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A review by klindtvedt
Happily Never After by Lauren Landish
4.0
Slow but Still Superb...
For the first time in my life I am unsure how to feel about a book I ultimately really liked! I fully understand how odd that sentence must sound, but it’s true, and I have been toiling over this review for several hours now unsure of what to say… Don’t get me wrong here, I liked “Happily Never After” I truly did, but after the rapid-fire, intelligent, dominating glory of “Beauty and the Billionaire” and the absolute heart pounding brilliance that was “Not so Prince Charming” I was left unsatisfied with the pacing of this third installment.
I had extraordinarily high hopes for this book. And well, parts of it were indeed extraordinary and kept me riveted just as the other two had. However, the emotional landscape of Charlotte and Lance throughout the first dozen chapters just does not match the overall intensity of the book or the series.
Landish’s prose here is still impeccable, her overarching plot of the sadistic evil rival and corporate sabotage reaching a crescendo of intensity worthy of a 007 movie. But the underlying romance of Charlotte and Lance begins at such a slow pace I found myself glancing ahead to acquire a better idea of the overall stride of the story. Furthermore, the connection between Charlotte and Lance, as well as, their place in the overall lexicon of the Blackwell/Goldstone story line did not feel as natural as the first two, especially given Charlotte’s initial connection to Blackwell. But perhaps that is by design. After all, this is the conclusion to the battle between Thomas and Blackwell. And as a result Landish seemingly purposefully dials back on the involvement of the romance pairing within this book so she can swing back around to this larger, juicier plot point.
It’s almost as though she’s implementing a bit of a shadow plot, each book within this series having a different level of overall human intensity reminiscent of Goldilocks and her bears. Billionaire was explosive and hot, raw, and domineering, Mia and Thomas both portraying their individual alpha in an alluring and captivating way. Prince Charming, remained equally captivating but in a more subtle disciplined approach with Izzy and Gabe slowly building an unshakable foundation while stalking their safety from Blackwell, but without the super high alpha intensity of the first, Gabe being almost sweet to Thomas’ salty. Happily Never After lowers the intensity even further, to almost unintelligible levels and features Charlotte’s insecurities above all else, something rather unique given the damaged but powerful heroines making up the other two-thirds of their friend trio. Charlotte is almost timid and naive in her approach at times, a stark contrast to the unrelenting Mia and unshakable Izzy.
And while I don’t mind sweet and patient (I’m not completely heartless after all), I found myself internally snapping at Charlotte and Lance both throughout this book to keep pace with the action happening around them. But again, perhaps that is by design, a cooler level to contrast the warm and hot that were the two previous installments. A different emotional temperature to suit the specific roles each character is meant to play within the larger battle to persevere over Blackwell and his evil. Pushing us face first into the epic Blackwell/Goldstone conclusion! A conclusion that keeps this book in the must read category.
For the first time in my life I am unsure how to feel about a book I ultimately really liked! I fully understand how odd that sentence must sound, but it’s true, and I have been toiling over this review for several hours now unsure of what to say… Don’t get me wrong here, I liked “Happily Never After” I truly did, but after the rapid-fire, intelligent, dominating glory of “Beauty and the Billionaire” and the absolute heart pounding brilliance that was “Not so Prince Charming” I was left unsatisfied with the pacing of this third installment.
I had extraordinarily high hopes for this book. And well, parts of it were indeed extraordinary and kept me riveted just as the other two had. However, the emotional landscape of Charlotte and Lance throughout the first dozen chapters just does not match the overall intensity of the book or the series.
Landish’s prose here is still impeccable, her overarching plot of the sadistic evil rival and corporate sabotage reaching a crescendo of intensity worthy of a 007 movie. But the underlying romance of Charlotte and Lance begins at such a slow pace I found myself glancing ahead to acquire a better idea of the overall stride of the story. Furthermore, the connection between Charlotte and Lance, as well as, their place in the overall lexicon of the Blackwell/Goldstone story line did not feel as natural as the first two, especially given Charlotte’s initial connection to Blackwell. But perhaps that is by design. After all, this is the conclusion to the battle between Thomas and Blackwell. And as a result Landish seemingly purposefully dials back on the involvement of the romance pairing within this book so she can swing back around to this larger, juicier plot point.
It’s almost as though she’s implementing a bit of a shadow plot, each book within this series having a different level of overall human intensity reminiscent of Goldilocks and her bears. Billionaire was explosive and hot, raw, and domineering, Mia and Thomas both portraying their individual alpha in an alluring and captivating way. Prince Charming, remained equally captivating but in a more subtle disciplined approach with Izzy and Gabe slowly building an unshakable foundation while stalking their safety from Blackwell, but without the super high alpha intensity of the first, Gabe being almost sweet to Thomas’ salty. Happily Never After lowers the intensity even further, to almost unintelligible levels and features Charlotte’s insecurities above all else, something rather unique given the damaged but powerful heroines making up the other two-thirds of their friend trio. Charlotte is almost timid and naive in her approach at times, a stark contrast to the unrelenting Mia and unshakable Izzy.
And while I don’t mind sweet and patient (I’m not completely heartless after all), I found myself internally snapping at Charlotte and Lance both throughout this book to keep pace with the action happening around them. But again, perhaps that is by design, a cooler level to contrast the warm and hot that were the two previous installments. A different emotional temperature to suit the specific roles each character is meant to play within the larger battle to persevere over Blackwell and his evil. Pushing us face first into the epic Blackwell/Goldstone conclusion! A conclusion that keeps this book in the must read category.