Bella is frustrating, immature, childish and hypocritical. The beginning of her trying to idealize a man she doesn’t like who is clearly using her for one thing while trying to envision a blissfully future is cringeworthy.

Her further dating ventures aren’t as bad but her internal vitriol for a man writing about his bad dates whilst doing the same thing are just one of many self-created problems that makes it impossible to empathize with her.

I didn’t really like Mark (her best friends fiancé) but honestly briefly hearing how Mark has experienced Bella I get why he acts the way he does towards her. I still think he was a judgmental twat though. I do feel that he did own up to being the bigger person by apologizing to Bella which did somewhat redeem him.

The romance subplot I was hoping for in the first half but the further the book went on for far too long without anything happening between Bella and this character. This left me frustrated and just not caring nor feeling like she really deserved their affection before going to a lot of therapy and doing a lot of self-reflection (which is reflected in how she treats this person in the moment).

2 stars

⭐️⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the E-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

What it's about:
- finding Prince Charming
- fairy tale retelling
- aspiring author going viral

This was a fun, light read and definitely relatable if you've ever been single in this modern day and age!

I really enjoyed the character growth of Bella, the protagonist. She can be really immature and selfish most of the time, but she does learn and owns up to her mistakes by the end of the book.

This is not your typical romance book where you have a clear male love interest. In this book, the characters get together much later in the book and you don't really see a tension build-up. Their friendship is really sweet throughout the whole book but is not the focus of the story.

I really recommend this book, especially if you want to read something a bit different and, most of all, hilarious. I laughed a lot, I cried a bit, I even cringed sometimes but overall, I had a great time reading!

Well, this was a wild, bumpy ride (raunchy pun intended). But in the best possible way. It was highly entertaining!

You will be happy to know, dear readers, that this book DOES in fact have a happy ending. It might not be the ending you were hoping for, but it is happy nonetheless.

I didn't ship any couples in this book passionately, but they were still good entertainment.

Read if you like reading about heroines that write, that are adventurous, silly, and navigating through life's relationships.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC!

Fun read in the world of dating and fairytales
Light hearted and full of heart, a great fit for fans of Disney classic love stories with a modern twist

I almost did not finish this book. Is it worth reading all 400 pages? Personally, I don’t think so.

From the start I found the female main character to be unlikeable, annoying, self-centered, and frankly…rather naive. While her chatterbox ways entice the reader to want to read more, the book had a tendency of being wordy with overboard descriptions. While being able to fully imagine everything that happens in a book is a great thing to experience, this caused the pacing to feel off for most of the book. The pacing would have been spot on if there were about 30-50 pages less.

I did, however, think that incorporating these children’s tales into Bella Marble’s love life was a cute play on both the dating scene and bringing childhood stories into adulthood. Marty was my favorite character - I was rooting for him the whole time.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press- Griffin and MacMillan audio for a gifted copy in exchange for an honest review.

2.5/5

I absolutely loved the premise of this book but I’m sorry. I started this and immediately could not stand the main character. Something about the language just did not do it for me. Maybe I can try picking it up again at one point but today is just not that day.

Not That Kind of Ever After is a romance bout the world of online dating. The protagonist, Bella Marbie, dreams of being a writer and finding a husband. A self-described hopeless romantic, she wants “what all those Disney princesses had before the producers and writers got better…a good old-fashioned man to sweep [her] off her feet and make [her] feel like royalty.” While Bella’s parents were high school sweethearts and her best friend Ellie is engaged to be married, Bella struggles to find her prince charming using a “Mirror Mirror” dating app that uses the tag line “because the fairest of them all should be the right one too.”

The novel opens with a sex scene between Bella and one of her dating app matches, a man named Charles Wolf. Bella begins to document her lackluster dating experiences online, using titles that correspond to the fairy tales she feels caught in. For example, her experience with Charles is titled My Night with The Big Bad Wolf). Her writing grabs the attention of many readers which leads to some success in her career. The book is riddled with overt fairy tale references as Bella navigates a world that seems anything but romantic.

