I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this! The tropes explored are not my usual. The casual-sex-as-female-empowerment makes me think of the ethereal Julie Delpy in Before Sunset: "I have this awful, paranoid thought that feminism was invented by men so they could, like, fool around a little more." But ultimately the story takes a more neutral stance on sexual behavior, which I loved.

I got invested at the story around the 40% mark. I think everything before that could have been edited down by about half and the novel as a whole would have felt smoother.

The main character, Bella, reminds me of Bridget Jones if Bridget Jones were like 10x messier and 10x less likeable. Most of the time, unlikeable narrators don't work for me in romcoms, because I can't root for them. But thankfully we get character growth and redemption and a "moral of the story," if you will. I like that Bella has to face the fact that being shitty to shitty people is still still shitty (and poor Doctor Isaac who has never done anything wrong ever in his life!).

That said, there were a couple things that bothered me... and I couldn't determine if it was Bella or the author speaking. Quite a few times, Bella insults others' looks and it seemed like the author meant to be funny. That's not cool. There are also a couple moments that made my feminist heart ache--like when Marty admits he "doesn't care" about the women he sleeps with, or Bella calls herself a "fake feminist" because she....likes compliments? Bella, I do not think that word means what you think it means.

Despite those hiccups, I thought the author had a wonderful sense of humor! The writing was genuinely funny without trying too hard. I would be interested in reading more of her work.

This is the first book from Luci Adams- debut novels are fun because you never know what you’re getting into…. But this book was an absolute delight! Kept me guessing the whole time. The characters were charming (except Mark- I’m still not a fan!) and the story was surprising in a way that you don’t usually see in rom cons these days.

Can’t wait to read her next book! 5/5 stars- definitely worth the read.

I will be giving this read a 3-stars solely because it feels the most neutral rating given that I did not finish this title.

I got about a third into this book to confirm that I'm not the right reader for this book. Many others have found this relatable or humorous, and I will admit some of the writing is playful in a charming way. However, this isn't the kind of messy main character that I can sit through an entire book about. I found Bella insufferable and given the genre as well as what other reviewers like me have said, I believe the ending won't completely satisfy the amount of growth I think she needs to make the reading journey worth it.

I'm sure many others will love this title, and I wish the author the best as she continues her career. This one just ain't for me, and that's okay.

I can't wait for more from Luci Adams! I did exactly what you are not supposed to do.. judge a book by the cover. But the cover was so cute! Who doesn't love fairytales and hookup stories!? The humor and romance was exactly what I needed right now! I absolutely fell in love with this book. I read it in one day because I couldn't put it down. Thank God for slow days at work! haha.

Bella's been obsessed with finding Prince Charming, but all she finds are the worst frogs. When everything in her life starts changing, she decides to change up her quest for the fairy tale. Instead of looking for happily ever after, she is looking for her happy for tonight.

The twists to the fairy tales and how she turns that into chapters for a book were really clever. I loved the idea of her taking charge of her sexuality and career in a way that felt empowering. Of course, I think one of the best parts of this story is that Bella is not a perfect character. She is jealous and not always the best friend or person, but that made it feel all the more real. When dealing with fairy tales, it is necessary to give it a dose of reality. Overall, I loved this book!

There was nothing wrong with this book, but there also wasn't anything that really sold me on it. Overall, this felt like a pretty predictable/average romance novel. There is nothing inherently wrong with this, but it just didn't work for me this time.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is now one of my all time fav books at the moment! It was just so good and it was a romance but also had some comedy along with it. I loved Marty’s character and every time he would show up I internally screamed hoping they would end up together. This book put me through all the emotions and I think that’s why I enjoyed it so much. I will post my full review on my Instagram account in the next two weeks!

I wanted to like this book.
But i didn’t love Bella. I felt the whole book is summed up
Literally in the summary.
I couldn’t connect with this charter i felt this was a long short story.

3.5/5 (rounded down to 3)

CW: divorce, sexism, absent parent, alcohol consumption, misogyny

I would like to thank NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing me with a free e-ARC of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Life is not going how Bella Marble is expecting. She can’t stand the guy her best friend got engaged to. She’s stuck at a dead end job and not living out her dream of being an author. Most of all, she can’t seem to find her prince charming. After Bella becomes a viral sensation when she starts turning her dating failures into modern day fairy tale stories, she realizes that she has to get out there and live her own happily ever after.

I have mixed feelings about this book for several reasons.

One, I’m not going to lie that Adams’ pacing took awhile to get used to. Adams’ splits this story into seven main parts with several chapters in each part. The seven parts does seem a bit excessive, but I’m able to get over that. However, I felt that some of the chapters were too short. What I mean by that is that you find yourself reading a scene and you think it continues onto the next page, but then a new chapter starts dropping back on the same scene. I feel like in instances like these the chapters could have been combined. By doing so, I think it would make the pacing a bit easier to read and the flow of the book seems more natural.

Second, Marty is the most morally gray love interest I’ve ever read. Like, for real. I mean, having Marty make Bella buy her own pity chocolates seem like a low blow. But at the same time, he does things that shows he genuinely cares about Bella. Near the end of the book, Marty’s not all that bad. But I just can’t get over some of his actions that just make him look like a jerk and I do think there were some other characters that could have been a better match for Bella. At least Marty is self-aware.

