I love when the main character is writing a book. I think it give me insight on the Authors process. Modern Twist on fairy tales was super fun! Would definitely recommend.

This was so well written. I was engrossed from the first page and it ticked all the boxes of my expectations. The character development was excellent. I would definitely recommend to others, a must read!

The description of this book sounded right up my alley. I love fairy tales, love when someone wants to find love so badly and the 'one' for her seems to be the complete opposite of what she thought she wanted the entire time.

There were things about this book I enjoyed. Bella and Marty had such fun banter and I loved the witty dialog. It was hard to like Bella in the beginning, she seemed so young and immature BUT I think that was the entire point. You were supposed to see her grow and mature throughout the book. Even though Bella wasn't necessarily a likeable main character at times, it was a cute story that made me laugh several times as I was reading. I would recommend as a nice, easy pallet cleaner read. 3.5 stars

Not That Kind of Ever After by Luci Adams was a fun twist on the fairytale retelling that has been going around a lot lately. The book is funny and sweet, but our main character seems to cause all her own problems. Our MC is in her late twenties working a receptionist job while aspiring to be a novelist. She also yearns for her own fairytale love story. As she dates, she starts writing and posting about the situations through a kind of fairytale lens on an online forum. As her popularity grows, the MC changes, and acts differently towards those in her real life.

The twist on fairytales was fun but also felt repetitive at times and it was hard to empathize with an MC that caused her own trouble. I still think the writing was done well and the premise is super fun and cute!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my ARC!

Bella is stuck in her life, while she's searching for Prince Charming, she keeps getting a lot of duds. With this inspiration, she begins to write chapters out portraying her dates. In the meantime, she's also navigating family and friends around her moving on to their next chapters in life. At first, I wasn't finding Bella likeable, but as the story continued on, I started to see her in a different light and started to root for her to get her happy ever after and her personal growth. There were antics in this story that had me giggling at times. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an advanced copy! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Bella Adam’s loves romcoms and wants a fairytale romance. She wants to be swept off her feet by a Disney-esque prince. She turns to online dating to help her in your journey.

“If I’m in the wrong fairytale, then I’m turning it to the right one. I don’t want to be the ugly stepsister. I don’t want to be little red riding hood. I want to be cinder-fucking-rella. And to do that I need to re-write my story. So, here’s my glass slipper. The time is almost midnight. With any luck my own Prince Charming will find it and bring it straight back to me… or at the very least call 📱 “

Title: Not that Kind of Ever After
Author: Luci Adams
Release Date: March 14th, 2023
Page Count: 284
Format: Audiobook and Netgalley
Start Date: March 18th, 2023
Finish Date: March 20th, 2023

Rating: 5 Stars

Review:

There are so many layers in this story. Luckily, the layers won't make the reader cry. She gets sick of trying to find her ever after, so she writes fairytale blog retellings of some of her casual encounters. She wasn't expecting the blogs to take off like they did. Nobody knows it's her that's writing them. I don't feel comfortable continuing to explain the book. I'd wind up explaining the entire book. I would love to find others to talk about this book with. I really loved the creativity behind it all. I'll would love to reread it again one day. Also, isn't this an adorable cover? Hopefully the future covers will be just as adorable.

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.