Although I enjoyed the way Luci Adams wrapped her narrative in fairy tale references, this book seems intended for a younger audience who has some experience with the world of contemporary online dating. There are a few fun plot-based surprises and a happily-ever-after arc which provides closure to Bella’s adventures, but the book is not designed to offer any complex or meaningful commentary on fairy tale messages. Not That Kind of Ever After might be a fun summer read for those interested in the world of online dating.

Thank you to NetGalley for a free copy of the book in exchange for a fair review.

The book was a quick, cute read. It was entertaining and funny at times, but I didn’t feel attached to the characters. I did enjoy it for the most part and work recommend it to persons who like fairytale storylines.

2/5

Thank you NetGalley and Luci Adams for gifting me a copy of Not that Kind of Ever After in return for my honest review.

This reads like a bad wattpad story, it was redundant and over detailed. I wanted to like it the premise of the story sounded so good. A girl, Bella, is a wanna be writer and is trying to find her Prince Charming. She goes through a bunch of “dates/hookups/one nightstands and share her misadventures on a writing platform in hopes that people like it. Unfortunately it fell flat for me.

You knew who her Prince Charming was right from the get go so after that it was just so repetitive and unfortunate to read. It was also tough to get behind and root for Bella when the whole time I thought she was a self-centered princess. She created her problems so at times it was really hard to find her likable.

Other then her repetitive love life, the way the characters were described/written was repetitive. Like did you know that her best friend is a worrier, she worries about everything. Her friends feelings, her boyfriends feeling, her brother, the house EVERYTHING. Maybe show us instead of telling us!

Like I said this was such a fantastic start to a plot but it was too drawn out and way too repetitive. I really wanted to like it but it fell way short for me.
You can pick this up March 14th.

Not That Kind of Ever After is Luci Adams’ debut romantic comedy novel. Isabella “Bella” Marble’s life isn’t what she imagined it to be for her late twenties. She aspired to be an author, but instead she’s receptionist at a small press. She’s single with very few dating prospects, and her lovey-dovey parents are divorcing. To make matters worse, her flat-mate and best friend, Ellie Mathews, is moving out and marrying boring Mark. Bella feels rudderless, only slightly soothed by time spent with Ellie’s aggravating brother, Marty.

After Marty suggests to Bella that she should stop looking for “the one” and just have fun, she finds a new, empowered side of herself. After she posts a fairy-tale retelling of a disastrous one-night-stand on an app, Bella becomes the viral sensation @B.Enchanted. Then her relationship with Ellie suffers.

Not That Kind of Ever After is considerably more comedic than romance. Bella is a hot mess and the book is almost like her diary. It’s like a mash-up of a fairy tale and Bridget Jones’ Diary: it is British and contains graphic sex descriptions and profanity. While the story was not really my cup of tea, it was well-written and will appeal to fans of more comedic novels.

I received an advance review copy (ARC) from NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I like the premise of this book. A young woman is working her way through fairy tale dates and writing them down for a blog. Each man she has a one night stand with resembles some fairy tale character whether that be a wolf or rumpelstiltskin. However, Bella was just not a likable character to me. As a 29 year old, she acted like a small child through 90% of the book. Maybe if she was 18 it may have been a bit more tolerable, but her behavior and actions made her a hard character to root for or care about. Bella seemed like a secondary character in her own story, and I would have much preferred a story written from Ellie or Marty’s perspective.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for granting me a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Ellie is a hot mess of a twenty something. She’s trying desperately to find THE one, meanwhile her best friend is getting engaged. Is she happy for her best friend… no she’s makes it all about herself.

She writes an about her dating with a fairytale twist. Gains followers and it only encourages her to continue down this self sabotage, and straining her relationships.

There were some funny parts and I wish we got to see more of Marty.

