While cute, this one wasn’t for me. It wasn’t as I expected it to be, I’ll try this author again. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC, I rated it a 2.5.

Unfortunately, this one fell flat for me. If you read the synopsis, you have read the book. There is nothing else that goes on or anything else that makes you want to see what's going to happen. Disappointing.

*Thank you @stmartinspress for the copy in exchange for an honest review. Review not posted to Amazon/Goodreads because less than 4 stars or DNF.*

I did not enjoy this one - I found the writing convoluted and confusing, and there was no depth to the story.

The main character was so selfish and narcissistic that I didn't like her and wasn't rooting for her - which means the romance and the book fails, in my opinion.

There were some sweet and funny parts, but generally it was a miss for me.

DNF.

The writing style isn't bad, but our MC is detestable. I do not understand how she has so many friendships that have not fallen apart.

Also, where was the romance in this romance book?

This was a quick and easy read however I found it quite repetitive and wasn't in love with the main character. The romance plot was kind of lacking as well, until the end. I think the point was that she had to do all the things wrong before she got it right and that is 100% what happened but it didn't make for a catching romance.

I will say that there were some really funny moments that were good entertainment. Perhaps it just wasn't for me at this time.

First of all - the cover is amazing. I"m going to hang onto this one just for that reason.

I really wanted to love this book but it didn't really work for me. The MC is extremely unlikable. It's very long, starts slow, and was hard to stick with.

The MC did redeem herself by the end of the book, but I still don't like her.

I enjoyed the antics of this book and how Bella, whos a receptionist at a publishing house goes on a fairytale of an adventure by going through one-night stands after her seemingly good life falls apart. Her parents who she thought were going to be forever are divorcing and her best friend is getting married to Mark who she doesn't think is right for Ellie. Bella soon finds herself and wanted to find her Prince Charming when her best friend's brother, Marty who's been there all along. She made a lot of mistakes and by the time she got towards her real-life Prince Charming was right in her face.

This was fantastic and such a fun read. I loved it so much and kept turning the pages. Can’t wait to be able to share this with friends.

Bella is extremely immature, boring, and a shit friend. She tries to find love but is lost in life and resorts to sleeping around. You don’t need to know any more about the book. Honestly this was awful.

It was a bit of a slow start for me, but when Bella starts writing about her life the story picks up. I did enjoy reading about her sexcapades, and the growth of the character throughout.

At times, it was difficult to feel empathy for her, especially with regards to her relationship to Ellie. Friends going through big changes when you’re not is relatable, but not being supportive of your friends isn’t.

I would have preferred more development to the final love story through out the novel. It felt a bit forced at the end, but overall it was a cute story.

An ARC was provided by NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.

This one was a miss for me. Bella is a receptionist at a small publishing house in London, but really dreams of being a writer. Her life begins to fall apart around her when her best friend, who is part of her flat share, gets engaged and moves out, and her parents, who she modeled her fairy tale ideals after, announce they are getting divorced after 30+ years of marriage. In an emotional tailspin, she decides that she's going to leave one of her shoes with her phone number written on it in a bar, hoping her Prince Charming will find it. In the meantime, she uploads a short story about her night with "the big bad wolf", an unfortunately hairy man, to a Wattpad-esque website, and quickly goes viral. Chasing this success, she finds more men to sleep with for the sake of the story, and acts self centered and gross to her friends, roommates, and family along the way. She's so wrapped up in herself that she can't see that her real Prince Charming, her best friend's brother, was in front of her all along. This had potential with the fairy tale reenactment slant, and I usually enjoy single London girl stories, but Bella wasn't a particularly likeable FMC and acted very immature for her age. I also don't react well to change in my life and tend to be dramatic about it, so maybe I just didn't like that magic mirror being held up at me either. It was also very long for a rom-com and I felt there could have been whole sections omitted for brevity and it wouldn't have impacted the plot. Read this one if you enjoy a London setting and the best friend's brother trope.

Thank you to @netgalley and @Stmartinspress for a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Thank you to @macmillian.audio for a free download of the audiobook.

Bella’s life is a mess. Her best friend moves in with her boyfriend, so she now lives with some new questionable characters. She’s working in a job, but it isn’t the career she dreams of. Bella deals with things in all the wrong ways…including dating. She starts to post stories about her different dates with “Frogs”…when in walks her best friends brother.

