I am actually quite conflicted about this book, in a way I haven't felt about a romance in a while. Was it exactly what I needed this week? Yes, it was. Did I struggle to accept some parts of it? Yes, I did.

I think my main issue with this book is that it is insanely insta-lovey. Seriously, the characters fall in love in about ten seconds. On the one hand, I quite enjoyed it, since it meant that we could see them in a relationship and explore the actual problems that come with dating someone, instead of them only getting together at the end and us wondering "Okay, but what happens now?" I think that, given who the characters are and what the obstacles were for their relationship, it was a story-telling decision that ultimately worked. That being said, instalove is one of my least favourite tropes, so it was hard to altogether ignore it.

I did also think that the romance was very unrealistic. Sure, it was great to see our protagonist absolutely adored by her love interest, a hot and caring billionaire, but come on. For someone who claims that overt wealth makes her uncomfortable, Claire doesn't seem all that bothered about their wealth disparity. Perhaps it is the current political and environmental situation, but it was very hard for me to see a tech mogul and his private jets as swoon-worthy. I get the vibe the author was going for, but it made me slightly uncomfortable.

While those were my two main problems with the book, I have to admit I really enjoyed it. I was a big fan of Claire, and even Nate - ridiculous wealth aside - was an absolute sweetheart. I thought Claire's relationships and interactions with her family were some of the strongest aspects of the book, so I would have enjoyed seeing some more of that; and if Cruz ever decides to pull a Krista-and-Becca-Ritchie and create a whole series out of the three sisters and their love lives I will definitely be reading.

Overall, while unrealistic, it was a sweet book based on a sweet romance.

** An ARC was provided via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. **

I wanted to love this book. I really did. I loved the culture in this book. I love reading these romcoms and contemporary romance chick lit books that are cut and pasted replicas.

Unfortunately this book way excelled past a romantic comedy trope and went straight to unbelievable and not relatable. The main character annoyed me, she did questionable things with a questionable love interest. I don’t know there were red flags, her family was intense, I just didn’t love this one. The cover is great. The premise is…good, but it was lacking in so many ways.

Thank you netgalley for providing this copy for me to read and review honestly.

Well. It sure was a book! Not a well written book, but a book nonetheless! The premise was sweet. I loved the culture. But the writing? Not so great

“Being with you is like a break in a timeline of chaos…”

So romantic, right? But, do fairytales still exist in today’s modern world?

Claire Ventura is a middle class downtown girl in LA, who is family-oriented due to the major influence of Filipino culture in her. She is realistic about the world she lives in and in her relationships. So when a CEO and tech mogul billionaire, Nate Noruta, comes to her world and falls in love with her, she feels its bad news.

Will there be a “happily ever after” ending in between this Fil-Am hippie chic in LA and 30-something Japanese-American corporate monster?

I have a lot of thoughts on this book. First, given the fact of the title itself, the fictional male character lead will whisk you away on a lot of romantic moments. For hopeless romantics out there, this book could be for you. Second, there are episodes that made me feel annoyed to the female character lead. I know she is an effective character. She has a lot of insecurities, self-doubt and anxieties. Nonetheless, she is still relatable to me as a reader. She is being tied to family duties. At the same time, she is wanting to do her own life and to follow her dreams.

On other note, I’ve found my personal favorite character in this book. Having a gay best friend is one of a kind. I love it when Todd is always there for her to keep her sane when she is in doubt. Their friendship is really cute. Lastly, it is emotionally affecting when the storyline is about a dying family relative. Most especially when you have a strong bond relationship with a relative. It really makes me cry.

Overall, this book is a fast-paced chic lit book that could entice the hopeless romantic in you. After all, being a hopeless romantic is simply to believe in the joy of companionship and romance. This book baby is available in the market on November 30.

Special thanks to @netgalley and @entangledpublishing for this opportunity to enjoy an eARC in exchange of unbiased review.

So I’ll start by saying this book (or what I read of it) has potential. It had its moments where I was drawn in. However, there are so many red flags between the main character and love interest. Not to mention that I absolutely hate the main characters family. They’re selfish and just rude, or they ignore the selfish and rude ones. The red flags are my main issue though.
My first instance of feeling odd about a situation is very early in the story. There was a moment when Nate (love interest) doesn’t show for their 1st date, and Claire (MC) goes home. He proceeds to text her multiple times, and when she doesn’t answer he shows up at her apartment…. That he had never been to before. The address he got off a blank check she gave him (idiot!), that he gave back like 30 mins later. So he memorized her address, and showed up at her house uninvited, and this is like the day after they met! Can you say stalker?
Then, after knowing him for all of 4 days, she goes to Paris with him????? She travels from California to another country with someone she has known for 4 days. And she never really had confirmation until they got there that Paris was where they were going, because it was a “surprise”.
I actually feel like this might be better as a murder, thriller, crime novel. Claire has made all of the mistakes that people make right before they get murdered.
In addition to all of that, she is talking about “falling in love” like 4 days after meeting him….. I was already aware Claire needs therapy. She has middle child syndrome, big time. But, this relationship feels like the same level of development that my high school relationships had, and I’m about the same age as Claire is in the book (early 30s).

