Ehh - this was not great. I thought that Bella was annoying - kind of like Bridget Jones - but not funny. The book was slow and didn't keep me interested.

I really enjoyed this story! I really relate to the struggles of being the single friend and dating in these times with serial daters and apps. It was fun to read Bellas story and struggles!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC of this wonderfully delightful story!

Bella is our main character in this story, and she is flat out hilarious. There were so many parts of this book that made me literally laugh out loud, which made for such an enjoyable read! Bella begins the story living in a flat share with her best friend, searching for her Prince Charming and attempting to become a writer. A series of dates gone wrong become her inspiration for her writing throughout the story and slowly begin to test her relationships with her friends. Bella is forced to examine her life and make some changes to get the happily ever after she desires.

This story has fun secondary characters, tons of witty banter, and a beautiful friendship woven in. I give it 4.5 stars and really enjoyed reading it. I would definitely read more from this author in the future!

first of all, thanks to netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review.

this was a dnf for me. it didn't work for me at all. I found Bella really annoying and the book didn't hold my attention. I often found myself skimming through the book looking for something that would make me like it more, but I didn't find it.

I'm someone who understands the feeling of seeing everyone around you moving forward and you feeling like you're left behind. but I couldn't deal with the way Bella dealt with the people around her because of that feeling. I thought she was often too childish and selfish.

This story was awful. Bella is a terrible person and how she treated Ellie and Mark was horrendous. Then Mark apologizes to her?! She was completely in the wrong about the entire situation. Bella was immature and unlikeable in every possible way. I can’t even comment on the rest of this book. I want to delete this one and forget it.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC of this book!

This rom com grabbed me instantly and felt very relatable! I finally feel seen! It's hard to be the single friend who watches all your friends "moving on" with their lives and you feel a bit left behind despite kissing all the frogs. Having your best friend suddenly have a different best friend is not a hurt that goes away easily. It also wasn't totally obvious where the story was going the whole time, so it was fun to go along for the ride trying to figuring out what Bella would do. I wish we had an epilogue (or maybe a sequel) so we get a little more of Bella's happy ending.

I think this book will be a hit with all the late 20s/early 30s single people who feel a bit disenchanted by romance and dating apps.

| About |

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.


| Thoughts |

3.5 stars! Charming, witty, funny. Total women empowerment with a touch of romance. I’d definitely classify this as a rom-com, and I want more. It was a beautiful debut novel and now I must have more of Bella Marble’s world. I need to know what happens next. It was a fun mash of fairytales in a rather unexpected way. Not quite the fairytale ending I was expecting. There were a few moments I thought I knew the direction she (Bella) was headed and I was pleasantly surprised. I did somewhat guess the ending but it did have a nice build up to it. I had a hard time putting it down once I got a third of the way through it. I really just wanted a concrete answer of how things were going to turn out. While it did try to wrap things up in a pleasant ending it does seem a bit unfinished. Like there might be another novel in the wings and more of Bella’s world.

While I liked the book itself and the premise of the book I do have to agree with other reviews that Bella is a bit selfish and self destructive. Could she have been less so and the book still be the same? I don’t think so. It painted her as human to me. We’ve all had those days. There was a few characters that I would have liked to be more rounded out as well and some I didn’t see the point in evening being in the book at all. All in all I’d recommend this book to someone wanting a quick entertaining read.

Thank you NetGalley, St Martins Press and Luci Adams for the gifted arc in exchanged for my honest review.

While the story was entertaining, it just didn’t grab me as much as I would have liked. I wanted more depth and more feeling. Given the length of the book, I was hoping to feel more attached to the characters. The characters were good, but they weren’t outstanding.

The ending was cute and tied up all the loose ends nicely.

If you enjoy sweet reads, Not That Kind of Ever After by Luci Adams might be the book for you!

ARC kindly provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

"Not That Kind of Ever After" by Luci Adams is a serendipitous read loosely based on the premise of the protagonist’s dating experiences being mirrored by fairy tale narratives while she stumbles towards finding her Prince Charming-who-is-perhaps-not-necessarily-a-Prince Charming. I call this read serendipitous only because I am taking a class on writing fairy tales right now, and also I love fairy tale retellings. There are many flashes of brilliance in this book, but it is ultimately not a comfortable read. I would classify it as more Women’s Fiction than Romance. It is written in the first person POV.

