Received electronic advanced copy from netgalley for an honest review. Lets start with the blurb basically tells you the story.

So I am a sucker for fairytales so of course the title pulled me in. But sadly I just didn't relate to the FMC.. Bella was in such a desperate state for her fairy tale she took her friends and strangers for granted, And every time I thought she would redeem herself, She would just revert to her self centered ways. So much so it was hard to wrap my head around how she eventually gets her happy ending.

Another reason I had a difficult time with the story was there were a lot of characters but not a lot of back story so it took away from the enjoyment of what was a good premise.

Although I did struggle to get through it. It was still a lovely story and would like to read more books by this author.

Everything that Bella Marble counted on is crumbling. Ellie, her best friend and roommate, is moving out to live with her boring boyfriend. Bella's "perfect" parents are divorcing, and her dream job in publishing is going nowhere. But instead of dealing with each situation with acceptance, grace, and maturity, Bella chooses to blame, complain, and act irresponsibly.

This is the first book by this author, and I applaud her cleverness in embracing a fairy tale theme, as evidenced by the stories Bella writes about her one-night stands. But I would have appreciated a little more depth in the character of Bella, to make her more likeable. Also, Bella unnecessarily risks personal danger by seeking out these one-nighters, but there are no apparent consequences.

The debut author definitely has talent, and I look forward to seeing how her style and content matures. I would love to see more expansion of the romantic relationship and more development and redemption for her main character.

My thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read and provide an honest review of this book.

The premise of this book is hilarious, and the writing is quick and witty. It reminded me of Sophie Kinsella, which, trust me, is a HIGH compliment.

My issue is with the main character, Bella. I know we want our romance heroines to be relatable and real, but she was just so selfish for 90% of the book. It was hard to root for her when she was so unkind to everyone around her.

But I would definitely read this author again.

Thank you to NetGalley, SMP, and the author for the eARC in exchange for my review.

Usually, a romance inspired by fairy tales can be cringey. This one wasn't at all. The different princess tropes were humorous, realistic, and one of the least important parts of the book. Bella's relationships took priority over her one-night stands and we got to watch as she realized what was important and what wasn't. I knew she would find her prince charming at the end, but I'm glad that she came through her ordeal knowing she isn't a princess.
I am grateful to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

From the opening scene, I wanted to scream at Bella. Bella was trying to find her true love and made poor choice after poor choice. I found that Bella was a shallow self-centered individual who thought little of her friends. Marty and Ellie were two characters that kept me reading the book when I got so aggravated with Bella and the choices she was making.

The only redeeming parts of this book was Marty and the fact that Bella finally realized that she was being ungrateful to everyone in her life. I was rooting for Marty and Bella.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you St. Martin's for the review copy of Not That Kind of Ever After from Luci Adams (via NetGalley). This is a like but not relate it kind of book; a women's fiction that maybe works better for a reader who can relate to the messy chaos of Bella's life. 3 stars for me, 4 stars rounded up because I think in fairness this book achieved every goal Ms. Adam's had in terms of developing a character and her story and creating a world that I think is relatable for many readers (strong writing as well).

I loved the writing, Luci Adams did draw me into Bella's world very effectively and it simply was that after a bit I just felt less interested in where the story was going, questioning a lot of how people treated each other in this story.

Overall, I was confused about the direction of the story, was it about Bella becoming a writer? Finding her HEA? Growing up (mean that nicely)? working out her friendships? The book could be all of these things and was but Bella just felt a little too self focused and surrounded by equally unfocused and at times selfish people, excluding Marty who was described as being uncaring but was actually the one who seemed most available (perhaps indeed the point...). I also struggled a bit with background characters' descriptions, such as the new German neighbors as it felt a bit stereotypical and unfair.

It all came together but I was often surprised at how disconnected Bella seemed and how perhaps a lot of her relationships weren't as strong as they should have been.

