Zora Books Her Happy Ever After
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Average rating3.8
A heart-pounding, curvy romance about an indie bookstore owner who finds herself in a love triangle when she meets the author she's had a crush on for years...and his best friend.
Zora has committed every inch of her life to establishing her thriving DC bookstore, making it into a pillar of the community, and she just hasn’t had time for romance. But when a mystery author she’s been crushing on for years agrees to have an event at her store, she starts to rethink her priorities. Lawrence is every bit as charming as she imagined, even if his understanding of his own books seems just a bit shallow. When he asks her out after his reading, she’s almost elated enough to forget about the grumpy guy who sat next to her making snide comments all evening. Apparently the grouch is Lawrence’s best friend, Reid, but she can’t imagine what kind of friendship that must be. They couldn’t be more different.
But as she starts seeing Lawrence, and spending more and more time with Reid, Zora finds first impressions can be deceiving. Reid is smart and thoughtful—he’s also interested. After years of avoiding dating, she suddenly has two handsome men competing for her affection. But even as she struggles to choose between them, she can’t shake the feeling that they’re both hiding something—a mystery she’s determined to solve before she can find her HEA.
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This rom-com is centered around Zora, a Black and filipina bookstore owner in Washington, D.C. Zora is fully focused on nurturing her bookstore instead of search for love and starting a family like her grandmother wants her to. To her surprise two men walk into her life and change her outlook on love. Lawrence Michaels is her favorite author who she has put on a pedestal due to her love of his books. Reid Hughes is his best friend who does not give Zora a good first impression at Lawrence's book event at Zora's store. i don't want to give any spoilers but I had a side-eye for Lawrence since the beginning of the book and I actually suspected the conclusion that Zora comes to about the best friends relationship.
This story gave drama and spice. Some of the spicy scenes are great and others are cringe and embarrassing. The differences between those scenes really showed who out of the two men in the love triangle was a better person. Some of the side characters are fully fleshed out like her best friend and her grandmother who were the best hype women and overall supportive of Zora throughout the book. There are a few twists and turns but we get a great HEA.
Thank you to Hear Our Voices Tours and HTP Books for an ARC copy of this book for my honest review.
This book started of so well. Independent, resourceful, and confident businesswomen are great to see in romance books. What I don’t care to see is love triangles. Simply because it’s hard to get right and this book does not get it right.
It's noticeably clear which person the main character should pick. How many times should you get a gut feeling that the person is off or lying for you to trust it? This stupidity on the MC's behalf puts us through two terrible night scenes with the wrong guy. Her best friend was right never giving bad nights a second chance. It was nice in a way to see this happen as it reinforces standing up for yourself and getting what you need. Something you don’t always see in romance books.
The wrong guy is too clearly the wrong person for our main character and her continuous doubting of her instincts is a little annoying. The right guy is so clearly right that I felt a little bad for him being strung along while she took her sweet time to realize the wrong guy is just awful. She gets so much advice on how to choose the right person and even says the right guy fits most of the advice but still wants to wait on the wrong guy. It’s awful that she only picks between them after having another bad night with the wrong guy. This led to bumbling the relationship with the right guy during and after the big confrontation.
What the book did right was the making the main character a strong businesswoman, setting up good familial bonds, and real friendship ribbing. The writing of the book is good, but the romance story is not.
