Not That Kind of Ever After is the story of Bella, a woman stuck in a rut who decides that she wants to meet her "Prince Charming" so she goes on a journey to change her life and meet the man of her dreams. Yikes... this one was a DNF for me. While I enjoy reading Romance books, I was absolutely not expecting the massive amounts of sex scenes that were in this, starting from page 1. Bella was a character that I could not get on board with. She was just like a character from "Mean Girl." Rude, snobby, self absorbed, and apparently became a sex crazed maniac on her journey to self discovery to find her soul mate.
The writing style was very hard for me as well. The sentences were a bit choppy and the book (the parts that I did read) had no flow to them, so it was very hard to get transported into the story. I realize this was the authors first book, and while I think the idea was cute the execution fell very short for me.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC in exchange for my review and honest opinions.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

My Selling Pitch:
Do you want a cheesy rom-com with Disney and fairytale references? Do you not mind a cliche quirky and immature main character? Do you like friend drama in your rom-coms?

Pre-reading:
I wanted something shorter than the 500-page fantasy on my TBR, so I picked this, and then I looked and it was 400 pages so buckle up. I smell a bucket romance.

Thick of it:
You know, you can tell me you don’t like romcoms, but no other genre makes me almost do a spit-take every single opener.

Always with the karaoke in romcoms. (Only mentioned, no horrible singing scene included.)

She's typically #quirky and relatable

So much Harry Potter in rom-coms.

And there are so many bookish rom-com leading ladies.

Bitch needs to grow the fuck up. How old is she? (29.) She's behaving like an 18-year-old and an immature 18 at that. (Middle school. This book has middle school drama.)

Aw, is it gonna be beauty and the beast? (Never acknowledged.)

I would read the hell out of that book.

Oh, Wattpad.

I also morbidly love bad writing.

It’s a little heavy-handed and obvious about who the fairytales are gonna be. And I can’t decide if I hate it or if it’s just like an acceptable level of romcom cheese. (I’ve decided it’s cheesy, but fine.)

This bitch is supposed to be 29. 29. Major Disney adult vibes.

I might be a little in love with Marty

No, Mark should definitely be the one to apologize. He shouldn’t have even been in that conversation to begin with. Fuck that guy.

No, you don’t have to wait to talk to your friend because her partner is rude and judgemental towards you. Your bestie should recognize that and not want a partner that sees her friends as the enemy or looks down on them. Major red flag.

No wait, I’m sorry, how can you not be a feminist? That’s literally just wanting equality. Fuck that line.

No, that’s a valid criticism. You’re 29 and at work and you play games on your phone all day instead of doing your job. You’re not always the victim here, love.

This date is literally like reading a different character. Where has this girl been this entire book? This is who I want to read about. (You will never see her again.)

This scene is even more annoying to me because someone doesn’t grow up this much in the span of a few days and the girl in chapter 1 is not the girl we’re seeing now. This book should’ve just been about this girl from the start.

It makes me want to read Book Lovers again. I miss my sharky blonde.

How on earth are her extensions so cheap?

Maybe it’s the Capricorn, or Scorpio, or Virgo- whichever, pick your poison, in me but under no circumstances, would I apologize to a man who told me how to live my life and tried to control my sex life, nor would I ever let my friend be a partner with someone like that. Fuck this guy.

She’s reverted in character again, and I dislike her. She’s not consistent this whole novel.

Scorpio season everyone fuckingggg. (Infallible trope.)

Post-reading:
This book is fun but wildly inconsistent with its main character. In no way does she read like a 29-year-old. She has the emotional maturity of a middle schooler. This girl goes from being delusional and naive, to sassing a man into changing his fuckboy ways, to a threesome participant, and back to being codependent with her best friend. That’s going to turn plenty of people off of it. If you want just a cheesy romp of a romcom with fairytale and Disney references, this is fine. The love interest is a good boy. If you were a fan of Wattpad growing up, you might enjoy this.

Who should read this:
Cheesy rom-com lovers
Disney and fairytale fans

Do I want to reread this:
No

Similar books:
* Booked on a Feeling by Jayci Lee-bookish friends to lovers romance
* Meet Me in the Margins by Melissa Ferguson-bookish romance with family drama
* Too Wrong to Be Right by Melonie Johnson-bucket rom-com with family dynamics, friends to lovers
* Ten Rules for Faking It by Sophie Sullivan-dating around to find herself only to end up with the friend that’s been helping her rom-com
* Book Lovers by Emily Henry-bookish romance with family dynamics
* The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang-practice dating and family drama romance
* The Hating Game by Sally Thorne-bookish enemies to lovers romance with family drama

Sometimes the most obvious answer to your disaster of a dating life is directly under your nose, or standing on the side lines poking fun. A quirky banter between friends can be the best blessing in disguise.

This book has some really fun side characters that I really enjoyed. Bella is someone who needs to take more charge in her life. Bella is convinced by another character to just LIVE, so she finally takes a shot in the dark and little did she know how much things might change. This was an upbeat, rom-com style book and it was pretty easy to read. I don't think it would be my favorite by any means, but it was enjoyable for the most part.
Thank you NetGalley and the Publishers for the copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I will be posting a review on my instagram page as well within the next week.

DNF @ 3%! Honestly, I considered dnfing after the Irish sentence, but decided I should read at least a little further. I’m all for spice, but that was just icky in more ways than one. The main character seems dumb and oblivious. Any woman in her right mind would know the stranger she just decided to sleep with is a sleazeball. I’m not going to waste my life on terrible books when there are so many great ones.

Bella is an obnoxious main character. The side characters are more interesting and the whole modern fairy tale element gets grating. I found myself skimming at parts. She does change but it was too little too late for me.

