Happily Ever Afters

The 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.