This story was a great escape from the daily challenges and I enjoyed it quite a lot. The humour in it made me laugh out loud so much and there are so many great things to think about while reading it.
I recommend it for a great summer reading night.

Really enjoying this book so far! Can't wait to finish it! Super excited to see how this all plays out ❤

The pandemic has put me in exactly the right mood for lots of happy, light romances. This certainly is that (and, dogs, too!). But, the relentless plot and constant quips just didn’t quite hit for me here.

A dog lover dream story. It’s every bit and piece of life among the furry four legged set. A very pampered four legged set. Page is trying to reset her life after losing her job and boyfriend at the same time. She moves in with her brother and finds friends in a dog park that caters to a rather select clientele. So her story begins a new chapter. As doors start to open so do her possibilities. And just when a new beau comes her way,fate starts to laugh and puts her on another course. Happy reading

I'm so glad I read this book. Stewart Lewis is going on my list of people to read when I need a happy, fun story. I started this book and was convinced that Stewart and I would be great friends if given the chance. I could relate to every single character. I fell in love with all of them and was sincerely interested in their lives. Sometimes I thought I was reading a book about my friends instead of a fictional book. Gosh, I love books like that.

NetGalley and Amazon Publishing, thank you for letting me read this book.

Is this a literary masterpiece? No. Is this the most fun I've had reading a book since COVID started? Yes. I needed this pick-me-up so badly.

For those who are new to my reviews, I do not regurgitate the story line because you can read that on most reviews or, wait for it, on the book itself. I will let you know my true feelings. I also start all books with 5 stars. I take away from that, but feel that authors put their heart and souls in their books so who am I to judge the story. I deduct for glaring issues.

I felt like Page was me in my mid-30s. She has a great life, but doesn't realize how great it is. She thinks the loss of her job and her boyfriend made her less than. Nope, they opened her up for a life she could only dream of. I just lost my job and am worried about money just like Page, but my life is so much better. I could relate.

I am jealous of her relationship with her brother, Brady. He took her in without hesitation. He is her biggest fan. My brother won't even speak to me because of my liberal leanings. Page has a bad habit of judging people before giving them a chance. Most people can relate to that! She lost her father far too early. I could relate to that, sadly.

Stewart just gave us real characters with flaws, but who you couldn't help but love. I'm so thankful I came across this book on NetGalley. I saw it when voting on book covers (this is not my favorite), but I took the time to check out the story-line and I'm glad I did.

Take a chance with this one. Hopeless romantics should love it.

I was actually looking forward to reading this book unfortunately I didn't even make it halfway. I DNF-ed it at 45%

Happily Whatever After was a quick read that I enjoyed enough to finish, but didn't super love. There were a LOT of characters and a lot of things going on. The story was very fast-paced with short chapters which kept me turning pages. I felt like there were a lot of unnecessary details that drug the book on at times, but without those side things it would have been incredibly short. I suppose I have been spoiled with fantastic rom-coms lately and this one fell a little bit flat for me, but I'm glad I read it!

Thank you to the author Stewart Lewis and NetGalley for my ARC in exchange for my honest opinion. This book is available now!

This book is a hard one for me to rate. I thought it was funny (at times), quirky, and very different from what I've been reading. I flew through this book in a day which I'll give bonus points for because that rarely happens to me. I liked Page's sarcasm and felt like I "got" some of her humor.

On the downside, there were some things in this book that were huge problems for me. The whole thing with the iPod was wrong on so many levels and every time she'd talk about hearing BR's messages, it really creeped me out. And the stalking thing...I know I'm not alone when I mention that I had an issue with how it was handled. Also, I really cringed when Page went snooping through Kevin's place, which is how she found the tapes and his drawing. I also got tired of the inner monologue of the dogs. The first few times it was funny and then it got old.

I think part of the reason I breezed through this book was because there wasn't much substance to it. Everything felt very superficial and there wasn't really a character I felt I could root for. There were a lot of characters/scenarios included that I felt did nothing to advance the plot.

Overall, it was a quick, breezy read, but I have a hard time recommending it because of the issues mentioned above.

Thanks to NetGalley and Lake Union for the ARC in exchange for a review.

