Little girls are told to find their handsome prince and happily ever after over and over and over again as children so it is no surprise that so many grow up thinking that they are going to find their "one" with ease and grace. This story is definitely not that. Our hilariously realistic heroine, Bella, is just one bad experience after another and continues to make her own life crazy, miserable and fun at the same time. This is the real story of fairytales that should be told to all women everywhere. FYI: If catastrophic one-night stands and dating app meet ups isn't your thing, then go read something else and leave this book to those with a great sense of humor! I must say that I highly recommend listening to this book as the narrator absolutely brings Bella to life and makes you feel her cringeworthy, yet hilarious antics all the way into your bones! I had never read/listened to any books by this author before, but you can absolutely bet that I'll be looking for more of her writing to delightfully entertain myself with in the future.

I don't even know where to begin. I am happy, I am angry, I am annoyed. This story follows Bella and her downfall for 90 percent of the story, and then in the last 10 percent you get Bella slapping a band aid on her messes and calling it good .Bella almost burns all of her bridges with her friends, she's having one night stands left and right to exploit in her online book she is writing, and she can't see all the good happening in the world right before her eyes.

When I first began this journey I was so happy. Bella was relatable as all her friends lives are moving forward while she feels stuck in a rut. She was the friend looking for love while everyone around her had relationships fall right into place. Bella embarks on finding her one and only, so naturally she starts going out with men time and time again. Most of these dates end up with one night stands. (Although kinda sad, also relatable in todays dating scene) With Bella's bad date roster piling up she takes to writing about her adventures. Initially, I found this so entertaining but then it just got repetitive and depressing. Bella starts having random hook ups for the sake of a story and not for her enjoyment. This is where everything really starts to fall apart for me.

So basically Bella's intimate relationships are trash, and now she has to go an burn every friendship she has in the book. Bella's best friend Ellie gets engaged and Bella becomes a monster. Bella is filled with jealousy, she hates here besties new fiancé, who literally is nothing but an angel speaking the truth. Eventually Bella and said fiancé, Mark, get in a verbal argument where Mark literally tells Bella what everyone else wants to say to her but won't.

After everything that Bella does, in the end everyone apologizes to her??? I literally lost it at that point. Bella did realize that she messed up but it was literally in the last 10 percent of the book, after everyone else's grand apology. I hoped Bella would humble herself a bit more, but alas that never happens. Then she gets the boy. I was furious at that point. any chance of this book being relatable left once she was able to be the selfish monster, and STILL get the boy.

I really was hoping to enjoy this book more than I did.

Thank you soo much NetGalley and MacMillian for this DRC.

Not That Kind of Ever After by Luci Adams

I want to talk about the positives in this book first and that the humor in the book was good. I did laugh a few times throughout the book. I like retellings and fairy tale parodies but this one missed the mark in making the story flow well together. I like the lightness along with the funny witty Bella which made this rom-com typical of other rom-coms. I just felt like the romance part of it went fast near the end and it through off the story which like I said the flow of the story was off.

Her one night stands she went out with where tragic in the experience in how they always ended up being terrible. Bella ended up writing about these dates and the story went viral. I thought some of Bella's behavior like getting in bed with her best friend and her boyfriend. It wasn't a sexual thing it just felt like a violation of privacy.

Bella is just a hot mess and maybe the dates are just the epitome of what her life is at the moment. I would run away as fast as I could from some of those dates. Anyways the humor came out in these dates.

Narrated by Josie Charles who brings the humor out in Bella which shines throughout the audio book the accent helped as well. If you like a typical rom-com that plays on parodies of fairy tell retellings then this book will be for you. This was started off good but like I said the romance near the end for me fell flat it was rushed. I would like to read something else from this author in the future.

Thank You to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio plus St. Martin's Press for a free copy of Not That kind of Ever After for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions in this review are my own.

Erhmmm.....nah. This has the premise to be cute but it was so back and forth. I listened to about a quarter and just was annoyed the entire time.

