A review by alyanthea
The Happy Ever After Playlist by Abby Jimenez

emotional reflective medium-paced

3.5

THE HAPPY EVER AFTER PLAYLIST is about sloan, a widow who lost her fiancé in an accident two years ago who comes across a lost dog. the dog, it turns out, belongs to a musician named jason, who finally contacts her after two weeks without a word--and he wants his dog back. the romance starts off long-distance epistolary texting back-and-forth until they eventually meet in-person, but their relationship is challenged as they face jason's increasingly successful -- and demanding -- music career and fame.

i had a hard time with this book, but it somehow won me over by the end. i didn't quite like jason for most of the book -- i found him rather pushy and persistent with sloan, who was still grieving and hesitant to enter a new relationship. i also, up until about 90% into the book, really did not think they should end up together.
their first time on the road on his tour really did a great job of showing how much sloan was suffering at the expense of jason's career -- maybe too well, because i'm still not quite convinced that they should be together by the end of it. lola's ~redemption was convenient, as was her saving his career and his future with sloan. most of the book i spent wishing that sloan had been with someone with a much more stable life than jason, honestly, but i'm glad she got some space away from him at the end to grow and start to move on. the ending was touching, despite all of that.


i suppose i liked it? i started off bored with the main romance to absolutely rooting against it to needing to know how they found their HEA at the end, despite everything. this book definitely portrays more of the negative and darker side of the rockstar fame than some other rockstar romances i've read. it also tackles some heavy issues, such as sloan's grief. i wouldn't call this a romcom but it was a decent contemporary romance. 
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