Spoilers for The Friend Zone abound in this book, so tread carefully if you've not yet read it!

After falling head over heels for The Friend Zone and being absolutely crushed by Brandon's death, I couldn't wait to get my hands on Sloan's story. I needed her HEA like I can't even describe. In fact, I needed it so badly I did something I hardly ever do — read it super, SUPER freaking early. Like ridiculously early. It pubbed in April 2020 — yes, I'm that far behind — but I actually read it in November 2019. Are you ready for some long overdue gushing?

The Happy Ever Playlist was everything I needed and more. I was nervous going in. I won't even lie. Sloan's grief in TFZ was almost overwhelming to me at times. (And understandably so.) The loss of Brandon was traumatic and tremendous. Grief is hard and it's even harder to get right in books, especially when moving on is involved. How do you pay respect to the previous relationship and honor it while a character works towards a HEA with someone else? It's messy and complicated and emotional and Abby did an amazing job with it.

I loved The Happy Ever After Playlist from the moment I picked it up. Sloan and Jason sucked me right in with their (perfect and amusing) meet-cute and I was a goner. I'll be the first to admit famous person/regular person books don't always work for me AND I have a complicated relationship with rockstar romances, but I was ready to risk it all for this pair. They wiggled their way into my heart and didn't let go. I don't want to get all spoilery for THIS book, so I'll just say it struck the perfect balance between funny and serious. I laughed, cried, swooned and cried some more. It was utter perfection. Oh, my feels. 💕

I've been rooting for Sloan's HEA ever since the tragedy she went through in the first book, and I'm so happy that Abbi Jimenez was able to do her story justice.

good for fans of Penny Reid, Sarina Bowen, Mhairi McFarlane, even folks who want a modern-day version of Mary Balogh's Survivors' Club series, or Debbie Burns's fans ready for slightly darker fare.

Themes or motifs that emerged: grief & depression; how dogs save us; complications of fame; art & music; communication problems & creative solutions. Pretty sexy too.

ALSO! Don't knock yourself out making the Spotify playlist from the chapter headings--one already exists: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1ts...

Besides a song title at the beginning of each chapter, the whole "Happily Ever After Playlist" angle was curiously missing. Granted, one of the characters is a professional musician, but that's it. A girl-next-door artist still dealing with grief over the death of her husband is revived through a chance encounter with a dog who hopped in her car, and the dog happens to belong to her favorite musician. They have lust at first sight, promptly become obsessed with each other, and then fall apart over an intentional understanding. Really more of a rollercoaster with dog themes than a playlist, but not a terrible read.

Thank you to NetGalley, Forever Publishing, & Hachette for the opportunity to read and review this book before it's publication date! This in no way affected my review, opinions are my own.

It's time to come clean. I, like, enjoyed The Friend Zone. I mean, it was good and all. But I definitely didn't GET IT the way that so many readers did - that "I know this is in my Top 10 of the year even though I'm reading it in January" feeling, you know? So that being admitted, I can tell you that I was stoked to get Sloane's story in The Happy Ever After Playlist, but I wasn't like GAHHH MUST HAVE IT NOW.

And then I got it. And I read it. And I freaking loved it, okay?? This was everything to me. I loved Sloane in a way that I never got to love Kristen (ironically, I warmed up to Kristen more in this book than in her own book?). I loved Jason so much and honestly could not get enough of Tucker (the pooch that brings Jason & Sloane together).

There was so much great stuff going on in this book, even as there was so much heartache and grief. It all felt so real and so palpable and I just freaking loved it. I felt Jason & Sloane so hard pretty much immediately, and I loved the complications that came up in their relationship because they felt so real (even considering the "I'm not going to communicate with you for (spoiler) noble reasons" miscommunication trope is super not my favorite, I was still here for this.)

Ultimately, for sure for sure for sure recommend this one!! Get ready for laughter and tears and swoons. Don't blame me if you don't adequately prepare yourself, okay? I can't be held accountable. I warned you.

I really enjoyed this book! Thank you for sharing it with me.
https://www.bookbub.com/profile/nisha-sharma
Review posted on Bookbub.

Sloan has still not figured out how to get her life back to normal after the passing of her fiance. As she is driving in California she has to slam on he brakes to avoid hitting a dog. The dog is safe and okay until it jumps though the sunroof of her car. She call the number on the tags, but no luck. She decides to keep the dog Tucker and take care of him after she learns he had a UTI. Weeks later she finally gets a call back from Tuckers owner Jason who claims he was away for bushiness and asked a friend to watch him. He apologies and even offers to pay for the vet bill and her time watching him. As they text all the details things begin to get flirty. I thought this book was adorable. Liked the aspect of music at the beginning of each chapter and through out the book. Of course this is a love story about how a dog can bring two people together! Whats not to love!

