To my own embarrassment, I found myself laughing out loud more than once while reading this book. Parts of it are borderline ridiculous and I loved it!

Ellie is So annoying. She’s seriously so ridiculous and self-absorbed, but you can’t help to slowly fall in love with her. No one is perfect and the “heroine” doesn’t have to be either.

I was surprised by the way this book went about. I thought undoubtedly that this would be more…romantic, but really this book is about an adult woman and her crazy adventures to find love… but she finds her way back to her best self instead.

Thank you for this arc. Overall, it was a cute story. I have become a fan of retellings, but this one didn’t hook me as much as I’d hoped. There were cute parts, and I enjoyed the ending more than the beginning. I can see how many women will relate to Bella, and her story. Recommend if you enjoy cute, light rom coms..

The concept of this novel interested me right off the start and overall I do think it was a cute romcom.
I did find it hard to get into and it wasn't until about 20% into the book that I was invested. I did like the plot a lot and I really enjoyed the ending.
I think Bella's character arc was well done, she went from being one of the most unlikable main characters to one I was rooting for, but I think some other characters fall flat especially in one scene at the beginning where they're all together and are met in rapid succession.
Lastly, I think the twists are very predicable, but that didn't make them bad. They would happen and although I didn't feel the shock of being surprised how the twists play out are interesting and intriguing.
Overall I think this is not your average fairytale and if you're looking for a fun story about the search for love here it is.

Although the story started out a little rough for me I was quickly engaged in the main character Bella and rooting for her quest for true love. The descriptions of people, places, smells and sights put me right into the scenes. Whether I was cringing, comfortable or anxious, it was because I sometimes felt I WAS Bella. I was in her head and for me that’s the best experience when reading, when I am living the experience rather than just hearing someone else tell it.

While this wasn’t a book I though about constantly when not able to be reading, I was always happy to be back to pick up where I’d left off. The pace was fast and characters were engaging. The aura of unhappy adult relationships for Bella and Ellie’s parents was a little depressing when reading about the new relationships they and Simon were embarking on. It was almost a message of enjoy it while you’re young because when you’re older it all falls apart. One enduring mature relationship might have set a different tone, and maybe there was mention of one I missed but that’s the message I took away, and wish I wouldn’t have.

I found it hard to enjoy this book because Bella annoyed me. She was a diva and wanted the world to revolve around her. She was upset with her best friend for moving out and upset that her parents were divorcing. But she was annoying in how she dealt with it all. Even the ending didn’t redeem her in my opinion.

This book by Luci Adams has the absolute best opening line ever! It was so epic I had to read it 5 times over to get all my giggles out before I could continue on to the story. It's like one of those TikTok videos you keep watching in a loop as you double over with laughter. Not That Kind of Ever After hooked me immediately and continued to deliver comedy throughout.

The MC Bella is more than just a train wreck because she just keeps chugging along causing calamity everywhere she goes As her cozy little life keeps getting tossed around Bella deals with things in all the wrong ways.. The hilarity of what happens is what great stories are made of and so she decides to do just that, write about it. Soon her story starts leading her life instead of her life leading the story.

Bella's life is full of interesting characters, loving friends and supportive family. All of this is not enough to keep her from getting caught up in her own head. As Bella continually tries to redefine herself she sometimes loses focus of what''s truly important. There are good times and bad and all along the way I could not stop rooting for her to find her happiness.

I truly enjoyed this story and really got the humor that Luci Adams generously dished out. The HEA was perfectly imperfect and that too I loved. I would recommend this story to those who love a heavy dose of Com to their Rom-Coms. I am grateful to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Bella is 29. She isn't feeling that fulfilled at work, she is single but looking for a relationship, and her life-long best friend is moving out of their shared house to live with her boyfriend (Bella is not his biggest fan). She loves fairy tales and, after an ill-fated date/one-night stand, she writes a story of that evening as a reimagining of Little Red Riding Hood. Her story goes viral and Bella finds herself inspired to go on more dates (and writes about them, taking inspiration from classic fairy tales).

