<b>**FULL REVIEW**</b>

Cute story! One I didn’t think would have the full-circle ending it did, nor between the characters it did.

This book is more about friendship, growth, and change than finding “the one”…so, romance? Yes. But not in a conventional way. It was actually refreshing to read.

We follow Bella on her journey of both love and self-discovery after a series of mishaps in and out of the bedroom. Her best friend, Ellie plays a crucial role as well as Bella uses her as her scapegoat to make the choices she does…only to realize her decisions are hers and hers alone.

It’s a topsy-turvy little tale that reminds us to stop chasing the fairytale, but instead create our own with people who may or may not be right in front of you.

I would absolutely read other titles by this author, her style is fun and light. A great beach or vacation read for sure.

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin’s Publishing for the opportunity to read this title.

<b>**4 Anna to Her Elsa, Stars**</b>

This book was so frustrating. Bella is so unlikeable. In her personal life, she's selfish and self-centered,. At work, unprofessional. She uses people. left and right. She tries to break up her best friend's engagement so that she can have her friend all to herself. She sleeps with people just so she can write about it and get some internet glory. This probably should have been a DNF but I plugged through and she does become bearable in the last 5% of the book - and I'm not convinced she really learned her lesson!


Nonetheless, I am thankful for the opportunity to read this digital ARC. Thank you St. Martin's Press/St. Martin's Griffin.

This was such a delight. I really enjoyed this novel! Can't understand why reviews aren't so great for it when I didn't want to put it down! The MC was hilarious and I loved the banter with her and Marty. Excited for this to officially come out so I can recommend it to friends and customers. I also can't wait to read what the author comes out with next! :)

The story was generally entertaining, but could be hard to follow at times. It was refreshing to read a book where the males were not 100% the villains. The FMC had plenty of flaws and was pretty terrible towards a lot of people in her life. Her thinking was also deeply skewed. Also, the way she treated the MMC who ended up being her HEA was pretty awful. Not sure that there was a comeback from that.
All in all, it was a quick, quirky read. Different from other books that are out there right now, which was what kept me reading.

Summary
Bella's life is slowly trending downward - her writing aspirations are nowhere near reality, she can't seem to find her Prince Charming, her best friend is getting engaged to a knob, and her parents are getting a divorce. After a particularly horrible hook-up, she takes to the internet to blog about her escapades and finds sudden anonymous fame. But in the midst of personal crisis, is she going too far to create this fantastical content?

Why did I pick up this book?
I was gifted this Advanced Reader Copy by NetGalley. I thought the premise sounded slightly different, so I requested a copy!

What did I enjoy about it?
Her book was a funny concept on the surface. I love a theme, so having her base her stories of her hookups on fairy tales was cute and clever. That, coupled with the fact that I did want to see if she would end up with the Prince Charming I predicted pretty much immediately, were the only good things I have to say about this novel.

What did I not enjoy about it?
Bella is a disaster and I could not root for her. She has an utterly unhealthy dependence on her best friend,so much so I thought we would find out she was in love with her. She is the walking embodiment of "woah is me." She is so self-absorbed, delusional, and all-around car crash I just couldn't look away from. She barely took any responsibility for her actions. The writing style was awkward, and not in an endearing way, and there were character/plot choices that plain didn't make sense or were not realistic, even for a wacky novel.

This was an entertaining, well-written book. It was fun, cute, and I wanted to find out what was going to happen. I enjoyed this book and will look for more books by this author.

This was a very cute and enjoyable read. I really liked how the story had a us follow along on the main characters quest for love by using fairytales to describe the dates. I also enjoyed
how the relationship with the main characters and her best friends were developed. Lastly, who doesn’t love a good best friend’s brother trope.

Isabelle "Bella" Marble's life is going well until her best friend, Ellie Mathews, decides to move in with her boring boyfriend, Mark. Things get even worse when Mark proposes and then Bella feels like she is just going through the motions of life. Ellie has been in her life since they were little girls and now she feels all alone. Her job at a publishing house would be fun if she were a writer, but instead she just answers the phone. In the meantime, Ellie's brother Marty starts spending more time with her. He convinces Bella that maybe she needs to have more fun in her life. This leaves Bella thinking that maybe she should try on-line dating so she can find "the one". After a horrible date, Bella decides to write a fan fiction story about it and her story goes viral. Bella decides maybe she can keep going on dates and writing about it. In the beginning the stories are awesome and Bella even had a good time but then things get to a standstill. Now Bella is in a downward spiral and it seems everything in her life is falling apart until she gets help from two surprising people, one being Marty. Things with Marty start to take a different path and finally Bella sees her life looking up. Who knew Bella could find her happy ending with a guy who has been right in front of her all along!

