Book Rating: Two and a Half Stars.

Book Blurb

Sixteen-year-old Tessa Johnson has never felt like the protagonist in her own life. She’s rarely seen herself reflected in the pages of the romance novels she loves. The only place she’s a true leading lady is in her own writing—in the swoony love stories she shares only with Caroline, her best friend and #1 devoted reader.

When Tessa is accepted into the creative writing program of a prestigious art school, she’s excited to finally let her stories shine. But when she goes to her first workshop, the words are just…gone. Fortunately, Caroline has a solution: Tessa just needs to find some inspiration in a real-life love story of her own. And she’s ready with a list of romance novel-inspired steps to a happily ever after. Nico, the brooding artist who looks like he walked out of one of Tessa’s stories, is cast as the perfect Prince Charming.

But as Tessa checks each item off Caroline’s list, she gets further and further away from herself. She risks losing everything she cares about—including the surprising bond she develops with sweet Sam, who lives across the street. She’s well on her way to having her own real-life love story, but is it the one she wants, after all?

Review

One thing about me is that I always get thrilled when I hear about the release of young adult books centered around black girls. Due to this, Elise Bryant’s Happily Ever Afters’ was high on my to-be-read list last year. Based on the blurb, I was intrigued to read about a teenage black girl creating and getting her happy ending. Her happily ever after. Most young adult books are fun and easy reads for me, so it pains me to write that I did not enjoy this book. This story was written very well and the story moved at an exceptional pace, but my problem lied with the main character: Tessa. The whole book revolved around her doing a lot of stunts to get the attention of a boy named Noah. At times, many times actually, it felt very weird and uncomfortable to read. As a black woman, when I read young adult books centered around black teenagers I try to brew up nostalgic feelings from when I was their age, but I could not do that with this book. The connection could not be built. I could not imagine doing all the stuff that Tessa was doing just to get with someone who was already in a relationship, and best friends with people that bullied her good friend Sam. All of this made Tessa very unlikable.

Other than Tessa and a few plot details, I liked the rest of the characters in the book, and I believed the interactions between all of them showed the difference between good friends and not so good ones.

Who should read this book?

If you’re interested in a coming of age, self-sabotage, and a neighbours-to-friends-to-lovers, then you will enjoy this story.

Who shouldn’t read this book?

If you’re someone like me that likes relating to the main character, then this one might be a little bit hard to do that with.