Though Bella is not necessarily a character that is easy to love (she is kind of a chaotic Bridget Jones-esque character with low self-awareness who spends a lot of her time online), there is plenty to like about Not That Kind of Ever After. I appreciated the unusual plot. There were some things that weren't as successful for me, mainly the consistency of Bella's character. She seems to go from a relationship-hungry/desperate for love woman to one totally at ease with having casual flings and one-night stands (not that those are mutually exclusive but I didn't get a clear sense of who she was and what she wanted). Her friends remark that she is acting out of character but we don't really know what is her typical behavior, from the first scene we meet her, she is having a one-night stand and seems comfortable with that. I think readers who enjoy lighthearted rom-coms and fairy tales will likely enjoy this.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read an advance copy via NetGalley.

The overall premise had potential if the main character wasn’t such a raging bitch. Bella was a self-absorbed idiot for the entire story. One small scene on the last page can’t save a character or a book.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Ehh - this was not great. I thought that Bella was annoying - kind of like Bridget Jones - but not funny. The book was slow and didn't keep me interested.

I really enjoyed this story! I really relate to the struggles of being the single friend and dating in these times with serial daters and apps. It was fun to read Bellas story and struggles!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC of this wonderfully delightful story!

Bella is our main character in this story, and she is flat out hilarious. There were so many parts of this book that made me literally laugh out loud, which made for such an enjoyable read! Bella begins the story living in a flat share with her best friend, searching for her Prince Charming and attempting to become a writer. A series of dates gone wrong become her inspiration for her writing throughout the story and slowly begin to test her relationships with her friends. Bella is forced to examine her life and make some changes to get the happily ever after she desires.

This story has fun secondary characters, tons of witty banter, and a beautiful friendship woven in. I give it 4.5 stars and really enjoyed reading it. I would definitely read more from this author in the future!

first of all, thanks to netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review.

this was a dnf for me. it didn't work for me at all. I found Bella really annoying and the book didn't hold my attention. I often found myself skimming through the book looking for something that would make me like it more, but I didn't find it.

I'm someone who understands the feeling of seeing everyone around you moving forward and you feeling like you're left behind. but I couldn't deal with the way Bella dealt with the people around her because of that feeling. I thought she was often too childish and selfish.

This story was awful. Bella is a terrible person and how she treated Ellie and Mark was horrendous. Then Mark apologizes to her?! She was completely in the wrong about the entire situation. Bella was immature and unlikeable in every possible way. I can’t even comment on the rest of this book. I want to delete this one and forget it.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC of this book!

This rom com grabbed me instantly and felt very relatable! I finally feel seen! It's hard to be the single friend who watches all your friends "moving on" with their lives and you feel a bit left behind despite kissing all the frogs. Having your best friend suddenly have a different best friend is not a hurt that goes away easily. It also wasn't totally obvious where the story was going the whole time, so it was fun to go along for the ride trying to figuring out what Bella would do. I wish we had an epilogue (or maybe a sequel) so we get a little more of Bella's happy ending.

I think this book will be a hit with all the late 20s/early 30s single people who feel a bit disenchanted by romance and dating apps.

| About |

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.


| Thoughts |

3.5 stars! Charming, witty, funny. Total women empowerment with a touch of romance. I’d definitely classify this as a rom-com, and I want more. It was a beautiful debut novel and now I must have more of Bella Marble’s world. I need to know what happens next. It was a fun mash of fairytales in a rather unexpected way. Not quite the fairytale ending I was expecting. There were a few moments I thought I knew the direction she (Bella) was headed and I was pleasantly surprised. I did somewhat guess the ending but it did have a nice build up to it. I had a hard time putting it down once I got a third of the way through it. I really just wanted a concrete answer of how things were going to turn out. While it did try to wrap things up in a pleasant ending it does seem a bit unfinished. Like there might be another novel in the wings and more of Bella’s world.

While I liked the book itself and the premise of the book I do have to agree with other reviews that Bella is a bit selfish and self destructive. Could she have been less so and the book still be the same? I don’t think so. It painted her as human to me. We’ve all had those days. There was a few characters that I would have liked to be more rounded out as well and some I didn’t see the point in evening being in the book at all. All in all I’d recommend this book to someone wanting a quick entertaining read.

Thank you NetGalley, St Martins Press and Luci Adams for the gifted arc in exchanged for my honest review.

While the story was 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 characters were good, but they weren’t outstanding.