My notes should be taken with a grain of salt, I think that the writing and development of the story are strong, I really did like Luci Adams' style and it seems like maybe more wrong book/wrong time/bit of the wrong audience in me. I will still recommend this, I think there are a lot of readers who will click with this story.

Recommended for fans of The Lifestyle, Sophie Cousens, and similar book. I think Gen Z readers (readers in their 20s) will in particular find resonance with Bella's story.

Bella Marble’s life isn’t what she expected or wanted – she is still working as a receptionist at her publishing company rather than having her own novel published; she is still single; her best friend Ellie is moving out to live with her boring, unworthy fiancé; and her parents, whose perfect love story makes her believe in love, are getting divorced. When Ellie’s brother Marty recommends Ellie look for someone she wants to spend the night with rather than the one, Ellie decides to take his advice since her current strategy obviously isn’t working. When she posts a fairy-tale retelling of a horrible one-night stand on a storytelling app, her pen name B.Enchanted goes viral, and she chases the high of each next chapter. When her life ends up more of a mess than ever, she has to figure out what is most important to her in life and what she’s willing to sacrifice to get it.

Yeesh, this main character was a hot mess, easily one of the most selfish characters I’ve read about. While I was interested to see how she would spin her one-night stands into a fairy tale, it was hard to root for her. The story had a quite memorable opening line but did not hold up to that standard as it went on. Marty was my favorite part of this book; other favorite moments would be the scenes where Bella meets other authors from the storytelling app she uses. Overall, this book just wasn’t for me.

Many thanks to NetGalley for providing me an ARC of this book.

This book had SO MUCH POTENTIAL which makes it disappointing to give only 2 stars. I thought Bella's antics in hooking up with guys and writing stories comparing her sexcapades to fairy tales quite original and funny. I laughed out loud quite a few times.
But there are two major problems.
First, it is super unclear who the love interest is. I almost think it would be better to make it Bella's journey to self-acceptance rather than love because the connection with Marty was unremarkable. For how long the book was, you'd think there'd be time to develop the relationship between Bella and Marty further.
The bigger problem, is just how unlikable Bella is. She's a shitty friend, treats people poorly, and complains CONSTANTLY. I had 0 sympathy for any of her qualms because she whined so much.
This book is passable at best, but rather forgettable.

The premise for this story is a really cute one. The main character Bella works herself through a series of modern fairy tales as she looks for her Prince Charming. As she works her way through writing up her dating encounters as fairy tales, she finds a website called B Reader where authors can upload chapters of their books to share with fans. As her fairy tales get more interesting her following on the site grows, but her personal life and friendships start falling apart. Bella needs to decide how her story will end, and what her fairy tale ending will look like. The idea was cute, and I loved the side characters in this book. I did struggle to connect with the main character which is why I took a star off. I found Bella to be pretty selfish and immature for 85% or more of this story, and I found myself wishing her journey to grow up started much earlier in the book. Otherwise, a very cute story. I received an ARC and this is my honest review.

NOT THAT KIND OF EVER AFTER by Luci Adams is a frothy, humorous romance about career and relationship goals in a time of Wattpad (B-reader), social media, dating apps, and trying to have it all by 30.

Bella’s wanted The One and A Wedding since she was little. Now it feels like everyone, including her bestie, is coupled up. Or at least coupling. And she’s out in the cold. So she turns to writing about her string of one-night stands/dating disasters and publishing them online with callbacks to fairytales. This is great until she shifts from looking for a great guy to date to seeking out sensational stories that she can relate to fairytales, all to please her fans, and wrecking her friendships in the process.

This is a delicious umbrella cocktail of a read - sweet but with a kick. Lots of humorous takes and witty banter but some serious looks too at the inequalities of dating expectations between men and women.

While i like the IDEA of this book, i felt myself being very bored during 50-60% of it. It felt predictable and cringy at times. With that, I feel like the way the book was split into parts was kind of pointless to me, they didn’t really distinguish a difference for me to be honest.

