I enjoyed this story from start to finish as we follow Annie's life which is in a bit of upheaval. She is no longer working in her role as a chemist, she is living with her mother who has her own life struggles, has a falling out with a friend and her fiance has taken off for unexpected trip. Watch as she swears off making new friends, follows a mystery with her next door neighbor, and grows to stand up for herself.

This was a fun little read, written in journal entry format with fun little snippets of emails and a neighbourhood listserv. The story is written from Annie’s perspective as she’s going through some major life changes: leaving her job after being sexually harassed by her boss, her fiancé ‘needing some space’ as he travels around Paris, an interesting new neighbour. Will she break her new rule to herself? No new people in her life.

I found Annie to be quite endearing and quirky. She’s a science girl, like myself, and is very analytical when it comes to her life. I found her life very interesting, and would like to read more about this character.

There were so many laugh out loud moments in this book, which was a nice change from what I’ve been reading lately. The parts about the friend with the MLM business had me cackling 😂.

I read this bad boy in three says, which is really good because I generally avoid eBooks! Thanks to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for a copy! This Won’t End Well is out now!

Squeezed one last book in for February (thanks for the extra day, Leap Year!)
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In This Won’t End Well by Camille Pagan, Annie is a chemist who has recently quit her job when she’s sexually harassed by her CEO and accidentally pushes him into some Petri dishes. To top it off, her fiancé has run off France, but hasn’t called off the wedding and she is having problems with her MLM obsessed best friend. This Won’t End Well is a smart and quirky little love story that reminded me of a funnier and more romantic Where’d you Go Bernadette. It is packed with positive female friendships, logical romantic choices, and has a bright and refreshing narrator in Annie. Annie learns to forge her own, while still remaining brightly optimistic and had me rooting for her the entire time 🎉
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Thank you Amazon Publishing and Netgalley for the ARC.
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#camillepagan #bookmail #netgalley #amazonpublishing #tessbookoftheweek #romcom #contemporaryromance #justpublished #bookshelf #readersofinstagram

This Wont End Well by Camille Pagan is a charming tale of love, friendship, endings, and new beginnings.

“Why would I open myself up to new problems? By problems, of course, I mean people.”

Things aren’t going well for twenty-seven year old, research chemist, Annie Mercer. A little more than a week after she is forced to resign from her workplace after being betrayed by her lecherous boss, her fiancé, Jon, calls her from the airport to announce he needs some ‘me’ time and is on his way to spend a month incommunicado in France. With her best friend, Leesa, too busy with her new career as a LiteWeight™ Brand Evangelist, and her mother, with whom Annie lives, too emotionally fragile, to lean on, Annie decides to avoid further complications in her life by keeping people out of it.

“I wanted to tell him that I already knew it would end badly—there’s really no other kind of ending, if you think about it.”

Told in an epistolary format through a series journal entries, texts, and emails, This Won’t End Well is a well written and pacy read.

Annie is a delightful character, she has her quirks (her thinking and behaviour suggests she is on the autism spectrum) but she’s honest, loyal and sweet. Quite sensible and serious, Annie is bewildered by the rapid changes in her life but faces them with a quiet dignity. I really enjoyed her character development, which I thought was both realistic and relatable.

Annie’s resolve to avoid new relationships makes perfect sense to her, but is soon tested when Harper, a glamorous but seemingly vulnerable young woman moves in across the street, and Mo, a charming P.I., asks for her help. Her burgeoning friendships with these two very different characters, and some well timed advice from her dear friend Violet, and her mother, prompts Annie to re-envision her plans for her future.

It’s not all fun and froth though, Pagan briefly raises the issues of workplace sexual harassment, racism, grief, and PTSD. These subjects are effortlessly worked into the story however and don’t pull focus away from Annie’s personal journey.

Witty, warm, and winsome I enjoyed This Won’t End Well, and I would like to read more of the author’s backlist.

“If you’re willing to look for joy and open yourself to new possibilities, the end is not an ending at all. It’s a beginning.”

R E V I E W - This Won't End Well - Camille Pagán
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Readers, meet Annie. She is a logical, straight to the point, chemist who quits her job because she was harassed at work. Around the same time, her fiancé, Jon, decides he needs some time to find himself. In Paris. Without her. Annie decides she's done with people and makes a promise to herself; no new people. But the universe is against her (my words, not hers. She's logical, remember?) because new people are headed her way. Her new, very mysterious and glamorous neighbour, Harper, appears to be in an unsafe situation. Annie, being the caring person she is, naturally has to take it upon herself to keep an eye on her, which of course, leads to her meeting Mo, a very-close-to-being-licensed detective. So Annie has gone from no new people to two. And then her fiance contacts her, asking her to join him in Paris.
Will she rely on logic, something that's never failed her, to help her make a decision?

