2/5

Thank you NetGalley and Luci Adams for gifting me a copy of Not that Kind of Ever After in return for my honest review.

This reads like a bad wattpad story, it was redundant and over detailed. I wanted to like it the premise of the story sounded so good. A girl, Bella, is a wanna be writer and is trying to find her Prince Charming. She goes through a bunch of “dates/hookups/one nightstands and share her misadventures on a writing platform in hopes that people like it. Unfortunately it fell flat for me.

You knew who her Prince Charming was right from the get go so after that it was just so repetitive and unfortunate to read. It was also tough to get behind and root for Bella when the whole time I thought she was a self-centered princess. She created her problems so at times it was really hard to find her likable.

Other then her repetitive love life, the way the characters were described/written was repetitive. Like did you know that her best friend is a worrier, she worries about everything. Her friends feelings, her boyfriends feeling, her brother, the house EVERYTHING. Maybe show us instead of telling us!

Like I said this was such a fantastic start to a plot but it was too drawn out and way too repetitive. I really wanted to like it but it fell way short for me.
You can pick this up March 14th.

Not That Kind of Ever After is Luci Adams’ debut romantic comedy novel. Isabella “Bella” Marble’s life isn’t what she imagined it to be for her late twenties. She aspired to be an author, but instead she’s receptionist at a small press. She’s single with very few dating prospects, and her lovey-dovey parents are divorcing. To make matters worse, her flat-mate and best friend, Ellie Mathews, is moving out and marrying boring Mark. Bella feels rudderless, only slightly soothed by time spent with Ellie’s aggravating brother, Marty.

After Marty suggests to Bella that she should stop looking for “the one” and just have fun, she finds a new, empowered side of herself. After she posts a fairy-tale retelling of a disastrous one-night-stand on an app, Bella becomes the viral sensation @B.Enchanted. Then her relationship with Ellie suffers.

Not That Kind of Ever After is considerably more comedic than romance. Bella is a hot mess and the book is almost like her diary. It’s like a mash-up of a fairy tale and Bridget Jones’ Diary: it is British and contains graphic sex descriptions and profanity. While the story was not really my cup of tea, it was well-written and will appeal to fans of more comedic novels.

I received an advance review copy (ARC) from NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I like the premise of this book. A young woman is working her way through fairy tale dates and writing them down for a blog. Each man she has a one night stand with resembles some fairy tale character whether that be a wolf or rumpelstiltskin. However, Bella was just not a likable character to me. As a 29 year old, she acted like a small child through 90% of the book. Maybe if she was 18 it may have been a bit more tolerable, but her behavior and actions made her a hard character to root for or care about. Bella seemed like a secondary character in her own story, and I would have much preferred a story written from Ellie or Marty’s perspective.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for granting me a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Ellie is a hot mess of a twenty something. She’s trying desperately to find THE one, meanwhile her best friend is getting engaged. Is she happy for her best friend… no she’s makes it all about herself.

She writes an about her dating with a fairytale twist. Gains followers and it only encourages her to continue down this self sabotage, and straining her relationships.

There were some funny parts and I wish we got to see more of Marty.

I want to thank net galley and the publisher for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

Such a fun read. Absolutely hilarious, many laugh out loud moments. I blew through this in 2 days as I just wanted to keep following the story of Belle and whatever shenanigans she got herself into.

An absolute must read.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC

This book was absolutely hilarious. But I struggled with the choices the main character made throughout the novel. That kept it from being as amazing as I had hoped. Definitely a fun read, but not one of my favorites.

I wanted to like this book. It sounded so cute and entertaining. I started with the audio version but couldn’t decide if it was the writing or the narration seeming a little whiney that made it difficult to connect with the characters. After switching to print and still struggling here’s what I can say.

Pros:

The book does seem to be exactly what the synopsis says. You’re not going to find hidden bad things or have it switch to something unexpected.

Cons:

The book is only the synopsis and the characters aren’t entertaining enough for me that I wanted to connect or visit with them. This likely won’t be the case for everyone.

DNF @ 27%

Though the premise of this novel had such appeal, the story was failed by its heroine. Bella was far from likable with her juvenile behavior and goofy narrations.

I unfortunately was not vibing with this one at all and decided to DNF at just under 10%. As Justin Bieber said, “Immediately no,” “I’ve seen what I needed to see.”

The first line of this book and first few chapters immediately had me cringing. I love a spicy book, trust me so that is not a problem. But the way the book opened was super odd & random. I also immediately didn’t like the main character Bella, I found her to be incredibly immature, idiotic, and completely cringey. When I really do not like the MC that usually is a deal breaker for me.

I appreciate St Martin’s Press for giving me this arc in exchange for my honest review.