I made it to 46%. I always want to finish Netgalleys, but I just couldn’t do it anymore. This is pitched as a romance, but at nearly halfway in there is no romance interest besides some vague guy on an app that won’t even give her a date unless she guesses his name. (Red flag. Show some respect. Not even remotely romantic). The female main character is vapid and unlikeable. There’s nobody for her to build chemistry with (which is what makes a romance fun and exciting). The plot point about her story going viral doesn’t even begin to take off until halfway, and now that I’m finally there… I‘m just exhausted by this book and not invested. I feel bad leaving negative feedback, but I need a couple to root for over the course of a romance… and it’s nonexistent in this book.

Bella has always dreamed of the fairy tale happily ever after.
Instead, she's 29, her parents are getting divorced, her best friend is engaged and moving out, and Bella is going on mediocre dates, wishing for Mr. Right.

Inspired by a really bad date, she writes a short story and posts it online in an attempt to lighten her sad situation. What she didn't expect was for her story to take off, and in doing so she is inspired to write more about her unfortunate real life experience.

But in true rom-com fashion, she loses herself along the way, and only the ones closest to her are able to rein her back in.

I loved this book! The audio was wonderfully done, and it gives such funny happily ever after vibes. A very quick read, but well worth the afternoon it'll take to devour it.

Thank you Net Galley and Mcmillian Audio for the ARC of this audiobook and allowing me to leave my honest review.

That was highly entertaining! There was a part where I was super mad at Bella and wanted to put the book in the freezer because she was being so dumb it made my stomach hurt. But she quickly got herself together and made it better.
This really was Not The Kind of Ever After. Bella has a really bad one night stand with a very hairy man who’s last name is Wolf. She ends up writing a story about said one night stand and the MMC is the big bad wolf. She posts it online and it becomes popular so she sent out to “sleep” her way through the fairytales. What could go wrong? Everything! Everything could go wrong and it kind of does.
Bella eventually get herself together enough to realize what/who was standing right there in front of her the whole time.
This was a really fun story and the narrator was really excellent. She did a great job with the voices and really made the story come to life!

Bella Marble is searching for her own happy ending, dating her way through London without much luck. Nothing seems to be going right: her once exciting job has turned dull, her friends all seem to be pairing up, and worst of all, her best friend Ellie has gotten engaged. Bella has to find her own way through life's challenges.


Bella is incredibly relatable. Anyone who's been through their mid to late 20's has been there: feeling like everyone else is moving forward and you're standing still. Bella went through a lot of character growth during the story and the ending tied everything up very well. I think this was one of the strongest aspects of the story, if not the strongest.

The premise of the book and the way it was described made me think there would be more of a fairy tale aspect to either the story telling or the structure. I think that that aspect should be played down given how minor it is in the book. I think it *could* have been very funny and clever but in the end it was a distraction as I kept waiting for that element to appear. Yes, Bella's writing uses a fairy tale theme and that's what helps her to get some forward momentum in life, but as the reader of *this* story, not her online tales, I didn't think that it matched up to what had been advertised.

I wanted this book to be more humorous. Bella herself didn't have any particularly redeeming qualities that we could see, and she treated a lot of important people in her life terribly. Yes, things got wrapped up in the end but it felt like she was stomping through life and we were there to witness it. I wasn't particularly rooting for her as a person, it was more like I just wanted to know how everything turned out in the end.

Thank you to Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

2.5⭐️ rounded up. This was not my favorite. Bella is such an unlikable character. She is self-centered, rude, and thoughtless. It seems like she might learn a lesson but then doesn’t manage to? I don’t know, everything just worked out too perfectly in the end and it all felt pretty convenient. It also felt long, and there was a lot that probably could have been cut down.

