Genre: contemporary fiction
Setting: London
POV: single, 1st person, present tense

Spice Level: 3/5🌶, fade to black/little explicit

What I Liked: This was a funny, fast-paced, read! I enjoyed the series of one night stands and corresponding fairy tales. I found all the different conflicts to be interesting.

What I Disliked: While the FMC being immature is kind of the point of the book, it took so long for her to grow up and I got quite annoyed with her. Having the narration in first person really demonstrates how unlikable the protagonist is.

Read This Book If… you enjoy the hot mess that is Bridget Jones!

Bella thought by now she would be a married author, but she is a single receptionist, her parents are divorcing and her BFF, Ellie, is getting married to Mark (who definitely doesn't deserve her). When Ellie's brother, Marty, suggests for her to just have fun, she rediscovers herself and becomes viral after posting a fairytale retelling of a disastrous date on a storytelling app. The pressure is high for her to dig up some more horror date stories to tell...
This is a nice and easy read, funny at times, but I did not vibe with it. I didn't like Bella, she was annoying and let her life lead her instead of taking control. It was redundant at other times, there was no tension or chemistry, and the ending felt rushed.
I received an advance review copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Bella is a 28 year old publishing receptionist living in London. When Bella’s best friend Ellie moves out and gets engaged in short order she decided to write about her horrible encounter with a wolf like man that resulted in her stealing his red hoodie comparing it to the fairytale little red ridding hood. When her red ridding hood story gains traction on a new website she decided to live out fairytales through dates.

Bella honestly starts out this story as super unlikable and selfish, she doesn’t even notice that her best friend is getting proposed to until a good deal of a way into the proposal, and her selfishness gets worse before it gets better. To me the story did a very good job showing how selfish and narcissistic Bella is and how her internet fame an a bit of validation caused her to act on her worse impulses, I.E. Lying to people, fighting with her friend because she’s jealous of her fiancé, making a mess of shared spaces and other peoples stuff, neglecting her job, and taking advantage of the people in her lives generosity. When Bella finally has her come if Jesus moment and wakes up and sees shes honestly been making a horrible mess of her life.

Other than Bella who I found unlikable but funny, the side characters are really fun. I liked everyone’s interactions with Bella’s weird new German roommates. I also like Marty a lot, he’s fairly down to earth and I think he handles Bella’s insanity fairly well.

I don’t think this is a book for everyone and I had my issues with it, I think there was a tad to many chapters and the emphasis on the amount of chapters made the pacing feel a bit choppy at points. I also wish we had more of seeing Bella get her shit together at work, but I had a fun time with it. I would recommend the book if your looking for woman’s fiction book with a main character learning how to be a functional adult.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

DNF at 34%.

I picked this up two different times and I just could not get into it. I think 1/3 of the way through is a good time to figure out if a book is for you and this one just wasn't for me. The main character is not likeable and I was not rooting for her. She's far too immature for a 29 year old.

The only bit that I did enjoy were the short chapters...however, it really didn't give you any time to get into what was going on. I felt as though it jumped around so much.

Sorry, this one is a no from me.

Thanks to St. Martins for the ARC!

4/5 stars

Advanced Book Review! Thank you @netgalley and @stmartinspress for sending me this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

So I’ll be honest. From the start, I wasn’t too sure about this book. I didn’t love the first couple of chapters, Bella isn’t the most likable character, and it’s probably more detailed and longer than it needs to be. However, the short chapters made it easier to get into and I found myself getting invested in the story.

It’s got kind of a Bridesmaids vibe – Bella is jealous of her friend that got engaged and has her life together, while Bella is not in the career she wants and doesn’t have a boyfriend and is really kind of a mess. There are also lots of fairy tale references – some direct and some just lightly sprinkled throughout. I found that fun – kind of like a treasure hunt for fairy tales.

There’s a lot going on and a lot of different story lines. Bella definitely makes some questionable decisions. I was relieved that it does all end up being relevant to the story and I was pretty satisfied with where things ended up.

Overall I found this an entertaining read and I even stayed up late to finish it. I’m giving it 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 for Goodreads.

Favourite quote: “I want what all those Disney princesses had before the producers and writers got better and found independent non-male-oriented story lines.”

Publication Date: March 14, 2023

I started off hating this, but the story grew on me.

I really did not like Bella as a main character, and that didn't change even as I grew more invested in the story. She just came across as immature and I was continuously annoyed at her poor decisions.

