It’s definitely not your usual HEA.

I would say it’s a coming of age for adults. Not really a romance.
Bella is 29, used to her little world. Her best best friend, work, writing… And her search for Prince Charming.

She feels a little pathetic. So focus on her HEA that she’s willing to disrespect herself in order to attain it. Her world will slowly, and I mean slowly(!) crumble bits by bits.

I never got attached to any characters, I mostly felt sorry for Bella and her childish answer to everything happening.

The novel was well written, and at 83%, it picks up. I wouldn’t loved less self pity and more of her late enlightenment.

I received and eARC in exchange for an honest review. Thank you Netgalley.

*I’d like to thank St Martin’s Press and NetGa;;he for an ARC for an honest review*

I saw a couple reviews about this book that were less favorable than what the author may desired, but I had an okay time with the book. Bella Marble is in a standstill in her life because she isn’t as well along as she thought she would be. She wants to be a writer but hasn’t written anything substantial. She wants to find love like her parents but all the men in London haven’t met her expectations. Her best friend is growing up and getting married to some bore.

Bella gets a new look on life when she begins to write about her dating and sex adventures and retelling them as fairy tales. This novel is billed as a romance, which it is at the very end because her love interest isn't revealed until the last quarter of the book. I would’ve liked to have seen more between them. There are also some things that Bella does that don’t sit right with me, and it’s difficult to read a in a first POV. I liked this book, but it may be a while before I reread this one.

This book was everything I wanted it to be. It had me turned pages without even realizing. It was so good!

I couldn’t relate to the main character which made me not want to keep reading

Thank you NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review

Thank you NetGalley for the advance copy.

This book started out great and then fell flat. Bella, oh Bella. I was surprised by the first line of the book. I chuckled and thought ok, where is this going to go. Than the pursuit of Prince Charming. Than the destruction. And then I got bored. I had invested so much time in this book, I needed to see it through (as predictive as it was).

8/10

I don’t understand the low score (avg 3.13) this book is getting on Goodreads. I really liked this book. In fact, I finished it in less than 1 day.

Rom coma are my secret guilty pleasure. Emily Henry is at the top of my list, as she puts the com in rom-com. This first novel by Luci Adams is right up there with Emily.

The difference with Luci’s book is that it’s different. There is a standard rom-com arc that always works:
- couple meets, despises each other
- forced to interact
- begin to like each other
- plot twist in which they may not be together
- they get together and find true love

“Not that Kind of Ever After” plays with that story arc but adds a variety of different layers on to it. This is one of the more complexly layered rom coms but it works. It works really well.

Here’s the story:

Bella and Ellie are BFFs. Ellie gets a boyfriend and Bella is angry/jealous/scared that the friendship will end. She wants to find her own Prince Charming.

Well, Bella has some deep seeded issues about self worth. She’s probably an alcoholic, or at least has the feelings of victimization that come with addiction. She’s self-absorbed and doesn’t appreciate all she has in life.

Without spoiling things, these feelings play out in a variety of ways, some self-destructive, some not.

Through it all, it’s funny. Luci paints clear pictures of each characters, their strengths and their faults. It makes me smile. And oftentimes, it makes me laugh out loud.

I really liked this book and would read her next one without question.

If you’re a rom com fan, I’d ignore the other reviews listed here. Trust me, it’s worth it.

#netgalley #notthatkindofeverafter

I loved the first half of this. I thought it was so clever. But as her fairy tales became more forced and she became a more and more despicable human being it lost its appeal. I think Marty was her hero in a lot of the stories: woodsman in little red riding hood and fairy godmother, but that plot suggestion faded out. I think better plot organizing would have served this book well.

