The Happy Ever After Playlist, by Abby Jimenez
The Happy Ever After Playlist by Abby Jimenez
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
After not just one but two less than stellar reads in a row, I wanted to read something that was a) unlikely to disappoint (because I didn’t have high expectations in the first place), b) uplifting and c) easy to “digest”.
“The Happy Ever After Playlist” was almost exactly that. It started right by being funny…
“I snorted and descended into manic laughter again, putting a finger to my twitching eyelid.”
… and went on to be just “nice”, good-natured maybe or – as my daughter might put it – “wholesome”…
“Ten days. I’d had Tucker for ten wonderful, fur-on-my-bedspread, wet-kisses-in-the-morning, tail-wagging days.”
It felt pretty much like watching an old favourite TV show from childhood. Exactly what I wanted.
Of course, a (mostly) simple romance like this, featuring a hot bone-marrow-donating (to save a little girl!) rock star, Jason, and a curvy blonde, Sloan, who falls for him, is pretty much as cliché as it gets.
Thus, I read this alternating between smiling (and sometimes giggling) and cringing (“I wanna get my hands on your pipes.”) – sometimes even simultaneously.
What helped was how effortless this book is written and, thus, to read. Even the constant switching between the perspective of both Jason and Sloan felt natural and made sense. Where other authors tend to be heavy-handed and “artsy” about such stuff, Jimenez got it exactly right.
Up until about the middle of the book, everything worked just great. It got slightly more complicated after as both Jason and Sloan mess up three times over mostly stupid issues. Maybe that’s “true to life” but one “crisis” is enough for me in a romance.
A minor detail but a nice touch were the song titles that precede every chapter. Judging by the titles they fit nicely and since I’d never heard of most of the musicians, I’m currently playing the eponymous “Happy Ever After Playlist” (which you can find on Apple Music here).
(I must admit, I’m slightly disappointed now as the titles sounded more promising than what I’m hearing now. 🙂 )
Ultimately, though, this was exactly the kind of literary junk food I was craving and what more could I possibly ask for?!
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