I didn’t dislike this book per say, i just found it wasn’t very memorable or different.

If you’re looking for a textbook feel-good romcom, this would be the perfect book for you.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an eARC in return for an honest review.

DNF at 40%
I had a very difficult time getting into this one, but I tried my best to give it time. Overall, I just had trouble connecting with the characters and it wasn’t a good fit for me.

Not what I expected but definitely a very charming and light hearted read! Bella is the epitome of hot mess express! Her life is well everywhere! As everyone around her is moving on Bella feels stuck and is trying to find her forever!

I loved that this book wasn’t your typical romance but more about the love we need to have for ourselves! It’s about discovery and finding happiness within. Bella does have some fun along the way and may have found her prince but in the end she’s her own hero!

Story is split into different parts and has some hilarious pop culture references and I agree there are so many men in Lord of the Rings but Pippen is the best!

A rom com influenced by fairy tales, with a first sentence that includes the phrase “reverse cowgirl”? I’m in!

Loved this story of an aspiring writer looking for her ever after. The characters surrounding her were delightful (go, Hans and Gertie!) though her dates were sometimes appallingly bad. I loved the best friend’s brother plot and the ending was all kinds of warm and fuzzy.

Thanks for the ARC! Would definitely read more by this author.

Interesting read. Aspiring novelist Bella Marble, after a not-so-great date with Mr. Wolf, decides to use her dating life to write a series of stories based on fairytales. Her updated spin gains notice online and lead her to be a bit more adventurous as she does research. The ins and outs leave us a bit frazzled, but Bella and her friends seem to end up in a good place.

I received a DIGITAL Advance Reader Copy of this book from #NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I wanted to like this book more than I did unfortunately. It wasn't bad but I've read some books lately that have blown this away. Parts of it were entertaining but I put the book down a lot because it wasn't fully holding my attention or I got a little bored.

I also really didn't like the main character. At the beginning I found her to be an idiot but as the book moved on she stayed an idiot and also became insufferable. I understand that she goes on her journey to not be that anymore but it was a little bit of a quick fix.

A cute, different spin on a classic rom com trope - a late twenties girls best friend gets engaged and is leaving her behind in singledom. After a particularly bad first date, she takes to the internet to share her anything but “fairy tale” dating life and it quickly becomes an obsession that tears apart her life and makes her realize what matters.

While it wasn’t a ground breaking plot, the fun fairy tale angle and the witty main character Bella made it an enjoyable Sunday afternoon read.

If you’re looking for a Bridget Jones ish read, you won’t be disappointed.

All aboard the hot mess express!

Bella’s life isn’t going to plan, so she attempts to turn it around by having interesting hookups and writing about them.

Part romance, part journey of self discovery, this book fell flat for me. I found Bella to be excessively tiresome with her first people pleasing behavior that turned into self-destruction back into people pleasing. I didn’t understand why the people in her life kept giving her chances. At the same time, most of the people in her life sucked, too.

The premise was really cute, so you might like it if you want to read about a hot mess express!!

Thanks to NetGalley for this Advanced Reader Copy. All thoughts are my own.

This book was an easy and quick read. I think the premise of the book was fun! I think most people could write a book about the dating apps and the dating scene before finding their prince charming.

I didn’t like Bella’s character. To be honest, she was a bit awful. Marty, though 😍

Not That Kind of Ever After by Luci Adams
Pub. Date: March 14/23
Format: eARC
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

So thankful to @netgalley and St. Martin’s Griffen for the opportunity read this ARC.

I really enjoyed this book! I found the storyline interesting and wanted the main character, Bella, to be successful. Yet the story goes in a direction that leads the reader to contemplate their own values and beliefs around sexuality and relationships. I admit I struggled a bit with the self destructive behaviours displayed by Bella. However was also led to consider if it would be viewed the same if the character was male. Thus I found myself wanting to know what would happen. Would there be a happier ever after? I suggest you give a read to find out.