Not That Kind of Ever After by Luci Adams is a cute romantic comedy about a woman who wants her own fairy tale.

Story Recap:
Bella Marble is an aspiring author, but the closest she comes to writing is being a receptionist at a small publishing company. Her tidy life is starting to unravel. Her parents are divorcing and her best friend, Ellie is marrying Mark, and moving out. She finds some solace with Ellie’s brother Marty but still feels her life is out of control.

Marty tells her that she should stop searching for the one, and instead spend some time just having fun. When she goes on a disastrous one-night stand, she writes a fairy-tale retelling of the night on a storytelling app. The story goes viral, and Bella feels the pressure to keep writing stories about dates gone bad.

My Thoughts:
I enjoyed this fun story and found it very entertaining. I like stories like this where the main character grows and becomes stronger. I didn’t like Bella much at first, but I don’t think we’re supposed to like her much in the beginning. She’s self-centered and immature. But, through the book, she grows and becomes more self-aware and mature.

I found the book funny at times, and sometimes emotional as well. I enjoyed all the bad dates and felt empathy for Bella for having to go through such a tough time to find her prince charming. And although she was immature and annoying at times, I did grow to enjoy her antics and was rooting for her to find her own happily ever after.

Recommendation:
I recommend Not That Kind of Ever After to anyone who enjoys romance. I received a complimentary copy of this book. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Summary
Bella just wants to find her Happily Ever After. She just seems to go on one bad online date after another, explaining away all the red flags just so she can find her person. And everything is changing; her best friend Ellie is moving out and moving in with her boyfriend, her writing is going nowhere and her parents are divorcing. Bella doesn't understand why everything couldn't just stay the same.
After one more bad night stand, Bella writes about it like a retelling of a twisted fairy tale on a website and suddenly she's got her mojo back with writing. When Ellie's twin brother, Marty, recommends she stop trying to find the one, and start having fun, Bella starts having sexcapades and writing about them and is on top of the world. But new roommates, navigating her parents' situation, fighting with her best friend and the new pressure Bella has put on herself to have dating and sex experiences for material for her book is overwhelming. Will she ever get her happily ever after?

Review
I really enjoyed the craziness of Bella's experiences and how she related them to fairy tales. But Bella was hard to root for. She was selfish and self-centered. That does make her more human, but also you sometimes just want to shake her. It wasn't really a romcom in my opinion. Maybe more focus on the comedy part. It was funny, sometimes laugh out loud funny, but where wasn't really romance. It was predictable. I called the ending like 2 chapters in. I would have liked to have seen more development of Marty. His evolution from the one night stands a few times a week wasn't much of an evolution as opposed to an overnight change. It would have been more believable to me if he had a reputation that was more assumed instead of being true, as opposed to really having a girl in his room when he helps Bella out. Overall, I liked to story and the journey and how it ended. 3.25 stars

𝚁𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐: 3.5⭐️
𝙶𝚎𝚗𝚛𝚎: Contemporary romance📚

𝙼𝚢 𝚃𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑𝚝𝚜:
It was an okay sweet and lighthearted read

𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝚒𝚏 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎:
Romantic comedies
Fairy tales
Entertaining reads
Exes and O’s

𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜 𝙸 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎𝚍:
Short chapters

𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜 𝙸 𝚍𝚒𝚍𝚗’𝚝 𝚌𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚏𝚘𝚛:
Felt repetitive at times
There wasn’t alot of romance
Bella’s character was annoying
Predictable

Cute Book, I Loved It
Super Fun but it did have some strange things but what an adventure
It was very addicting to read, you just don't want to stop because you wanna know whats gonna happen next and boy is it usually crazy
There we some parody types of fairy tale re-tellings
There were highs and lows in this book for the characters
Bella (the main character) was a hot mess and so was her life at one point and she had to figure a lot of things out
She had a great best friend and other people in her life, but they also caused her some drama and it def added to the story as a whole
And the ending, so glad it ended the way it did.... can't really say much bc you just have to go read it

Is there really a Happily Ever After???

Finding out that this is the author's debut novel and can't wait to see was she comes up with next.
I got this book as an ARC and am very glad I did, might have missed out if not. So I deff would like to thank the publisher and NetGalley for a copy. The above comments and opinions are my own, honest and voluntary.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing the ARC.

DNF 20%

I really wanted to like this book but I honestly felt like Bella was incredibly insufferable. And I get that this books is supposed to be exploring her learning about herself, but I couldn't get passed the "woe is me, no one loves me" narrative that Adams had painted.