Guys, let me just start by saying one word: Wow. For over a year I've been searching for a book that would give me the same feels that Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine did and I think I've finally found it. I was honestly hooked from the first chapter. There are so many things I loved about this book so let me list them for you:
1) I loved the way the story of Annie was told; through emails and journal entries.
2) Annie has a great inner dialogue. She is witty and so funny without even meaning to be. Her matter-of-fact approach to life is endearing and you just can't argue with her logic.
3) The relationships between the characters felt honest and realistic.
4) The chapters are short but there is a lot that happens in them.
5) I couldn't put it down!

Now excuse me while I purchase all of Camille Pagán's other novels.

This was supposed to be a tester of a read, just to get a taste of the author Camille Pagan and her writing. But zip…zap…zoom… I was sucked into the world of Annie, a chemist whose thoughts and emails and journal entries made me an absolute fan of hers. And of course, the author’s.

Annie was not having a good day. Her fiancé had left for Paris alone to get his head screwed on tight. (I was sure he was going to screw others too) She was being charged with sexual harassment when it was the other way around. And she has moved in with mom. Her decision: no more attachments. Then came the interesting neighbor Harper, who had her own secret issues. Annie had to team up with Mo, an amateur detective. Could you see where the story was going and why I couldn’t stop reading? No? Then let me tell you more.

Author Camille has a beautiful talent of etching real characters who were fastidious, facetious, and unknowingly sarcastic. Humor was in every line of the book written in a delightful manner. The prose consisted of journal entries and emails which revealed Annie’s life brilliantly. The more I knew her, the more I loved her. Now you see where this was going?

The story became more interesting as the pages turned, thanks to the witty writing by a brilliant author. It was ironic that the woman who didn’t want to form attachments soon had many… 😂 😂 I would say she blossomed, not that Annie would agree with me. She would give me a complicated chemical formula and ask me to balance it. She was a chemist in the book who later became a cleaning lady…hmm sorry…a cleaning professional.

There were so many things in the book which caused me to break into a smile and dance a virtual jig in my mind at the antics of Annie and Mo. I am not the one for romance, so I didn’t really bother to read or feel her love. But the rest of her relationships truly made this story.

I loved, loved, loved Annie. I loved everything about her from her scientific, chemical mind to her loving, kind heart. I stood by her as she took her decisions. I supported her when she stood up for herself. The book took my heart by a storm and I JUST COULDN’T STOP SMILING.

A beautiful, funny read.

I love all of Camille Pagan's books and this one is no exception. The format is fresh and kept me turning the pages. The characters are endearing and I hated parting with them at the end of the book.

Annie has had it with people, declaring that she is accepting no new people into her life after her fiance moved to Paris to find himself, her career stalled due to a sexual harassment incident, and her closest friends have become “concerned.” Told in epistolary style through Annie’s journal and email correspondence, Dear Reader is privy to Annie’s private thoughts—her frustrations and confusions—as she stumbles into new friendships despite her declaration. Pagán infuses humor into the story as Annie faces challenging decisions. Fans of Ann Garvin and Sonali Dev will appreciate Pagán’s delightfully flawed characters and realistic storyline which offers no clear-cut answers to life’s hard questions. I was fortunate to receive a digital copy of this wonderful novel by one of my favorite authors from the publisher Lake Union Publishing through NetGalley for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this one, it was a quirky and fun read. I liked the storyline and absolutely loved Annie!! I loved the writing and the format of the book (emails and diary entries). I definitely need to pick up more books by this author! I recommend checking this one out. Out now!

Thank you to the publisher and @netgalley for providing a free advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Ok right off the top I know that I am in the minority with this book. While parts of it truly captivated me and held my interest, other parts did not at all. I had a hard time with this one. I started to lay it down and mark it as a DNF but decided to keep on reading because that is just what I try to do.

I didn’t really connect with any of the characters but did like a couple. I thought Jon was a bit of a jerk the way he handled running off to Paris. I mean really, calling his fiancé to let her know. What kind of man does that. A jerk in my opinion.

Annie, I kind of liked. She was a bit to flaky in parts. She did finally decide what she wanted and went for it. That was good to read. She needed the backbone and I suppose courage. But overall, I just did not connect with her either. I thought she was a bit childish in ways.

