Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

The Happily Ever After Playlist by Abby Jimenez

29 reviews

amanda_reads13's review

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emotional lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Sloan's life fell apart when she lost Brandon 2 years ago. But an incident with a dog named Tucker on the highway leads her to the most unexpected person and a life she never imagined. 

This book is so adorable. I love that it shows the reality of fame and not some washed over version of it. We often get this fantasy version of what fame is, but that's not the reality. In this book, we see the true struggles and complications that Jason has to endure, and by extension Sloan. His life is not simple, it is complex and anything but private. Life on the road is hard and can break even the strongest person. 

I liked that this showed the real trials of life and not a fluffed up version. We saw the real ups and downs of Sloan and 

I loved seeing Sloan's characters grow throughout the book. Yes, Jason definitely helped her work through some of her trauma, but her growth was all her own. She is such a strong woman who, after enduring unfathomable loss, pulls herself back up and finds her passions again. Is it perfect, no, but nothing is perfect. She falls again and again, only to find a way to pull herself back up. We get to see her grow into herself as a talented artist. 

Jason is the ultimate cinnamon roll. He is such a sweet and kind man who wants to give Sloan the world, even if that means he needs to remove himself from the equation. He knows that his life is going to be a constant struggle for privacy and safety and he will do anything to protect Sloan, even leaving her. As much as I wish he had been upfront and honest with her about the
fact that his label was responsible for trying to scare her away (phonecalls, smashed car), I completely understand why he lied to her about sleeping with Lola. She never would have left unless he absolutely crushed her heart. She hung on to things until their last dying breath. He wanted her to have a normal and happy life where she could have a family and paint and he couldn't see how he could give that to her. 
 

I love that we get glipses into Josh and Kristen's life and that we get to see the evolution of Kristen and Sloan's relationship. 

Yes, the ending was cheesy, but it was adorable and exactly what I expected to happen

Tropes: musician, found family, insta-love

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maraandra's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0


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ju_harue's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Perto dos outros livros da autora, esse não me pegou tanto, achei que muitas partes foram repetitivas (mas por ter sido o primeiro de fato que ela escreveu, segundo a nota da autora no Goodreads, até faz sentido a evolução da escrita), quase beirando a motonia, com acontecimentos similares.
O que gosto muito escrita da Abby, é que são experiências bem pessoais, colocadas na ficção, isso me pega, fazendo ler todo os agradecimentos para não perder nada.
De resumo, estava com expectativas de ser arrebatada pelo casal, mas não fui, isso prejudicou o ritmo da leitura. Entendo que Sloan está a sua forma, se "re-adaptando" ao que quer viver, como, novas formas, novas relações, mas ainda assim, não me apeguei. O instalove não é uma trope literária que gosto, e nessa história em especial, parece bem impulsivo e até com sinais de dependência afetiva, que me deixam menos "coração quentinho".
Uma coisa que achei importante, que faltou no livro anterior, foi a questão da adoção, que Abby resolveu bem por cima no epílogo deste livro, mas ainda assim, achei importante ela retornar a isso.
Vou seguir lendo os demais livros, para concluir esse Abbyverso criado. Mas reforço que os outros livros, em especial a segunda série, me arrebataram.

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beate251's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful lighthearted medium-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Okay, so this is better than The Friend Zone, but that's not hard. This is Kristen's friend Sloan's story, whose fiancée Brandon had to die in the first book so she could have her story with Jason. If you ask me, she was better off without all that drama.

She'd mourned Brandon for two years, but once she meets Jason she is in totally over the top insta-love, and so is he. Yippee, no "I can't have kids therefore we can't be together" nonsense. But there has to be a problem or the book would be pointless. We have to wait a bit but then there it is: Jason is a musician on the way to stardom and a 14 months international tour. Yeah, not ideal. But they love each other so much, it will be ok, right? Wrong.

The rest of the book is basically misunderstandings, tears and heartbreak. Hearts constantly splinter into a million pieces, or something like that. It's a wonder there is anything of them left to shatter again! My eyes nearly broke from the eye rolling. It's a shame because it had started well. I loved Tucker the dog but I'm not sure I even liked Jason - he came across as selfish and controlling.

Remind me not to fall in love with a famous musician, it doesn't seem worth it. Also, what was the playlist about? I have to admit I completely didn't get why there was one.

It's kind of funny how the author manages one or two mentions of Nadia Cakes (her own business) in every book, LOL.

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author2223's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


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msarahlynn's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Really enjoyed this book, perhaps more than the first in the series, ‘The Friend Zone’. 

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fieldofsummer's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

It was a good book, the story had me on my toes at the end, but. It doesn’t feel like an Abby book. I dunno the tone is different, and I felt like it was a lot less tied together like her latest books have been. Kinda disjointed. It also started in one story, and we ended almost completely somewhere else. I still liked the story, but it wasnt what I was expecting based on her other books. And (this is a personal thing I’m sure) I just struggled to connect to this couple, there was a lot going on, and some things went unaddressed, and boundaries were pushed in a way that bothered me. 

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caties_books's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This is the best book I've read in a long time 😍😍

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miahenry's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Sloan and Jason had great banter and chemistry were good. I really enjoyed witnessing them fall in love (although it was ridiculously fast). She was a little bit girly for me and he was a bit man of the woods in my opinion, but they grew on me. 

I thought the circumstances around the inevitable tension were unique for a romance novel. Also, after reading the All Roads Leads to Here bonus chapter, I liked getting Lola’s back story. 

And the playlist addition was cool.

However…
Everything just happened so fast, their romance, his rise to fame, her connection with his family. I had a feeling moments of disbelief that kept me from being totally swept up.

All the baby having stuff was annoying. (Jimenez tends to like babies and pregnancies.) 

Jason said and did a couple of questionable things that made me picture him as a bit of a man-boy. A lot of how it panned out felt a bit old-fashioned with the guy definitely getting his dream, but positioning it as hers.

3.5 for me maybe? I was officially an Abby Jimenez fan after Yours Truly and this novel keeps me in the club. She is a master of the dual point of view and her side characters are strong and really fill out the stories. These characters just weren’t my favorite. Maybe a bit too white. :/

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lauraelovesbooks's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful 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

This book gets me every time. I’m not the biggest fan of ‘rockstar’ romances, especially when they take place on tour. Because of this, the ones that I do love are particularly captivating, well written, etc. This applies big time to the Happy Ever After Playlist

This book is so special and I always relish my time spent with these characters. Watching Sloan rebuild after an unspeakable loss is a beautiful thing. The balance of emotion, humour, and romance in this book is perfect (as is always the case for an Abby Jimenez book) 

This book jumped into my heart like Tucker in a sunroof and I am not at all mad about it 

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