I love a good fairytale spin as much as the next, but this book just fell a bit flat. The FMC is your average stuck-in-the-same-job “spinster” and everyone around her seems to be moving on past her. In an attempt to find her HEA, she dates all the frogs that hop up, eventually resulting in a one-night-stand-inspired story written under a pseudonym. Her fairytale spoofs of her dating life end up going viral, gaining her the fame she’s desired, but soon causes rifts in her close relationships. Honestly, I could’ve guessed how everything might’ve played out solely based on reading the summary and I’d have been at least 85% correct. Nice concept, but it would’ve been preferable for Bella to not be quite so juvenile for the majority of the story.

2 ⭐️

"Not That Kind of Ever After" was a struggle to get through. The premise was interesting, but I found the fmc to be completely insufferable. Her whole personality is jealousy, entitlement, and self-pity; she’s a terrible friend; and she really didn’t seem to care who she went out with because she just wanted ANYONE to like her. Throughout the book, Bella sleeps with a number of men who I question if she had any interest or attraction for, which is not really what I’m looking for in a romance. And she has a threesome just out of nowhere?

I requested this book because it was tagged as a romance, but I just don’t really think it fits into that category. For the majority of the book there’s not a love interest, and the plot is mainly about Bella realizing she’s an awful person. She only gets romantically involved with someone in the last 50 pages of the book and he’s way more into her than she’s into him. She barely cared about him at all for the first 250 pages.

The chapters are also unbelievably short. I cannot understand why a 300 page book requires 7 parts and 100 chapters.

*Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I wanted to love Not That Kind of Ever After—I mean based on the concept, I thought it would be a home run, but it really did not work for me. Bella Marbles is looking for her happily ever after, only she keeps finding Mr. Wrong, so when her best friend’s brother suggests she stop looking and have some fun, she does just that, and transforms her one-night stands into fairytale retellings that end up going viral. I did not like Bella at any point in this book. She’s vapid, immature, and weirdly obsessed with her best friend in a way that was never endearing. She’s naive and never seems to truly learn from her lessons. She has a moment of clarity and growth that I appreciated, but I still think she doesn’t do enough to make up for how selfish she acts throughout. Her best friend Ellie, Ellie’s fiancé Mark, and Ellie’s brother Marty, however, were wonderful. They were mature and smart and caring and did a lot to support Bella. I think Bella would have been relatable in her frustration with dating if she hadn’t been so off the rails, so it’s hard, especially because the writing was sharp, the support characters really were strong and with its short chapters and great pacing, it was extremely bingeable. It just didn’t work for me.

Book Name: Not That Kind of Ever After
Author: Luci Adams

ARC
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an ARC of Not That Kind of Ever After by Luci Adams be

Stars: 3.75
Spice : 1.75

- Standalone
- POV of Quick-Witted FMC
- Modern Romance with a Storybook Twist
- Similar Vibes to “he’s just not that onto you” movie
- Hilarious
- Wanna have drinks with Bella
- Predicable AF
- “Coming of Age” Navigating Adulthood
- Friendship
- Fade to Black (yet still raunchy humor)
- Friends to Lovers
- He Falls First
- Ending was rushed
- Turned into a “Hallmark” book in last 15%
- HEA
- So many pop culture references (my pet peeve)

This book was a little darker than I was expecting - it's not a light frothy romcom by any means but I dug that about it!! Bella is a receptionist at a London publishing house and an aspiring writer. When her best friend moves out of their apartment she starts to feel a little lost. A drunken night and a bad one night stand inspires her to write a first 'chapter' in what becomes a viral loose Fairy tale dating adventure book she publishes online in a Wattpad-esque platform.

While I did enjoy the various dating scenarios at times things were pushed a little too far I thought but to each their own. And Bella certainly gets some on these dates! Funny with lots of great pop culture references and a wonderful friendship story at the core with a delightful best friend's brother romance side story. Much thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for early digital copies in exchange for my honest review. This cover is fantastic too!

(Very minor spoilers are contained in this review)

I really hate how much I hated this book. I wanted to like it so badly and I just couldn’t. I fought against myself for the first several chapters and then I just gave up on liking it and embraced the uncomfortable reality that I didn’t like it.