Bella Marble’s life isn’t what she imagined. Instead of an author, she’s receptionist at a small press. Instead of happily married, she’s single, and her lovey-dovey parents are divorcing. And to top it off, her best friend of twenty-nine years, Ellie Mathews, is moving out and marrying the heinously boring Mark. (He’s not worthy of her. No one could be). Bella feels rudderless, only slightly soothed by time spent with Ellie’s (not hot) brother, (he’s not hot) Marty (okay, he’s hot. But he’s also the aggravating brother she never had—right)? When Marty recommends Bella stop looking for “the one” and just have fun, Bella finds a new, empowered side of herself. But when she posts a fairy-tale retelling of a disastrous one night stand on a storytelling app, all of a sudden, Bella has become B.Enchanted. And she’s gone viral. Now, Bella’s in a fight with Ellie, her new roommates are so, deeply, weird, and the pressure is mounting to find new fairy tales to write about—but she’s got to live them first.

This was fun and cute, but a lot of times I felt the main character felt a little immature and unrealistic. Like of course her best friend is going to take her future husbands side. There were times where I was turning the page so fast to see what wild fairytale she was going to recreate next, while simultaneously thinking how crazy and unrealistic it was. I also felt this could have been cut down by one or two plot points. Like she kept making the same mistakes over and over again even after she realized her problem.

Overall I'd rate this book 3 stars. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC in return for an honest review.

Not That Kind of Ever After lived up to its title. Everyone around Bella was moving on and she felt stuck in place. Unfortunately, I felt stuck while reading this book. Bella was just so cringe. I couldn’t myself relating to her, much less rooting for her ever after.

As she approaches thirty, Bella is stuck in a rut, professionally and romantically, while everyone else is moving forward in their lives - especially her best friend Ellie. Bella decides to stop looking for love and try to have fun - and to write about her outlandish dating exploits for an online audience. But when that road leads to more chaos - and a falling-out with Ellie - Bella has to decide what her real happy ending will look like.

This was a funny and engaging coming-of-age story. I loved how important Bella and Ellie's friendship was to the story, and their relationship felt realistically close and conflicted. I also appreciated that Bella's decisions weren't transparently good or bad - for example, writing about her love life felt positive at first, since writing was a dream she had struggled to realize, but led to negative consequences. While some reviewers were bothered by Bella's immaturity - and I agree that she seems several years younger than the text makes her out to be - I thought her character was well-drawn and sympathetic, and I appreciated her journey.

This was an interesting story with some wit sprinkled throughout.
Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Not That Kind of Ever After
Publish date: March 14, 2023

“ Fairytale meets feminism in Luci Adams's Not That Kind of Ever After, a frothy adventure of one woman’s journey to claim happily ever after in times of serial dating, swiping right, and the quest to find your soulmate.”

This book had me laughing at times with Bella’s ridiculous decisions and story writing. It also had heartwarming moments between her best friend, Ellie, and herself. But overall I felt like it could have been a bit shorter. I did enjoy it quite a bit and am giving it 4 stars because although it was hard to stick with at the beginning, I found myself constantly wanting to know what would happened next about halfway through. Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for allowing me to read and review!

This was a light fun read. It wasn’t anything super special. I would get a little irritated throughout the plot. But overall it was cute

What an interesting read!

This book was a quick and entertaining read filled with modern fairytales and plot twists and relatable moments from Bella.

Also that cover!! So pretty and eye-catching!

Thank you to NetGalley and SMP for the earc in return for an honest review.

i wanted to like this book so much. The artwork on the cover is classic rom com and beautiful. But i just really didn’t like the main character. While I like the idea of her writing about modern experiences in the fairytale format, the execution was meh. I couldn’t route for the main character because she was extremely self absorbed and often times rude. When i turned the last page i thought “that was it?”. I feel like a lot could have been cut out in order to make the story feel complete.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Griffin for allowing me to read this as an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a super fun, quick, light read! The London setting added a fun pop of color and personality, and I would definitely recommend for any fans of British humor -- Not that Kind of Ever After delivers it in spades. The fairytale angle was a fun twist on the modern dating scene, and I loved the ensemble cast of characters and multimedia elements. Overall, a fun romp that would be great for a vacation or the beach!

This book was so delightfully quirky I found myself laughing out loud several times. It was silly and I couldn't take it seriously for a second, but it was a lot of fun.

It's like the main character was writing fanfic of real life, and the circumstances of everything are just over the top.

That said, it's good for pointing out that sometimes the things a character really thinks they want isn't what they want at all, and when things go wrong that doesn't mean it's necessarily the end of the story.

I love new versions of fairy tales so I jumped on the chance to read this book. But it was such a disappointment!

The main character, Bella, was beyond annoying. She only ever thought of herself. When something happened to her friends, whether good or bad, she made it all about her.

She desperately wanted to become a writer and thought she should automatically be given a contact, especially given the fact she worked for a publisher. So when she sets off writing short chapters on a website for emerging writers, she's kind of put in her place, but only for a bit. Once she starts to gather a following, she becomes obsessed about getting more followers and likes, so she becomes desperate for new story ideas.

I could see early on who the love interest should be, and ultimately is, but Bella was so dense she didn't even see what was right in front of her.

I really wanted to give up on this book, but I kept hoping it would get better. It didn't.

Three star read for me. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the advanced copy I'm exchange for my honest opinion.