REVIEW: "The Happy Ever After Playlist" by Abby Jimenez
When it comes to a romantic past, I basically have none.
A virgin until I met my now-husband, I had hardly done more than kiss a handful of men before I was fully and properly wifed.
I know some people would...feel they had missed something. They would wish that they had really sowed those wild oats — that they had test-driven some more cars before purchasing one outright — but, honestly, I am not one of those people.
Almost painfully introverted, I did not then, nor do I have now, any desire to put myself out there in the types of social settings that result in casual hookups or ill-fated relationships which, while rich in learning opportunities, ultimately result in heartbreak.
One commonly overlooked advantage of having no romantic past is the fact that with no past comes no baggage
When most people talk about romantic baggage, they’re referencing the embarrassing kind.
They’re talking about those events you would rather forget. Those nights when, after mixing tequila and an empty stomach, you ended up canoodling with a guy who you realized the morning after looks a bit too much like a guest on the Jerry Springer show, and who — you surmise by reviewing a note he left to his roommate on the fridge — doesn’t know the difference between there, they’re, and their.
While I’m glad that I don’t have any embarrassing past interludes hiding in my closet, just waiting to pop out, I am most thankful that I don’t have the less-commonly discussed type of baggage. The painful type. The kind that leaves you reluctant to open yourself up to anyone else in the future.
It is this type of baggage that the protagonist of Abby Jimenez’s The Happy Ever After Playlist is trying to wrangle at the start of this novel.
Repeat readers of Jimenez’s contemporary fiction will remember Sloan, the best friend of prior protagonist Kristin. In Jimenez’s debut, Sloan lost her fiancé in a horrible accident. It is this loss from which Sloan is still trying to recover two years later when a precocious pup pops right through her sunroof and all but forces her out of her slump.
Though she’s reluctant to open herself up to anyone, Sloan can’t resist the wiles of this dog, who she learns is named Tucker. That said, Sloan is not in the business of stealing dogs, so she does the right thing and tries to contact Tucker’s owner.
Sloan’s initial attempts at reaching the dog’s owner are met with failure, but she does ultimately connect with Jason, the puppy parent who was out of the country and unaware of his dog’s disappearance.
When Jason comes into the picture, Sloan expects to hand off the doggy — to whom she has, unfortunately, grown attached — but things don’t work out quite so tidily. It only takes a little bit of texting — and a lot of relatively shameless flirting — for the pair to realize that they share more in common than just a love for this now co-owned dog.
But there is a truth about Jason that Sloan doesn’t know yet. A truth that will complicate, and potentially shatter, not just the fragile relationship that they have started to build, but also Sloan’s recently reassembled heart.
Jimenez’s novels are as challenging to review as they are delightful to read.
Why, you logically ask? Because it’s really hard to articulate what makes them so special.
I don’t know if it’s the comedic asides, or the tear-inducing traumas, or the spicy sex scenes that make her books so profoundly satisfying.
Probably, really, it’s a bit of all three. It’s probably the juxtaposition of these elements that you so rarely find inhabiting the same book.
In Jimenez’s The Friend Zone, she built a realistic world and populated it with complex characters. With women you would want to be friends and with men with whom you would want to slip between the sheets.
It is because the world she built is so rich and the characters who inhabit it are so likeable that reading a Jimenez novel feels much like tuning in to another episode of your favorite rom-comy tv show. You want to revisit Jimenez’s world and spend more time with her characters in much the same way as you want to see what happens with Jess and Nick on New Girl or hang out with arguably the most famous group of friends at Central Perk.
Though similar to a poppy tv series, though, there is one major difference between Jimenez’s books and those easy-to-digest 30-minute comedies.
Her novels are also rich in realistic, tear-inducing heartache.
Jimenez victimizes her readers in the best possible way, feeding them scenes and scenarios that force them to fall in love with characters in her books then robbing them of happiness. Don’t get me wrong, as is the standard for romance novels, we do generally see our hero and heroine ultimately get the happy ending we are so desperate for them to enjoy. But not all of the characters in a Jimenez novel will make it out unscathed. Like Sloan, the lead in this novel who, in Jimenez’s debut was subject to an unfairly substantial dose of heartache.
As much as I was angry at the world on behalf of Sloan at the conclusion of The Friend Zone, though, this anger has now subsided. My rage hasn’t dissipated as a result of moving through the stages of grief, finally reaching acceptance. Instead, my ire has been assuaged by this novel.
I am not angry now because the events of this novel reminded me of a larger life lesson. They reminded me that, just as everyone’s Spotify playlists are invariably populated with a different collection of ditties, everyone’s journey to love looks a little different.
I, for one, cannot wait for Jimenez to take me on another trip in her next book — even though I know, now, to pack a jumbo-sized box of tissues.
This romance was a winner for me. It earns 5 out of 5 cocktails.
Writing this review has left me in the mood for a Netflix session — preferably one including a 30-minute comedy. What’s your favorite show to binge? Tell me about it in the comments, below.
I’m on a roll. Onto the next book! Want to see what it is? Subscribe to updates in the sidebar on the right and follow me on Goodreads.
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