Finally, for Bella, I have mixed feelings about how she was portrayed in the book. In general, I love having Bella as MC and I definitely found her to be super relatable. Additionally, I loved Bella’s confidence earlier on in the book and when she gave Henry a piece of her mind, that was truly a highlight for me. However, as the book progressed, I don’t know if I was that big of a fan of how Bella developed during her “fairy tale” encounters.

Overall, Not That Kind of Ever After is a good story, but there were just some flaws with character development and plot structure. Personally, I enjoyed Adams’ writing style and it was easy to get into the plot. I also loved the concept of having Bella recreate these fairy tales into a 21st century dating encounter. Readers who love their fairy tales but want a dose of reality added will enjoy this book, though I wouldn’t recommend it if you're not a fan of morally gray love interests.

I figured this would be another fluffy romance. But I was pleasantly surprised. Sure, there's fluff and romance (and don't get me wrong, I love those), but there's so much more too. I got to watch (read) a woman finding herself, coming to terms with her flaws, who she is and how great she is. In the end, it's not about the romance. I LOVED this one. An amazing debut, and I look forward to more from Luci Adams.

I wanted to love this book, I kept waiting to love this book, and by the last 10% I kinda liked it? Bella was just obnoxious almost the whole time. Very immature and frustrating and the lack of awareness both for herself and others was impressive, but not in a good way. She just seemed emotionally stunted, especially considering her age. I did like the smurfs bit.

As much as I wanted to love this book, it just didn't hook me the way that I thought it would based on the blurb. Truly, I feel like I could have read just the blurb and wouldn't need to read the rest of the book to know where it was going to end up. Which like, considering it hit the 400 page mark, I thought that it would have had so much more than what it ended up offering. I feel like there was SO MUCH going on at the beginning of the book, while also not much happening if that makes any sense? I feel like a lot of the beginning could have been cut down and it would have made this book so much better. I also wasn't too much a fan of the main character which could be where my main qualms come with this book. For me, she was unlikable to the point where I didn't really want to root for her at all. There have been books where I have HATED the main characters, but that was the point. You were meant to hate them. With this, that isn't the case. I didn't want to dislike Bella, but I did.

I thought It was a read but i found it quite boring. I was always losing my place, zoning out, or I couldn’t keep my eyes open. It just didn’t hit right for me. It wasn’t what I thought it was going to be.

Although this was a cute read, I found myself completely zoning out during parts of it. For the length of the book, I was hoping for more depth, more entertainment, really just something to grab my attention. Thankfully by the end all the loose ends were tied up.

If you are looking for a cute read, this is a good choice.

Rounded up to a 3.5

I see what Luci Adams was trying to do with the protagonist, Bella Marble. She’s sweet and insufferable all at once LOL. She’s also very relatable, which is why I decided to read this book. Yeah sometimes she’s unlikable, but she feels flawed and human.

Where this book falls short for me concerns the premise for Bella’s novel. I suppose it would’ve taken away from the plot if she realized she didn’t have to live what she wrote. I kept waiting for something like that to happen but it never did! I admire Luci Adam’s commitment to really put Bella through some things in order to make her grow.

There’s a wholesome message that really hit me in the gut wrapped up in this story. I like the humourous touch, I was very amused and even laughed out loud.

Thank you, NetGalley, for providing an eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Thank you net galley for the advance reader copy of this novel. I didn't finish this novel. The opening of this with sex was enough to shut down any desire to read this. Other reviewers commented on the protagonist acting slutty but wasn't prepared for the opening. Not for me.

This is a first time read for me by this author so I didn't know what to expect when I picked this up. I found this to be a fun and enjoyable read. It's a cute romcom and good for a light-hearted read to just relax on a cozy evening. Bella is single and watching all her friends move on and she can't help but feel a little left behind. Her life is not what she imagined it to be, and she is going to do something about it. Through this fun and cute read, we follow Bella on her journey as she tries to find herself and what makes her happy.
This was a feel-good story with interesting characters and plenty of laugh out loud moments along the way. Glad to have had the opportunity to read it!
I received a complimentary copy from Netgalley and am voluntarily leaving my review.

I struggled to follow the plot of this book. Some of the parts we enjoyable, but others I just really struggled to stay engaged. I didn’t feel a connection to the characters like I would have liked to.

Wow! It was such a refreshing and fun read. I had the best of my times. I absolutely loved the main characters it was so authentically written with gritty and yet quite an engaging writing style. I’m in awe. Absolutely loved it

ABSOLUTELY loved this book. It was such a breath of fresh air to read about a woman taking ownership of her sexuality and having some fun. I loved the idea behind the plot and recounting her dates as fairy tales turned comedy. Even though I sorta knew the ending (because, let's face it - most modern romances have this happily ever after), the payoff was still wonderful. I loved the sexual tension between Bella and the {I won't give away who it is in this review}. And the BANTER - chef's kiss!

As someone who doesn't usually get super excited about modern romances, this one was so much better than the more popular books from Ali Hazelwood and Emily Henry. Thanks so much to the publisher for an ARC of this book - I can't wait to buy it once it comes out!

SPOILERS:
I personally loved that the ending wasn't the typical "girl gets the boy and they get married." I loved even that the author kept it as more of a Frozen lesson where the two friends are each other's soulmates rather than their partners. That really warmed my heart.