What an interesting idea of using fairy tales for dating choices. This book has combined my love of Disney and my love of reading. I like how the author uses the comfortable stories from my childhood, but grows them up in a funny and entertaining way. The descriptive writing made me see the story unfolding. I think the book was quite well written. I liked the style, and the slow unfolding of each event. I found the MC a little difficult to like. She was selfish and whiny, and somewhat annoying. There were moments when I was not truly sure I wanted to continue listening about her. I stuck with it because of the supporting characters and storyline.

An aspiring writer turned dating pro upon several one nighters decides to blog about it all to the world.
Folks, this is one of those books I cringe to read about because it portrays women as weak and needy. It also shows that some women will sleep their way to get to that point of self awareness when really all they needed to do was to love themselves and let the rest fall into place.
The main character was chaotic, self absorbed, and seemed out of control at times as she navigated her life through the horrors of her parents possible divorce.
The ideal 'perfect partner' or the 'knight in shining armor' never became to fruition in that sense but her bestie did find an engagement and marriage.
Ellie and Mark seemed to have figured it out but poor Bella would she be able to find someone who in this sense completes her?
What's to become of Ellie's twin brother Marty and will Bella stop writing under pen name B. Enchating about dating apps and embrace who she's becoming?
Ahhh, love and romance but in this case much of the romance didn't happen till nearly 80% completion.
Thank you to Luci Adams, Macmillan Audio, Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for this honest review.

4.5 for this one because it's almost perfect but something about Bella makes her a bit difficult to like before you get to know her and she has her big "aha" moment.
Bella Marble has a seemingly perfect life complete with a best friend since childhood, great flatmates, a safe and easy job, and parents with a perfect relationship. The only thing she's missing is her own happily ever after. Until the day when her latest date is a disaster just as her best friend is moving out to live with a boyfriend Bella can't stand and her parents drop a bombshell on her.
When everything around her begins to fall apart, Bella discovers she can distract herself with a writing app where she can share her writing anonymously. She writes and shares a bawdy story based on that awful date with a classic fairytale twist and it takes off, inspiring her to try finding other one-night-stands that she can use as fodder for her writing. But neither the writing nor the men prove to be enough of a distraction and she eventually has to face the things she's been hiding from straight on.
The story has some great comedic parts and lots of big emotions and revelations that keep the story moving at a solid pace. There's also the big romance in the background that is so obvious, but still a charming surprise when it finally comes to light.
Props to narrator Josie Charles for giving life to Bella and all the people in her life in a way that felt real and in the moment. Her excellent work made me feel a part of the story and engaging with Bella's emotions. A bit annoying in tone at moments, but perfect for the character in those situations so I guess that's an extra mark in her favor.
Overall, it's a main character with issues but those issues are a big part of the story and the plot is engaging and entertaining enough that it's easy to overlook certain moments.

Happily thankful to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the fun and thought-provoking romance!

Stopping at 70%, i just couldn't go on the main character acted childish and just thought of herself and just slept with anyone she sees. No development, nothing. The story wasn't that good. Wish i could unread it

Thank you to Netgalley for allowing me to listen to this audio arc of Not That Kind of Ever After. I enjoyed how the story highlighted that your life does not always aligned with how your parents were. And that not everyone marries the guy that they were in love with when they were a teenager or younger. And I also enjoyed how Bella highlighted the aspects of being non-committal, something that I personally have not seen in the contemporary romance books that I have read.

This is a quirky story about a woman is lost in herself and clings unhealthily to her best friends life. (sleeping in her best friends bed while her boyfriend in it, hello boundaries) She is a want to be writer working for a publisher company when she talking to her boss they are about to give a book deal to a guy who submits his chapters on an app that he got popular on. She is sparked to write about a disaterous one night stand and publish it on this app and slowly it begins to take off and she goes down the rabbit hole of trying to find one night stands that she can twist into other fairytales like her first chapter called the Wolf. This leads her on a pretty selfish path and she spends some time being immature about her best friend being newly engaged and blinders on toward Marty. She pulled a real d*@%& move after sleeping with him for the first time and setting up a coffee date with a guy who called and said she found her shoe. She was so blinded about getting the fairy tale ending for her book that she doesn't realize what is right in front of her. The heroine is just not very likable and was annoying at times and selfish. She does learn her lesson at the end but How she was for MOST of this story sort of ruined it for me. I did like the narrator. Her voice and accent was pleasant and helped me to finish this story to the end.