Continuity mistakes aside (which, it’s an ARC, I get it), this book is still all over the place. There are times when it’s witty and sly in its modern-day representation of well-known fairy tales, and then there are times when it just punches you in the face because you’re a stupid idiot and you couldn’t possibly recognize that this quiet, introverted man in a group of seven is supposed to be one of the seven dwarves unless he’s described as “bashful” twice. After having sex with a man named Charles Wolf, she puts on a RED hoodie, and we couldn’t possibly know she’s Little Red Riding Hood unless we were explicitly told multiple times. Give your readers credit or be over-the-top camp about it but the middle ground feels insulting.

I can deal with an immature or unreliable narrator but Bella is an intolerable combination of self-pitying and self-congratulatory. She’s so sad that Mark shows up with a cake when dessert was her thing, but she didn’t even buy dessert, she had someone else buy ice cream. So she pouts about it all evening and doesn’t even notice her best friend is being proposed to until about 1 second before it happens. She’s so invested in being a writer (heavy sarcasm here) that she makes minimal effort to write or improve her career trajectory in any way in 8 years of working at a publishing company. Then some snotty guy comes in and she hates on his entire schtick, then turns around and does the EXACT same thing. And when a writer who she likes on her writing site gets more likes and comments after SHE comments, she humble brags about being the first.

I truly feel like the story would be so much better without any of the writing/blogging aspect. Bella can be just a girl in the world, living her life, kissing frogs, maybe not even realizing herself that she’s living these fairy tales but wink wink, nudge nudge, we know it as a reader.

I’m a Disney- and romcom-loving Millennial. It genuinely pains me to dislike this book so vehemently. There are good bones and when the author’s wit is good, it’s very very good, but when it’s bad, it’s horrid.

This one just did not work for me at all -- thoroughly unlikable main character. I understand that we're supposed to see her grow throughout the story and "redeem" herself but by the end I would still cross the street to avoid her if she were a real person I knew.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an Advanced reader's Copy of this book for a unbiased review.

Well I finished the book, I am not sure what I can say about the main character Bella? I am at a loss of words to explain how over the top she is. I am sure there are people out there who act and react like Bella however I am thankful not to have a friend like her. I found her exhausting, I feel bad for her best friend Ellie who has decided to move forward with her life and move out with her boyfriend Marty. Bella hates Marty though the only reason I can see is because she wants Ellie to herself, she gets into bed with them in the morning for goodness sake.

I agree that she is stuck, that she needs to move on from her receptionist job and roomate flat but she goes beyond what a normal person would do. Bella reminds me of a manic depressed person who in all honesty is only in the manic cycle through this book.

I find it hard to believe that any man would wait around for her after all the situations she puts herself in. I wasn't a fan of this book because I couldn't relate to Bella but maybe I am of the wrong generation to understand her actions.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this book at first, but after reading it, I was not disappointed. It was a great read and definitely got a few laughs out of me. I felt like I could connect to this book and that's what I loved the most about it!

While the story was at times entertaining, it just didn’t grab me as much as I would have liked. I wanted more depth and more feeling. Given the length of the book, I was hoping to feel more attached to the characters.
The ending was cute and tied up all the loose ends nicely.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press & NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this arc

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for a review!
Not That Kind of Ever After follows Bella who is not living the life she wants. Her job and dating life are not what she imagined. Bella decides this needs to change and she decides to write about her dating experiences. When this becomes successful Bella begins to actively search for hook-ups to write about. Unfortunately, I did not love this book. I know that Bella is probably supposed to be an unlikable character but for me, my dislike towards the character interfered with my ability to like the story. The whole book she is just making poor decisions and ruining her friendships and when she finally realizes how bad of a person she has been, she somehow gets a happy ending. It did not make sense to me how Bella went from just wanting a happy ending to someone who hooks up with guys all the time. Also, all her hook-ups became very repetitive and annoying because they take up the majority of the book. Overall, I did not like the characters or the direction the book went so I cannot recommend this book.

Bella's search for Prince Charming has stalled and she needs a new approach. In trying to have more fun, she finds herself in a series of interesting circumstances with unique companions. She channels her experiences to jumpstart her stalled writing career, resulting in online fairy tale retellings that go viral. When things get messy, she must separate real life from fiction and find a way to live happily (if not ever after).