Thank you to the publisher, Lake Union Publishing, and NetGalley for providing me an e-ARC of this book. All thoughts are my own.

This is my first 1 star review… and honestly, I’ve always been hesitant to post low-rated reviews just because I know how much work goes into writing a book. But in the end, I felt like there were genuinely questionable aspects of this story that deserved to be critiqued, so that’s what I’m here to do.

I’ll start by saying I really did want to like this book. But a lot about this story just rubbed me the wrong way.

Before going too in-depth into the parts of the book that had me cringing inside, I’ll state that I thought it had a good start. I enjoyed all the different descriptions of dogs from the dog park, and I was genuinely rooting for the protagonist, Page, to figure her life out after hitting rock bottom. Unfortunately, the more I got to know Page, the more I didn’t like her.

Now, normally I don’t need a super likeable main character to be engaged in a book, but a lot of things about Page genuinely bothered me.

To give specific examples, I really didn’t like how she was essentially a kleptomaniac with no regard for other people’s privacy. Her holding onto the daughter of her love interest’s iPod just to listen to the audio recording he made for his daughter was full-on creepy. When she thought her brother was cheating on his long-term girlfriend her first thought was that she had to help him come up with a better alibi and she glorified peeking into the men’s locker room at her old country club when she was a teenager.

But by far the most problematic part of this novel was the blatant normalization of stalking. Specifically, one of the male characters goes about full-on stalking his ex-girlfriend – with a video camera and everything – and it gets simply brushed off as a non-concern because he (apparently) doesn’t wish her any harm…

I don’t normally mind a little grey-area in my reading (sometimes it’s impossible to avoid, unfortunately) – but this book felt high-key problematic to me.

Based on the way Page acted, I felt like this story would have worked better as a thriller than a romantic comedy. At least then I would have known the intention was for the protagonist to be creepy.

I finished Beach Read by Emily Henry and HAD to grab another rom-com! This one fit the bill! I really enjoyed the banter between characters and, especially, the main character’s inner monologue. She is hilarious!
A woman who’s life looked in shambles was still able to find a little bit of happy and even love!
I enjoyed the descriptions of the side characters and even the passers by, especially the dogs.

This book was a breath of fresh air! I am slowly trying to work my way into romantic comedies... I've never been a fan of steamy romance novels, but I do like a cute romcom every now and then (light on the steam, of course). This was such a fun read -- and totally unexpected! When the author reached out to me via Instagram about reading and reviewing this book, I had never heard of it (like I said -- not a romance reader). But it ended up being such a quick and fun book that I devoured in a day!

I feel a little weird reviewing this genre, to be honest, mainly because I'm not used to the genre and I'm not completely comfortable with it. I still feel the same way when reviewing fantasy - like, it's so complex I don't ever know where to begin. But something I do like about a good romcom is that it's kind of predictable -- but in a good way! It was also wildly unrealistic -- also in a good way. So, we have Page -- recently fired from her art gallery job and newly single. She decides to move to DC to stay with her brother and try to get her life back in order. Lover of dogs that she is, she spends her days reading trashy romance at the dog park; however, she doesn't own a dog. She ends up meeting a bunch of over the top characters (including an uber rich guy and his young, fashion designer boyfriend, cute yoga instructor who's in a an abusive relationship with "mean face", an ex-Austrian who has been exiled and disowned for his "lifestyle", and of course the guy she has a huge crush on whom she names BR for Banana Republic because as much as she chats with him, she never catches his name).

All of these characters become some of Page's best friends and each one helps her to find herself and her calling. I thought it was a cute and unique storyline with a lot of dark humor (my favorite kind of humor). Page was hilariously snarky; I loved her interactions with the other characters and her charming IDGAF attitude towards life in general. I think it helped her weed out the bad and let in the good. If you're looking for something light and quirky, this is definitely the book for you.

Will be posting my review to Goodreads, my blog, my Instagram, and Amazon. Will update with links.

Page has had to move to DC to live with her brother after she breaks up with her BF in New York. I liked the character of Brady and the fun people she meets at the dog park but felt like it was all a bit too easy for everything to come together. It was a quick and easy read.

