Feeling stagnant in her writing and her mission to find Mr. Right, Bella writes up a horrible one night date with someone from a dating website and posts it on a website for writers and readers to read and evaluate. After it gets attention at the same time her friends start moving on with their lives, she spirals on a mission to gather experiences for her stories.

This book reminded me of the BBT meme of Sheldon Cooper putting down the book then running back to it saying "I don't need sleep I need answers!" -- there were moments that were so cringeworthy I was internally screaming at Bella but also if I paused, I had to go right back to it. I cheered her on, gave her the benefit of the doubt, experienced second hand embarrassment and shame. But the whole story was fun and hard to put down and the writing was engaging.

#arc
#netgalley
#notthatkindofeverafter

I read the reviews after I had already requested this book on NetGalley. I can truly confirm that there are way too many chapters of this book. Honestly, the main character is a total disaster until about 3/4 of the way through the story. She is highly unlikable and you end up kind of rooting against her because she is such a dipstick. Definitely predictable in the story line, I knew exactly who she was going to end up with from the beginning. I did like how well the author wrote it as if it was a true narration of someone's life. Every detail, every thought of the main character really made me feel like it was all happening right in front of me. I didn't like how many chapters there were, not because it was excessive (even though it truly was) but mostly because it really separated everything. I felt like I would feel like I was there in the moment and then the audiobook goes silent all of a sudden and I just hear the loud announcement of "chapter blah blah blah". It kind of disturbed the flow of the story in my opinion.

I appreciate NetGalley allowing me to review this story, overall I am glad I stuck with it unlike some other reviewers. It got dicey for a bit and I thought I might give up but the ending was pretty cute. Unfortunately, I do think that the unlikeable qualities of the main character will make some readers put this book down prematurely.

A different take on romance. Bella has to do things all wrong to get to what is right for her. It’s an interesting tale of a woman who essentially gives up on price charming and decides to just have fun. Like everyone in that “phase” she realizes she can’t just stay there and, thankfully, her Prince Charming is waiting on the other side.

🌀Synopsis
Bella’s life is definitely not going according to plan. She wants to be a writer but can’t write. She wants to find Prince Charming but keeps kissing frogs. After a particularly terrible one night stand she decides she’s had enough and she’s no longer looking for romance.
That one night stand ends up kickstarting her career when she documents it. It also kickstarts a phase of fun experiences for Bella. Instead of looking for the right guy she is looking for the story to tell. Boy, does she find it!
The only problem is, she starts to realize she’s still not happy. She’s made a mess of her life and a couple significant friendships. Now she has to find her way out and, as it turns out, her Prince Charming is waiting right on the other side for her.

I really wanted to love this book. The description and cover of the book sounded like something I will enjoy, but it unfortunately did not execute. It was cute and lighthearted, but it had no depth. I can see how the author tried to make the female mc "whiny and immature", in order to have character growth, but it was a little hard to read and get past. It just wasn't for me.

Bella’s life hasn’t turned out the way she’d hopped. Instead f being happily married and a successful author, she’s single and works the front desk at small publishing house. She’s jealous of her best friend because she’s moving away and getting married. Should she take the advice of her BFFs brother and just start living in the moment? What could, and should have been a fun story, devolves into a series of one night stands. I really had a hard time with this book, Bella is extremely unlikable and I struggled to finish this

I cant do it anymore i have to DNF halfway. The chapters are too short, yes that’s a thing … these chapters are literally 2-4 pages each which is distracting from the actual story. The FMC is so self centered/self sabotaging it’s annoying, especially as an audiobook. This comes across like an acquaintance you haven’t seen in years giving you a life update that you truthfully do not what to hear. Theirs is no plot, not even a main love interest until about 50% through. Major editing needs to still happen on this book…

💭Thoughts:
The premise of this book is super cute and I really wanted to like it, but ugh the MFC is awful. She is annoyingly shellfish and judgmental. She makes strange decisions, then argues with the people trying to look out for her well-being. It got to the point where I started to wonder why I should root for someone so terrible to get a HEA. Sadly, I had to DNF at 50%. I just couldn’t listen any longer.

I will say the narration is great and really brought Bella to life. The narrator really found the perfect voice for her. If you decide to check this book out, I’d listen to the audiobook.

Not That Kind of Ever After by Luci Adams was fantastic. The story was funny and I enjoyed the characters. The growth that happened with the main character was fantastic. She learned from her experiences and it was fantastic to see. I cannot wait to read more form this author. The narrator was FANTASTIC. I loved their accent and it was perfect.

A great story about friendship with a bit of romance.

Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for the early audio book.