The main plotline of the novel doesn’t really start - or at least become clear - until we’re about 50% into of the book. The first half can easily be cut to about half its current length. There are also a lot of characters in the story, and the first half of the book feels confusing because we keep meeting new ones every few pages without any significant forward movement of the plot. We also don’t get to know many of these characters particularly well. Tighter editing would have helped with all of these issues and made this an easier read. This novel reads as significantly longer than average. (It is ~400 pages where the average romance novel seems to be about 350 pages.)

We do not have a likable narrator here. She is judgmental and selfish. I did feel for her, and she was even quite relatable at various points in the story. Those were the flashes of brilliance that I really enjoyed. But, I don’t know that she felt fully redeemed by the conclusion. That’s not necessarily required in a story, but in a Contemporary Romance where we’re looking at HEAs, I generally enjoy feeling like the HEA is deserved.

In regard to the primary conflict of the book, I will first share a disclaimer that best friend break-ups, while an important trope, are also one of my least favorites. Without going further into spoiler territory, this conflict was handled semi-satisfactorily in that there are significant apologies for the shaming of a character’s sexual activities. However, from a style perspective, this process of resolution involves many monologues. The narrator’s internal monologue specifically is the most frustrating because these are stream of conscious clusters telling us (rather than showing us) her every thought as she bounces between self-flagellation/guilt and figuring out what she feels she deserves.

Ultimately, the plot, the primary romantic interest, and the relatability of the protagonist still made this book worth three stars for me. However, I am taking off a star because the narrator’s description of French and German people feels like stereotyping and a bit discriminatory. There was no reason for the characters who were labeled by nationality to be labeled as such either. Emphasizing their nationalities doesn’t add anything to their characters that would have been missed if they were just…additional characters in the book without a clear nationality like most of the other characters. I’ll be curious to see other folks’ thoughts on this book. In addition, thank you to NetGalley for this e-ARC!

Princess Diaries meets Bridget Jones’ Diary with modern love perspective! I liked the intriguing opening and even though I found Bella a little bit annoying in the beginning, I slowly start to connect with her as her immatureness starts to evolve into something more tolerable and easy to resonate with.

Bella is regular girl who dreams of happily ever after with her Prince Charming but what if all those HEAs are full of cliches and only seen at the fairytales?

It was fun to be a witness Bella’s dating journey, her interactions with her close friends, her mistakes, her tantrums, her self growth.
Her story deserves your patience. I can understand some of the reviewers stop reading the book after getting irritated with the heroine but the book is unexpectedly smart and it contains a lot of surprises.

The writing is riveting. The pacing is balanced. The supporting characters are likable ( I agree they are more likable than heroine, but please give her extra chance)

Overall: I kept on reading instead of putting it down and I sincerely enjoyed it. So I’m rounding up 3.5 stars to four modern dating, learning to live yourself, self growth stars!

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press/ St. Martin’s Griffin for sharing this digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest opinions.

This book wasn't entirely what I expected it to be. I mean I knew pretty much immediately how the story would end, but there were many more twists and turns in the middle that I didn't expect. It did get a little difficult to root for Bella for a minute there, but I powered through it and was very happy with the ending. Would I read it again? Considering how lengthy my tbr is, probably not. Would I still recommend it to anyone and everyone who asks? Yes. 100%.

A modern day Bridget Jones, only better than I could ever imagine! The heroine of our story is funny, awkward, bold and beautiful. She's also flawed and human and a mess. It's just the right touches of ridiculous and real. Could not put it down!

First Thank you #netgalley for the ARC of this book,

I’d give this a 3.5⭐️

This had a princess diaries feel too me, The characters have that quirky/nerdy vibe going for them.

The main character Bella has been friends with Ellie and Marty( Ellie’s twin brother) since childhood when Ellie gets in engaged Bella goes though a midlife crisis of sorts where she questions what she’s even doing with her life and at the same she becomes Desperate to find her own One True Love.

The plot is a good concept. The side characters could be amazing if they had a little more time to shine. Our main character Bella is not the most likable of characters but she has her moments. This is a well written rom-com. If you love those this is the book for you. I was able to figure out where the book was going right away but still had fun getting there. It’s a nice fast read. I really enjoyed the pacing of the book. FYI there is sex in this book but I felt like it’s more of a 3 out of 5🔥&🌶. It’s not as graphic as some other stuff I’ve read. But be warned if that’s not something you like you might not want to pick it up.

