This book starts off with a bang (quite literally), and I was instantly intrigued by the author’s humor. We’re following our main character as she journeys to find her Prince Charming in the midst of her closest friend moving out of their shared apartment and getting married. This is a hilarious romance story written as an ode to our classic fairytales.

One largely distracting factor in this story is the main character’s immaturity, which is ultimately fixed towards the end of the book. However, reading from the perspective of an almost 30 year old woman complaining of friends getting engaged and being jealous was just a little too much for me. I also did not feel the romance between our main character and her eventual partner throughout the book.

Overall, I really enjoyed the dialogue and the wit shown in the author’s writing. I will definitely check out another book from this author because I loved her writing style.

I had mixed feelings about this book. I enjoyed Bella's character but had trouble liking her. The book was a full of over-the-top characters. I did laugh a lot at the story, but this is definitely not a standard rom-com. While I was laughing, I was also cringing at Bella's actions. I did find the ending fairly satisfying. It was a quick read and moves along at a good pace. I received an advance copy from NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review.

Bella is a lost. Her friends are moving forward and as she approaches 30, she’s figuring out that where she thought she would be at this point in her life hasn’t happened. This is a true turning point for her as her best friend moves out to life with her fiancé, she realizes she won’t get to have the same late night chats. Her original dream to be an author hasn’t happened. She stares at the blank document and inspiration isn’t there. But then, she has a pretty weird date and suddenly inspiration strikes and she’s found a new focus. Her other dream has been to find prince charming which she has found to be harder than expected. The real question, will she be able to continue writing? How will she keep her inspiration flowing? Is a prince charming in her future? Or will she accept that some dreams need to change? I was truly surprised by some of the situations Bella put herself in for inspiration. which were very entertaining. There is a lot of growing up that she needed to do and I appreciated that journey. I voluntarily read an ARC of this book and this is my honest review.

3.5/5

This book surprised me and in the end, I will say I enjoyed this book! It was quirky, funny, and had a very imperfect MC who grew on me throughout the book.

At first, Bella was so unlikeable, I considered DNFing the book. We meet her in the middle of a bit of a life crisis - her friend is moving on and getting married, parents are divorcing, and she's realizing that she is not where she wanted to be at this point in life with her career or her love life. All of this makes Bella act out and appear selfish, clingy, and very naive in her approach to her love life. However, we see such growth in her throughout the book which makes her a more compelling character and I'm so glad I didn't stop reading.

As for the story, it was so fun to see her compilations of dates and Bella's describing in accordance to various fairy tales. I loved that with the light hearted-ness of the beginning of the book and in the midst of Bella's stories going viral, that we also see Bella at some low points and that how hyper focusing on her career almost made her miss out on a worthy partner and her friendships. The development of the story really had me hooked.

I only wish the real love story developed a bit sooner - they way it happened, the couple got together, conflict happened, and then the end of the book. All in the last 20% or so.

All in all - I would recommend and will pick up another book by Luci Adams!

This book just wasn't for me. The main character read as very immature for trying to find true love in these hook ups she was having, ignoring blatant signs that the men only wanted to sleep with her. Also, there was very little mention of the original fairytales and how they weren't as disney-fied as she thinks they are.

The premise had promise, a promise the MC couldn't deliver efficiently. Yes, characters should be flawed, but also relatable, at least in an instinctive sort of way. So even if we're different and come from different backgrounds and walks of life, we still can understand the character, we still can root for them, we still can have sympathy for them.
The problem wasn't that Bella makes mistakes. The problem was that Bella is such a jealous, selfish, annoying, envious and ungrateful person throughout more than half of the story, that by the point she suddenly has a change of heart, it falls flat. Even Mark was more sympathetic than her and that says a lot. I spent most of the book feeling bad for Ellie having such a brat for best friend.
The only thing I could identify with and kind of kept me going was her insecurities about showing her writing to strangers. It was the only moment in 400 pages that I could finally say: "I do understand how you feel."

Thank you NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book. But I didn’t like it at first because I thought Bella was too self-centered and desperate (which was, I think, the author's goal). But once it got to Chapter 12 (and Bella’s banter with Marty), I couldn’t put it down. Bella won me over. I laughed out loud at the smurfs scene and the dance class. And I’m here for the slow burn romance. Bella is a hot desperate mess but she figures herself out (with a lot of disasters and ”oh no’s” from the reader along the way). I would have liked a bit more time at the end enjoying the romance because she’d messed up so terribly (again) that I wanted to see her not messing up and being a functioning adult in a healthy relationship with both her best friends. Can't wait to read more from this author.