Ultimately, I couldn’t get past these issues, and will not be finishing the book.
(Unless, it is a crime thriller and I just haven’t got to the murder yet?? Someone let me know)

I have certain expectations when I see the covers of books of what the story is going to be, but this one, I failed. The story is a fairy tale alright, everything went fast. I.m not sure I like this though, so I skimmed most of it.

I connected with the family dynamics being a Filipina myself, but that’s it. The writing is okay, but I feel the way the conversations were written was not that natural when spoken in real life. It is too explicit for me as well.

Thank you Netgalley and Enchanted Publishing for this ARC.

2.5 stars.

an enjoyable read. mostly.

i felt like our mc was trying to hard to fit into the "quirky" persona and it made me ?? at times. i wish the story and characters were more flushed out and developed.

- thanks to netgalley and the publisher for providing me with the arc in exchange for an honest review.

How to Survive a Modern Day Fairy Tale is a Cinderella-like retelling by Elle Cruz. Claire doesn’t believe in fairy tales. She’s had failed relationships that she believes were the result of her family members getting into her head about the men she was dating. She’s a bookworm who would rather start a cookie business than make her family proud by becoming a doctor or a lawyer. Then she meets Nate by accident. No, literally, by accident. She almost hits him with her car!! Nate is a CEO of a tech company and he seems to be involved in just about every tech company Claire hears about. They are the opposite. Claire values family and her quiet time and being out of the spotlight. Nate enjoys working, being center stage in talks, and doesn’t mind the fact that paparazzi follow him everywhere.

Nate and Claire as individuals are really cute characters. I feel really connected to Claire because she’s such a quiet person by nature. While I didn’t feel much of a connection with Nate, he was still a very likable character. The two of them together, however, I just couldn’t get into. I know opposites attract and I think if Nate weren’t so successful (where paparazzi follow him), I’d say they would work as a couple.

I want to believe the love at first sight story lines. I know it happens, but it’s rare. I think I would have preferred having a “like at first sight” story instead. Claire and Nate had just such a whirlwind romance that even Claire was second guessing herself. They meet, fly off to Paris (for his work), practically move in with each other right away, and get married all within three months of knowing each other. It was just too easy. On top of that, every conflict that arises between the two is easily smoothed out, most of the time with very little talking from Claire.

One of the things that had me asking myself questions was the fact that their secret marriage got out by then next morning. As I read, I kept waiting for that answer to come out. Who leaked their wedding? As far as I knew, only Claire and Nate, Nate’s assistant Craig, and the judge knew about the wedding. Craige wouldn’t risk his job to leak it because he was very well taken care of by Nate. And the idea of a judge leaking it?? No. Claire and Nate had been in SanFrancisco for a tech conference and there were paparazzi around, but when they got engaged under the trees, it made it seem like it was just the two of them, with no one around. So how did news of their marriage get out??

By the end, I really didn’t like Claire as much as I had at the beginning. It seemed Nate was willing to do anything to be with her. It was mentioned many times that he rearranged his schedule to be with her. He pushed back and cancelled meetings to make her a priority. When she loses her first big client of her cookie business, she blames Nate and isn’t willing to make sacrifices for him. She wants to put her business first and since it’s not working out the way she wants, she believes it's because of him and leaves him.

Of course being a rom-com fairy tale, you know how it ends. What I find hilarious is the fact that Claire thought a baseball hat and a mask would keep her identity hidden from the love of her life. I know if my significant other tried to disguise himself, I'd still be able to recognize him because you know EVERY feature of the person you love.

Overall, it was a cute book. I give it three and a half stars (rounded up to 4 for Goodreads). I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to NetGalley and Entangled Publishing for the advanced copy.

I was so excited to read this #OwnVoices modern fairytale and was so disappointed when it felt too much right off the get go. I never felt connected to Claire or Nate. And the fact that they literally ran into each other and somehow we had instant, passionate, deep burning love...yeah actually unbelievable.

While I am not Filipina - my large, loud, overwhelming Italian family felt familiar and I loved this aspect of the story! However, I felt the story line of being tied to family, but wanting to do her own thing felt a bit tired? I feel like we've all read this many times before and I wanted something a bit more fresh.

I also felt like I wanted to root for their love story, but never believed that they were actually in love. It felt forced to me and I just never truly got invested in the story.

There's a lot of STUFF in here. By STUFF I mean misogyny, ableism, and not-like-other-girls business. I have neither time nor will to unpack it all but this was not the frothy escape I wanted it to be. It made me feel bad. Not for me.

