningful storytelling.

But let’s take this at face value and let’s not dig too deep.

Happy Endings is a sexy, steamy Erotica novel, so if you like hot scenes and you’ve got the room on your list for a fast evening read, this is for sure worth a download. Pair this book with a Pants of Fire Appletini, the recipe for which you’ll find in the back of this book, and you’ve got yourself a night.