I just adored this friends to lovers romance. Bella went on a journey that had me laughing out loud one minute, and then crying the next. I'll never think of Smurfs the same way again! ;) I also really loved Marty. He was such a perfect guy for Bella and it was fun watching their relationship develop until Bella realized what was there all along! Great debut read from this new author.

This book starts off with a bang (quite literally), and I was instantly intrigued by the author’s humor. We’re following our main character as she journeys to find her Prince Charming in the midst of her closest friend moving out of their shared apartment and getting married. This is a hilarious romance story written as an ode to our classic fairytales.

One largely distracting factor in this story is the main character’s immaturity, which is ultimately fixed towards the end of the book. However, reading from the perspective of an almost 30 year old woman complaining of friends getting engaged and being jealous was just a little too much for me. I also did not feel the romance between our main character and her eventual partner throughout the book.

Overall, I really enjoyed the dialogue and the wit shown in the author’s writing. I will definitely check out another book from this author because I loved her writing style.

I had mixed feelings about this book. I enjoyed Bella's character but had trouble liking her. The book was a full of over-the-top characters. I did laugh a lot at the story, but this is definitely not a standard rom-com. While I was laughing, I was also cringing at Bella's actions. I did find the ending fairly satisfying. It was a quick read and moves along at a good pace. I received an advance copy from NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review.

Bella is a lost. Her friends are moving forward and as she approaches 30, she’s figuring out that where she thought she would be at this point in her life hasn’t happened. This is a true turning point for her as her best friend moves out to life with her fiancé, she realizes she won’t get to have the same late night chats. Her original dream to be an author hasn’t happened. She stares at the blank document and inspiration isn’t there. But then, she has a pretty weird date and suddenly inspiration strikes and she’s found a new focus. Her other dream has been to find prince charming which she has found to be harder than expected. The real question, will she be able to continue writing? How will she keep her inspiration flowing? Is a prince charming in her future? Or will she accept that some dreams need to change? I was truly surprised by some of the situations Bella put herself in for inspiration. which were very entertaining. There is a lot of growing up that she needed to do and I appreciated that journey. I voluntarily read an ARC of this book and this is my honest review.

3.5/5

This book surprised me and in the end, I will say I enjoyed this book! It was quirky, funny, and had a very imperfect MC who grew on me throughout the book.

At first, Bella was so unlikeable, I considered DNFing the book. We meet her in the middle of a bit of a life crisis - her friend is moving on and getting married, parents are divorcing, and she's realizing that she is not where she wanted to be at this point in life with her career or her love life. All of this makes Bella act out and appear selfish, clingy, and very naive in her approach to her love life. However, we see such growth in her throughout the book which makes her a more compelling character and I'm so glad I didn't stop reading.

As for the story, it was so fun to see her compilations of dates and Bella's describing in accordance to various fairy tales. I loved that with the light hearted-ness of the beginning of the book and in the midst of Bella's stories going viral, that we also see Bella at some low points and that how hyper focusing on her career almost made her miss out on a worthy partner and her friendships. The development of the story really had me hooked.

I only wish the real love story developed a bit sooner - they way it happened, the couple got together, conflict happened, and then the end of the book. All in the last 20% or so.

All in all - I would recommend and will pick up another book by Luci Adams!

This book just wasn't for me. The main character read as very immature for trying to find true love in these hook ups she was having, ignoring blatant signs that the men only wanted to sleep with her. Also, there was very little mention of the original fairytales and how they weren't as disney-fied as she thinks they are.