I'm sure it's fine. Just not the book for me.

I really didn’t like this at all. I thought about tossing it out the window multiple times.

I really couldn’t find the substance- is am not opposed to spicy, substance-less books. This was really cringe-y and I didn’t like any of the characters. I thought Bella and Ellie’s relationship was really co-dependent. Their relationship came off more weird than strong and everlasting. All characters acted really immature given their ages. Like Marty “flirting” with Bella by ragging on her and everyone all the time. I don’t think Bella has a healthy relationship with anyone in this book. This was just an overall flop. I finished it today and I’m having a hard time remembering why I picked it up.

No descriptive spicy scenes. But explicit material. Not great content.

Special thanks to Netgalley and St Martins Press for this digital ARC.

So, first off, this isn’t a romance. This is more along the lines of a Bridget Jones’ Diary – very British, very wry, very messy.

Everything in Bella’s life is falling apart. Her parents, who had the perfect fairy tale romance, are divorcing. Her best friend Ellie is getting married to a man Bella loathes and moving out with him. Her own attempts at romance are going nowhere, and oh, instead of being a writer, she works the front desk of a small press. But when her write-up of a boring one-night-stand starts going viral, her pursuit of those likes over all else further crack her life apart. Where’s a fairy godmother when you need one?

“There are still good ones out there. You just have to kiss a few frogs first.”
“I’ve already kissed all the frogs.”
“All of them?”
“All London-based frogs, yes.”


I spent a lot of time picturing that meme of Marie Kondo saying “I love mess!” while reading this book. Bella is, without a doubt, a complete mess. She has a weirdly symbiotic relationship with her BFF Ellie and sees nothing wrong with crawling in to bed with her – while she’s sleeping with her boyfriend. Bella despises Mark, said boyfriend, though she also freely admits that no one could ever be good enough for her best friend, no matter, you know, whether Ellie is happy or not. I had a hard time believing she was 29 because she just felt so immature to me.

“I know,” I say, smiling, “and I know I don’t need a man to make me happy but I still want one. It’s just, apparently, none of them want me!”


I don’t mind necessarily mind messy and unlikeable heroines, but Bella was also utterly blind to exactly how hypocritical she is. While her experience with micro fiction sites was amusing, she has no problem despising a guy who gets a book deal from writing about his awful dates while simultaneously lapping up praise for her straight-from-RL dates lightly rewritten as fairy tales. So while the fairy tale pieces were initially amusing (the Seven Dwarves one had me laughing out loud), though the mean-spiritedness of it eventually grated on me. With about 20% of the book left, Bella does eventually realize exactly how selfish she’s being and how pretty much all her problems are self-inflicted, just in time for everything to be wrapped up nicely with a bow.

Despite Bella’s… everything… the book was still decently funny. The part I think that let me down the most is that the plot was extremely predictable. There’s no question really who she’s going to end up with, how the giant blow-up with Ellie is going to resolve, or what’s going to happen with her writing. You can basically read the blurb and guess with probably 90% accuracy. For such an interesting and promising premise, it was a definite letdown.

Overall, this didn’t particularly work for me.

I received an advance review copy of this book from Neon Rainbow. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Not That Kind of Ever After by Luci Adams is one woman’s journey to claim her own happily ever after in the age of dating apps and the quest to find your soulmate. Life for Bella Marble is not what she imagined. Instead of being a published author, she is a receptionist. Instead of being happily married, she is single and her best friend, Ellie Mathews, is moving out and getting married! Feeling adrift, she spends some time with Marty, Ellie’s aggravating but oh-so-hot brother. When Marty challenges Bella to stop looking for “the one” and just have fun, she finds a new side of herself. After posting about a disastrous one night stand in a fairy tale style, she has gone viral. Now the pressure is mounting to write more of these fairy tales, but can she write one without living one? Can her soulmate already be before her eyes?
Even though this story is described as “Fairytale meets feminism,” I was intrigued by the premises of modern day fairy tales. However, this story was a disappointment from the opening line. The story is broken up into seven parts with a total of 100 chapters! Groan! Granted the chapters are quick but they're almost too quick. Once you get into the chapter, it’s over. Then there’s Bella. How can we cheer and root for a character who introduces herself with this opening “It came, unlike me, while I was riding backward cowgirl on what must have been the hairiest man in London.” Ummm, what?!? The story doesn’t get better from there. Bella is completely unlikeable. She is judgmental and has an inflated ego. She wants to be the next Bridget Jones. Another groan from me. Overall, I did not enjoy this book. I would not recommend Not That Kind of Ever After.

