ARC Read 2025
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/237923957-happily-never-after
I grabbed this ARC read from book sirens and it was a cute young adult quick read the story grabbed my attention early on when I had only planned to read a few chapters and ended up reading 10.
Our story starts with Arden (FMC) in Canada with her mother for her older sisters wedding... only her sister is only a few years older than her and at 21 years old she can't believe that it's a great idea to get married so young look how well their parents marriage turned out... fighting led to a terrible divorce and now they can't even be in the same area as each other (even to come together to be civil for their daughter's wedding day).
Arden finds herself having to occupy her dad's time alone with his new wife so that he won't get too close to her sister (who hasn't forgiven him for "moving on" so quickly) and their mother who they know will just argue with him the moment she is in his vicinity. Another problem has come up since Arden is the maid of honor and in charge of giving a speech when her sister knows she has a fear of public speaking instead of preparing ahead of time she decides to wing it... nothing could possibly go wrong with that right? She'll just say stuff she doesn't believe about how love is the best and they will be together forever stuff like that.
Seeing how nervous Arden is Shep (MMC and the grooms younger brother) takes her aside and gives her a bit of a pep talk during that time she snuck some wine... liquid courage and all that. Thinking that the wine will help her give her speech she still doesn't use this time to think of what to say so when the moment arrives she gives a terrible speech basically telling how she really feels about the whole idea of forever love and marriage, her mom snags her shortly after this and they return to their hotel.
Next morning Arden is still mortified about how things played out for the speech the night before and goes to her sisters room (she is staying in the same hotel separate from her groom to be in preparation for the wedding) only her sister Laurel is no where to be found her room is cleared out minus a letter, her wedding dress and the wedding shoes... and it gets worse when Arden reads the letter her sister left for her fiancé along with the engagement ring she can't help but feel responsible for her sisters sudden cold feet she was "All In" yesterday now she is breaking up in a letter she has to fix this today.
While trying to figure out what to do and attempting to call her sister multiple times with no answer someone knocks at the door... no one can know her sister has left if she can talk to her and tell her how sorry she is before the wedding maybe it will still be on and no one even has to know about this. Shep happens to be the person at the door with a gift from the groom, he quickly notices the absent bride and she enlists him to help her search for her sister so she can make things right.
From here the story turns into a bit of a cat & mouse situation where she is keeping the news of her sisters disappearance secret (especially from the groom) and they search all of her favorite places all over the city... all the while trying to not let her mother in on this news she will cause a real panic. Throughout their adventure they enlist the help of a few other people to keep an eye out for Laurel and try to keep their mom and especially the groom from finding out the truth.
There is a lot of inner monologue about how she is starting to like Shep more but of course there are obvious barriers he is about to be her sister's brother in law, he lives in Canada and she lives in California. Would a long distance situation even work out? Does he even like her like that they did just meet the day before.
I enjoyed this book over all, I did kind of feel it was unrealistic that they could go to all of the places they did in the amount of time they had (part of a day). Then there is the question of if they do find her sister will her sister change her mind? Is the wedding still going to be happening and if it doesn't will Shep and his family want to have anything to do with Arden if the wedding doesn't happen?
Cute & Sweet Young adult romance, no spice age appropriate. Shep is the perfect teen heart throb and even helps Arden a bit with her fear of public speaking along the way.
*ARC read *Young Adult *Runaway bride *Family drama *musical MMC
*fear of public speaking FMC *reluctant accomplice *book sirens *underage drinking
*no spice just kisses *takes place in a few days time
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