Book Reviews

Happily Ever After by Alison James – Book Review

A book cover for Happily Ever After by Alison James

Warning – possible spoilers! (Tiny ones, though, and I’ll try to avoid even those; I swear I’ll give my best not to ruin it for you… :-))

Happily Ever After by Alison James – Book Details

TITLE – Happily Ever After

AUTHOR – Alison James

GENREthriller, mystery

YEAR PUBLISHED – 2021

PAGE COUNT – 331

MY RATING – 3.5 of 5

RATED ON GOODREADS –  4.11 of 5

A huge thank you to NetGalley, as well to the author and publisher, for providing me with an ARC of Happily Ever After by Alison James in exchange for an honest review.

What It Is About

“…the place really is as close to paradise as you’re likely to find… Perfect for an intimate, romantic holiday alone with your loved one… Unless you wished your spouse was dead.”

Two newlywed couples – one deeply in love, the other seemingly perfect in every way – are spending their honeymoons at the same luxurious resort in Mauritius. At a place that offers a vibe that nothing could possibly go wrong, one of them ends up dead.

Was it an accident? Or is there a cold blooded murderer among them?

We can take a peek through the cracked facades of perfect marriages and exclusive lifestyles, but just a glance won’t tell us much. To find out what really happened that night and why, we will have to dig much deeper into the past…

Happily Ever After by Alison James – My Review

If there’s ever been a thriller that is perfect for beach reading…

The story starts at a beautiful honeymoon destination, a luxury resort in Mauritius. And I could almost feel the warm sand on my feet and the scent of salt mixed with exotic flowers. The spacious white beach, the turquoise waters, the perfect blue sky, the beautiful villas with private pools…

I needed this in my life. 😊😎

Sadly, we only got to stay there till less than 20% in the book, which – why? That was a storytelling decision that I could barely understand. I’m sure there was a way to go through the plot and resolve everything right then and there, so why leave?

I know, I’m being whiny and unreasonable. But after so long without even a possibility of a travel, this book really managed to take me there for a second. Before cruelly taking it all away. 😥😭

Anyways, the rest of the book. We did get some more traveling. I just had my heart set on that first one.

I liked the plot. And I liked (as weird it is to say it, but you know what I mean) that part of it was based on a real event the author once read about.

The writing was really nice and simple, easy to follow. Most of the characters felt so very – real.

And I loved the general vibe of the book. To me, Happily Ever After was one of those relaxing, feel good books where you can just hear the story without overthinking anything and just have fun with it.

What I didn’t like about this book? A few things were just way too convenient. To the point where I felt obligated to roll my eyes, even just a little bit.

For the longest time I thought I’d give this book at least 4 stars. Because there were many things I really enjoyed about it. But the things that annoyed me kept piling up.

There were several small inconsistencies.

Plus, I hate it when the protagonists seem cool and nice and relatable for the most part, then make a few really stupid decisions that seem to lower their IQ and make me seriously question who I’ve been rooting for the whole time.

But hey, try to suspend your disbelieve and the critique in you as much as you can and just roll with it (I mean, it’s not likely, but it’s also not impossible), and you’ll be fine. For the most of it.

And yes, I kind of guessed from the beginning what happened (at least a chunk of it). But to be fair, in 90 percent of the cases, the only thrillers when I couldn’t figure out who done it were the ones where the answer was too stupid to even consider.

So I’m OK with it.

Happily Ever After is one of those light, fun thrillers that has a nice pacing, interesting plot and characters you will love to… maybe not hate, but at least smirk at. There’s nothing really gory there, or too dark. But it still managed to keep my attention and occasionally even put me on the edge of my seat.

I really enjoyed most of it. If you are looking for a perfect beach read for the summer, this might be it. Just don’t look too closely into some of the weaker points, and you’ll have a great fun with it.

Me – I am definitely going to check out some more books by this author. The Man She Married seems to be the most popular one so far, and the blurb sounds more than intriguing, so I’ll probably start with that one…

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