I really enjoyed this book. I will say throughout the book there were some slow spots & you could tell how it was gonna end, but the book kept me wanting to know more about Bella. I laughed & smiled quite often at the banter between characters. For it being a debut novel-I think it’s awesome!

What is your favorite fairytale?

Not That Kind of Ever After by Luci Adams
Available on March 14th.

Not That Kind of Ever After is fun, flirtatious and relatable. It was a witty read that kept me smiling throughout. The main character is Bella, a spunky and sometimes a bit ditsy, single author who is looking for her happily ever after. She and her friends are sarcastic and witty, and they have lots of enjoyable banter. Heart-wrenching scenes are interspersed with "get your head-on straight girl" moments. I had a great time with the book and recommend it to those looking for a sweet story.

Thank you NetGalley, and St. Martin's Press, for sharing this incredible book with me. Your kindness is appreciated. 4/5

Not that kind of Ever After is a Cinderella type story. It is set in London. I struggled to stay interested because there was too much drama and randomness. Lots of sex scenes.. nothing over the top but when the book opens with one, it's just weird. It is on the longer side and seems it will never end. On the plus side most of the chapters are relatively short.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC

Ok, so I received this through netgalley and was excited because the plot seemed like it would be my type of story. But, I think this book just wasn't for me. In the end I just could not stand the main character and that ruined the book for me. She was immature, judgmental, and so selfish and the way she talked about her best friends fiancee was just so awful. I did like that at the end because she realized her actions (helllo she is the villian) and started changing for the better, but I wish it happened sooner and we got more of Marty because he was obviously my favorite character and I would have loved it if he was featured more in the story!

There are several chuckle-out-loud moments in this novel, which is about a woman in her late twenties who aspires to be a novelist but has been stuck as a receptionist for a literary agency for years.

Her other goal besides being a writer is the traditional happily ever after resulting in a ring and a white wedding dress. Along the way, through bars, parties, and online dating apps, she meets her share of guys who fall short of Prince Charming. There’s the hairy guy who she turns into a story that harkens the big-bad wolf. From there she continues dating and writing about her experiences and posting them in an online forum. As her followers, comments, and “likes” increase, she gets a little heady with the power of being liked by strangers, which leads her behaving pretty terribly to people who actually know and care about her.

Parts of this got really redundant, and it’s one thing to read a novel in which the protagonist has to face challenges like an actual bad guy, a disease, a terrible circumstance, but it’s much harder to commiserate with someone whose problems are entirely self-created.

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to review this novel, which RELEASES FEBRUARY 16, 2022.

Unfortunately this was a DNF for me. I'm not totally sure why. It felt a little raunchy. I like romance but this just didn't appeal to me.

This book was a bit hard to get into at first but once you’re in, it’s quite captivating. The characters are cute and it’s a fun but a bit obvious story to read

It’s a cute rom com with a great friendship and coming of age all wrapped up in a modern twist. It ran a bit long but was still a fun fast read.

3.5 rounded up.

This was a lovely story about a girl trying to find her Prince charming, but ends up finding herself.

Thank you to net galley for this ARC in échange for an honest review.

Not That Kind of Ever After is definitely "Not your typical RomCom". I think this is why it took me a while to actually start enjoying this book. It's not a RomCom like you would expect. Imagine if Bridget Jones finds whattpad.
The witt and banter is 5⭐️!
I like that the book is realistic and is not written sugarcoating a love story. If you go into the book, not expecting the typical romcom formula you'll enjoy it more. It will take you a while to get there, mostly the first 3rd of the book is a little slow but it gets better from there.

*Spoilers after this*
Martys personality and conversations are what kept me going mostly.
On the other side Bella is a character that can be relatable up to a certain point. Caught in the reality of a 9-5 job, roommates, dating apps with dates going terribly wrong etc.. The thing is that she comes off as extremely selfish, self centered and immature to the point of being predictable. She is surrounded by great side characters that could easily be more interesting than her. There were points where I wanted to read more maybe about Diego or what happened to quiet Dave and even how Ellie fell in love with Mark. The high
This being said, it took one drunk night for her to do a 180 and all of the sudden she had an epiphany out of nowhere and now she was another person altogether. This is actually the point where the book finally got me hooked, mind you it was already 50% of the book.

I went through different feelings and emotions reading this book, but after finishing it I did like it.
Give it a try, and see for yourself.
Thanks St. Martin’s Griffin and Netgalley for the ARC!

I requested to read and review this book for free from St. Martin Publishing Company. This story is not your typical romance book. The author Luci Adam's has created a different versions of a romance. Bella is looking for Prince Charming. But can Prince Charming really make you happy ? Is there such thing as a Prince Charming or is there just a lot of frogs. How many frogs do you need to go through to find Prinxe Charming. Bella, Marty and Ellie all have their things to go through to realize what they need to know. Sometimes there is bumps in the road and the ones that stand beside you are the ones that count the most. This is for a mature reader and can be read anywhere.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC! It was tough to get through this one, it was hard to keep my attention for some reason. It was okay, nothing special but a quick read if you push through.

Not That Kind of ever after is a mash-up of a fairy tale retelling that warms the heart.
Bella is a secretary at a publishing firm and really she dreams of being a writer, as a hopeless romantic, she is searching for her Prince Charming: but it seems like all the men she meets are the toads.
This book gave me a lot of Bridget Jones Diary & Sex and The City energy. Very flirty, very honest and a little chaotic. The main character Bella is sweet, if not a little much, but I think that is why we are able to like her so much.
This book is highly creative, nearly addictive and one could argue that it may put some of our own dreams into perspective.

I enjoyed this book very much. I liked the ideal of fairytale romance. I liked how it was weaved into her everyday life and the ones around her as well. I don't think the swear words were necessary at all. I see a sequel coming in the future for Matthew and Belle.