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.

DNF

This book has already basically insulted the non-romance driven plots of newer Disney Princess movies, the FMC text bombs a guy she met on a dating app to try to make plans to go on a date, and is basically forcing herself to like him on the first date because she wants him to be her Prince Charming so badly all within the first few chapters. I’m not interested in reading FMC’s that are literally only obsessed with finding a partner. And when he does the *bare minimum* and calls her “pretty” on the first date, she thinks “I was just a girl, sitting in front of a boy, listening to him call her pretty and loving it.” And then, when he asks if she wants to go home with him, the FMC convinces herself to go home with him even though she doesn’t like him and thinks “I was winning at being a modern-day woman.”

I was hoping it would get better, but it’s still just as bad. The FMC’s whole personality is her being desperate to find love and random fairytale references, and I can’t stand it, so I am putting this one down.

This actually started off with a very spicy scene that immediately grabbed my attention. Unfortunately, it went downhill after that. Bella is an extremely annoying and unlikable character. It did have some slightly cute moments, but I really had to push myself to finish this one.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Bella wants it all. She dreams of having a successful career, being happily married, and doing life alongside her best friend, Ellie. When Bella’s life fails to progress, she is stuck watching Ellie get everything she has ever wanted. Determined to turn things around, Bella begins to actively pursue love and writing. Will Bella find love and success, or will her life implode in the process?

Not That Kind of Ever After by Luci Adams was an interesting read!!!

To say I disliked the main character, would be an understatement. Bella, was one of the most immature and entitled characters I have read lately. I can appreciate what Luci Adams’ was going for when writing the character of Bella, but I struggled to find redeeming qualities that would allow me to root for her. I was far more interested and invested in the side characters (specifically Marty, Anna, and Simon).

While, Bella does grow by the end of the book, it took nearly the entire 400 pages. I was super close to DNFing this book on multiple occasions. However, I couldn’t stop reading until Bella proved she was a decent person. I managed to stick it out. Sadly, I can’t say the payoff was worth it in the end.

Special thanks to St. Martin’s and NetGalley for allowing me to read this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

I couldn't get behind this heroine! She was not likeable, she wasn't funny, she isn't nice to people she knows.

I could not finish this book which is very hard for me as I rarely DNF. I usually try to push through because it breaks me to not finish a book but in this case there was no plot beyond what is mentioned in the blurb.

I didn't like that she was writing about personal experiences that involved other people and becoming popular because of it.

I had to DNF at 15% because I could not get past how annoyed I was at the main character. I just don’t think this book was for me, unfortunately.

‘Not That Kind of Ever After’ by Luci Adams was fun and funny, and I definitely recommend giving it a try!

I liked the fairytale aspect of the book and how Bella grew and changed over the course of the novel. She was in a very tough spot at the beginning of the novel, but she made changes to improve her life. I think that's a story that all readers can enjoy.

While cute, this one wasn’t for me. It wasn’t as I expected it to be, I’ll try this author again. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC, I rated it a 2.5.

Unfortunately, this one fell flat for me. If you read the synopsis, you have read the book. There is nothing else that goes on or anything else that makes you want to see what's going to happen. Disappointing.

*Thank you @stmartinspress for the copy in exchange for an honest review. Review not posted to Amazon/Goodreads because less than 4 stars or DNF.*