Reviews with content warning for Grief - Happy Endings

Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Happy Endings by Thien-Kim Lam

12 reviews

bookcaptivated's review

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emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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rickireadss's review against another edition

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3.25

this wasn't necessarily a miss for me, but the ending really let me down. it took a bit for me to get into this and be rooting for them, but once i was in, i was in. these two are HOT AF - especially trixie, like damn woman

YES TELL THAT MAN HE'S A GOOD BOY

but the ending

where he yelled at her while drunk????

nooooooooo, i hated it.

this may be my trauma talking but i would NEVER get back with a man who did all that to me, drunk or sober.

so yeah, this had the potential to be favorite of mine, but it fell flat. i am looking forward to the next book because i LOVED the boss babes!!

⚠️: grief, death of parent, cancer, medical content, parent has heart attack, fire/fire injury, racism, gaslighting, gentrification

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zombiezami's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I feel like I would have much rather read about Trixie and the other boss babes than hear about Andre. He struck me as really immature, and I feel that Trixie would have been better off without him.

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thefatpaperback's review

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funny lighthearted medium-paced

4.0

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ashleycmms's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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caseythereader's review

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

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meganpbennett's review

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emotional funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Happy Endings was a blast. She moved to DC from NOLA ago to prove to her immigrant parents that she can make it in a non-traditional career. She wanted to be a therapist, and now sells sex toys and wants to open her open boutique. He returned to DC from NOLA when his mother got sick, taking over the restaurant and trying to do things as she would have in her honor. They also used to date.

And of course they cross paths when she holds a bachelorette party as his restaurant, with a sex toy display on the table. She's never forgiven him for breaking up with her with a post-in, and he's never stopped loving her. You can imagine where this leads.

She needs the sales to win the grand prize at work so she can open her own boutique, and he needs the sales revenue if he's going to even attempt to keep the shop. It's a match made in heaven. More or less.

My only complaint is that the ending had two really big things happen-

the restaurant catching on fire and being declared a complete loss and her father having a large and serious heart attack

- that are barely addressed in the epilogue. I wanted a few more chapters about what happens next, and then the jump to the epilogue.

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peachani's review against another edition

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emotional fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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bookswithsoumi's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

Views and opinions are my own. Thank you to Avon Books and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was so excited when I was approved to read this book. Interracial romance all about Vietnamese and soul food? Sign me up! A strong female lead with an even stronger female entrepreneur friend group? Even better! It is so refreshing to read a romantic-comedy in which both the leads are people of color, which is the main reason I wanted the eARC.

The premise of the story is that Andre moves to his hometown of D.C. to run his late mother’s restaurant after ending a two-year relationship with Trixie through a Post-It Note. This is a second-chance romance that explores how Trixie and Andre rekindle their relationship after Trixie moves to DC. I thought the two leads’ dynamic was very cute and realistic. Trixie is literally goals: she’s headstrong and doesn’t want Andre or any other distraction getting in the way of her sex toy business. Speaking of sex toys, I really liked the sex scenes because they were so different than what I have read before. The use of sex toys was worked seamlessly into the scenes.

Trixie had a ton of growth before the book to become an independent woman and continues to grow throughout the book so that she can be successful. I saw some reviews that Andre was too unlikable, but I thought he was caring and had a good relationship with his younger sister, which I appreciated it.

My disappointment with the book lies in the fact that although it is an Own Voices book, there was little discussion about how race affects Andre and Trixie’s life together. There was plenty of discussion of how Trixie’s Vietnamese heritage affected her childhood and career choice, and I appreciate how she wants to break the mold of a typical Asian immigrant daughter by wanting to start her own sex toy business. I was hoping for a more nuanced look how race may have affected their breakup. Andre’s friend even wonders if being black made Trixie’s parents not like Andre’s influence on Trixie. But Andre denies this early in the story and says that Trixie’s parents just thought his ideals were “too American.” Was that just code for Trixie’s parents for being “[too] black?” Do you see how I want unpack this more!? But this is on me for expecting nuanced racial discussion in a rom-com.

Additionally, the book is set in DC, but there is nothing unique about the setting that makes me interested in the characters’ surroundings. I feel this book could be set in any American town, big or small, and nothing really would have changed. I’ve read many books where the setting itself, be it DC, NYC, or any-town-USA, plays a major role in the plot.

I would say to give this book a chance! It’s very light-hearted and you will love all the characters’ sex-positive discussion of sex toys and of food! I need some New Orleans style soul food after reading this book. My criticism is pretty personal and shouldn’t deter you from the book

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decklededgess's review

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted relaxing fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

content/trigger warnings: sex and nudity, alcohol use, death of parents, cancer, car accident mention, ghosting of a significant other, heart attack, difficult relationship with parents, fire related tragedy, grief

This book was decent despite my initial hesitation, although the "i like it" vibe wasn't consistent throughout. The first 10% was really bland and pissed me off. A lot of tell and no show. Predictably, once the smut picked up I was able to read faster. The pacing was a bit odd though and again once we hit like 70% the book went back to it's tell and no show writing and it felt like a lot of detail that would have made the story flow better was cut out.
I was also not a big fan of Trixie's "I need to deal with my own goals and not worry about Andre's concerns about neighbourhood gentrification because I'm a Bitchin Boss Babe." First of all ew to that group name we're well past the girlboss era of feminism. Please move past that. Second of all, she's a DMV transplant, has no connection to the neighbourhood and the history. So when she decides to opt for her own dreams with no regard for Andre's knowledge of the impact of gentrification and how actually partaking in renting gentrified buildings contributes to further gentrification well....she really went full throttle girlboss and I hated it. There were certainly better ways for her to achieve her goals without literally being part of the problem Andre was so concerned about.
I also wasn't to hot on how all of that responsibility of growth was thrown on Andre. Trixie's maturity and independence happened off page. We didn't get to see her grow into her confident (albeit annoyingly girlboss) self. Meanwhile Andre was flogged for being closed off and unable to communicate, which yeah sure he was a bit emotionally tight lipped. But when he raised concerns about the gentrification issue it's brushed aside as aggressive and unsupportive. He gets a POV in the book but it didn't feel much like the author was giving him an actual chance.
Anyways, the book ends with a nice little deus ex machina so it all worked out. Plus the smut was obscenely good so there's that.

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