Though my main complaint would be how quick her happier ever after happened. Also the whole conflict with Marty at the end didn’t feel natural it had more of a oh they need to fight in order for their story to progress type of feel. Basically the last two chapters felt more rushed then fast if that makes since.

But over all I had fun for the most part reading this book. I have a few friends love these type of rom-coms so I’ll definitely be recommending this to them.

DNF The protag was childish and annoying, I just couldn't care about her. Pacing was slow. I tried to get into the book but it was frontloaded with all the (mature) people she dislikes because she doesn't understand them and is spoiled.

I had to DNF this book halfway through. I found the main character Bella (Isabella) rather annoying and desperate, like the other reviews have said. This was not a story that was able to keep my attention. I saw the potential however I just could not bring myself to finish. I found myself skimming the pages for something that might intrigue me and having to force myself to go back and read it again.

I expected to like this more than I did, I love retellings and fairy tale parodies would be right up my alley, but the humour sadly slid off me like water off a duck's back. The opening scene was catchy and the character's inner dialogue hilarious, but the storyline past that didn't keep my interest and I ended up feeling dissatisfied instead of happy as I usually end up after a light and fluffy plot. I'm sure it's not going to be the same for others, though, humour is always so personal and what's a miss for me will be a hit for another reader.

OMG this was such a good book. I was having a really difficult day, but this book made me so happy. It made me laugh, cry, smile, all of the emotions! I finished reading this book in less than one day. I couldn't put it down.

I read 2 reviews on NetGalley that DNF. I think that's a loss for them. This book wasn't just another female character looking to get married and finding her Prince Charming. Yes, that's what she thought she wanted. But the more she lived her life, she learned more about herself, and she grew from it. Another reviewer said Bella was chaotic, and I think she was at the beginning but you watch her change throughout the book. I don't think it was a bad thing that she was chaotic in the beginning. You see her go through a lot of change and some trauma in her life. I think the author did a great job showing the chaos of Bella's life.

I loved the humorous way Bella finds her way through this book. Without giving away any spoilers, I loved seeing the growth that she went through and self-realization that made her a better person. I definitely loved the ending. Bella and Ellie's friendship was really sweet, and I'm happy the book ended the way it did. I know I just used "loved" a lot but seriously, I loved this book. The roommates, friends, and dates were all such fun characters to meet and get to know.

I can't wait for the author to write another book so I can read it!

DNF - I'm so, so, very, very, tired of characters like Isabella ("Bella"). I'm tired of reading about women who are beyond desperate for love as though life cannot be enjoyed & appreciated without a romantic partnership & as though jumping on the first prospective person you see might not leave you in a literal loveless relationship. Just once, I want to see a woman be written as kind, smart, content in her own being & strong; someone who is not licking the dirt off the floor or "riding reverse cowgirl"-faking enjoyment-because she reeks with the desperation of needing a man to feel fulfilled in life. Certainly, these books are targeted at someone. However, I believe that even those people who might relate to a character such as Bella deserve for these books to be written with some level of gravitas.

Bella has no redeeming features; she is ultimately a caricature of what a real life-flesh-and-blood person would be. I was eager for this book; I was hopeful for a story that I could immerse myself in. Instead, I found myself face-to-face with a character who was as dense as a plank of wood & didn't care to change that, so long as she had a prospective date lined up.

I really enjoyed getting to know Bella, it does what I was hoping for when I saw the description. The story was beautifully done and I thoroughly enjoyed going through the story with the charatcers. The characters felt like real people and I was invested in their happiness. The romance aspect worked perfectly and had the charm of a fairy tale book. I can't wait to read more from Luci Adams.

"I don’t look like a delicate flower caught in the eye of the storm at all. I look like a drowned rat. In the movies it’s always so romantic in the rain, but here I’m cold and wet. My ginger hair is dyed dark as it clumps on my head, weighed down even heavier with the Rapunzel extensions I chose to keep in, and I can feel dark mascara already running from my eyes. I look almost exactly like the Joker."

This was a rare DNF for me. The main character, Bella, was so chaotic and disconnected from her own life in the opening chapters that I did not want to spend any more time with her. I’m just not the right reader for this novel, Thanks to NetGalley for providing a copy of this book..