Happily Ever Afters: A (Spoiler) Review

Author: Elise Bryant

Published: January 2021

Pages: 384

Medium: Audiobook

Rating: 4/5 Stars

Synopsis (From Goodreads) Summarized:

Sixteen-year-old Tessa Johnson feels the only place she’s a true leading lady is in her own writing—in the swoony love stories she shares only with Caroline, her best friend and #1 devoted reader.

When Tessa is accepted into the creative writing program of a prestigious art school, she’s excited to finally let her stories shine. But when she goes to her first workshop, the words are just...gone. Caroline figures out a solution that involves getting a guy to fall in love with Tessa to make her own love story for inspiration.

But as Tessa checks off each item off Caroline’s list, she gets further and further away from herself. She risks losing everything she cares about—including the surprising bond she develops with sweet Sam, who lives across the street. She’s well on her way to having her own real-life love story, but is it the one she wants, after all?

My Thoughts:

I read this to support Black authors and to branch out a little bit by reading something by someone I've never heard of before. I LOVED Tessa and related to her so much. She is a writer at her core and always has been, but is too shy to share her writing with anyone other than her best friend, Caroline. One night, she mentions in passing to her parents about this prestigious art school she wants to attend, but doesn't think she's good enough. Her mom goes behind her back and sends Tessa's writing samples to this school, but doesn't tell her about doing so until she is accepted.

Once this happens, the entire family moves to a different neighborhood where people are already judging their family; Tessa has a Black dad, a White mom, and an older brother with mental disabilities who has to be watched and taken care of constantly. Upon moving into their new home, Tessa's brother plays a prank on her that throws her into meeting Sam, the dorky White guy across the street (who is probably my second favorite character). Sam will also be attending the art school and is part of the Culinary Arts program, which, sadly, a lot of people don't consider "art."

Tessa is forced into going to school with Sam every day, which at first she's upset about because she's a little embarrassed to be seen with a guy that is wearing a Hawaiian shirt and pants that can zip off at the knee (because nobody actually wears those ... right?) Trying to navigate her first day is no easy feat -- she considers eating lunch in the girl's restroom but runs into Lenore while in there instead. Lenore is a no-nonsense, sure of herself, beautiful girl who helps out Tessa when the worst possible thing happens to her -- her period starts and there's a large bloodstain on her perfect LACE, WHITE dress. (Seriously, worst nightmare ever!) From then on, the two girls are inseparable.

Meanwhile, Tessa is no longer sending chapters to Caroline, and both girls are concerned with Tessa's writing. Caroline comes up with this whole idea that writers write what they know, and so Tessa needs to have a full-blown love story of her own in real-life so that she can accurately start to write about love stories again. Tessa of course picks the hottest guy on campus to do this with, Nico, who by the way, already has a girlfriend. Nico and his friends are the children of the founders of the school, so naturally, they're super-rich. Tessa tries to get to know them and fit in, all the while remaining friends with Sam, Lenore, and Theo (who is Lenore's friend).

Tessa is a full-on flirt with Nico and it escalates to a point where Poppy, his girlfriend, sabotages Tessa by printing out her old stories that she'd NEVER show anyone and passing them out to everyone at the school. And as someone who's been writing stories since she was young, I can completely understand and relate to this mortification. Everyone is reading her love stories and thinks they are about Nico, and now Tessa seems like she's just completely obsessed with him.

Her relationship with Sam through all of this gets better and better, and I fell in love with him super quickly. He's a baker, for crying out loud, and uses Tessa as his taste-tester (um, yes please!) He's really sweet and gets along really well with everyone in her family - especially her brother. Which is a HUGE deal to Tessa because she's so tired of people treating him differently.

Eventually, Tessa starts to fall for Sam without even realizing it, and they begin to date during Thanksgiving break. But when they go back to school, Tessa seems embarrassed again to be around Sam. When she is cornered by Nico and forced into a kiss that Sam witnesses, Sam stops all forms of communication with her.

She plans a trip for Caroline to come see her, and when Caroline tries to tell her about her life and her problems, Tessa is more invested and worried about her own problems. Caroline also stops all communication with Tessa.

The book then abruptly shifts to a few months later and Tessa is dating Nico. They attend a gala for the most prestigious artists at the school, and this is where Nico meets her family and is embarrassed by her brother. This is the last straw for Tessa, and she screams at Nico and then dumps him in front of everyone.

When she goes home that night, she writes. She writes for hours and hours and sends everything to Caroline, along with an apology. Caroline flips out and loves her words, and they're friends again and it's great and wonderful -- but, there's still one thing to tie up in this happy ending of finally writing and friends reuniting: Sam. She needs to make up with Sam! Tessa decides to read what she's written in her next writing class and invites Sam to listen to her story. When she begins to read in class, he's not there, and she finally realizes that she's been doing everything wrong the entire time; she needed to just write for her; she needed to have a love story with herself first before she could make a relationship work. As she's reading, she's filled with this self-love and when she's done reading she looks up, and there's Sam.

AND THAT'S THE END OF THE BOOK! I'm sorry? Where ...where is the kiss? How do I know if they're actually okay? How do I know they're getting back together?

Final Thoughts and Favorite Moments:

Okay so while I was a little upset about the ending, I really enjoyed listening to this book! I was laughing mostly throughout the book -- sometimes because it was funny and sometimes because I just related SO HARD.

I really enjoyed the fact that Harry Potter was mentioned so many times. Like how Nico was a closet-nerd that loved Goblet of Fire. And I loved how Tessa and Caroline would talk about writing fan-fiction about themselves and their favorite characters from the books (Tessa loves Harry, Caroline loves Ron).

I loved the awkwardness of Tessa and the fact that she didn't want to make anyone mad or step on anyone's toes about anything (um, hi, it's me!)

I pretty much loved all of the characters (minus Nico and his racist friends), and I really, really enjoyed this story.