First, I've read some reviews and saw that there were a number of readers who stopped reading early on, and I will say that while I didn't love this book, I was glad that I stuck it out to the end at least.
While it had a few enjoyable moments, Not That Kind of Ever After really just fell flat for me. I just didn't find anything likeable about the characters, especially the main, and that made it hard to invest in the story.

*I received an advanced reader copy of this book from NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This was a cute romcom with a quirky main character. I wish the book had a little more depth and detail, but overall it was a nice read.

Thank you NetGalley for an eArc in exchange for an honest review.

4.5 for this one because it's almost perfect but something about Bella makes her a bit difficult to like before you get to know her and she has her big "aha" moment.
Bella Marble has a seemingly perfect life complete with a best friend since childhood, great flatmates, a safe and easy job, and parents with a perfect relationship. The only thing she's missing is her own happily ever after. Until the day when her latest date is a disaster just as her best friend is moving out to live with a boyfriend Bella can't stand and her parents drop a bombshell on her.
When everything around her begins to fall apart, Bella discovers she can distract herself with a writing app where she can share her writing anonymously. She writes and shares a bawdy story based on that awful date with a classic fairytale twist and it takes off, inspiring her to try finding other one-night-stands that she can use as fodder for her writing. But neither the writing nor the men prove to be enough of a distraction and she eventually has to face the things she's been hiding from straight on.
The story has some great comedic parts and lots of big emotions and revelations that keep the story moving at a solid pace. There's also the big romance in the background that is so obvious, but still a charming surprise when it finally comes to light.
Overall, it's a main character with issues but those issues are a big part of the story and the plot is engaging and entertaining enough that it's easy to overlook certain moments.

Happily thankful to NetGalley and St. Martin's Griffin for the fun and thought-provoking romance!

Poor Bella, she just wants a fairytale, but things just start to not go well. Her best friend is with a boring guy and moving out, her parents are getting a divorce, her new flatmates are odd, and she desperately wants to be a writer.

This book had some funny moments, the fairytale one night stands were creative and out there. What I struggled with was not really liking Bella's that much. She comes off whiny, intruding, and not much of a listener. I just wanted to scream at her for trying to force creating writing material. Thank goodness for Marty, he seemed down to earth and more real.

This book had some bright spots and was enoughto heep me reading, but I think I just wanted a more likable main character.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for providing me a copy of this ARC for my honest review.

Sometimes you don't click with a book. Maybe it's the location/setting or one of the characters. On sometimes the plot line just doesn't do it for you. Or something is lacking. This was that book for me. I can't put my finger on why, but this one just didn't do it for me. Typically I love the brother's best friend on best friend's brother trope, but despite that, it still just fell a little flat. Maybe it was the petty fight between Bella and Ellie that forced Bella to rely more on Marty and it just fat like she defaulted to him. Or how immature Bella came across. But there were also a fair amount of redeeming moments too in the book - Marty’s chemistry with Bella, her sexcapades were pretty entertaining even when her writing about them was a little immature (but clever!), and her German roommates' hi-jinks were funny, as were her rugby neighbors. So overall, a good book but not great or a standout to me. Still looking forward to reading her next one!

Overall this was a cute, funny story. I liked the dates Bella went on as they made me laugh. She really got into some hilarious situations.

I liked the short chapters and I liked that Bella seemed to really grow as a person (she didn't start out as the nicest). I feel like the ending is sort of easy to guess but that didn't take away from the story because Bella still had some fun times throughout.

As a light romcom this was a good read.

Pubs tomorrow!

Not That Kind of Ever After was a good book. I would recommend this to anyone who likes an emotional read. There were so many ups and downs in this story, it was a good roller coaster of a book. I was a little bored in the middle, but the ending was 1,000% the read.

Thank you to Luci Adams, St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for allowing me to read this book in advance.

I really struggled with this one and ended up DNFing it. Based on the 5 star reviews, I know there will be people out there who love this book, but unfortunately I'm not one of them.

I found the main character difficult to root for. I don't expect my characters to be perfect, in fact I prefer a flawed character who makes mistakes, but I didn't enjoy Bella's inner monologues. She hated her best friend's partner, to the point she was actually disappointed that her friend was being proposed to.
I honestly felt like she wasn't a very good friend, and maybe that improved, but it wasn't a story I wanted to stick through. She showed up to her friend's going away party with 0 effort, then got mad when her best friend's partner brought a cake and felt like she was being upstaged and he was ruining everything.