3.5 stars

Some parts of this book were fun and enjoyable, including the way humour was incorporated into the story at both expected and more surprising moments. Other parts, though, felt really unbelievable; the protagonist did a few complete changes on her feelings for certain people and situations with seemingly minimal prompting, and it didn’t come across as realistic to me. Ultimately, the premise of the story was fun enough, but I felt like some of the details could’ve been tied together and developed a bit more effectively.

I was excited to get read this book as it sounded interesting to me but unfortunately it fell flat. There was not much more to the book other than the description. By the time I got to the end, I didn't feel like I knew anything more than the blub gave. I also found that the characters fell flat for me. And a book that was supposed to be character driven with flat, almost stale characters, yeah that just doesn't work for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Bella Marble is an author stuck inside a receptionist's body. She's working for a small press and living her life day to day, she's sort of a mess if you think about it. Her BFF, Ellie, is about to move out of their shared apartment and into a place with her boyfriend/fiancé. Bella is feeling not okay with this, Ellie is HER friend and HER soulmate and they should be together ALL the time. Ellie's boyfriend/fiancé Mark and Bella do NOT get along. They're jealous of each other and this causes messes and fallouts. Then there is Ellie's brother...her hot and annoying brother...Marty.

Anyway, this and that happens and Bella decides to go for the writing thing. She starts "dating" fairytale men and writing retellings of the popular fairy tale situations they fit. I really enjoyed this book and would read more about this friend group and from this author.


Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio.

#NotThatKindOfEverAfter #Romance #Comtemporary
#ContemporaryRomance #ChickLit #Adult
#FairyTaleRetellings #Author
#LuciAdamsAuthor #JosieCharlesNarrator
#NetGalley #MacmillanAudio #ARCReading

This book was super cute! It was not a rom com, per se, as I thought it was going to be, more a story of finding your way in my opinion, although the end gave a taste of a romantic relationship that was a very sweet surprise!
I enjoyed the writers aspect of this book, as she writes for an independent web forum for the first time, that was a fun journey!
Overall I really enjoyed the book, it was cute, fun and I found all the characters enjoyable!

ARC provided by Publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I would like to thank Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for sending me a copy of this audioARC.

Honestly this is the exact type of romance book I adore. Leaning more woman's fiction, it gives you the love story, all the twists and turns, third act break up, but with a fade to black story when it comes to any of the sexual content. Sometimes you just need a break. You want the love without the sex. This book gives that.

Don't get me wrong, Bella defiantly embraces her inner bad ass single woman, sleeping her way through a fairytale of one-night-stands, but what this book emphasized to me was that the story of how she got to each potential love interest mattered more, and it made me love this story so much more for it. Plot came first.

My favorite story line was the anonymous writing website. It instantly reminded me of ao3 and of all of my friends I've watched go from beloved fic writers, to published authors. This story celebrated those authors, where I feel many readers typically look down upon fanfiction writers, where like we see in Not That Kind of Ever After, that many times those are the most talented authors among us.

The only thing that dragged my love down a bit was the third act breakup. My heart sank, I wanted to throw up and I was easily screaming at Bella asking why she was such an idiot. I'm happy she learned the lesson she did, but it was terrible enough that I wanted to put the book down. I trudged through because I knew the trope, and we would be on track soon enough.

I genuinely loved the book and it kept me guessing. A beautiful story of love, friendship, forgiveness, growing up and also recognizing what is right in from of you. I cannot wait to recommend this book to my friends. Congratulations to Luci Adams on a unforgettable debut.