Not That Kind of Ever After is available in paperback, eBook and audiobook

Ooof I really did not like this book. I pushed myself to finish because I wanted to see how it played out with the heroine ending up with the best friend’s brother. Basically, the whole book is about the heroine sleeping with different random guys and I have a one night stands and then writing about it. She makes it that she’s looking for her Prince charming. I just don’t understand how she thought that if the guy wasn’t good, she’d still give me a chance and sleep with him? I also really hated how she didn’t care about any of her friend’s feelings. I found the heroine very immature and at times selfish. I also do not like how the heroine treats her best friend once the friend gets engaged. The heroine basically ghosted the friend because she couldn’t handle the friend being engaged and being with her fiancé. I think another reason I didn’t like this book was because it was a Brit lit. I find the British romances are much slower paced than American. The only thing I liked about this book was the romance between the best friends brother. He was really sweet and always caring for the heroine.

A fun quirky RomCom staring Bella who believes still in fairy tales and is looking for her Prince Charming. Instead winds up with lots of one night stands with losers and has alienated all her friends.
There are some good laughs and you keep wondering when will Bella grow up. Was a ok read but a little out there in the dream world. Thank you NetGalley for this eARC. I am voluntarily posting an honest review after reading an Advance Reader Copy of this story. #NetGalley #NoyThatKindofEverAfter

Not That Kind of Ever After is the kind of book that makes you really cherish your best friend in adulthood when everything around you is changing.

Bella is stuck in a rut. Her best friend Ellie is moving out and got engaged to Mark, the man Bella can't stand. On top of that she still hasn't written a book and is still answering phones at the literary agency she works for. Then she finds out her parents are getting a divorce and selling her childhood home. Everything Bella thought she knew is crumbling around her and she needs a change stat. Enter Marty, Ellie's brother. The three have been best friends since childhood, but when he tells Bella to let go of finding "the one" and just have some fun, Bella takes his words to heart, and then puts them to practice. Entering into a line of one-night stands, Bella documents the tales as reimagined fairytales on a new online platform which gains her a few followers, and then a few thousand, then a few hundred thousand, until she has over a million. With each new follower, Bella falls more away from her friends and the life she thought she knew. How can she make peace with change, but still stay true to herself?

I received this book as an ARC and was very excited by the premise of the storyline. It was a fun read full of characters but at times I found myself unable to get into the story. Bella's relationships with Ellie, Marty, her parents, and even her flatmates Annie and Simon at times felt very superficial. But, Bella comes around in the end and grows more into the person she wants to be and I think what the reader ultimately needs her to be as well. I wish her friends-to-lovers storyline with Marty had been a little more fleshed out at times - honestly how much can the man talk about his one night stands with OTHER women but then tell her he always thought they'd end up together?. Overall, I enjoyed the book even though it ended up being a little different than I thought it would be.

"Because you don't look like seal guts," he says, his tone so strangely serious. "You never have. In fact, if you're asking me, I've always thought you're beautiful."

Bella feels like her life is spiraling out of control: her best friend is moving in with her fiancé, her writing career isn't taking off, she wants to fall in love but she still hasn't found the one, and to top it all off her parents are getting a divorce.

So what does she do? She decides she's throwing caution to the wind and starts dating whoever she wants without fear, writing those experiences down, and then sharing them with the internet. What she doesn't expect is the response to her stories and the real-life consequences...or a man already in her life being the prince charming she's been looking for all along.

Ya'll this book was so cute! I really enjoyed the journey that Bella went on. She's tired of waiting for love to happen to her, so she's making it happen for her. Her "sexcapdes" are hilarious and how she makes them line up with a different fairy tale each time is perfect.

This book is definitely a rollercoaster of emotions. You root for Bella, you get that secondhand embarrassment when she gets into certain situations, you get frustrated with her, and then you are proud of her in the end.

If you are in the mood for a cutie little rom-com that has very loose fairy-tale vibes, this one is for you! Luci Adams knocked it out of the park with her debut novel and I can't wait to read what she writes next.

<b>**FULL REVIEW**</b>

Cute story! One I didn’t think would have the full-circle ending it did, nor between the characters it did.

This book is more about friendship, growth, and change than finding “the one”…so, romance? Yes. But not in a conventional way. It was actually refreshing to read.

We follow Bella on her journey of both love and self-discovery after a series of mishaps in and out of the bedroom. Her best friend, Ellie plays a crucial role as well as Bella uses her as her scapegoat to make the choices she does…only to realize her decisions are hers and hers alone.