This was a quick and easy read that provided me with some escapism for an afternoon. I enjoyed Page’s sarcasm however, I also found her to be very judgmental. Her harsh thoughts of everyone around her struck me as odd seeing as her life isn’t exactly together at the moment (single, jobless and almost homeless). Although this book is light and at times fun I found there wasn’t enough romance in the actual book for me. This hindered my enjoyment quite a bit. Overall, this book was just okay. I didn’t love it but I didn’t hate it either. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-arc.

In most adult romances you get a picture perfect romance between people who have their lives together, more or less. Well in this book that is not the case. Page is a thirty four year old women who just got dumped by her boyfriend and fired from her job in the same week. She then has to move in with her brother so that she can figure out what to do with her life. Something as simple as going to the dog part was her way of healing herself. In doing so Page found so many things she wasn't expecting nor did she think she could find.

Page is at the best time of her life, she has an amazing job at a New York City art gallery and a lovely boyfriend. but her life is crushed when she loses her job and her boyfriend at once. ⁣
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To start a new life, she moves in with Brady, her brother, in Washington DC. She spends most of her time at the dog park and befriend dog owners. Other people found it very weird that she was there all the time without any dog. At the same time all she can think of is her dream of having her own art Gallery and someone to love her!⁣
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I found Page and Brady’s character loving, friendly and delightful. Stewart Lewis has created fully developed characters and I was able to connect with them easily. ⁣
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Brady has a restaurant named Elbow, He is a loving, friendly, successful and caring person. I enjoyed reading his conversation with Page. I loved the Looser to Winner chapter ⁣
I really admired how page took charge of her life after all the things that happened to her in New York City⁣
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The set-up of the story was very welcoming and the details were carefully crafted. This Romantic Comedy Women’s fiction made me smile, laugh and emotional at times. I read the “What not to do at my funeral” several times. It was funny and touching.⁣

Page has found her world upended, and after moving in with her brother in Washington, D.C., Page decides to pass the time by going to the dog park, without a dog.Yes, you heard that right. Although, to be honest, they're often much better than people. Through her adventures at the dog park, she meets a cast of characters, and an owner of a vineyard, who just happens to be extremely handsome. The cliches abound in this book, and while it may be perfect for a light hearted read, this book fell short for me. It felt a bit like Groundhogs Day, and it felt as if I was rereading a previous chapter only to find out the book had moved on, but the story was repeating itself.

This book would be great for fans of romance novels with a light, airy tone to them. The author is definitely skilled at making the reader laugh, but this novel was not in my wheelhouse. I DNF at 50%, and for that reason, I'm not adding a star rating or a Goodreads review. Netgalley has asked that I leave a star rating here, so I have complied with the request. Thank you to Lake Union, and the author for allowing me the opportunity to read this book.

An enjoyable read. Some bits were strange to read in the respect of a male writing as a female so some of the bits didn't quite add up for me.
Never the less it was an enjoyable read

Review for NetGalley and the publishers -
This book didn't pull me in at all! It's not a 'bad' book, it just wasn't that exciting. I think the descriptions of every dog in the park got boring after a while. Overall an okay book, but not one you'll struggle putting down.

I’m sorry. I really tried to get through this, but I just couldn’t. It just didn’t pull me in. I was confused by who was who, and it wasn’t what I was expecting. It didn’t work out for me, but maybe it will work out for you. I’m going to DNF @ 45%.

I thought the idea for this book was a lot of fun and I enjoyed the descriptions of the different dogs at the park but unfortunately I found parts of the book problematic and was unable to get on board with it.
I know this was a romantic comedy but the way some things were done like the trip to the vineyard and listening to the iPod made it feel like I was reading something more YA as I felt the main characters actions lacked maturity.
I think it was highly problematic that we brushed off one of the characters stalking his ex-girlfriend just because he said he wasn’t doing it anymore.
Another issue I had was with her brother’s cancer. I felt the journey between diagnosis, treatment and him being in remission was rushed and unrealistic.
My favourite character was Michael of Austria who sadly disappeared for most of the book and just popped up again at the end. I would love to have seen an update on how things went with his family.
I usually love romcoms but I think this one played into too many stereotypes and skimmed over a lot of damaging topics like the stalking, weight loss and cancer.