Note that this is more general fiction than romance, which one might not expect from the cover and description.

The content was also cruder than I would have liked, but this did not impact my rating.

DNF

I hardly even started this book before I decided that it wasn’t for me, which isn’t something that I usually do. But suggestive talk isn’t something that I like or agree with.

I wouldn’t recommend this book to my friends or family, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t for someone else

While I didn't regret my time with Not That Kind of Ever After, it didn't leave a lasting impression on me. I enjoyed the characters and the concept/idea of the book, but for me it just fell a bit flat. To be honest, I was a bit bored through most of it. It was pretty predictable, textbook romcom, and while there isn't anything inherently wrong with that. I didn't get the WOW from it all. This one wasn't for me but I could easily see this becoming someone's favorite book or a comfort read!
I know this was Luci Adams' debut and while it wasn't a homerun for me, I wouldn't be opposed to reading more from her in the future!

This was a mostly fun, quite bingeable read. I do have to say that the first 5% didn't really do it for me, but then after the next 15% or so I was hooked and flew through the rest like Bella let loose on a party (or her housemates on the flour - just wait for it!). Bella is looking for love, especially on the tails of saying goodbye to her bff and housemate who has just gotten engaged.

Bella's story is somehow an almost perfect mix of sweet, spice and sadness - I did see this book described as a somewhat dark romance and I don't disagree - there's a lot of darkness here and we follow Bella as she tries to figure out where to find light - or make light - for herself.

I usually enjoy romance reads where I can relate to the main character and while Bella and I aren't complete opposites, we're pretty far from one another in a lot of ways and I did find it hard to make sense of her actions and path of somewhat-self-destruciton.

But of course this is a romance novel so don't fear, all ends well!

I found that, unfortunately, Not That Kind of Ever After really wasn't for me. It was lacking a certain something in the pacing and flow of the prose, and I found that I was plodding through this before I ultimately decided to put it down. The dialogue felt unnatural to me, and I really didn't mesh well with Bella's character. Her antics felt tiresome and immature to me. I also find reading about disenchantment with dating apps really exhausts me, and that might be a huge part of why I didn't click with this.
That's not to say that I don't think there are plenty of readers who would enjoy this. If you're looking for something easy and nice to read, I think you could absolutely have a good time with this book.
Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Griffin

I had a hard time getting engaged with this book and had multiple times where I nearly choose to stop reading. The first chapter was strong and drew me in right away but after that I struggled. The premise of the book was good but I could not connect or enjoy the main character. It just was not the right fit for a book for me but I would still encourage others to give it a try.

This was such a good story. I think it will be a book club pick for many. Highly recommend this one!

💭Thoughts:
The premise of this book is super cute and I really wanted to like it, but ugh the MFC is awful. She is annoyingly shellfish and judgmental. She makes strange decisions, then argues with the people trying to look out for her well-being. It got to the point where I started to wonder why I should root for someone so terrible to get a HEA. Sadly, I had to DNF at 50%. I just couldn’t read any further

Not That Kind of Ever After by Luci Adams was fantastic. The story was funny and I enjoyed the characters. The growth that happened with the main character was fantastic. She learned from her experiences and it was fantastic to see. I cannot wait to read more form this author.

A great story about friendship with a bit of romance.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Griffin for the early arc.

3.5 ⭐️

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. Bella feels rudderless, only slightly soothed by time spent with Ellie’s brother, Marty

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.

A cute best friend’s brothers romance, with relatable friendship struggles, but it unfortunately missed the mark for me. I really wanted to like it. The cover is so cute and the premise sounded like something I would adore. The quick story was interesting and at times entertaining. I laughed out loud several times however it just took a little too long to pull me in. I struggled to like the MC. I understand the point of how she was written as a character, a mix of sweet and insufferable but it was hard for me to connect with her and to get past her immaturity.

It wasn’t my favorite read but there were several aspects I did enjoy, and I look forward to trying other reads by the author.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martins Press for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

I love the idea of this book. When Bella is down on her luck in dating and life, she takes the advice of her best friend's brother to switch things up. After posting a story on a writing website about a bad one-night stand in the form of a fairy tale retelling, she goes viral.

Bella decides to take this new fame and run with it by creating more fairy tale dates.