This book is adorable, funny and swoon worthy. It had witty banter, relatable characters, and moments that made me LOL. If you’re looking for a RomCom you can’t put down…Pick this one up!

5 stars

#books #bookishlife #booklover #readingisfun #iowabookstagrammers #iowabookstagram #netgalley #stmartinspress #macmillianaudio #ltbreaderteam #notthatkindofeverafter #luciadams #smpinfluencers

Thank you #Netgalley

Bella is left watching her best friend and roommates move on with their lives, connecting with others, dating, getting engaged, etc. Meanwhile Bella is in a rut, when her friends become to busy or move out, she doesn't know what to do with herself. She works in publishing and decides to start writing and when she learns about platform where she can share chapters, she jumps right in. But this time, Bella focuses on finding her prince charming, she forces herself into dating situations then ultimately writes about them in a fairy tail real world manner. As with any rom com type read, little does Bella realize what is right in front of her ;)

FMC: Bella- I think a different character in the book described our FMC perfectly: “you know, you really aren’t what I expected… [you’re] a piece of work”. Bella was a truly terrible MC and I couldn’t relate to anything she did, said, or thought.
POV: 1st person, single POV
HEA: yes? Mild HFN but really left me with so much longing for a proper romance close…
spice: mildly spicy, there are a couple open door scenes but mostly fade-to-black
TWs: sexism, slut shaming, divorce
standalone: yes
final thoughts: I didn’t enjoy it, but I stuck it out really hoping for character growth and a brother’s best friend lightbulb moment of “oh I don’t love my BFF like that I’ve just been in love with her win brother this whole time and didn’t realize it” but we really never got that. This took me months to read and I’m usually a 1 book per day person. None of the characters were lovable and barely any were likable. This might be someone’s cup of tea if they’re looking for quirky non-romance and more friend and flaw driven focus.

DNF at 30%. I thought the FMC was a complete whack job. She was selfish and rude and didn't think about anyone but herself, but wondered why should couldn't find anyone. Ultimately I didn't connect with her or feel bad for her and I couldn't stomach finishing it.

3/5

I thought that this was a cute read; however, I had a hard time getting through this at moments. I really enjoyed the fairytale aspect of the story, and it really brought me back to my childhood at times, but I was expecting so much more based on the premise at the back of the book!

Sadly, I wasn't the biggest fan of the Bella and found her immaturity to be annoying at times. I felt like she was unreasonable towards her best friend and that the story was repetitive at times.

I was wishing for more romance within the plot and ended up disappointed.

Thank you for St. Martin's Griffin and Netgalley for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

I love a good fairytale retelling romcom. This was NOT it. This story had all the possibilities to be amazing and instead fell very very flat. I've never really been one to find main characters irritating but my gosh Bella needed to grow the heck up. Her conflict with Ellie and Mark was down right juvenile. The eventual romance with her besties brother, we all knew it was coming (I mean the part with Marty and the chocolate and the puppies or when he showed up at her parents house, yes I melted a little bit) but we didn't get to see any chemistry or romance develop it was almost like the romance was assumed, that it was inevitable from the beginning to 90% into the book, it was. For most of the book we saw her egging him and not in a flirty way either, she was downright awful to him for the majority of the book. I mean come on, a romcom without the romance? And their third act conflict without a resolution. No glimpse of them officially getting together until the very abrupt ending that didn't even tie up the heroine and eventual hero, instead it was just mentioned that they were a thing. As cute as I wanted this to turn out, this book was a really hot mess right from the beginning.

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC in exchange for my review!

A clever story, tying in familiar tropes with interesting character resolves.

Thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for granting me an e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

I found this book to be quite hilarious and I really loved the fairy tale inclusions and puns. They were definitely the highlight for me. What was a miss for me was the behavior of the MC Bella and her best friend. Both girls were very immature. I also did not like how Marty was just kind of an out of nowhere thing on Bella's part. There were very cute moments in their interactions that I felt she missed and then for her to all of a sudden be like yeah Marty. I don't know, maybe it's just me.

I had to dnf this one. I really wanted to like it but the MFC was so annoying and whiny. I felt like she wanted it to be all about her.