This one just didn’t do it for me. First off, the main character was not relatable and a bit annoying. The story started off with a *literal* bang, and honestly I held on to hope but the first half of the book needn’t have existed as the true plot didn’t really pick up until about midway. Not a fan of this story.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press and the Author for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I'm feeling conflicted about this book, on one hand, I loved the main character, she's hilarious, her inner dialogue is relatable and what's she going through is something I personally went through. but at times I felt like the book wasn't exactly enjoyable. The good parts surpassed the boring parts though, and this is what I'm here to talk about.

I enjoyed the quirkiness and the personality of the main character. Bella is an aspiring writer whose career has taken a wrong turn. Instead of a writer, she's a secretary, her love life is in shambles; and disastrous date after disastrous date, she feels like the odd one out among her friends, having not found Mr. Right.

After yet another horrible date, Bella finds herself on a story-telling website telling a twisted version of what happened, and after her first chapter starts getting hits and likes, she comes up with the ingenious idea of containing this string of bad dates so she can continue to post about it.

This book dealt with a lot of things and I simultaneously found myself rooting for Bella more and more as I read. It eventually came down to this, is true love worth forsaking so one can achieve his dream career, or not? In the Book, Bella must decide whether her string of unsuccessful nightstands that she takes inspiration from to write (and eventually get a publishing deal) are worth giving up on the love she deserves or not.

One of the issues I had with this book though, is that the romance of the heroine doesn't exactly kick off until near the end of the book. While I enjoyed reading about Bella's escapades and watching her grow into the writer she wants to be, I did want to read more about her romance.

All in all, I liked the book, but some elements in it (like the late on-set romance) made it hard for me to continue reading at times,

DNF at 10%

While I was originally interested in this story for it's premise, I found the characters immediately unlikeable and unrelatable. I tried pushing through but I eventually set it down to return to later, but after a few weeks away from it I have no desire to return.

I really liked this fun, cute book! Likeable characters, a fun plot along the way. A cute, feel-good story!

Thanks to St Martin's Press and NetGalley for the advanced readers copy!

Belle is a young single woman who is looking for her prince charming. After many failures with typical dating, she changes her tactics and moves on to one night stands. She has fun but isn't particularly fulfilled. She turns her escapades into funny twists on fairy tales and posts them to a website for original works. Her stories start to gain attention and she loses her way for a while. Through all these experiences, she learns what she really wants and is finally ready to reach for it!

A fun story and very readable! The banter was great and it was pretty funny too!

Luci Adam's Not That Kind of Ever After is the story of Bella Marble who is unhappy with her life and with the help of a friend, decides to place less expectations of herself and just have fun. This, however, leads to it's own complications.

While the premise and some parts of the plot are entertaining, the execution isn't what I wanted it to be. There was a lot going on in the story and I didn't necessarily feel emotionally invested in it and due to the length of the novel, that made it drag a bit. There were a lot of great characters introduces, but we don't get to know them very well. The main issue lies with the protagonist, Bella. I found her to be inherently unlikeable. I don't expect a characters to have it all together as that would make for a boring book, but it does make it hard to read when you feel like the main character is judgmental and her self-destructive tendencies were difficult to read about.

Overall, I would say it was a good concept for a book, but the execution of it just didn't resonate with me personally. Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Not That Kind of Ever After written by Luci Adams was fun, quirky, wholesome and overall enjoyable!

Our main character Bella, a secretary at a publisher, wannabe writer, and hopeless romantic, has been constantly looking for her prince charming. Idolizing her parents perfect marriage, she has been on countless dates looking for her happy ever after with no success. In her mind, quantity is key; someone has to be mr.right right?

In addition to her search for fairytale love, she’s looking to follow her dreams in having a career in writing, but her inspiration has run dry over the years. All of that changes after another terrible date with the Wolf. This disaster date sparks inspiration to write her own twist on the big bad wolf on this hip innovative site called B Reader, where novices can post chapter by chapter for anyone to read, comment or like. After her first post starts to take off, the crazy idea to continue her one-night stands in order to come up with content begins.
Simultaneously, her best friend Ellie has beat her to her happy ever after. She’s engaged. To a man that Bella can’t stand or get along with.
Adams takes us through Bella’s search for success and her own publishing deal, while also exploring Bella’s inner conflicts of relationships, self confidence, and goals.
Is Bella content with one night stands for the sake of her writing? Is her dislike of her best friend’s fiancé worth the divide from her best friend? Maybe everything that Bella has ever needed and wanted was right in front of her.

