Red Riding Hood
Mirror Mirror
Alice's Cheshire Cat
Sleeping Beauty
Muppets, and Easter Bunny, and Barbie, and kissing frogs
And, of course, Anna & Elsa

A plethora of fairy tale references, right from the start, and a writer MC looking for HEA (happily ever after)

"And I'm a true hopeless, despairing romantic. Above all things, above my wish to be a writer, above my dream to hug David Attenborough one day, above anything and everything, I want love."

"Well maybe that's it. Maybe you're just in the wrong fairy tale." Definitely strong Into the Woods vibes.

Honestly this book is hilarious. An open door romance that doesn't take itself seriously. And it's just fun to read. With a perfect amount of Lord of the Rings references, to top it all off.

'Not That Kind of Ever After' had a potential, but I felt like I reading more than one story. I liked the concept, but the book was very hard to get into and hard to follow at some points. The main character, Bella, is a writer, and she is searching for her own Prince Charming. She draws from her own terrible dates and one night stands to write her latest book. Bella begins this journey when her best friend, Ellie, moves out of their apartment. Bella and Ellie have been best friends since they were kids, and they rely on each other for everything. Bella struggles with losing her friend, and she tries to figure out what her next move will be.

Bella also has a strong bond with Ellie's twin brother, Marty. He is always there for her, but she doesn't see him as more than a friend to her. As the book progresses, will Bella's feelings for Marty change? How does Marty feel about Bella?

I think that Bella's romantic arc seemed like a secondary plot. I would have liked to know more about what happens with Bella and how she would get her happily ever after. I liked the ending because it seemed to wrap everything up, but I wish that there was more to Bella's romance, and I wanted less time spent on Bella's one night stands.

Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

I absolutely loved this book! The plot was amazing I couldn’t put it down. I liked the relationships he had with Marty I thought wow what a great friendship. I didn’t expect him to have such feelings for her up until way later in the book. I’m glad she ended up realizing what was in front of her this whole time.

Thanks to netgalley for an eARC to review.

Good for the 20 something crowd, especially if your friends are all getting married and you are still single.

There were a lot of fun things about this book and by the second half, it started to pick up pace. It took me a little while to get into it and I felt like the first half could have been condensed to give us more later on.

Overall, I felt like the relationship was just starting to blossom and then blam, the book ended. I didn't love any of the characters and I really enjoy having a likeable character or two in a book. It helps me connect to them in a way. Overall, this book missed the mark for me, but I'd love to see what else Luci Adams comes up with in the future. The ideas was fun, but not quite pulled together enough for me.

This is such a cute and fun read! I enjoyed taking this journey with Bella. “Watching” her look for love in all the wrong places but learning and growing as she went through each of her fairytales. Finding herself exactly where she least expected. This book was a really good escape, I appreciated the humor and the refreshing twist on your typical fairytale retellings!

Unfortunately, this book didn’t work for me. I did not click with the writing style so I had to DNF. It was entertaining at times and I think that is definitely has potential.

3.5⭐️

Not That Kind of Ever After is more of a coming of age story than a romance. It’s messy, but in a fun and encouraging way. I read Bella going through her misadventures and rooted for her the same way I think we all root for our messy friends.

Her life begins to spiral after her best friend Ellie gets engaged and I will be quite honest and say that part of me was questioning if Bella deep down actually had romantic feelings for Ellie. A lot of her reactions to Ellie and Mark’s relationship was giving “girl in denial of her feelings toward her best friend.” Alas, that is not the way the story went.

Overall, it was an enjoyable read that left a bit to be desired. The ending felt a bit rushed compared to the pacing of the rest of the book.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Luci Adams hits it out of the park with this debut romance novel. Loosely following different fairy tales, Bella hopes to find her prince charming but ends up kissing a lot of toads. While the story did seem to drag in some places and could have followed the fairy tales a little more closely, the overall book was a fun, romantic comedy that truly had me laughing out loud in places.

I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion.

Bella is someone who expects everything to go a certain way and has a temper tantrum when people decide to make their own decisions. She is so emotionally immature, she comes off as narcissistic. She will keep you on your toes, because right when you think, “Yes! She’s gonna figure out SHE IS THE PROBLEM.” She makes a hard 90 degree turn.

Constantly praised in childhood, Bella takes any sort of criticism as a personal attack. She complains about her best friends fiancé constantly, finding herself to be an innocent bystander. She is possessive of those she cares about, expecting them to stay in the box she created, while putting zero effort into any of her relationships.

Honestly, even through all of that, the writing kept me invested. Bella is an anti-hero, a flawed human just like the rest of us.

Love how this one tries to bust the myth of happy every after. And how it's not always what it cracked up to be.

Thank you to the publisher and to Netgalley for an opportunity with this title. While I picked this up in the mood for some aspects of this book, I feel it might be a little too 'safe' in its plot given how difficult they make Bella to consistently root for. The idea is there, but the execution left a little to be desired.

