"Bookishly Ever After (Ever After #1)" Book Review

My Rating ★★★☆☆ While this was a “fun” read, I didn’t enjoy it and I didn’t connect with the characters. I do think this had so much potential to be one of those AWWW books that a girl just has to love. I feel cheated; I feel like a kid who just left the candy store empty-handed. I was genuinely looking forward to reading this a few days ago despite my incessant rantings (soliloquy of course) about not being a fan of YA anymore (to be fair, I was never a real fan of YA, I simply happened to enjoy a select few YA books that I’ve come across in the past).  Phoebe, our protagonist, is virtually socially inept. She’s the classic knitting book-nerd who has a new book boyfriend almost every week but has failed to snatch a real life boy. She goes through her high-school free periods with her nose buried in a book and barely has time for anything else.  At the beginning of the book, Phoebe is actually crushing on a different guy who resembles the hot guy in the book that she is currently reading. Her friend Em has planted this idea into Phoebe’s head that Dev – the tall, dark, gorgeous, band geek – has a crush on her and that she should make her move. It’s only after Em mentioned Dev as a potential that Phoebe starts paying attention to him. But, being that she’s socially inept and has a lack of real life experience with dating she turns to her books as a guide. She attempts to channel the flirtatious female characters as a way to win Dev.  I mean come on! What’s not to love about this premise - the promise of a light, fun, happily-ever-after modern day fairy tale? Even the book cover is gorgeous and inviting.  She loves books. I love books. It was the perfect fit.  Phoebe has read countless romance/YA/Paranormal books; enough for her to easily take notice of Dev’s feelings for her yet she is unsure? Come on Feebs, you’re smarter than that. I know you are. Her obsession with this Golden book really made me like this one less. It really did. How obsessed can one person be with anything? I should’ve known she would be obsessed with a particular book, much like Hazel and Augustus Gloop in The Fault in Our Stars – The Imperial Affliction. She goes on and on about her love for the book and the characters (especially the swoon-worthy Aeden). My utmost wish at this point is to not have to read the word “swoon-worthy” during the next few months.  I also did not enjoy having to read snippets of another book; I cringed every time I had to. There was once I actually turned off my kindle when I got to the part where I had to read yet another scene out of Golden. I resumed reading the day after.  So there you go, I did not like Phoebe.  I did not like Em. She had an obsession too – French kissing German-style and breaking up/getting back together with her foreign exchange boyfriend.  I kept picturing Dev as Michael Persad (that gorgeous, Vine, Indian-descent guy) just to connect with him and get through, suffice it to say – that didn’t really help. Dev was just so plain. There was nothing which stood out about him or nothing that made me think “Yes! No wonder Pheobe likes him”.  Grace was probably the only character who seemed like she had her head on straight. Almost every scene she had in the book she gave some really wise, mature advice. Go Grace!  The writing style was confusing at times, but only a few times throughout the book in particular scenes.  The way the two main characters fell for each other would be more appreciated by the younger audience I think. Or maybe I’m just really not in YA.  Hey, quick question, do readers actually remember the names and stories of characters they’ve read? Because I seem to forget about names shortly after I read a book. And sometimes a month or two later I completely forget the plot of a book