This was an interesting story with some wit sprinkled throughout.
Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Not That Kind of Ever After
Publish date: March 14, 2023

“ Fairytale meets feminism in Luci Adams's Not That Kind of Ever After, a frothy adventure of one woman’s journey to claim happily ever after in times of serial dating, swiping right, and the quest to find your soulmate.”

This book had me laughing at times with Bella’s ridiculous decisions and story writing. It also had heartwarming moments between her best friend, Ellie, and herself. But overall I felt like it could have been a bit shorter. I did enjoy it quite a bit and am giving it 4 stars because although it was hard to stick with at the beginning, I found myself constantly wanting to know what would happened next about halfway through. Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for allowing me to read and review!

This was a light fun read. It wasn’t anything super special. I would get a little irritated throughout the plot. But overall it was cute

What an interesting read!

This book was a quick and entertaining read filled with modern fairytales and plot twists and relatable moments from Bella.

Also that cover!! So pretty and eye-catching!

Thank you to NetGalley and SMP for the earc in return for an honest review.

i wanted to like this book so much. The artwork on the cover is classic rom com and beautiful. But i just really didn’t like the main character. While I like the idea of her writing about modern experiences in the fairytale format, the execution was meh. I couldn’t route for the main character because she was extremely self absorbed and often times rude. When i turned the last page i thought “that was it?”. I feel like a lot could have been cut out in order to make the story feel complete.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Griffin for allowing me to read this as an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a super fun, quick, light read! The London setting added a fun pop of color and personality, and I would definitely recommend for any fans of British humor -- Not that Kind of Ever After delivers it in spades. The fairytale angle was a fun twist on the modern dating scene, and I loved the ensemble cast of characters and multimedia elements. Overall, a fun romp that would be great for a vacation or the beach!

This book was so delightfully quirky I found myself laughing out loud several times. It was silly and I couldn't take it seriously for a second, but it was a lot of fun.

It's like the main character was writing fanfic of real life, and the circumstances of everything are just over the top.

That said, it's good for pointing out that sometimes the things a character really thinks they want isn't what they want at all, and when things go wrong that doesn't mean it's necessarily the end of the story.

I love new versions of fairy tales so I jumped on the chance to read this book. But it was such a disappointment!

The main character, Bella, was beyond annoying. She only ever thought of herself. When something happened to her friends, whether good or bad, she made it all about her.

She desperately wanted to become a writer and thought she should automatically be given a contact, especially given the fact she worked for a publisher. So when she sets off writing short chapters on a website for emerging writers, she's kind of put in her place, but only for a bit. Once she starts to gather a following, she becomes obsessed about getting more followers and likes, so she becomes desperate for new story ideas.

I could see early on who the love interest should be, and ultimately is, but Bella was so dense she didn't even see what was right in front of her.

I really wanted to give up on this book, but I kept hoping it would get better. It didn't.

Three star read for me. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the advanced copy I'm exchange for my honest opinion.

A whining selfish girl who takes advantage of her friends and thinks only of herself self destructs and finally, finally takes responsibility for her life and actions. A bit amusing, a lot annoying, this one was just a 3 for me as I wanted to slap the main character throughout the majority of the book!

Not That Kind of Ever After by Luci Adams

I want to talk about the positives in this book first and that the humor in the book was good. I did laugh a few times throughout the book. I like retellings and fairy tale parodies but this one missed the mark in making the story flow well together. I like the lightness along with the funny witty Bella which made this rom-com typical of other rom-coms. I just felt like the romance part of it went fast near the end and it through off the story which like I said the flow of the story was off.

Her one night stands she went out with where tragic in the experience in how they always ended up being terrible. Bella ended up writing about these dates and the story went viral. I thought some of Bella's behavior like getting in bed with her best friend and her boyfriend. It wasn't a sexual thing it just felt like a violation of privacy.

Bella is just a hot mess and maybe the dates are just the epitome of what her life is at the moment. I would run away as fast as I could from some of those dates. Anyways the humor came out in these dates.

Narrated by Josie Charles who brings the humor out in Bella which shines throughout the audio book the accent helped as well. If you like a typical rom-com that plays on parodies of fairy tell retellings then this book will be for you. This was started off good but like I said the romance near the end for me fell flat it was rushed. I would like to read something else from this author in the future.

Thank You to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio plus St. Martin's Press for a free copy of Not That kind of Ever After for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions in this review are my own.

Erhmmm.....nah. This has the premise to be cute but it was so back and forth. I listened to about a quarter and just was annoyed the entire time.

🦇 Book Review 🦇

Rating: ⭐⭐

❝ People don't just need to have one fairy tale in their lifetime. If the books have told us anything it's that there are plenty of Prince Charmings in plenty of stories. There's no quota for how many stories you get to be a part of in life. ❞

❓ #QOTD What does "Happily Ever After" look like to you? ❓

🦇 Bella Marble isn't living the happily ever after she always imagined for herself. She's single (when she wants to live a legendary love story) and working as a receptionist (when she wants to be a published author) with no Prince Charming or publishing deal in sight. To top it off, her best friend of 29 years and roommate is moving out AND getting married, while her parents are getting divorced. In an effort to have fun and take risks, Bella posts a fairy tale retelling of a disastrous one-night stand on a story-sharing app. As @B.Enchanted, she develops a growing fanbase―one she intends to grow by finding other fairy tale-inspired encounters. When her quest for inspiration threatens her friendships, will Bella recognize she's standing in her own way of happily ever after?