The premise had promise, a promise the MC couldn't deliver efficiently. Yes, characters should be flawed, but also relatable, at least in an instinctive sort of way. So even if we're different and come from different backgrounds and walks of life, we still can understand the character, we still can root for them, we still can have sympathy for them.
The problem wasn't that Bella makes mistakes. The problem was that Bella is such a jealous, selfish, annoying, envious and ungrateful person throughout more than half of the story, that by the point she suddenly has a change of heart, it falls flat. Even Mark was more sympathetic than her and that says a lot. I spent most of the book feeling bad for Ellie having such a brat for best friend.
The only thing I could identify with and kind of kept me going was her insecurities about showing her writing to strangers. It was the only moment in 400 pages that I could finally say: "I do understand how you feel."

Thank you NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book. But I didn’t like it at first because I thought Bella was too self-centered and desperate (which was, I think, the author's goal). But once it got to Chapter 12 (and Bella’s banter with Marty), I couldn’t put it down. Bella won me over. I laughed out loud at the smurfs scene and the dance class. And I’m here for the slow burn romance. Bella is a hot desperate mess but she figures herself out (with a lot of disasters and ”oh no’s” from the reader along the way). I would have liked a bit more time at the end enjoying the romance because she’d messed up so terribly (again) that I wanted to see her not messing up and being a functioning adult in a healthy relationship with both her best friends. Can't wait to read more from this author.

First, I've read some reviews and saw that there were a number of readers who stopped reading early on, and I will say that while I didn't love this book, I was glad that I stuck it out to the end at least.
While it had a few enjoyable moments, Not That Kind of Ever After really just fell flat for me. I just didn't find anything likeable about the characters, especially the main, and that made it hard to invest in the story.

*I received an advanced reader copy of this book from NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This was a cute romcom with a quirky main character. I wish the book had a little more depth and detail, but overall it was a nice read.

Thank you NetGalley for an eArc in exchange for an honest review.

4.5 for this one because it's almost perfect but something about Bella makes her a bit difficult to like before you get to know her and she has her big "aha" moment.
Bella Marble has a seemingly perfect life complete with a best friend since childhood, great flatmates, a safe and easy job, and parents with a perfect relationship. The only thing she's missing is her own happily ever after. Until the day when her latest date is a disaster just as her best friend is moving out to live with a boyfriend Bella can't stand and her parents drop a bombshell on her.
When everything around her begins to fall apart, Bella discovers she can distract herself with a writing app where she can share her writing anonymously. She writes and shares a bawdy story based on that awful date with a classic fairytale twist and it takes off, inspiring her to try finding other one-night-stands that she can use as fodder for her writing. But neither the writing nor the men prove to be enough of a distraction and she eventually has to face the things she's been hiding from straight on.
The story has some great comedic parts and lots of big emotions and revelations that keep the story moving at a solid pace. There's also the big romance in the background that is so obvious, but still a charming surprise when it finally comes to light.
Overall, it's a main character with issues but those issues are a big part of the story and the plot is engaging and entertaining enough that it's easy to overlook certain moments.

Happily thankful to NetGalley and St. Martin's Griffin for the fun and thought-provoking romance!

Poor Bella, she just wants a fairytale, but things just start to not go well. Her best friend is with a boring guy and moving out, her parents are getting a divorce, her new flatmates are odd, and she desperately wants to be a writer.

This book had some funny moments, the fairytale one night stands were creative and out there. What I struggled with was not really liking Bella's that much. She comes off whiny, intruding, and not much of a listener. I just wanted to scream at her for trying to force creating writing material. Thank goodness for Marty, he seemed down to earth and more real.

This book had some bright spots and was enoughto heep me reading, but I think I just wanted a more likable main character.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for providing me a copy of this ARC for my honest review.

Sometimes you don't click with a book. Maybe it's the location/setting or one of the characters. On sometimes the plot line just doesn't do it for you. Or something is lacking. This was that book for me. I can't put my finger on why, but this one just didn't do it for me. Typically I love the brother's best friend on best friend's brother trope, but despite that, it still just fell a little flat. Maybe it was the petty fight between Bella and Ellie that forced Bella to rely more on Marty and it just fat like she defaulted to him. Or how immature Bella came across. But there were also a fair amount of redeeming moments too in the book - Marty’s chemistry with Bella, her sexcapades were pretty entertaining even when her writing about them was a little immature (but clever!), and her German roommates' hi-jinks were funny, as were her rugby neighbors. So overall, a good book but not great or a standout to me. Still looking forward to reading her next one!