You know that your in for an interesting read when the story opens with the FMC reconsidering her life choices while in reverse cowgirl on "the harriest man in London." Not that kind of Ever After does just that for the introduction of Bella, an aspiring writer and hopeless romantic.

Readers are taken on a journey with Bella as she attempts to find her happily ever after and writes countless sordid tales about the experience on a wattpad-esque site. As the title suggests, there are lots of references to different fairytales, from Little Red Riding Hood to Snow White, she covers the gambit of dirty fairytale retellings.

Bella is one of those characters that you will love and hate. She is far from flawless and at times straight up irritating, but that is what make her a realistic character. Bella (luckily) has good character growth and recognizes that she struggles with things like jealousy.

One of my favorite parts of the story was the side characters. From the odd couple that moves into her apartment to Marty, a guy who reminded me a bit of Barney from How I Met Your Mother (but more stable), they had me laughing and smiling throughout. I guess you could argue that Marty is a main character but, I liked him too much to lump him in with Bella.

This is definitely an open-door romance but not an erotica. Use that info as you will to determine where it ranks in your own spice rankings. Overall, this was a funny romcom that also explores a woman's growth as she works to find herself and what she wants (or needs) in life. This is definitely a slower moving story. Readers are given almost a stream of consciousness narration from Bella which can cause it to drag on a bit at times.

Happy Reading!
-Bookish Bay

All thoughts and opinions expressed in the above review are my own. Thank you to Luci Adams and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read and review this book before it's release date.

I don’t think this book was a good fit for me. I enjoyed the beginning of the book, but then it became very repetitive. I tried to get into it, but I ended up DNF it. I know others loved it! I recommend checking their thoughts on it.

This book started with a bang – the opening sentence made me laugh out loud, and I actually took a photo of it and sent it to my girlfriends! Unfortunately, the rest was pretty hit or miss. Bella is a receptionist at a publishing company who desperately wants to be a writer; she signs up for a website that allows aspiring authors to get feedback on their work in progress, and starts posting stories of her dating escapades, all styled after fairytales. I found that plotline really interesting; what I hated was Bella’s immaturity and desperation, which permeates the whole book. She’s creepily obsessed with her best friend; she sleeps around for validation; and she won’t take responsibility for anything and takes everything (like her parents’ divorce) as a personal affront. The writing is absolutely stellar and full of great gems, but Bella is so immature and frustrating that it was hard to really embrace the plot. I am not a fan of hot mess main characters, so this plot just wasn’t really for me.

I'm not sure what it is about this book, but I had a really hard time getting into it. The writing is good, but I honestly don't think I connected to the characters the way I had hope to. Thank you so much for letting me read it early! I will be checking out Luci's other books in the future!

A different kind of romcom. Main Character Bella wants her happily ever after, but of course she doesn’t find the kind with Prince Charming. This book was not what I expected, but it was a fun read.

This book wasn't my favorite. I don't feel like much actually happened in this book. The blurb explains everything that happened in the story. There was no reason this book needed to be so long! The character felt flat and I didn't really feel connected to any of them.

DNF CH 57. It’s becoming repetitive and I don’t feel like picking it up any more. The beginning had me laughing out loud but it feels long for what it is.

I always appreciate a quirky main character in a romcom and Bella Marble is adorably unique. She definitely has a Bridget Jones quality about her. This my friends is not your traditional romcom or fairy tale as the title may have you believing. It's a tale of a young female writer hellbent on finding her one true love & prince charming only to realize she's been kissing unsuspecting frogs all along. When she realizes she's been living all of the wrong fairy tales she decides to change her story and give up on her ever-elusive prince charming. Instead she begins looking for stories within her dating life in hopes of kickstarting her writing career via a popular writing blog website. What ensues is a hilarious, but messy string of events that ultimately help Bella grow as a writer, a person and a heroin who finds her rightful prince charming after many,many frogs and other unsavory fairy tale characters.

You will love this book if:
-You like Bridget Jones Diary
-You like flawed main characters
-You like fairy tales and happy endings 😉
-You have endured the woes of dating apps

A special thank you to @NetGalley @stmartinspress and the author for my ARC in exchange for my honest review.

While this author has a truly funny and entertaining voice, this book didn't really seem to be about anything, and I found myself constantly getting frustrated with the main character rather than rooting for her.

2.5 stars

The direction of this book wasn't very clear until halfway through the book - if I wasn't reading this to review I would have given up on it much sooner. While it wasn't what I expected in a romance, this book was riddled with funny moments as our main character Bella navigated her best friend and roommate moving in with her fiancé, her non-starter of a writing career, and dating.

