E-galley Review: Happily Never After by Lynn Painter

Posted March 12, 2024 by Lisa Mandina in Review / 18 Comments

I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

E-galley Review:  Happily Never After by Lynn PainterHappily Never After by Lynn Painter
Published by Berkley on March 12, 2024
Genres: Adult Contemporary Romance, Adult Romantic Comedy
Pages: 304
Source: the publisher
Format: E-galley
My Rating: four-half-stars
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Blurb:

Their name? The objectors.

Their job? To break off weddings as hired. 

Their dilemma? They might just be in love with each other.

When Sophie Steinbeck finds out just before her nuptials that her fiancé has cheated yet again, she desperately wants to call it off. But because her future father-in-law is her dad’s cutthroat boss, she doesn’t want to be the one to do it. Her savior comes in the form of a professional objector, whose purpose is to show up at weddings and proclaim the words no couple (usually) wants to hear at their ceremony: “I object!”

During anti-wedding festivities that night, Sophie learns more about Max the Objector’s job. It makes perfect sense to her: he saves people from wasting their lives, from hurting each other. He’s a modern-day hero. And Sophie wants in.

The two love cynics start working together, going from wedding to wedding, and Sophie’s having more fun than she’s had in ages. She looks forward to every nerve-racking ceremony saving the lovesick souls of the betrothed masses. As Sophie and Max spend more time together, however, they realize that their physical chemistry is off the charts, leading them to dabble in a little hookup session or two—but it’s totally fine, because they definitely do not have feelings for each other. Love doesn’t exist, after all.

And then everything changes. A groom-to-be hires Sophie to object, but his fiancée is the woman who broke Max’s heart. As Max wrestles with whether he can be a party to his ex’s getting hurt, Sophie grapples with the sudden realization that she may have fallen hard for her partner in crime.

The concept of wedding objectors was so much fun! Even if technically Max didn’t want to be called “The Objector” and Sophie used it as a fun name for him, making me giggle each time she called him that. As usual this author brings some of the best banter, as well as fun situations, and unique side characters to life in her latest romance. This was a bit of a “he falls first” story for sure, but neither Max nor Sophie wanted to fall. While Max did believe there was love and Sophie said she didn’t, that didn’t mean he was looking for that as part of his life.

However both of them had something riding on them finding a significant other. So finding each other led to a perfect fake dating plan, which of course went awry when those pesky little things called feelings found their way in despite all protests to the contrary. I adored Sophie’s quirky roommates, not at all what you’d expect when you first heard the way they behaved and things they’d said. But all the scenes with those two were ones I looked forward to when they popped up.

The different weddings they attended were fun, and all unique, which made for a new experience each time instead of it being like a repeat scene. The sexy scenes were there, but not too much, and it was a very quick read, kept me turning pages until I could see how they would solve their problems and finally give in to what they were feeling. Another quick and fun read from Lynn Painter!

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18 responses to “E-galley Review: Happily Never After by Lynn Painter

    • Lisa Mandina

      I always try to schedule mine close to the pub date or else I won’t request it if I can’t fit it in. If I don’t keep it on a schedule, I’ll slack and not get around to it, lol.

  1. danielle hammelef

    So glad you really enjoyed this one. I just got Netgalley approved late last week and can’t wait to read it.

    • Lisa Mandina

      Her adult titles are adult, but not raunchy or anything like that. Still fun like her YA stories!

  2. That sure sounds like a fun set up with them being wedding objectors, never heard of that before. I like the sound of how they attend multiple weddings and they all sound differently.

    • Lisa Mandina

      Thanks! I love this author and am so excited she’ll be in town this coming Friday and I get to meet her!

    • Lisa Mandina

      Hope you had a nice vacation! I’m bad about commenting too. Sometimes I have days or weeks that I have plenty of time and other weeks I don’t. So I get it!

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