Harper, I liked her. I think she may have been the most upfront and honest person, besides Viola, in this whole story. Yet I didn’t really look at this as a story. It was written in a way that was hard for me to connect too. I think maybe that is because I read a lot of thrillers and not usually a story that is like emails, diaries, neighborhood notices and the such. That just through this book off for me. I think this would have been a fantastic book if it had been written differently and again that is just me I’m sure.

Oh, I did like Moppet. Moppet was the dog that belonged to Harper but who really loved Annie.

Then there is Mo.. Mo is a PI and he was on the job. I liked him in many ways. He was doing his job so had to tell a few falsehoods. I thought right from the start that he and Annie should be together. But we don’t always get what we want do we. Well maybe we did. I can’t tell you that part.

Thank you to #NetGalley, #Camille Pagan, #Tall Poppy for the arc of this book for my honest review.

I give it 3.5 stars. I do recommend you read it for yourself as many do love it more than I did. I do love this author’s work and will read her again. This was just not my kind of book.

(4.5 stars)

Pagán has written another clever, engaging, and relatable story. This Won’t End Well is one of those books that I found impossible to put down. I adored Annie right away. She was incredibly sweet, charming, and her eccentricities made her instantly relatable for me. Readers have the pleasure of watching Annie's small changes throughout diary entries, emails, and letters and I truly found it satisfying. The relationships Annie navigates are enjoyable and not limited simply to her romance with Jon. Each of the side characters were beautifully penned, their quirks forming a community that feels authentic.

My absolute favorite parts of the book were the responses on the community message boards. I found myself barking with laughter, disturbing the toddler and her stuffed animals earning myself a stern "shushing." When I wasn't laughing, I was surprised by how truly invested I was in Annie’s happiness. Right up to the end, I was tied up in angsty knots, biting my nails wondering how everything was going to play out.

Ultimately, I highly recommend this delightful story. Learning to let other people in and recognizing vulnerability isn’t necessarily a terrible thing is an important concept to take away from this beautiful piece of fiction. If you haven’t had a chance, make sure to read I’m Fine and Neither Are You by Camille Pagán (my review) as well! I mean… you may as well just pick up the rest of her backlist titles and thank me later.

*Reviews also posted to Bookbub, Goodreads, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble,

4.5 Stars.

Charming, laugh out loud funny and emotional all in one package. This has been my favorite of Camille's books so far - the multi level marketing snark literally had me cackling at times and I absolutely loved our protagonist, Annie. This book is filled with so much heart in a tiny package, I can't recommend it enough.

My third book by Pagan! I'll be honest, when I started this one, I wasn't sure I was going to finish. Annie very quickly got on my nerves and I wasn't sure I'd be able to handle an entire book dedicated to her thoughts.... which are plentiful. But as I continued to read, she quickly grew on me and I fell in like with her. Her quirkiness and view on life are pretty funny at times but also very relatable on that human level... and this is what Pagan excels at - giving us relatable characters that we end up rooting for and that feel like our friend.

Written in journal and e-mail format - we get a full on look at Annie - who sees life in a very specific way. Then things go belly up a bit when her fiancé tells her he's going to France while he's on the plane taking off, she has to leave her job due to circumstances that are less than pleasant all while dealing with her best friend's new found interests in crystals and how they can change your life.. (Annie, girl, I feel you on this one).

This is most definitely a feel good story as we see our lovable protagonist find her way. I certainly understand the want to just lock everyone out of your life because WHAT IS THE POINT... but the point is, they're all there for a reason - sometimes you just need to see it.

Funny yet quirky, Annie goes through life and issues relatable in one way or another. She is every woman's struggle to adjust or adapt to plans that don't work out change completely while reminding us how funny some of it can be at times, and just what's needed at others. I can't believe how good it felt to escape in someone else's life and how quickly I was routing for her. Vowing to stay away from people almost always guarantees the opposite and this time it looks like it's just what she needed. Loved it! Read it.
I received an advanced copy of this book from Netgalley for my honest review.

This story is told through Annie's journal entries as well as email correspondence, a community Listserv, and a news article. As almost everything is in Annie's POV, we only learn about the other characters through her observations, and she is inclined to skip over things that don't fit with her perceived ideals.

Annie is a scientist and very literal. She is not very tolerant initially and feels that anyone who does things differently isn't necessarily doing things right. She decides that it is best not to allow new people into her life after she loses her job and her fiance unexpectedly decides to go to France for a month, alone. This does not stop her from grudgingly allowing two new people into her life.

