This is Book 1 in the “Happily Ever After” series, which can be read as a standalone. It’s set in Los Angeles, California.
Daniella Belle is twenty-four years old, is from Texas, and tends to curse like a sailor. She is described as carrying herself with a naïve, yet classy, allurement, and as drop-dead gorgeous with her big green cat-shaped eyes, shiny long and straight ebony hair, cappuccino-coloured skin tone, and petite and hour-glass figure.
The book starts with Daniella’s receiving a breakup text from her boyfriend of 45 days, telling her that she was a “sweet, take-it-home type of girl” and that wasn’t what he was looking for. She had given up meeting her Mr. Charming ages ago, but on receiving the text, she swears off men and swears that she will never again date.
Daniella has been working for five years as a nanny to single mum Stacy, a well-known entertainment lawyer, looking after her daughter Emma, who was now 16 years old and no longer in need of her. Daniella was, therefore, on the metro on her way to an interview as the personal assistant of Antonio Michaels – creator and CEO of “Crave Me” lingerie – in an attempt to secure a foothold into fashion and her dream job as a designer, when she has an accident involving an arrogant man and a jelly donut. Not exactly a “cute meet”.
The man is, of course, gorgeous: tall, slender, dark-haired, and tanned, with smouldering dark smoky blue eyes and an international brew of accent.
The book was an okey read/listen but nothing special. I found too many absurdities, i.e. the weird names for ones’ private parts, e.g. “goody box”, and the characters’ reactions, especially in the jelly donut incident, but more so in the hiring of a PA. The latter was based only on the fact that he had the hots for her, as otherwise the only thing known about her was that she’d been a nanny. Then – naturally, and coincidentally – she just happens to have experience with a top designer in a fashion show and training/experience as a lingerie designer. More precisely, that she had graduated the top of her class from LA’s Fashion Institute of Design the previous year.
That said, I can accept the paparazzies and viral video aspect, the Annual Wager Fest, and the inheritance stipulation of marrying before turning thirty, but too much is too much.
The end of the book, which explains the title, was corny, and it felt as if it was just added in order to have a book title. The epilogue was also a pretty rushed affair, perhaps written to tie off one end. I thought it unnecessary however, as it was pretty much a foregone conclusion.