What happens when your happily ever after... isn’t?
That’s the question Abby Jimenez tackles in this book.
This is her second book and I loved it as much as the first.
Ms. Jimenez writes real characters. People who have to work for their HEA. It’s not light or easy. It’s messy and anxiety filled and I can’t wait for the next book. LOL
Sloan’s journey is real. Watching her reclaim her life after a tragedy made me sigh, eat a piece of chocolate, and keep reading!
Jason is her match. His dog Tucker plays matchmaker. What’s not to love?
This book is still playing in my head. I can’t let it go.
Time to go re-read my favourite parts!
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I have to say I liked this book better than the authors first book. The main characters where people I liked spending time with, and I loved the meet cute of her finding his dog. Some of the storylines were a little too far fetched for me, but overall I enjoyed it.

This book provided so much joy to Sloan, who greatly deserved it after the grief she suffered in The Friend Zone. The same relatable characters from The Friend Zone are back and this time Sloan takes center stage, meeting a swoon-worthy rock star who just happened to be the only person who could provide her joy during her darkest times. It's a story of fate and hard work. Sloan and Jason face many obstacles in their relationship, but true love always prevails. I loved how their relationship wasn't easy because it was realistic. There will always be an ex who gets in the way or bad timing all around. Abby Jimenez did a great job of balancing the romance and magicalness with realism. Sloan managed to find herself while falling in love, which is a dream come true for everyone. I will now be waiting patiently for Life's Too Short, the 3rd book in the series.

I was able to read this through a traveling ARC in February through Abby's FB page.
One of my favorite books I have ever read. Abby knows how to make her characters come across the pages as real people. Emotions and the way Sloan and Jason spoke to each other was realistic. Many times I laughed out loud at Sloan and Kristen's interactions. Love love love

It was difficult to get into this book at first but after a few chapters I was sucked in.

I loved the first book so much and while this book was a good read it wasn’t five stars like the first but it’s still four stars. I loved getting to see what happens to Sloan and her getting an HEA! She deserved it.

Thank to Netgalley and the publisher for copy of this book.

What a great sophomore novel! I actually really like Abby Jimenez's writing. When I first read The Friend Zone (book 1), I was surprised at how good it was, and also that it was more than what it seemed. It tackled a lot of deep issues and had complex relationships. In that book Sloan was the best friend. In Happy Ever After Playlist, Sloan is the pushed forward as the main character. This book takes place 2 years after the friend w, where we find Sloan is still having a hard time after the death of her fiance, Brandon.
I have to say, Sloan makes for a great lead character/narrator. It paints a picture of how deeply grief affects you, even years later.
Enter Jason, and Sloan's world changes for the better. She starts to become the person she used to be, and more.
I really like Jason, and I really like the dynamic he has with Sloan (insta love aside). It was well written where the relationship wasn't cringey. It just felt like really great chemistry, and you couldn't help but to be happy for her. I smiled a lot while reading this. It just put me in a great mood. And let's be honest, Sloan deserves to be happy! All in all, a great book, and I can't wait for the third installment.

3.5 stars.
I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would! I wasn't over the moon about Jimenez's first book but you can really see her growth from that one to this one. I loved the character development of Sloan (who we met in the last book) and I adored Jason. I also really loved the behind the scenes look of the music industry

The story was fast paced, hooked me from the start and didn't let go until I finished.

4.5 stars. I could not stop reading this book. It’s just the ultimate in a believe-in-love-and-yourself book and it both made me ache with sadness and with joy.

Sloan Monroe’s fiancé was in a tragic car accident days before they were to marry. Now, two years later, Sloan is still in a deep depression, barely able to take care of herself and her career. By chance, she ends up with a lost dog who needs her help - and ends up texting and chatting with his owner, Jason, who is on a work trip. Within two weeks, the two of them have hard crushes on each other that make Sloan start to realize just how much of life - and herself - she’s been missing.

But life has a lot more in store for them. With Jason’s music career starting to take off, can the two of them work through the challenges of fame and life on the road?

Ok, so first of all, I have to say that I was deeply apprehensive about this book after reading and loving The Friend Zone so much. Sophomore books are hard, and Sloan’s grief was already so hard to see in TFZ that I wasn’t sure how I was going to get through this one.

I needn’t have worried though. Abby Jimenez pulled this off like the champ she is. It’s different from TFZ because Sloan is different - she lives with her heart on her sleeve, as does Jason - and she’s a lot less zany. But the feeling in this one was so much deeper and overwhelming. Where TFZ was funnier, this one aches more and puts you through even more of a ringer - but the payoff is excellent.

Sloan’s grief was deep and true and hard to watch, but seeing her come alive and make the decision to start living again - and again, was so inspiring and uplifting. And Jason’s confidence and flirtiness are just the perfect antidote to her sentimentality. These two are completely irresistible together. Sloan and Jason are such full, funny, real, and fun personalities, who are dealing with so much that you just root for them the entire way.

And the WORDS. Omg, I didn’t think Abby Jimenez could make a better book boyfriend than Josh, and then Jason showed up and holy shirtballs, guys, this man is the real, rugged, musical genius deal. He is definitely a guy who uses Words of Affirmation and I was so here for it.