It took me a while to get into this book but once I did, I devoured it. This was a great story about realizing what you really want in life And growing up. The fairy tale element just added an extra layer of delight into this story. Also the surprise slow burn was amazing!

The book starts with a killer first line and a bizarrely un-steamy scene between Isabelle and her very hairy date, Charles aka Wolf-man. From the beginning the book is well written and incredibly witty. I laughed out loud reading it multiple times in the first few chapters alone.

The banter continues throughout the novel and Bella is truly hilarious. She is also really hard to root for at times throughout the book as she makes some spectacularly silly decisions. It seems that her life is unraveling, from her best friend moving out with her boyfriend/fiancé to her parents separating and Bella working a job she doesn’t love. Instead of dealing with the emotions these events have stirred up in she embarks on this strange fairytale inspired binge of one night stands, bars and drinks. furthermore, she has a hard time processing how her actions might make others feel and she has this rather annoying habit of struggling to respond when someone is upset with her or when they are saying something of significance. Despite this she experiences an enormous amount of growth and by the end your magically rooting for Bella to find love despite all the time you spent frustrated with her throughout the novel.

This book made me laugh and cry even though I had a hard time getting into it at first due to my feelings about Bella, I was devouring it by the end. A good read overall.

Thank you @netgalley and @stmartinspress for this eARC! Not that Kind of Ever After is out March 14th, 2023! ❤️

Worth the read! A funny none traditional rom com with all the laughter , embarrassment and heat you could want!

I bit more sex focused than I'd normally go for. Not super graphic (mostly) but less on the romance side for sure. Overall an ok read through Bella is hard to like.

This was cute and a little bit different then the type of rom com's I typically go for. I don't know that I would have pulled this off the shelf without being nudged by an arc, and I'm happy I did. It is HEAVY on the com, heavy on the language, heavy on the smuttiness, but I liked all of that and it worked for the story.

Isabella “Bella” Marble is obsessed with finding her fairytale man. She dreams of being an author but is a receptionist at a small press, she wants to be happily married but is single and her best friend of 29 years is moving out and getting married to a guy Bella hates. The only person Bella ha sis Marty, her best friend’s brother who always takes care of her. When he recommends she stop looking for “the one” and just have fun, Bella decides that in order to do that she’s going to find a new empowered side of herself by going out with everyone and try anything. After a disaster of a date she posts a fairy-tale retelling of the one night stand on a storytelling app and soon she’s gone viral. But then she gets into a fight with her best friend, her new roommates are weird, and the pressure to create more fairytale bad one night stand experiences to maintain her popularity is rising so... she starts to self sabotage: 1. fighting with her friend 2. going out with people she knows will not be right for her and ending up doing anything to sleep with people she knows will only be good for another story post 3. mistreat her friends 4. actively seek out things that will not make her happy. Bella is not a great person, she’s selfish, childish, and just unlikable. Does she redeem herself by the end of the book? Sort of. However reading 300 pages of her just being unlikable was not a fun time. She is jealous of her best friend but is possessive and hates that her best friend is even getting married, she hates her best friend’s fiancee because she thinks he’s boring and that her best friend can do better... without even taking into consideration maybe that he makes her happy or that maybe she shouldn’t be so possessive and obsessive over her best friend?? Also the romance between Bella and Marty was not there for me, at all. This book just missed the mark unfortunately. For a book about finding fairytale endings, it was definitely lacking the fairytale spark for me.

*Thanks Netgalley and St. Martin's Press, St. Martin's Griffin for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

Rating: 2 / 5 Stars

Thank you to NetGalley & Luci Adams for providing this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was an easy & fun read - but I honestly had trouble staying focused. I couldn’t find myself relating to any of the characters or even fully interested in what they were doing / feeling. The writing style is enjoyable, just couldn’t click with the story.

*arc from NetGalley*
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Pub date: March 14, 2023
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This book ended up being really cute. Bella is a hopeful writer and has been looking for her Prince Charming, but she isn’t having the best luck.
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With her best friend moving out and getting engaged, Bella feels stuck. After yet another date gone wrong, she writes a story in a fairy tale retelling format and goes viral!
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I’ve been obsessed with the Twisted Tales series since I discovered them and this book gives those vibes. I only wish I could’ve read Bella’s stories more.
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This book was beautifully written with the friendships and friends to lovers (one of my faves). And who doesn’t love a good “ahh ha!” moment with their main character??
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🌟🌟🌟🌟/5

Not that Kind of Ever After by Luci Adams is such a fun read. It's written in quick chapters that remind me of scenes in a TV show, but it absolutely works. The main character, Bella, is on a quest to find Prince Charming, but is finding the single scene rather disappointing. When everything seems to be changing around her, she get so wrapped up in creating her own story that she honestly stumbles into hot-mess territory. After receiving some internet fame, she spirals, but her friends are there to pick her up. Definitely worth the read.