A delightful twist on the friends to lovers trope, Happily Never After starts with almost-wed Sophie finds out that her fiancé has cheated again just days before the wedding. So she hires a stranger to stand up at the ceremony and object, thereby calling things off in a way that her fiancé's father, her father's boss, can't justify retribution. Soon after, Sophie joins Max in his business of breaking up weddings, but things get messy when the next wedding they're asked to ruin turns out to involve Max's ex. Sophie can't understand why Max doesn't want to participate, after all he's been apart from his ex for years, while Max has to wrestle with the truth about why he doesn't want to interfere. And what about the energy that's been growing between Sophie and Max? Neither wants a relationship, or so they say, but their chemistry is off the charts.
This easy, fun read left me with no angst at all, but a laugh and the warm feeling brought on by a good romance story.

Despite enjoying the beginning of this book I was quite disappointed towards the middle-end of it!
I think this was a cute concept for a silly little romance but I could not get over the female main character’s personality.

Personally, I didn’t enjoy it as much as I’d hoped I would.

Lynn Painter is the queen of great banter!
Every time I start one of her books, it's a guaranteed great time.

I loved that the premise of Happily Never After is so unique and fun. Two love cynics who band together working as objectors for hire to break up weddings and save one of the parties from entering a bad marriage. That's how Sophie meets Max: He was the objector at her own wedding after she found out her fiance had been cheating on her.

The progression of their friendship and how it turned into love, their chemistry, the fake dating... I truly enjoyed this read! I love rom-coms and you can never go wrong with Lynn's books. This one gave me 90/early 2000's romantic comedy vibes and I kept imagining how it'd be so perfect as a movie!

What a fun twist in the genre. My first Lynn Painter book will certainly not be the last. I loved the hijinks of this one - very original concept.

The premise of a girl who doesn't believe in love becoming an objector alongside her own wedding's objector and the hijinks that ensued was a super fun concept.

As always Lynn painter's writing style was ubputdownable but some of the character's choices later in the book were frustrating and the romance felt very surface level.

Overall a fun quick read if you don't take it too seriously.

Thank you to Berkley and NetGalley for this e-arc in exchange for an honest review! 💕

Another 5 star read from Lynn!! I always pick up a Lynn Painter book expecting to love it, but she still exceeds my expectations every time. Happily Never After was a fantastic read from the first page to the last page. With sizzing chemistry, a hilarious premise and entertaining dialogue, Happily Never After is a definite new favourite. I will always recommend Lynn Painter's books, and this one is no different!

This was a lovely romcom that seems like it would have fit right in during the golden era of early 2000s romantic comedies!
Despite the murky ethics of what they are doing, I enjoyed the premise and thought it was a unique story.
Lynn Painter is such a great romcom author that brings in the real laughs in every book she writes.

Lynn will be very surprise me by how good her writing is! Sophie and Max are so freaking cute, their meet cute is hilarious and their personalities mesh so well with each other. The fact that this book is based off of ending relationships just for it to have founded a new one is so poetic.

Overall, I liked this book!! My favorite part was the banter between the two main characters Sophie and Max! One thing that I love about Lynn Painter is that she definitely knows how to write GREAT dialogue! I thought the premise of the book was very interesting I mean bonding over crashing over weddings?? I’ve never read anything like it before! One downside was sometimes I felt the spice aspects of the book kind of took over the plot towards the end. Also, while Sophie was defintely written to be very likable and there were some aspects of her I loved, sometimes I didn’t necessarily like how she carried out certain actions. I loved Max though, and I think overall they were great together. There were so many cute moments the two of them shared. Overall, I did enjoy reading this book! Might not have been my favorite by Lynn Painter but it was a great romcom!

Lynn Painter brings her signature steam and snark to this small but mighty romance about two cynics who learn to believe in love.

After really loving Lynn Painter's last adult romance, I was psyched to receive a copy of this book! Unfortunately, it just did not land for me - I wasn't terribly invested in the story or the characters - especially Max. It was a quick, fun listen, but it was pretty forgettable and not my favorite.

I practically ate this up in one sitting! While Lynn Painter’s YA books will always be top-tier for me, I really enjoyed this!

A professional wedding objector and a love cynic take on more weddings and in the future become friends too. It’s very trope-heavy but I love that! I’m reading a rom com! Overall, very cute and fun!