How to Survive a Modern-Day Fairy Tale by Ella Cruz

Claire Ventura works in a book store but dreams of opening her own cookie decorating business. When her grandmother is diagnosed with Alzheimers and put into a living facility her already busy life becomes stressful. The pressure from her family to get a steady job, find love, and to also keep her grandmother Lola comfortable starts to add up.

While trying to stay on top of everything she runs into (literally runs right into him) Nate Noruta! When the sparks fly Nate falls for Claire! But with Nate being a CEO of a tech company and a billionaire while Claire is just trying to survive the day to day will they be able to find love or will their backgrounds be too different?

Overall I did enjoy the story! It was well written and I did enjoy the main characters, but there were some areas that I thought were explained more than they needed to be, I would have liked to understand Nate's connection with Claire a little more. I didn't understand why he fell in love with her so fast. But that is not to say the author didn't do a good job with the book. It is well written and the characters' development into their background was well done! If the author has decided to have another book added to the series then I'm sure the other parts will be adventured into more then. Happy reading everyone!

This book really was a fairy tale - a story about unrealistic insta-love with characters that you don’t get enough background or development with. The story would have benefitted from some more interaction and development of the relationship between Claire and Nate. They meet and instantly fall into a strange relationship where he is ready to move mountains for her based on….nothing that I can see. They barely have a conversation before he’s calling in favors for her and we get nothing more than a small snippet of information about his background at almost the end of the book. Claire needed a good talking to several times throughout the book. I could not relate to how she handled this relationship and how she interacted with some of her family. Overall, I think there was not enough time spent on the relationship to make it believable - much like a fairy tale.

This book was surprisingly very well written and emotionally charged and heartfelt. Loved it and highly recommend it!!

How to Survive a Modern-Day Fairy Tale by Elle Cruz a first time author and novel read. Well what can I say about this book...contrary to some of the low ratings and reviews I thought it was just fabulous. I am a romantic at heart and loved the story of Claire and the dynamics of her crazy, yet mixed up family. Although, I found some parts of the story not believable, it was indeed a story that lived up to its title. No it wasn't a Cinderella or Snow White but it was Claire and Nate in their somehow complex relationships with dealing with family, careers and ambitions and realizing that you don't have to give up all of yourself in order to achieve all of yourself in your own mixed up world. I loved the Asian/American infusion of tradition and food. The subcharacters were okay but there were a few that really ticked my nerves. In the end, I found myself smiling so many times for Claire and Nate and them getting to that happily ever after. This was a 5-star and recommended not so traditional fairy re-telling. Definitely will read more from this author.

Thank you NetGalley and Entangled Publishing, LLC, Entangled: Amara for this ARC in exchange for my fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

I requested to read and review this book for free from Entangled Publishing. This book has romamce, drama, mystery! This is a modern day fairy tale for sure. Can two people from very different worlds be happy together? Can each person also have their own identity? Claire is strong family person that takes responsibility very seriously. Nate is a take charge kind of guy with a generous heart. Can you know after meeting someone they are the one? Can families agree? Can secrets bring people together or only tear them apart? This is for a mature reader and can be read anywhere!

This was a cotton candy book. If you're in the mood for some shallow fluff, this will be for you. But if you get indigestion quickly, beware.

Claire is trying to gain the courage to pursue her cookie decorating business full-time when she meets Nate. Nate is perfect. Unbelievable perfect. He's gorgeous, he's a billionaire, he's single, and he inspires everyone. Claire and Nate madly fall in love. Claire's scared of how quickly their romance takes them and how her judgemental family will react.

Nate is such a flat character that I wasn't involved in the romance. He was there to swoon over. I found enjoyment over what outlandish thing he was going to do in the name of romance. Claire was okay because she had character growth in the end. The ending itself was something out of rom-com. In other words, if this happened in real life, I would say 'that's creepy,' but since it's a rom-com, I can turn off my brain.

I didn't like the message at the end. Throwing yourself into love is alright but talking about your financial life together needs to be done when married. 'We love each other, therefore, everything will magically work out without communicating' is not an answer.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

thank you netgalley for this arc.
i read this book and review this book of my own free will.

i have mixed feelings about this book.

i really enjoyed the romance once it had got going despite the insta-love (although i disagreed with them eloping). i think nate and claire were well suited and the long distance issues and issue of a normal person getting with a celebrity felt portrayed in quite a real light really.

i enjoyed the family aspect and thought this was done well. i liked the emphasis on sibling relationships and her relationship with her grandma lola.

i think what fell short most for me was how claire kept insisting she didn’t want to lose sight of her career for a man, over and over. she wanted to make a cookie business and wasn’t going to let anything stop her.
and then she gives it up for nate.
this made me sad because i thought it would’ve perhaps been better if her and nate would have reconnected after her business had got going and he started to do less business trips and they could be together. compromise.

despite this, the book was a good read and i enjoyed claire’s pov. i would read other books by this author.