I honestly don’t want to tell you guys more. Just know that you will ache and cry for these characters, but you will also have just the joy of knowing them and their love. And also, the friendships in this one are insane. If you didn’t already love Kristen and Sloan together in TFZ, you will be cheering so hard at their femship.

The Final Word:

There are very few books out there that can honestly do insta-love like this right, but Abby Jimenez has pulled it off. The timelines of this romance are INSANE, but I was with her the entire time. This is one of those books that very carefully deals with the whole idea of needing a partner - not to complete you- but maybe someone to help jumpstart you and realize you can be whole again. It’s a complex message but Jimenez successfully delivers something extremely feminist, extremely heartwarming, and so romantic that I just could not put it down.

Oh Gosh, I adored this book! So much! And though people will yell at me- I have NOT read The Friend Zone! Eeek! I had heard about it but didn't get to read it and when I read the synopsis on this and then got approved on NetGalley I forgot all about The Friend Zone- so read this one first! It was still beyond amazing so I don't think that I missed anything not reading the Friend Zone- however, now I MUST go back and read that first book!
I love this story- the characters, the romance, the dog!!! It was a beautiful depiction of finding love after great loss and the ability to trust and open up once your heart has been broken. Abby Jimenez is now on my must-read list of authors and I am so excited to see what she does next! Recommendation- YES! READ THIS BOOK! Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and author for an e-ARC of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The Happy Ever After Playlist by Abby Jimenez is a book that truly makes you believe that a romance is possible for everyone even if you were previously a non-believer. I absolutely think this could be a conversion novel for a non-romance reader.

The strongest part of the book for me was not the falling in love aspect of the characters but how they work to fit their lives together. There are warm, gooey feelings for sure, but would they withstand the harsh realities of life? Jimenez makes Sloan and Jason do the work to carve out a life together with compassion and care. They are very supportive of each other’s careers and are very invested in each other’s happiness and fulfillment in life. So they set about figuring out how to make their difficult life work for them.

I am a huge fan of competence in characters. She is a brilliant painter, while he is a brilliant musician. They love their work and they are dedicated to it. As an artist, their art and their careers could’ve been all-consuming, but these two special people reserve their highest regard for each other, while not shortchanging their art. In other words, they find the right balance for their life and relationship.

Review: https://frolic.media/book-of-the-week-the-happy-ever-after-playlist-by-abby-jimenez/

I knew going into this that it was going to hurt a smidge because of The Friend Zone. Learning about what happened to absolutely broke my heart there and to see Sloan attempt to move on with her life after that was really something. I loved how she immediately found comfort in the very sweet dog Tucker, and from there she formed a friendship/relationship with Tucker's dog parent, Jason. Their story takes you on a bit of a rollercoaster of emotions but it was such an amazing story. So much love all around.

i enjoyed this one better than the friend zone because the ending of that one was a disaster and offensive to a lot of people who were struggling with conception...This one took a much lighter take on grief than expected and while it was good, it wasn't my cup of tea as it dealt with a rockstar romance trope. watch my full review here: https://youtu.be/cFYROqhsWyY

One of my most anticipated books of 2020 is The Happy Ever After Playlist. After reading The Friend Zone, I was already looking forward to Sloan getting her HEA!

The Happy Ever After Playlist starts a couple of years after Sloan’s fiancé passed away (this was a plot point in The Friend Zone) and we really get a glimpse of what her life is after the tragedy. I really felt for Sloan here. We meet her at her worst until she almost runs over a dog!

This is the point where we see a glimpse of how Sloan is coping after the death of her fiancé. Through a few pages, we are told what she has been doing in the last couple of years – her withdrawal from society and her change in her inspiration, with her links to the outside world Kristen and Josh, who take turns helping her.

What I really love about this part of the book is that we see Sloan find happiness when she ended up taking care of the dog she almost ran over. I love hearing a few of the voicemails that she sent to the dog’s owner Jason.

What ultimately disappointed me was I guess I expected more? Keep in mind, I was listening to the audiobook and for some reason, I wasn’t emotionally invested by Sloan and Jason’s relationship. While I do love the way that their relationship developed, I just wasn’t wowed.

This can also be due to the fact that I really loved Sloan and Brandon and was really thrown a curveball with what happened to Brandon. One of my reader friends also told me that The Happy Ever After Playlist was written first before The Friend Zone so maybe this affected my view of the book.

As I mentioned in my review of The Friend Zone, I loved that this book is practically set in my backyard! I live in Canoga Park, and Sloan lives there! It was a bit surreal ad totally random. LOL

While I enjoyed this book well enough, I did not love it as much as I enjoyed The Friend Zone.

Even though The Happy Ever After Playlist did not wow me, I still recommend that you read this book. It is entertaining and emotional and Abby Jimenez’s writing is on point!

I am very familiar with Zachary Webber and Erin Mallon and both of them are very good narrators. This audiobook was perfect in every way. The voices were perfect for both Sloan and Jason. The pacing and the tone were also perfect for me and I did not have to speed up the audiobook.