I always turn to Lynn Painter to get me out of a reading slump because her books bring the banter and all the laughs, and they’re just such fun reads for me. The premise of wedding objectors who meet at a wedding and decide to have a fake dating relationship was all I needed to know that I was in for a treat. I devoured Happily Never After and loved it so much. Sophie and Max started as friends to lovers, and Max is such a supporter or Sophie and an encouragement to her.

🎧I paired the book with the audio and loved this dual narration by Helen Laser and Sean Patrick Hopkins was so good. It had me laughing so hard, and the pacing was spot on.

*many thanks to Berkley Romance, PRH audio and Netgalley for the gifted copy for review

I absolutely love Lynn Painter's stories. Her characters are adorable and so much fun to follow. This was a fun one with the whole "objector" storyline - though I do wish there was a little more of it since it seems like such a big deal in the beginning. I believe we only see two or three weddings. I loved watching the friendship between Sophie and Max build and how easy they are together. The chemistry is there right from the beginning and I loved when they finally get together. I also loved Rose and Larry, they were hilarious side characters that you wouldn't expect, which I find Lynn often adds to her stories. Definitely can't wait to see what she has in store for readers next!

{Book Review} Happily Never After by Lynn Painter

Well, this is sad. I am so thankful for the review copy from @berkleyromance but I’ve gotta say, HAPPILY NEVER AFTER by Lynn Painter was a pretty big miss for me.

I have loved her previous adult romances as well as her YA novels and I am sad, y’all. This book started great, the banter between Sophie and Max was typical Painter style of quick-witted and clever. This was the best part of the book (even if I’m being really picky and say the banter was almost *too* clever).

The trope-y element of a heroine who doesn’t believe love literally can exist who finds herself having an incredible connection with a man and refuses to have a relationship and chooses to be ‘just friends’ who act like boyfriend and girlfriend is very tiring. Add to that, the emphasis on a physical connection and their bedroom antics being coined as ‘transcendent’ and (of course) like ‘nothing they’ve ever experienced before’ is just incredibly cringe.

I wanted to love this, was primed to love this, and sadly, the migraine I had hours after finishing this book was slightly more tolerable than the majority of this book. Highly recommend her other novels though, will still absolutely read her next book.

HAPPILY NEVER AFTER on sale March 12!

This book had me hooked for the first time. I think from the first line “the moment my dad raised my veil, kissed my cheek, and handed me off to Stuart, I wanted to throw up. No- first, I wanted to punch my groom right in his besotted smile.
I love how it brings together two people that are against love and don’t believe in relationships but end up falling for each other.
The novel introduces us to Sophie Steinbeck, a bride-to-be faced with the ultimate dilemma: marrying a cheating fiancé to save her father's job or breaking free. Enter Max, a charming professional objector who comes and disrupts Sophie's wedding, saving her from a hapless fate. As the two love cynics navigate the aftermath, they embark on an unusual partnership as "objectors," saving other couples from the clutches of ill-fated marriages.

Lynn Painter has come up with a very fun premise for ‘Happily Never After’— Sophie and Max are wedding objectors for hire who met when she hired Max to object at Sophie’s own wedding (her fiancé cheated but she didn’t want to be the one to call it off because her fiancé’s dad was her dad’s boss). They bond during the non-reception celebration of her non-wedding that night and Sophie starts working with him as an objector. As you might expect, they become friends, realize their attraction, become friends with benefits united in their cynicism about love, etc. Things get complicated when Sophie is hired to object at Max’s ex’s wedding to object on the groom’s behalf. They hurt each other, but eventually come to terms with the fact they have fallen for each other. ‘Happily Never After’ is a fun and quick read, although both Sophie and Max were a little hard to relate to.

Lynn Painter should be teaching Rom-Com 101! She knows exactly what the readers love and keeps giving us the greatest laugh out loud stories. Lynn Painter is an auto buy author for me. I fell in love with her style from her very first book Mr. Wrong Number.

This book was a cute, quick read. Soohie and Max had great chemistry. I found a few places where I was killing but it picked back up! A great weekend read.

It's been decided: I love Lynn's adult books much more than her YA novels. I just really struggle with YA in general so please know this is a "me" thing.

Their name? The objectors. Their job? To break off weddings as hired. Their dilemma? They might just be in love with each other.

As a fan of contemporary romance and lighthearted stories, I really enjoyed the humorous and playful tone of "Happily Never After". With its themes of fake dating, friends-to-lovers, and romance, this book gave me all the warm and fuzzies. Painter balances the rom with the com perfectly in this standalone novel.