It’s a topsy-turvy little tale that reminds us to stop chasing the fairytale, but instead create our own with people who may or may not be right in front of you.

I would absolutely read other titles by this author, her style is fun and light. A great beach or vacation read for sure.

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin’s Publishing for the opportunity to read this title.

<b>**4 Anna to Her Elsa, Stars**</b>

This book was so frustrating. Bella is so unlikeable. In her personal life, she's selfish and self-centered,. At work, unprofessional. She uses people. left and right. She tries to break up her best friend's engagement so that she can have her friend all to herself. She sleeps with people just so she can write about it and get some internet glory. This probably should have been a DNF but I plugged through and she does become bearable in the last 5% of the book - and I'm not convinced she really learned her lesson!


Nonetheless, I am thankful for the opportunity to read this digital ARC. Thank you St. Martin's Press/St. Martin's Griffin.

This was such a delight. I really enjoyed this novel! Can't understand why reviews aren't so great for it when I didn't want to put it down! The MC was hilarious and I loved the banter with her and Marty. Excited for this to officially come out so I can recommend it to friends and customers. I also can't wait to read what the author comes out with next! :)

The story was generally entertaining, but could be hard to follow at times. It was refreshing to read a book where the males were not 100% the villains. The FMC had plenty of flaws and was pretty terrible towards a lot of people in her life. Her thinking was also deeply skewed. Also, the way she treated the MMC who ended up being her HEA was pretty awful. Not sure that there was a comeback from that.
All in all, it was a quick, quirky read. Different from other books that are out there right now, which was what kept me reading.

Summary
Bella's life is slowly trending downward - her writing aspirations are nowhere near reality, she can't seem to find her Prince Charming, her best friend is getting engaged to a knob, and her parents are getting a divorce. After a particularly horrible hook-up, she takes to the internet to blog about her escapades and finds sudden anonymous fame. But in the midst of personal crisis, is she going too far to create this fantastical content?

Why did I pick up this book?
I was gifted this Advanced Reader Copy by NetGalley. I thought the premise sounded slightly different, so I requested a copy!

What did I enjoy about it?
Her book was a funny concept on the surface. I love a theme, so having her base her stories of her hookups on fairy tales was cute and clever. That, coupled with the fact that I did want to see if she would end up with the Prince Charming I predicted pretty much immediately, were the only good things I have to say about this novel.

What did I not enjoy about it?
Bella is a disaster and I could not root for her. She has an utterly unhealthy dependence on her best friend,so much so I thought we would find out she was in love with her. She is the walking embodiment of "woah is me." She is so self-absorbed, delusional, and all-around car crash I just couldn't look away from. She barely took any responsibility for her actions. The writing style was awkward, and not in an endearing way, and there were character/plot choices that plain didn't make sense or were not realistic, even for a wacky novel.

This was an entertaining, well-written book. It was fun, cute, and I wanted to find out what was going to happen. I enjoyed this book and will look for more books by this author.

This was a very cute and enjoyable read. I really liked how the story had a us follow along on the main characters quest for love by using fairytales to describe the dates. I also enjoyed
how the relationship with the main characters and her best friends were developed. Lastly, who doesn’t love a good best friend’s brother trope.

Isabelle "Bella" Marble's life is going well until her best friend, Ellie Mathews, decides to move in with her boring boyfriend, Mark. Things get even worse when Mark proposes and then Bella feels like she is just going through the motions of life. Ellie has been in her life since they were little girls and now she feels all alone. Her job at a publishing house would be fun if she were a writer, but instead she just answers the phone. In the meantime, Ellie's brother Marty starts spending more time with her. He convinces Bella that maybe she needs to have more fun in her life. This leaves Bella thinking that maybe she should try on-line dating so she can find "the one". After a horrible date, Bella decides to write a fan fiction story about it and her story goes viral. Bella decides maybe she can keep going on dates and writing about it. In the beginning the stories are awesome and Bella even had a good time but then things get to a standstill. Now Bella is in a downward spiral and it seems everything in her life is falling apart until she gets help from two surprising people, one being Marty. Things with Marty start to take a different path and finally Bella sees her life looking up. Who knew Bella could find her happy ending with a guy who has been right in front of her all along!

I just adored this friends to lovers romance. Bella went on a journey that had me laughing out loud one minute, and then crying the next. I'll never think of Smurfs the same way again! ;) I also really loved Marty. He was such a perfect guy for Bella and it was fun watching their relationship develop until Bella realized what was there all along! Great debut read from this new author.