Book Review of Happily Ever After by Jane Lovering

I received a free e-galley in exchange for an honest review

My Rating: 4.25 stars

CW’s: nothing major, some mentions of death, some mentions of obsessive relationships, some mentions of disability (off page, happened prior to book’s beginning), talks of infidelity/affairs.

Honestly, with the state of the world, I needed something cute and fun, something a bit weird with a gothic twist. This book honestly fits that perfect. I liked the narrative (and Andi) right from the start. Also, a MMC named Hugo (romantic) and a cat who “like to go by ‘The Master’”? That’s iconic. I love a house ruled by a cat.

I’ll be honest, some of the character development is slow. But I think it works for the book. The book feels cozy in that lazy-sunday sort of way. So things are slow going because that’s sort of the part of the book. But the book doesn’t feel like a slog to get through, it doesn’t really feel like it’s dragging. The book makes the laziness work, it makes the slow plot and character arcs work without the book having to be fast paced. It strikes this balance between being a book with a thriller/spooky aspect to it (the ghost/mystery portion of it) to a book with a softer cozy rom-com aspect to it, with a splash of book-nerdiness.

I think the family dynamic was done really well, especially between Hugo and his mother, and then Jasper. Their identities and gender expressions (Jasper is gay and Hugo likes wearing dresses, heels, wigs, and make up, but is straight) were really interesting explorations. I think the focus on that for male characters was done really nicely and tastefully, and avoided a lot of stereotypes. The salacious angle of their mother being the grandfather’s former mistress who then married their father after her lover died was a fun spin and so juicy. I loved it. The author did a good job of not only setting that up, but finding humor in it.

Andi’s family dynamics were fleshed out well, bits and pieces were dropped in a way that felt organic. And it kept going as plot was revealed. And it all worked well. To me, it didn’t feel like anything was outlandish. Sure, the family’s weird (weirder as the book goes on, especially in the last third) but the author does a good job of setting up and fleshing out character and their relationships that nothing in the family seems out of the blue or like it didn’t make sense with the story. They were eccentric, but in the context of how they were each raised and their life circumstances, it makes sense.

As for the development of the story, while the development is pretty slow and drawn out, something about the writing just made that not awful. I think when a book doesn’t have much plot, and the book drags, it’s up to the author’s writing and characters to make up for it. And Lovering accomplishes that with the Tanith family, Jay the gardner, and Andi. And as one particular plot twist is revealed, more of the book makes sense, and characterization is both justified and shifted. The reveal doesn’t seem out-of-the-blue upon reflection. I thought “oh yeah, I can totally see this about that character” and the reveals land because the narrator has no reason to suspect different, but the observed behavior works with the reveal. And Andi, our narrator, justifiably has the back story that would make sense with how she analyzes the people around her.

The ending was really nice. It wasn’t too low stakes or too highstakes. It didn’t feel like a bunch was being packed in to a short number of pages. And best of all, it felt like an organic end. I felt like yes, the end was a BIT convenient. But I kind of liked the route the author took even if it was.

Good book.