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A review by laura_cs
Happily Ever Afters by Elise Bryant
5.0
I received an ARC of this title from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
"Writing is what I do, and who even am I anymore if I don't write?"
Tessa Johnson is a writer. She's been writing since she was very young, creating fanfiction, and starting her own novels. Not just any novels, though, romances starring girls with Afros and dark skin. Girls that don't get the leading lady role in the romances she reads. She writes predominately for herself, her best friend--Caroline--being her only reader. And she's fine with that! Except, after a big move to Long Beach, Tessa's mom submits Tessa's writing to a prestigious creative arts high school, and Tessa is accepted into their creative writing program.
Her first day of school arrives, and she goes to her first workshop and... the words aren't there. They have disappeared. Gone. Like that. Nothing, zilch, nada. No matter what Tessa tries, she can't write.
Caroline has a suggestion, though: what Tessa needs to get the words back is some real-life experience in the romance department. Tessa quickly sets her sights on another writer in her program, and she and Caroline come up with a step-by-step plan to get the guy and place Tessa as the leading lady in her own real-life romance novel. But is Nico really the other half of Tessa's OTP? Especially as she continues to grow closer to Sam, the baker boy from across the street? Will Tessa find her words and her Happily Ever After?
Ironically, as this is a book about a girl with anxiety, I started this book with quite a bit of anxiety myself. Ever since I heard about it, I was full of excited anticipation. This has been the book I've been looking forward to the most, and was ecstatic when I got approved for it on NetGalley. So there was that little bit of fear of "What if I don't love it?" that one sometimes gets when you finally get your hands on a book you're really excited about. In just a few short chapters, however, those fears were washed away and I was thoroughly and completely in love: with Tessa, with Sam, with Lenore and Theodore, with Miles, with Caroline, with Tessa's parents... They all felt so real and wonderful, like I could reach through the pages and touch them, laugh with them, hug them. (But, let me be real: what I really wanted to do was reach in and snatch up as many of Sam's desserts as possible. I can't even pick which one I'd want the most because they are all so. Stinking. GOOD!) You know a book is good when the character's joy is your joy, and the character's pain is your pain, and Bryant KILLS IT in writing emotion as well as plot.
Bryant is a tremendously talented writer, and her debut is phenomenal, emotional, and breathtakingly beautiful. "Happily Ever Afters" is perfect for every reader, aspiring writer, teenager, adult, and... Yeah, it's perfect for everyone.
"Writing is what I do, and who even am I anymore if I don't write?"
Tessa Johnson is a writer. She's been writing since she was very young, creating fanfiction, and starting her own novels. Not just any novels, though, romances starring girls with Afros and dark skin. Girls that don't get the leading lady role in the romances she reads. She writes predominately for herself, her best friend--Caroline--being her only reader. And she's fine with that! Except, after a big move to Long Beach, Tessa's mom submits Tessa's writing to a prestigious creative arts high school, and Tessa is accepted into their creative writing program.
Her first day of school arrives, and she goes to her first workshop and... the words aren't there. They have disappeared. Gone. Like that. Nothing, zilch, nada. No matter what Tessa tries, she can't write.
Caroline has a suggestion, though: what Tessa needs to get the words back is some real-life experience in the romance department. Tessa quickly sets her sights on another writer in her program, and she and Caroline come up with a step-by-step plan to get the guy and place Tessa as the leading lady in her own real-life romance novel. But is Nico really the other half of Tessa's OTP? Especially as she continues to grow closer to Sam, the baker boy from across the street? Will Tessa find her words and her Happily Ever After?
Ironically, as this is a book about a girl with anxiety, I started this book with quite a bit of anxiety myself. Ever since I heard about it, I was full of excited anticipation. This has been the book I've been looking forward to the most, and was ecstatic when I got approved for it on NetGalley. So there was that little bit of fear of "What if I don't love it?" that one sometimes gets when you finally get your hands on a book you're really excited about. In just a few short chapters, however, those fears were washed away and I was thoroughly and completely in love: with Tessa, with Sam, with Lenore and Theodore, with Miles, with Caroline, with Tessa's parents... They all felt so real and wonderful, like I could reach through the pages and touch them, laugh with them, hug them. (But, let me be real: what I really wanted to do was reach in and snatch up as many of Sam's desserts as possible. I can't even pick which one I'd want the most because they are all so. Stinking. GOOD!) You know a book is good when the character's joy is your joy, and the character's pain is your pain, and Bryant KILLS IT in writing emotion as well as plot.
Bryant is a tremendously talented writer, and her debut is phenomenal, emotional, and breathtakingly beautiful. "Happily Ever Afters" is perfect for every reader, aspiring writer, teenager, adult, and... Yeah, it's perfect for everyone.