I gave this 4/5 stars! Loved the characters and totally found myself chuckling at certain parts of this book. I loved Bella’s personality and individual charm (or their lack of) and would definitely recommend this when it comes out in March!

This book certainly kept my attention even though a rom-com isn't usually what I gravitate towards. I was looking for a fun, light read and while I think this met the brief, I was also kind of pissed. I fully support women doing whatever the heck they want with their personal lives, so that for me wasn't the problem. Bella was kind of a jerk. I know she realizes this in the end but wow, what a selfish person. She's ridiculously lucky that her best friend continued to reach out to her after the way she acted - her jealously over her best friend's relationship was bananas. And what she did to Marty? I was flabbergasted. In some cases she was completely valid in her responses. Hearing that your parents are getting divorced when you're an adult who has constantly compared your relationships to the example in your life that you felt showed perfection would throw anyone for a loop. But again, the rest of her behavior was completely uncalled for. Marty was my favorite character the entire book. I wish there had been more of him!

This book was not quite what I expected. It started off introducing Bella Marble, a self-centered aspiring writer who slacks off at her job and thinks it's not only normal but necessary to insert herself into her best friend's relationship. However, this is not <i>just</i> a love story. It is a story of a girl in her 20s who is still trying to find herself and learning to see the best in people. Few books like this actually tackle a character's growth, let alone delve into it and make it the key part of the story like Luci Adams does here. I felt that Bella's love story was secondary to her own personal development. Really, a well-written book.

The title & cover immediately had me drawn to this book! While it did move a little slow, I thought it was super cute & funny debut! ❤️

Beautiful cover for a beautiful story. The main characters were complex and interesting. I loved it.

While this book had charm and a lot of potential, it didn’t hit the mark. It was very predictable, a little too cliche and the amount of time I spent trying to decipher the text messages drove me crazy. I’m also just not a fan of emails and texts taking up entire chapters of books. Cute idea but needed a lot more to make it a must read

This book was an ARC from Net Galley.

Rating this one is actually hard. I’m going to settle on 3 stars since I’d give it 3.5 for the fact that the plot was enough to keep me reading it…but that was because I was hoping the MC would have some redeeming qualities; character development and other issues would’ve gotten this about a 2.5 without a plot that I at least felt invested in seeing through.

While this wasn’t a horrible read, it has many things that just could’ve been done better. I did like the overall plot and honestly I’d be lying if I said I had never once wondered what it might be like to treat men as casually as some treat women. So the casual sex encounters (not graphic spicy sex scenes unfortunately) were actually a plot line that I enjoyed, and using those encounters for a future book (MC wants to be an author) was a believable spin.

For issues, there are quite a few. The MC just doesn’t have many redeeming qualities. She’s 29 (I’m pretty sure it said that) but her behaviors are more like a 18-22 year old - that stage of being an adult but still being fairly selfish and self-centered. She’s pretty whiny and quite frankly that’s not fun to read about since her thoughts & actions had me cringing a lot just for how shallow she seems. And then even after we think the MC has learned the errors of her ways…nope right back to it for a few more chapters.

The author has a lot of characters in this one…but yet chooses to only identify less than a handful with their nationality (German and French). As if people of those nationalities are somehow explained simply with the label? That just didn’t sit well with me as I couldn’t find an actual valid reason for it.

Still have mixed feelings as there were many things I just wish had been done better, but I did still enjoy the book as none of the issues were deal breakers for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Griffin for a copy of the e-arc in exchange for my honest opinion.