I want to thank net galley and the publisher for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

Such a fun read. Absolutely hilarious, many laugh out loud moments. I blew through this in 2 days as I just wanted to keep following the story of Belle and whatever shenanigans she got herself into.

An absolute must read.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC

This book was absolutely hilarious. But I struggled with the choices the main character made throughout the novel. That kept it from being as amazing as I had hoped. Definitely a fun read, but not one of my favorites.

I wanted to like this book. It sounded so cute and entertaining. I started with the audio version but couldn’t decide if it was the writing or the narration seeming a little whiney that made it difficult to connect with the characters. After switching to print and still struggling here’s what I can say.

Pros:

The book does seem to be exactly what the synopsis says. You’re not going to find hidden bad things or have it switch to something unexpected.

Cons:

The book is only the synopsis and the characters aren’t entertaining enough for me that I wanted to connect or visit with them. This likely won’t be the case for everyone.

DNF @ 27%

Though the premise of this novel had such appeal, the story was failed by its heroine. Bella was far from likable with her juvenile behavior and goofy narrations.

I unfortunately was not vibing with this one at all and decided to DNF at just under 10%. As Justin Bieber said, “Immediately no,” “I’ve seen what I needed to see.”

The first line of this book and first few chapters immediately had me cringing. I love a spicy book, trust me so that is not a problem. But the way the book opened was super odd & random. I also immediately didn’t like the main character Bella, I found her to be incredibly immature, idiotic, and completely cringey. When I really do not like the MC that usually is a deal breaker for me.

I appreciate St Martin’s Press for giving me this arc in exchange for my honest review.

Bella Marble’s life isn’t what she imagined. Instead of an author, she’s receptionist at a small press. Instead of happily married, she’s single, and her lovey-dovey parents are divorcing. And to top it off, her best friend of twenty-nine years, Ellie Mathews, is moving out and marrying the heinously boring Mark. (He’s not worthy of her. No one could be). Bella feels rudderless, only slightly soothed by time spent with Ellie’s (not hot) brother, (he’s not hot) Marty (okay, he’s hot. But he’s also the aggravating brother she never had—right)? When Marty recommends Bella stop looking for “the one” and just have fun, Bella finds a new, empowered side of herself. But when she posts a fairy-tale retelling of a disastrous one night stand on a storytelling app, all of a sudden, Bella has become B.Enchanted. And she’s gone viral. Now, Bella’s in a fight with Ellie, her new roommates are so, deeply, weird, and the pressure is mounting to find new fairy tales to write about—but she’s got to live them first.

This was fun and cute, but a lot of times I felt the main character felt a little immature and unrealistic. Like of course her best friend is going to take her future husbands side. There were times where I was turning the page so fast to see what wild fairytale she was going to recreate next, while simultaneously thinking how crazy and unrealistic it was. I also felt this could have been cut down by one or two plot points. Like she kept making the same mistakes over and over again even after she realized her problem.

Overall I'd rate this book 3 stars. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC in return for an honest review.

Not That Kind of Ever After lived up to its title. Everyone around Bella was moving on and she felt stuck in place. Unfortunately, I felt stuck while reading this book. Bella was just so cringe. I couldn’t myself relating to her, much less rooting for her ever after.

As she approaches thirty, Bella is stuck in a rut, professionally and romantically, while everyone else is moving forward in their lives - especially her best friend Ellie. Bella decides to stop looking for love and try to have fun - and to write about her outlandish dating exploits for an online audience. But when that road leads to more chaos - and a falling-out with Ellie - Bella has to decide what her real happy ending will look like.

This was a funny and engaging coming-of-age story. I loved how important Bella and Ellie's friendship was to the story, and their relationship felt realistically close and conflicted. I also appreciated that Bella's decisions weren't transparently good or bad - for example, writing about her love life felt positive at first, since writing was a dream she had struggled to realize, but led to negative consequences. While some reviewers were bothered by Bella's immaturity - and I agree that she seems several years younger than the text makes her out to be - I thought her character was well-drawn and sympathetic, and I appreciated her journey.