How to Survive a Modern-Day Fairy Tale by Elle Cruz a sublime five-star read. This was an odd one for me, as I loved so much about this story Claire especially and her family, as crazy adorable as they were, special mention to Lola as she was my favourite secondary character. This is a very sweet and unrealistic read, but honestly you kinda should expect that from the title, I adored all of its sweet, adorable swiftness. I loved getting the detail about American/Asian families and cooking, the whole thing was great. I for one can’t wait to read more from this author, as this was a great story. Elle Cruz, has just moved onto my must read list as this was possibly the sweetest read of the year so far.

This book is not something that I would recommend to anyone. I could barely get through it, and the scenes were too explicit for my liking.

This is the second novel I've read from a Filipina-American author this year, and being Filipina myself, I couldn't help but have expectations. Hence the rating.

Now objectively, 2.75 stars out of 5 isn't great.

But this was not a bad story.

It just didn't hit the mark on so many aspects for me, that I couldn't justify giving it anything higher.

From a cultural standpoint, I think the Phillipine culture was displayed fairly accurately, but it doesn't go into a lot of depth. There's a wide diaspora of Filipinos across the world, and the generational effect of being born out of the country, under a different nationality and still be considered Filipina without being able to speak the language or really feel connected to the culture and country in a way that feels tangible was an aspect of the story that I craved for and never really got. That's not a testament to the story though - I understand that that was not the intent in this story, but I still wanted it, and was disappointed that I didn't get it.

But a large part of Filipino culture does revolve solely around family. The story and plot do a decent job of displaying this and exploring it alongside Lola and her Alzheimer's, I just wish it went a little deeper. Because while Claire didn't make it out like taking care of Lola was a burden to her, there was this underlying resentment I was picking up that was never really addressed. And I wanted it to be. The same goes for the sister/sibling dynamics that were explored throughout the novel; I wanted more from them than surface-level interactions sprinkled with the occasional emotional moment. I wanted them to feel more layered and real.

I also really struggled with the pacing. I have never been so aware of the passage of time in a romance novel before and I absolutely detested the fact that it was so deliberate and in my face at the beginning of some of the chapters. Granted, it's not that many chapters, but I was physically drawn out of the story by seeing the words *One week later*, and *Five days later*. It was incredibly overt and not even the teeniest bit subtle, and I was not a fan. I'm not trying to be nit-picky despite knowing I'm totally coming across as that way, but it bothered me too much for me to say silent on the matter because it really screwed with the fluidity of the plot.

But my biggest issue with this story is with the characterization. At no point did I feel emotionally connected to any of the characters. Everything felt too surface-level; there were hints of deeper elements within the brief moments of introspection that we're privy to in Claire's perspective (she's a very self-conscious and introverted worry wart), but they were too far and few between. Nothing about Claire endeared me to her despite her giving and kind nature because she was a pushover for almost the entirety of the novel. A people-pleaser to the end, her choices for approximately three-quarters of the book made it really difficult to believe in her growth when she stood up to her Tita Chriss, her sisters and even Nate.

Which brings me to Nate. Is he perfect? No. But was he really flawed? I don't think so. He was a workaholic which was supposed to be his one single flaw and that was it. What do we really learn about him as a character though? Not a whole lot personality-wise. He likes dogs, video games, Claire, has a deadbeat dad who abandoned him as a child. And that's all I've got; 298 pages worth of content and the fact that I can sum up the lead romantic interest in a single sentence does not bode well. The romance was pretty average to be honest because everything about it felt too easy, and the instalove didn't help matters because that is not an easy trope to manage.

The plot was also... not my favourite. Without getting too far into the weeds and specifics, a lot of the plot choices felt convenient. Like they were the easy choice to make. And that's fair, not everything has to be difficult, but it didn't make for much of a compelling plot. By the 200 page mark, I was ready for it to be over because it didn't feel like there was any story left to tell from a romance standpoint. I could go on about how a certain marriage coming about and occurring was not the move for me. But then came the ending. The abrupt, let's-tie-everything-off-really-neatly-with-a-bow-and-unsarcastically-use-the-words-*and-they-lived-happily-ever after*-to-finish-things-off kind of ending. Needless to say, I didn't love it.

However, I can see other readers enjoying this for what it is: a lighthearted contemporary romance with a (very blatant) HEA. And if you go into it with that in mind, you may really like it. I think for me, I just wanted to fall in love with it, but you can't force feelings when it comes to these things.

A big shoutout to NetGalley and Entangled Publishing for giving me access to an Advanced Readers Copy (ARC) in exchange for an honest review.