Jon is Annie's fiance. He is a French teacher who comes from a well-off family. He and Annie have a perfectly compatible relationship and truly care about each other. But Jon has a midlife crisis and decides to fly to France for a month at the spur of the moment. He requests no contact from Annie or his family as he decides what he wants to do with his life.

Annie live with her mom, who has suffered from depression. Annie feels like she can't leave her, but knows that her wedding plans have perked her mom up.

Harper moves across the street from Annie and is mysterious and intriguing. She is nothing like anyone Annie has ever known. She watches her from a distance, before slowly the two become friends. Annie knows that there is more to Harper than meets the eye and suspects that she's in trouble. Annie wants to help protect her.

And then there's Mo, the PI Annie literally runs into. She believes that he's investigating Harper, but feels like something is off. She and Mo talk often and develop a friendship.

As Annie tries to figure out what is happening with Harper, what Mo is really doing, why Jon left and if their relationship is over, whether her friendship with her best friend is over, what to do about her job, and whether her mother will be ok on her own, she also has to figure out just what it is she wants in life.

I love Camille Pagan's work and really enjoyed Annie's story. She grows so much over the course of the book and really opens herself to new experiences and new friendships.

Disclaimer: I received an eARC of this book through Net Galley and the publisher {Lake Union Publishing} in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I struggle to write a review for this book as I found it very shallow and it moved very slowly for me. The story was a sweet one about a woman who is searching for herself and sorting through a plethora of obligations. It follows a pretty standard formula and the ending was predictable.

What's a girl to do when she loses her job - thanks to her slimy boss- and her fiance suddenly jets off to France to "find himself"?

In Camille Pagan's latest book, "This Won't End Well" the main character Annie decides the only solution is to swear off meeting new people and keep her head down while she cleans homes. A great plan except that a new neighbor has moved in and there's something suspicious about her...plus there is a Private Investigator lurking around her neighborhood and he won't tell her what he's up to...and she's beginning to doubt the love of her fiance who wants her to now come to France to visit but she's just not sure why he won't simply come home. 

Told in alternating formats of diary entries, emails and hysterical neighborhood forums, there are just as many LOL moments as there are heartfelt ones. Don't try to figure it all out- I was pleasantly surprised by the many twists up until the end!

In a market that has become over-saturated with thrillers and crime stories, the heartwarming "This Won't End Well" is a breath of fresh air! A little mystery, a little love, a little drama and a whole lot of heart- this book has it all!

Camille has become a must-read author for me with her witty characters and unique plotlines. I will be anxiously awaiting her next book! 

Thank you to the Tall Poppy Bloggers, NetGalley and Camille Pagán for the ARC of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Annie Mercer is a little bit of a geek with her love of science and as her life falls apart around her, she finds herself looking for a job, wondering if the wedding is going to happen, and helping her mom stay safe. Then she meets Harper, after swearing off new people, and things start to change.

Annie must make decisions. Does she follow her heart or her head? Should she give her fiancé, Jon, a second chance? What about the new person in her life that makes her laugh, smile, and have fun? Annie is so real as she works through her life, she makes decisions, and has second doubts about those decisions. I loved seeing her take chances, step back and reconsider, and most of all find out what she really needs.

Camille Pagan writes a book that lets the readers connect with the characters, follow them on a real-life journey, and cheer them on at every choice they make. I am a fan of her writing and look forward to more from Camille.

I just love everything Camille Pagán writes. She is easily one of my favorite authors. Her books are so easy to read and I don’t want to put them down. I love the female main characters that her books revolve around. This book is just tremendous. I especially love the format. It is so fun reading the email and journal format. It made it even easier to read, if possible! I stayed up late reading it and finished it quickly! Totally a five star read, as with all her other titles!!

⁣This Won’t End Well is a delight! I’m a huge Camille Pagan fan and always enjoy her books - they are SO MUCH FUN.⁣
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Poor Annie. She was recently fired from her Chemist job, her fiancé has jetted off to Paris to “find himself”, and her relationship with her best friend is on the rocks.⁣
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So she decides to start cleaning houses and just ignore all humans. But curiosity gets the better of her when a glamourous but mysterious new neighbor moves in next door and finds a strange man lurking in her bushes. Could Annie be in danger? Or is her biggest danger letting people back into her life and finally taking the reigns of how she plans to live it?⁣
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Told through email, journal entires, and texts, this book is such a joy to read! Annie is quirky and witty and the human interactions are relatable, warm, and sweet. There are more laugh out loud moments than I could count, and it’s a fast paced breath of fresh air!⁣
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