The ending was cute and tied up all the loose ends nicely.

If you enjoy sweet reads, Not That Kind of Ever After by Luci Adams might be the book for you!

ARC kindly provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

"Not That Kind of Ever After" by Luci Adams is a serendipitous read loosely based on the premise of the protagonist’s dating experiences being mirrored by fairy tale narratives while she stumbles towards finding her Prince Charming-who-is-perhaps-not-necessarily-a-Prince Charming. I call this read serendipitous only because I am taking a class on writing fairy tales right now, and also I love fairy tale retellings. There are many flashes of brilliance in this book, but it is ultimately not a comfortable read. I would classify it as more Women’s Fiction than Romance. It is written in the first person POV.

The main plotline of the novel doesn’t really start - or at least become clear - until we’re about 50% into of the book. The first half can easily be cut to about half its current length. There are also a lot of characters in the story, and the first half of the book feels confusing because we keep meeting new ones every few pages without any significant forward movement of the plot. We also don’t get to know many of these characters particularly well. Tighter editing would have helped with all of these issues and made this an easier read. This novel reads as significantly longer than average. (It is ~400 pages where the average romance novel seems to be about 350 pages.)

We do not have a likable narrator here. She is judgmental and selfish. I did feel for her, and she was even quite relatable at various points in the story. Those were the flashes of brilliance that I really enjoyed. But, I don’t know that she felt fully redeemed by the conclusion. That’s not necessarily required in a story, but in a Contemporary Romance where we’re looking at HEAs, I generally enjoy feeling like the HEA is deserved.

In regard to the primary conflict of the book, I will first share a disclaimer that best friend break-ups, while an important trope, are also one of my least favorites. Without going further into spoiler territory, this conflict was handled semi-satisfactorily in that there are significant apologies for the shaming of a character’s sexual activities. However, from a style perspective, this process of resolution involves many monologues. The narrator’s internal monologue specifically is the most frustrating because these are stream of conscious clusters telling us (rather than showing us) her every thought as she bounces between self-flagellation/guilt and figuring out what she feels she deserves.

Ultimately, the plot, the primary romantic interest, and the relatability of the protagonist still made this book worth three stars for me. However, I am taking off a star because the narrator’s description of French and German people feels like stereotyping and a bit discriminatory. There was no reason for the characters who were labeled by nationality to be labeled as such either. Emphasizing their nationalities doesn’t add anything to their characters that would have been missed if they were just…additional characters in the book without a clear nationality like most of the other characters. I’ll be curious to see other folks’ thoughts on this book. In addition, thank you to NetGalley for this e-ARC!

Princess Diaries meets Bridget Jones’ Diary with modern love perspective! I liked the intriguing opening and even though I found Bella a little bit annoying in the beginning, I slowly start to connect with her as her immatureness starts to evolve into something more tolerable and easy to resonate with.

Bella is regular girl who dreams of happily ever after with her Prince Charming but what if all those HEAs are full of cliches and only seen at the fairytales?

It was fun to be a witness Bella’s dating journey, her interactions with her close friends, her mistakes, her tantrums, her self growth.
Her story deserves your patience. I can understand some of the reviewers stop reading the book after getting irritated with the heroine but the book is unexpectedly smart and it contains a lot of surprises.

The writing is riveting. The pacing is balanced. The supporting characters are likable ( I agree they are more likable than heroine, but please give her extra chance)

Overall: I kept on reading instead of putting it down and I sincerely enjoyed it. So I’m rounding up 3.5 stars to four modern dating, learning to live yourself, self growth stars!

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press/ St. Martin’s Griffin for sharing this digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest opinions.

This book wasn't entirely what I expected it to be. I mean I knew pretty much immediately how the story would end, but there were many more twists and turns in the middle that I didn't expect. It did get a little difficult to root for Bella for a minute there, but I powered through it and was very happy with the ending. Would I read it again? Considering how lengthy my tbr is, probably not. Would I still recommend it to anyone and everyone who asks? Yes. 100%.

A modern day Bridget Jones, only better than I could ever imagine! The heroine of our story is funny, awkward, bold and beautiful. She's also flawed and human and a mess. It's just the right touches of ridiculous and real. Could not put it down!