💜 Luci Adams' debut novel challenges what we know about the fairy tales we grew up with. The true gem in this novel is the friendship between Bella and Ellie (The Elsa to her Anna). Having grown up together, they've survived every high and low side-by-side, and Ellie tries not to allow any amount of change to threaten that. Adams does a great job at increasing the ridiculousness of Bella's sexual encounters (ranging from reverse cowgirl with the Big Bad Wolf to a threesome with Hansel and Gretel). She balances a cast of supporting characters as well, each with more depth than the main character.

🦇 Unfortunately, it's difficult to like or even sympathize with Bella. From the first page, she's painted as desperate, inconsiderate, immature, self-centered, and whiney. We're not given any opportunity to empathize with her situation, namely because many of the conflicts she encounters are of her own making. When Bella's not the problem, it's the writing, which is so cringy that I had to read it aloud to my (less than thrilled about it) girlfriend to make sense of the prose. More than once, I had to put my Kindle down (a few times, I fought the urge to hit myself in the head with it, too). To prove my point: "I'm as much a feminist as the next millennial woman who pretends to be a feminist but isn't, despite wanting to be one." Really? There was nothing "feminist" about Bella's actions, and for the blurb to read "fairytale meets feminism" makes it so much worse. Both the Mystery Man's identity and Bella's "Mr. Right" are easy to guess from the start. Unfortunately, it was all a bit predictable in the worst way.

🦇 If you're looking for a quick read, ridiculous situations, and an MC who has to hit rock bottom (twice) before building herself back up, this book is for you!

🎭 Tropes 🎭
👠 Chick-Lit
🏰 Fairytale Retellings (Kind Of)
💞 Happily Ever After
🏳️‍🌈 Queer Characters

🦇 Major thanks to the author and publisher for providing an ARC of this book via Netgalley. 🥰 This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

A fun read. Bella struggles after her best friend moves out, but when her alternative fairy tale goes viral will it help her get where she wants to be?

I have a lot of feelings about this book. Bella is in her late 20s and for as long as she can remember has dreamt of finding her prince charming but as it turns out all the frogs she's kissed are just that frogs. She lives in a flat share with her best friend Eliie, whom she has known her entire life. When Ellie gets engaged and suddenly her parents spring unexpected news on Bella she decides that maybe looking for the one isn't the right approach. When her friend suggests that instead of looking for the one she look for one she wants to spend the night with Bella takes that to mean she should let loose and embarks on a string of one-night-stands.

I really wanted to like Bella, under it all she is just a woman longing to find her perfect love. It is not unusual for a woman ... or man for that matter who is approaching 30 and seeing their friends all getting married and having kids to to start worrying if they will ever get to that next step of adulthood. I think for Bella having grown up in a very loving home, with a wonderful example of a fairy tale love in her parents to act irrationally when she starts to feel like time is running out. However, I really didn't like how she treated those around her who have loved her all along. I found her behaviour to be childish and very self-centred.

Bella does eventually hit rock bottom and realizes what has been in front of her all along might just have been exactly what she has been looking for. I loved this part of the book. I wish we had had a bit more of this relationship as it really helped me to warm back up to Bella but it might just have been a little too late.

This was my first read by author Luci Adams but I look forward to reading more from her.

That was highly entertaining! There was a part where I was super mad at Bella and wanted to put the book in the freezer because she was being so dumb it made my stomach hurt. But she quickly got herself together and made it better.
This really was Not The Kind of Ever After. Bella has a really bad one night stand with a very hairy man who’s last name is Wolf. She ends up writing a story about said one night stand and the MMC is the big bad wolf. She posts it online and it becomes popular so she sent out to “sleep” her way through the fairytales. What could go wrong? Everything! Everything could go wrong and it kind of does.
Bella eventually get herself together enough to realize what/who was standing right there in front of her the whole time.

Not that kind of ever after…This was fun. Bella may not have her life fully on track, but it’s not a total train wreck. As she experiences bad dates after bad date, I was excited to see her channel it into writing and find the fairy tale in the situations — each time I wondered what would come next, like the B.Readers! Does she make mistakes? Absolutely. Does she recognize them with 25% of the story to go, so that there is plenty of space for real resolution and the story to continue? Satisfyingly YES. Did I know how it was going to end? Also yes. But the predictability wasn’t a bad thing, and I really did enjoy this one. This was a quick, less-than-one-day read! Thanks Netgalley for the advanced copy.

I have mixed feelings about this book. Bella is very difficult to like. In fact, I did not like her. And I understand that she had to hit rock bottom to undergo her transformation, but she had so few redeeming qualities that I didn’t care. And most of the characters have a rather blasé attitude toward one night stands. I’m not exactly the morality police, but these characters could use some therapy.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher.

Painfully relatable protagonist. I liked that this book had some unexpected depth in what it had to say about the pains of those 20-something years and the struggle of maturing into a good human being.

The fairly tale gimmick was not for me, and I have a hard time imagining that a million people would follow that story... but I really liked the way the creative pursuit got tangled up in the romantic one. Really nice, modern meditation on the ethics of art within our culture of digital oversharing.

Also, this is the first friends to lovers I've ever liked! I think because they both had some really bad behavior to work through that prevented them, in a real way, from being together.

This is a frothy (sometimes silly) tale of a woman's hunt for the Prince Charming and happy life that seems to be eluding her. Bella's parents are divorcing, she's stuck in a dead end job as a receptionist when she wants to be a novelist, and her BFF has just gotten engaged. An offhand comment from Marty and the fact that an author has just gotten a book deal for writing he'd published on an app sets her off on a new path- writing about her bad dates. Bella gets so wrapped up in this that she doesn't realize (although the reader does) that her Prince has been there all along. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. It's trope-y and it's not the best rom-com ever but it's the sort of thing that makes a good read on a rainy day.

This has a solid premise, but the first few chapters are super cringe, and it made the subtly cringe parts of the blurb jump out even more!