Happily Ever After by Kelly Oram

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Title: Happily Ever After
Author: Kelly Oram
Series: Cinder & Ella #2
Published by: Indie
Release Date: April 11, 2017
Format: Kindle Book
Pages: 342
Genres: Romance, Contemporary
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2018 #LetsReadIndie Challenge, Lenoreo's 2018 Beat the Backlist Challenge, Lenoreo's 2018 Finishing the Series Challenge, Lenoreo's 2018 New Adult Challenge, Lenoreo's 2018 Reading Assignment Challenge
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ B&N ✩ Kobo ✩ iBooks ✩ IndieBound
My rating:

Blurb:

This is the sequel to the #1 Bestselling novel Cinder & Ella from Kelly Oram.

The end of one story is often the beginning of another. Hollywood heartthrob Brian Oliver and his Cinderella princess Ellamara Rodriguez have finally found love outside the digital world. But leaving their anonymity behind creates a whole new set of obstacles for the nation’s new favorite sweethearts. With the stress of Brian’s fame, Ella's disapproving family, and the pressures of a new relationship weighing down on them, the It Couple quickly begins to wonder if they can hold on to their newfound joy, or if maybe happily ever after is only a fairy tale.

My Review:

4.5 stars — So this was one of those books that I think I subconsciously kept pushing to the back of the pile because I loved the first book so much, I was worried that a sequel just wouldn’t live up to it.  And while nothing can top Cinder & Ella, this book had me hooked from the first page to the last.  It gave me all the good tummy tingles of a great read, and I even started slowing down at the end because I didn’t want it to end.  I grinned so hard it hurt.  I genuinely laughed/snorted out loud.  I cried multiple times.  The book may not be perfect, but I LOVED it!

For some reason I assumed this book would start off a few months later…but it doesn’t.  It starts up basically a week after the end of Cinder & Ella.  I also didn’t really know what the book was going to be about—what the conflict would be—because I didn’t read the blurb…I saw Cinder & Ella sequel and clicked that pre-order button immediately!  But I kinda loved what this book tackled—what happens after the HEA?  And I don’t really feel like the book brought drama for drama’s sake, all the struggles that Brian and Ella faced felt realistic and reasonable…well, in a celebrity world anyways.  Was everything realistic?  Well, maybe not.  Some of the reactions of other celebrities felt almost too good…but I’m okay with that.

The thing that really struck me while reading this book is that there was so much left sort of unresolved at the end of Cinder & Ella…but I didn’t know it.  The biggest being Ella’s self-esteem, particularly wrt her scars and injuries.  I mean, it should have been obvious, but I just didn’t really think about it.  And I loved the way Ms. Oram dealt with it.  It wasn’t some easy fix just because some hot celebrity was in love with her and told her he loved all of her…Ella needed to learn to love her body too.

And OMG, I LOVED that it tackled their relationship, and how they might be at different stages, wanting different things, because of age and experience.  I won’t go into it, because the book does it better, but just know I loved that.  It’s an issue that not a lot of romances go into.

I’m conflicted on Ella’s struggles with her father.  At times I felt that he went too far and he was unreasonable.  I was worried that he was going to be just a villain almost.  But I should have trusted Ms. Oram, because it ended up being a lot more complex than that.  It still hurt my heart, but I was surprised that I was satisfied with where that storyline went.  Not happy necessarily, but satisfied.

I still loved Brian and Ella.  They were both flawed, but that just made them more real.  I loved how strong and sassy Ella was, even if occasionally she felt a bit judgey (but only a tiny bit).  I loved how ridiculously over the top dorky Brian could be, though he still maintained the level of arrogance we saw in book one.  And more important than each of them individually, I LOVED the two of them together.  They hit a lot of bumps in the road, but their love for one another never faltered.  I LOVED how they loved each other, how they rooted for one another, how they were there for one another.  And OMG did I love their banter.

I appreciated that we got to see Ella’s relationship with Ana grow and change.  That was a pleasant surprise, but still believable.  I loved seeing glimpses of our favourite secondary characters (Jules, a bit of Vivian and Rob, and of course Scotty).  I appreciated the few new characters we got to meet, from Liz and Doug to Carla and Nash to Rhett and Jesse.  And for everyone that is a huge Kelly Oram fan, I LOVED the little (and sometimes big) nods to other characters in the Kellywood Universe.  Wasn’t expecting the cameo near the end, and it was delightful.

So yeah.  This is basically just a lot of gushing.  Like I said, it wasn’t perfect by any means…but the things that bothered me were too tiny to list.  I’m just not sure what to do with myself now, but you can bet your bottom that I will be rereading both books in the future!