-Warning: Spoilers-
Rating: 3.5/5
The Happy Ever After Playlist tells the story of Sloan Monroe, an artist who is living in Los Angeles. It’s been two years since her fiance Brendon died in a motorcycle accident and she’s on her way to the graveyard to mourn him. At an intersection, a stray dog jumps into her car, and to avoid the dog being taken to the pound, she takes him in. Sloan and the dog, Tucker, develop a quick bond and shortly after, Sloan manages to track down Tucker’s owner. After weeks of unanswered calls and texts, Tucker’s owner, Jason reaches out and wants his dog back, but Sloan isn’t giving in that easily. After some playful flirtation the two develop a connection. They then later meet and start dating, but not before Sloan finds out Jason is actually superstar musician Jaxon Waters. While everything appears to be smooth sailing, Jason’s ex and singer Lola, arrives with the looming presence of a potential threat to Sloan and Jason. The book navigates Jason and Sloan’s relationship, with an abundance of drama that comes with Jason’s budding fame.
The concept of the story had me hooked in when I read it was about a girl who met a musician who had a dog. My pre-teen years of reading fan fiction could not possibly argue with that. I liked Sloan’s character, and how she was resilient and looks at things from a realistic perspective. When she was asked to meet Jason’s parents, she didn’t want to rush into that stage of the relationship too quickly. Whey they discussed having kids, she knew Jason’s life was on the road and it would come with complications. When she starts dating Jason, we see that the romance helps to process her grief, which ends up being a major development of character. She returns to the hobbies she loves like cooking, blogging and painting. The relationship is without a doubt syrupy sweet. The two main characters have their moments where they really show they would go above and beyond for the other, dolloped with kissy moments or cheesy lines. You can’t help but feel like this would make the perfect rom-com film.
In terms of its format, the story goes between Sloan and Jason’s POV, which I really liked, especially in the beginning when I was just starting to get a feel for the two characters. At the start of each chapter, Jimenez has added a song that goes with the themes of that chapter, which I thought was really creative.
I was, however, a little put off by the pace of Jason and Sloan’s relationship. First they were texting then dating, then two days later he’s asking her to come meet his parents, then the next day he gets an engagement ring. Maybe it was just how the relationship flourished, but something about the pace of it in the writing felt really rushed. But hey, I guess some relationships move that way. Either way, wasn’t for me.
I also would have loved to have seen the character of Lola as more dimensional and less used as a plot device. As Jason’s career starts to take off, his label wants to see him and Lola tour together as it would boost sales but Jason doesn’t want anything to do with Lola. She’s painted to be this bad person because she’s Jason’s ex. But by the end of the novel, we find out that Lola isn’t a bad person; she’s just in a troubled situation fulled by celebrity culture. Lola’s interjections felt like more of a subplot which may not have been totally necessary, given that there was already a lot of ‘Jason being a musician’ drama that I think could have run the book on its own. I didn’t totally mind the jealousy storyline, but I think I would have preferred to have seen more sides to Lola’s character if she was going to be kept in the plot.
At the time I started reading this book, I was in serious need of a book palate cleanser. I had just read a few books with heavy subject matter and some biographies and just wanted a sappy little love story, which I certainly found in this. Before reading this book I hadn’t realized that it was actually part of a trilogy. Although it’s a stand alone story, it exists in the same universe. Perhaps I may have gravitated towards it a little more, or at least get a better grip of all of the characters if I read the first book (The Friend Zone), but I wasn’t totally lost which I still appreciated. The first half of the book’s plot was really cute. But perhaps about halfway through, when more drama came in and so many things were happening all at once, I sort of got a little lost. That said, it comes with a happy ending, and despite the dramatics and the antics, both Sloan and Jason find love, which is really what you’re rooting for all along. The Happy Ever After Playlist is a cute little read to escape in that comes with music, pups, hope and romance.