There were definitely several comical moments. I enjoyed all her fairy tale dates. There was a lot going on with the relationship with her friend, her parents, Marty, her writing, and all her dates when all I really wanted was more Marty. He was her guy in the end, but when did they fall for each other exactly? I'm under the impression he liked her all along, but they only traded text messages and saw each other a few times. Then suddenly, they are in love. We didn't get them together until 80% of the book, and that is when I really started enjoying the book. I was waiting for it the entire time. I wish there was more flirting early on between the two, not just their friendly banter.

I received a digital ARC from St. Martin's Press through NetGalley.

This book wasn't for me. I found the main character, Bella, to be very childish, immature and selfish. Her character was very unlikeable and her constantly negative attitude got tired to read. I almost decided to DNF this book but decided to stick it out and I'm glad I did, because I could at least see that Bella realized how ridiculous she was being and decided to change her ways.

This was a difficult one for me. I DNF which I try to never do, but I was skimming by chapter one. The endless info dump all about herself and a bit about the guy was too much.
I did keep going, hoping I would get into it, but it was pages/chapters of description and her own voice about one interaction just made me skim more. I would have liked to see more dialogue and action than a second-by-second explanation of everything happening.
I stopped around the point that her roommate is moving out with her partner and MC is crying, clinging and seeming to believe her roommate is just going to break up with this guy. Again, if there was a reason she thought this, I would be on board, but the reason seems to be that the MC just doesn't want her to move out and leave her. I like messy woman MC's, but this wasn't landing right for me. I don't recall seeing and age - I'm guessing late 20's? - but she comes off really immature for this.
I was really looking forward to this one, but it really didn't flow for me.
I received a copy through Netgalley.

2 stars, most of which are for the brilliant audiobook narration by Josie Charles.

I am conflicted about "Not That Kind of Ever After" by Luci Adams. It's billed as a feminist-fairytale-retelling-romantic-comedy about finding Prince Charming in a sea of toads. The main character, Bella, is absolutely insufferable, shockingly insensitive to other people's needs, wholly unlikeable, incredibly immature, and utterly selfish. I am all for flawed main characters, but they have to have *some* redeemable qualities to balance their deficiencies. Bella has none. She doesn't do her work at her job, nor does she take it very seriously. She makes horrible decisions and then attempts to justify them to make herself look better. She throws tantrums whenever she doesn't get her way, even with her parents as someone in her late 20s. She ices out her best friend because she doesn't want things to change for HER. She's not supportive of her best friend's decisions and repeatedly holds them against her. She hates her best friend's fiance for literally no reason. She treats her roommates as disposable. She's not there for anyone in her life but expects everyone to drop everything they are doing to come to her rescue. At some point, when she doesn't find her Prince Charming, she starts using her dates to further her own career. Don't go in expecting a lot of romance or spice because it's mostly just a bunch of mindless sex with internet randos (which, like, do you, you know? but don't be mad when people don't gravitate towards your main character). Bella eventually attempts to learn the error of her ways, but the road to get there is pretty freaking rough.

I think if I had read this book normally, without an audiobook, I would have liked it even less. However, Josie Charles's engaging, funny, and well-done narration turned something that would have been a chore to get through into something slightly less irritating. Her voiceover made me laugh a lot, and it also made me feel something other than seething hatred or annoyance towards Bella.

I didn't absolutely hate this book, but I didn't exactly like it, either. It's one of those novels that feels like it's saying something really revolutionary and bright, but it's not really doing much of anything. It's extraordinarily shallow, and it lacks depth and nuance to be part of a larger conversation about dating, true love, or the socially embedded notion that women are supposed to search for a magical Prince Charming to sweep us off our feet while ignoring the people right in front of us who have always been in our corner. Skip this one.

Thank you to NetGalley, Luci Adams, St. Martin's Press, and St. Martin's Griffin for providing me with an ARC copy of this book! All opinions are my own, and I was not compensated for my review.

I have mixed feelings about this story. To be honest, if it weren't for having to review, I probably wouldn't have finished it, but I'm glad I persevered because the last part of the book did get a lot better. The writing is good, the story flows well, and the snarky wit is a big plus; there were several places where I laughed out loud. The reason I didn't find it so enjoyable was the female main character--she really wasn't very likable for most of the book. She was annoyingly self-centered and, well, just not a very nice person. She did redeem herself later in the story, but I think she needs to have a few more redeeming moments a bit earlier on. She's just too mean to Mark and too inconsiderate of the feelings of her friends. I found it hard to get into the story because she irritated me so much! Having said all that, I did enjoy the last quarter of the book or so; I just think her second thoughts about her actions should begin a bit sooner.