2 stars, most of which are for the brilliant audiobook narration by Josie Charles.

I am conflicted about "Not That Kind of Ever After" by Luci Adams. It's billed as a feminist-fairytale-retelling-romantic-comedy about finding Prince Charming in a sea of toads. The main character, Bella, is absolutely insufferable, shockingly insensitive to other people's needs, wholly unlikeable, incredibly immature, and utterly selfish. I am all for flawed main characters, but they have to have *some* redeemable qualities to balance their deficiencies. Bella has none. She doesn't do her work at her job, nor does she take it very seriously. She makes horrible decisions and then attempts to justify them to make herself look better. She throws tantrums whenever she doesn't get her way, even with her parents as someone in her late 20s. She ices out her best friend because she doesn't want things to change for HER. She's not supportive of her best friend's decisions and repeatedly holds them against her. She hates her best friend's fiance for literally no reason. She treats her roommates as disposable. She's not there for anyone in her life but expects everyone to drop everything they are doing to come to her rescue. At some point, when she doesn't find her Prince Charming, she starts using her dates to further her own career. Don't go in expecting a lot of romance or spice because it's mostly just a bunch of mindless sex with internet randos (which, like, do you, you know? but don't be mad when people don't gravitate towards your main character). Bella eventually attempts to learn the error of her ways, but the road to get there is pretty freaking rough.

I think if I had read this book normally, without an audiobook, I would have liked it even less. However, Josie Charles's engaging, funny, and well-done narration turned something that would have been a chore to get through into something slightly less irritating. Her voiceover made me laugh a lot, and it also made me feel something other than seething hatred or annoyance towards Bella.

I didn't absolutely hate this book, but I didn't exactly like it, either. It's one of those novels that feels like it's saying something really revolutionary and bright, but it's not really doing much of anything. It's extraordinarily shallow, and it lacks depth and nuance to be part of a larger conversation about dating, true love, or the socially embedded notion that women are supposed to search for a magical Prince Charming to sweep us off our feet while ignoring the people right in front of us who have always been in our corner. Skip this one.

Thank you to NetGalley, Luci Adams, St. Martin's Press, and St. Martin's Griffin for providing me with an ARC copy of this book! All opinions are my own, and I was not compensated for my review.

Bella is a 28 year old publishing receptionist living in London. When Bella’s best friend Ellie moves out and gets engaged in short order she decided to write about her horrible encounter with a wolf like man that resulted in her stealing his red hoodie comparing it to the fairytale little red ridding hood. When her red ridding hood story gains traction on a new website she decided to live out fairytales through dates.

Bella honestly starts out this story as super unlikable and selfish, she doesn’t even notice that her best friend is getting proposed to until a good deal of a way into the proposal, and her selfishness gets worse before it gets better. To me the story did a very good job showing how selfish and narcissistic Bella is and how her internet fame an a bit of validation caused her to act on her worse impulses, I.E. Lying to people, fighting with her friend because she’s jealous of her fiancé, making a mess of shared spaces and other peoples stuff, neglecting her job, and taking advantage of the people in her lives generosity. When Bella finally has her come if Jesus moment and wakes up and sees shes honestly been making a horrible mess of her life.

Other than Bella who I found unlikable but funny, the side characters are really fun. I liked everyone’s interactions with Bella’s weird new German roommates. I also like Marty a lot, he’s fairly down to earth and I think he handles Bella’s insanity fairly well.

I don’t think this is a book for everyone and I had my issues with it, I think there was a tad to many chapters and the emphasis on the amount of chapters made the pacing feel a bit choppy at points. I also wish we had more of seeing Bella get her shit together at work, but I had a fun time with it. I would recommend the book if your looking for woman’s fiction book with a main character learning how to be a functional adult.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I don't know how to phrase this nicely, but this book kinda of screams "white feminism" in a quiet way but also loud enough to be heard...if that makes sense. It was really easy to follow and went by quickly enough, but there were just so many places it could have just ended, and I wish it would have. I get it, it was a rom com and it was funny here and there, but I've read so many chick-lit romances where this one just fell flat.

I really wanted to like it because it played to the whole aspiring author element and it had so much potential, but this one just didn't live up to what it could have been. I would maybe try this author again if she came out with something new in the future, but if this is going to be an ongoing series, I don't think it's for me.

This book was just okay for me. Super cute cover and great narration. Alot of redunancies. The MC had TONS of self sabbatoging behaviors ro the point that I wanted to DNF :(

Thanks to Netgalley and publishing for allowing me to listen and review.

2 STARS!

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. Great on audio too. Much thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for early digital copies in exchange for my honest review. This cover is fantastic too!