Thank you to #NetGalley and St Martin's Press for the arc!

Not That Kind of Ever After is a charming, slow read with a feel good end. It does have quite a few laugh out loud moments in the beginning as you follow along with Bella. Overall, I felt like Bella was just not relatable to me and I found her hard to connect with as I read. I was really intrigued by the blurb and the cover but once I started to get into the story it just felt slow and painful as Bella figures out her way through life and what she wants.
Thanks NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC.

This was a really quick and well done read! I enjoyed the characters and watching how her "ever after" played out.

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an arc for an honest review.

⭐️⭐️.5

𝙁𝙖𝙞𝙧𝙮𝙩𝙖𝙡𝙚 𝙢𝙚𝙚𝙩𝙨 𝙛𝙚𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙞𝙨𝙢 𝙞𝙣 𝙖 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙮 𝙖𝙙𝙫𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙬𝙤𝙢𝙖𝙣’𝙨 𝙟𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙣𝙚𝙮 𝙩𝙤 𝙘𝙡𝙖𝙞𝙢 𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙥𝙞𝙡𝙮 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙖𝙛𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙨𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙖𝙡 𝙙𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜, 𝙨𝙬𝙞𝙥𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙧𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙦𝙪𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙛𝙞𝙣𝙙 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙨𝙤𝙪𝙡𝙢𝙖𝙩𝙚.

📍 Read if you like:
• Happily Ever Afters
• Slow Reads
• Funny Moments
• Fairytales

I went into this book without much knowledge, but I remember I requested it a while ago on NetGalley and was approved.

I really wish I would’ve loved this book more than I did, but I had so many issues with it.

This was a feminist take on the “happy ever after” with our MC, Bella. After a terrible one-night stand, she decides to stop looking for her happily ever after… until she meets her Prince Charming.

There were some times were I found myself laughing, and the beginning of the book was hilarious - the way it started was definitely “interesting”.

While I understood Bella, I didn’t connect with her at all. She came across as whiny and intolerable. I liked the idea that she wanted to become a writer, but she never listened to herself and pursued that dream. I also didn’t care too much for Marty.

The whole time I kept questioning where the plot was. The story felt so dull and empty. The book is also way too long for it to be that slow and lackluster.

Thank you so much NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the review copies in exchange for my honest review!

•𝗧𝗪/𝗖𝗪: Sexual content, alcohol, cursing, misogyny

This was a fun fairy tale twist romance. Belle wanted to be an author but became a publishing company's receptionist. She wants to find her happy ending but has no luck dating and finds out that her parents are getting divorced. She finds out about an online short story publishing site and, on a whim, posts about a failed date under the guise of it being a fairytale retelling, and her story suddenly goes viral. At the same time, she is struggling with her best friend, Ellie, moving out of the apartment they shared and getting married to someone she doesn't like for her. Ellie and Belle end up estranged, and she somehow gets closer to Ellie's brother Marty. In the end, Belle notices that she shouldn't be expecting a happy ever after since she's not living in a fairytale and that her person is closer to her than she expected.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This cover captured my attention, which is why I requested it in the first place. And while the story wasn't terrible (I've certainly read worse), it wasn't great, by any means. Bella is supposed to be 29 in this story but she came off incredibly juvenile. I'm 31 for crying out loud and I couldn't imagine doing half the things that she did. However, it did have it's moments and I found myself smiling and laughing so I couldn't give it anything else but three stars.

Based on the blurb, i thought this would be a fun and cute little fairtale rom-com.
but unfortunately this book just felt awkward and i was not a fan of the FMC.
She was very one dimensional and whiney.
There were a few parts that had me chuckling but over all this book fell very flat for me.
I really had to push to finish this one.

Thank you St. Martin’s Press & NetGalley for the ARC.

3 stars!

I was super excited for this because I love fairytales and best friend's brother. However, I felt like Bella as a protagonist was just very one dimensional. I thought that the fairytale one night stand portions were fun and creative but everything else was fairly predictable and not unlike anything I've read before.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

The plot and idea of this book seemed very interesting to me as a lover of fairy tales, but the execution felt very awkward and uncomfortable. I got to about 25% and then decided this book just wasn’t for me.

I just couldn’t connect to Bella at all. She was winey and annoying and a very woe is me person. It makes it hard to enjoy a story when the main character is not your cup of tea.

Cute and laugh out loud moments.

I didn't love this one as much as I'd hoped. I'm pretty sure it was my mood, but nonetheless, I did not finish it to the end. I think anyone loving RomComs will also love this. I have no complaints, I just didn't fall in love with it.