This was a light hearted, quick and easy read. It was easy to get frustrated with Bella. But at the same time, her journey was fun and entertaining. I would have liked more development and building of the prominent relationships, including the main love interest. The was not much history or elaboration provided. As a result, I never felt very connected to the character. It was entertaining but there are several other books that I would recommend before this one. However I would not dissuade you from reading it if it sounded good either.

This was a cute, witty and fun read. I adored the female friendships and the few twists thrown in. Thank you to NetGalley and Publisher for the early read.

Received this book as an ARC on Netgalley.

This book just wasn't for me. It started right off on the 1st page with a spicy scene that caught me off guard. I just could not get into this book. It was a DNF for me.

* I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this book. All thoughts are my own.


I’ll start by saying this really wasn’t a romance. Sure there are a couple romantic parts but they’re small. It’s mostly about a woman who has one night stands that she uses to write a book. I found Bella to be completely insufferable. The first part is about being in a date with a man who doesn’t seem to respect her, or women in general, and she decides to go home with him anyway. Then we get into how she hates her best friend’s boyfriend so much and how he’s basically ugly, which is just so awful of a friend to think. Which all eventually leads to a blow up. She doesn’t realize that she’s the problem until 75% of the way through the book and then still really doesn’t redeem herself.

I also was not a fan of the super short chapters and parts because it took away from the story. Nothing really develops in a chapter. It just seemed like there wasn’t a transition between ideas.

Would not recommend.

This book was a bit all over the place, but I still enjoyed it. Bella is a mess and certainly is going through a lot, but I could relate to her crisis. I do think there was a lot of subplots that were unnecessary and made this longer than it needed to be, but I did like the outer characters and enjoyed the world around the protagonist. I would give this author another shot.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I got a copy of this book from Netgalley as an ARC.

I didn’t enjoy or like this book.

We follow Bella who is trying to find her happily ever after in London through various dating apps.

I found Bella so obnoxiously annoying as a main character.

She is not supportive of her friend who is in a happy and healthy relationship, and the only reason why is because she is too attached to her. She doesn’t realize her friend is happy and keeps referring to the past.

The book opens up with her ignoring very clear red flags that she acknowledges and then she gets upset over them. It’s hard to sympathize with.

The plot is stale and I really wish the characters could’ve been more than flat.

I tried so hard to get in to this novel, and I just couldn't do it. The novel was hilarious and I found myself laughing out loud for a good part of it. Luci Adams is witty and knows exactly how to make the audience laugh. The biggest issue I had with the book was the main character. There was not a single thing that was likable about the main character Bella. She was selfish and annoying and so unlikeable. She went out on a mission to destroy herself and took her best friend down with her. I loved the fairytale aspect, and when Bella first wrote about her night with the big bad wolf, I thought to myself, okay I can do this, this is funny. Once I realized that Bella was okay going out and sleeping with random men just to get a story, that's where I had to draw the line. I feel like this story would have been perfect for me, had it not been for Bella's self destructive behavior. I would definitely be willing to try another novel by Luci Adams. The girl knows how to write a funny scene!

I really enjoyed this. I’d say it’s more of a 3.5 than a 4, but I did read it fast and have fun so I’ll bump it here. I thought that the main love interests were very easy to root for from when they were first introduced. The writing was funny and I actually laughed out loud at one point. And a lot of the feeling out of place while your friends move on (and writing bits) felt deeply personal and relatable. But I also think that Bella was a little overly obsessed with her best friend and that made her just a touch rambley at times. I also thought that the ending could have been a bit longer and wrapped up with the main couple better. But overall a fun read.

I was a bit thrown, when at the start of the book there is a really graphic sex scene of bad sex between Bella (the MC) and a one night stand. This does not really give me good rom-com vibes, and doesn’t really match with what you expect from the cover.

There were parts of this book I liked, especially the fairy tales come to life idea. However the main character Bella was extremely unlikeable and her behaviour was quite cringey and immature.

This book starts with Bella having a drunken epiphany that she needs to keep dating/having one night stands with guys until she finds the one that completes her fairytale. She then starts writing graphic online “stories” about her exploits and submitting fact as fiction. She manages to alienate her best friend with her self destructive behaviour. However, like a knight coming to her rescue her BFF’s playboy brother Marty is always available to save her when she needs it. About half way through the book Bella and Marty realize that they are starting to have feelings for each other.

Overall, I found this book difficult to finish and the MC very hard to like or sympathize with.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martins Press for providing me with a eARC of this book to read and review.