Bella also accepted a lot of shit from men that women shouldn't be putting up with in 2023 and it felt like it was framed as "well you just have to do this to find a good one!" And I am not here for that narrative.

This was a very quick read but wasn’t my favorite read. The FMC seemed very self centered and it was hard for me to get passed that. This was a difficult book to finish.

3.5 out of 5 stars

Bella was the conductor on the hot mess express called her life. She wanted the fairytale but not the happily ever after; she wanted happy for tonight. While she navigated her train wreck life, she was writing a story that were fairytale retellings with her own twist. There were instances that I felt Bella was self-centered and immature. But that also could be attributed to the changes in her relationships with her friend Ellie and her parents. What I did like was the fact that Bella was her own person and that she had realistic and relatable flaws. She knew she wasn't perfect and didn't strive to be. And while she was looking for her happy for tonight, her happily ever after was right in front of her.

Sarah Naughton did a stellar job of bringing Bella to life. Her tone of voice and inflections gave the characters personality and dimension. I loved her British accent which made me feel like I was in the room with Bella.

I received an advance copy of this book at my request from the publisher and voluntarily left this review.

title: Not That Kind of Ever After
author: Luci Adams
format: ebook (ARC)
pub date: 14 March 2023
🌟: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

(thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for allowing me to read this ARC in return for an honest review!)

this book took me by surprise y’all! the first page of this book was SPICY and caught me off guard, but it really captures the hilarity of the book and the voice of the MC!

the story follows Bella’s life as she embarks on her journey to find her Prince Charming. and the men she’s been finding are truly anything but. when she has a less-than-great experience with a man named Charles Wolf, she uses her experience as writing inspiration (which she’s been in short supply of), and posts a story titled “My Night with the Big Bad Wolf” on an online platform for writers. when she begins to blow up — and her sexual encounters continue to mirror fairy tale stories — she continues to write and then actively seeks more and more inspiration for her stories. but could she be denying the Prince Charming who was quite possibly been there all along..?

truly the only thing that marked me down for this book was that I felt like it dragged a little bit. ! I love me some detail and a nice build up/slow burn, but there were moments that felt a little too drawn out for my taste.

that being said, this is such a cute and sweet book, and SO funny! it’s also a great pick if you love a good best friend story. so many moments between Bella and her childhood best friend Ellie made me tear up and made me get all mushy on *my* childhood best friend. we’ve been friends for about 17 years now so I really felt their relationship deep in my core

pick up if you enjoy:

👑fairy tale tropes
🤪hectic but lovable female MC
👭bff storylines
😉best friend’s brother tropes
🤣LOL moments

This was not really anything like what I was expecting….

I’m rating it 3-stars. I had a hard time deciding, but it could land between 3 and 3.5, depending on the part of the book. The first half was tough to get through, but the second half went a bit quicker, the main character, Bella, grew up a bit and started making more mature decisions that her 30 year old self should have been doing all along, and then it felt more worthy of a 3.5 rating.

The concept of this storyline was rather interesting in the blurb, but I found myself getting quite angry and annoyed at Bella pretty much the whole way through, with how she behaved like a teenager and how she treated everyone around her like total garbage. There is a character in here that Bella was upset with, and I have a friend of the same name that I found myself suddenly upset with in reality because the book made me feel immature feelings towards him (I took on Bella’s immaturity in those many pages) … sorry to my real life “friend” Mark who had the brunt of book hangover emotions! It’s not good to behave like a teenager because of a book getting you upset.

While we do see Bella finally grow up, realize what she’s doing, take on some responsibility for her actions, apologize for hurting people, stop being selfish and hurtful online, and even move on in her career, personal life and relationships, she still has a very long ways to go. I’m happy with how it all ended, though.

And finally, the audio to ebook, which I was reading both at the same time, differed greatly - the audio must have the original British version while the ebook was edited to be North American and audio a final edited draft. Big changes! I have read many British books and been there many times so understand the terms, but trying to read along with the audio and it’s so different made me lose my place a lot. The narrator, Josie Charles, did a great job! She’s a new to me voice, and while I wasn’t loving the material, she made it easier to get through.

I received an advance review and advance listen copy from NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press (St. Martin’s Griffin), and Macmillan Audio, and this is my honest opinion and feedback.

I really liked the premise of this book and wanted to love it so much. But good god Bella was such an unlikeable FMC. She was selfish and annoying and rude and wildly immature for a 29 year old woman. At times it was hard to read her insane inner monologue because it was just so not relatable. I liked the idea of the plot and would have loved this with a more likable FMC.