Tripping Into Happily Ever After (That Series Book 1) By Nicki Ivey
Excellent book! The main character is excellent. Funny and real. It's an engaging book I couldn't put down. Definitely recommend! Tripping Into Happily Ever After (That Series Book 1) Wow. I don't even know where to start. This was even more painful than I anticipated. I can't remember if goodreads has a word limit for reviews, but boy oh boy, I'm absolutly going to find out while writing this.
So let's start with a few facts.
Fact number one. I am a sex-repulsed asexual. I am also fat. So when I read the blurb I hoped to see mysef represented, I hoped the MC would be a fat asexual. And from reading the book it became clear that yes, she was. So here comes fact number two. Fizzy is also fat and ace. She is also pan, but that's kinda only mentioned in one line of inner monologe.
Fact number three. This book is doing a really terrible job in portraying aceness.
The book has not much going for it. The writing style is painfull to read. It's trying to be funny - I think? - but most of the lines are just strange, written really weirdly or sometimes even cringe. This is made worse by the fact, that the first half of the book is terribly edited. What I mean by that is... well... a lot. The first chapter is terrible. We learn nothing about the MC and a lot about stuff that noone cares about, aka random information that the author believed would be cool. Therefore we are kinda info dumped at random throughout not only chapter one, but a lot of chapters to come. And yet I don't even know if those things deserve to be called info dumps. It's more or less a painfully slow and way to detailed description of all the things that someone should have edited out. We are following Fizzy every second - no - ever MILLISECOND while she tells you in so many details about what she's doing it almost feels like a mix between a tutorial for noobs and a diary.
The chemistry between her and her love interest is non existent. They have almost negative chemistry. The only thing they do have is sex. But more about that later. The ONLY chemistry Fizzy has with anyone is Danielle. I kinda shipped those two and thought to myself, if the book made a 180 turn and let those two get together, I'd forgive it some of its other mistakes. But well, the one star might tell you how that hope of mine turned out :)
The other characters are just there for decoration. She calls them best friends, but she also called her toxic ex a best friend so yeah, I'd call her judgment ass. Just saying. In fact, the book can't even decide on that. It's changing its mind about how YOU the reader should feel and what is fact and what not so often I sometimes can't even keep up.
Anyways. The characters are apperntly her best friends ever, and yet she doesn't behave like that is the case. She tells that random dude she met 5 days ago more than her ACTUAL friends. It's supposed to build trust and ship moments but the only thing it manages to do is to make the friendship look weak and her look stupid.
Speaking of stupid. Let's talk about the love interest. She actually has 2. The first one is just there to be a bitch. That's his whole purpose. I am told a lot about his character. But the stuff I see is not what I'm told. And I do not mean how he appears to be a good man while he's actually beeing toxic. When we first meet him the MC calls him boring, she calls him safe, she looks down upon him just to change her mind and be like, 'oh but I DO love him, he is the one'. There is a lot of jumping opinions and characteristics going on, that have nothing to do with the actual 'he's toxic' storyline. That's why one should SHOW not TELL, but ey, that's how the rest of the book works too so why am I surprised. His character is pretty inconsisent besides the fact that he was made out to be an ass. Not only that. Their whole relationship is so laughable. They spend 15 YEARS together. And only after about 15 YEARS!! YEARS! he realises lol I guess our sexual needs are kinda different NO SHIT SHERLOCK. I'm ASSURING you, that if you two weren't sexually compartible, you'd realise so sooner. It would not take you that long.
The sad thing is, that her new relationship is not really better. The even sadder thing is, that the book is pushing the narrative, that it is. First of all, you tell your partner about your aceness. Not so, that they feel better, but so that YOU do. It's also not fair to hide that stuff when it's so clearly important. And if the partner is gonna be a bitch about it, you can ditch them right away.
Is MC telling any of her partners this fact? Nope :) But we're still not quiet at the ace part of this review, so more later ;)
Anyways. The first meeting of those two goes like this: Lover boy stalks her to her car, after flirting with another girl and I'm supposed to be like goals??? No???? That's such a red flag girl. But does she see it that way? Nope, she blames herself. Because he just wanted to make sure she was fine :) Because he was never a danger to beginn with, so it was her fault for assuming :)))) It's not like not only her but you as the reader too knew that that was bullshit and that there was never ever any danger to begin with, but sure, if that excuse makes you sleep better at night, go for it. Her blaming herself isn't the first time either. :) When she retells the story to her friends they too are like eeehm thats creepy?! but she tells them lol no its all good. I'm at fault.
The dude is also pretty bossy and wants stuff to go his way way to hard. It rubbs me the wrong way. (He also kinda stalks her again after they got together and demands to talk even though she doesn't want to but ey ) Consent is not just for I don't want to have sex It includes more things, which the book is trying to tell, but it's not showing it. There is one scene in the sex scene where she is like wait lets not do that and he's like K, but if you skip a sentence it's as if it isn't there at all.
Their sex timing is also way too off. They met 2 times and the second time ended with them having sex only TWO days after her break up with her boytoy of 15 YEARS. The other time was after her ex traumaticed her again. So romantic :) Are you getting off on pain? Is he? What is this? Oh and after sex number three she's in love. After 5 days. Nice :) Does she know anything about him besides is name and dick size? Nope. But he's hot so eyyyy :)
Wanna know another great red flag? :) Ready? He is married! He is married and he has a daughter and ne never even considered to tell her. ^^ But ooooh don't wory, he isn't in love with his wife anymore. The fact that he didn't tell his wife about MC is only a smalll tiny detail that you - the reader - should just ignore. After all, its tooootally fine if the cheating is between the MC and her love interest , am I right? :)
After learning this the MC actually dumps him, which made me so happy. You go girl! ... until you don't go, because you take him back. :/
The daughter is Danielle by the way. Best character of the book. Loved her. deserved better.
Anyways moving on. I think it's finally time for the ace part of this review. Because the only good thing and only potential the book ever had, is tied to the ace part.
Fizzy states on MULTIBLE occasions that she is clearly not confortable when it comes to sex. She may not be repulsed completly, but she is also not into it. She can experience arousel, but action and attraction are TWO DIFFERENT THINGS. I'm not sure if the author knows that. Because they trie to make her ace as much as they trie not to. There was potential there. Because feeling like you have to have sex to please your partner is not uncommon. Its sad and I wanna hug all the aces that feel they have to do that, but it is relatable. I felt so too at some point in my life, until I learned to love myself. Fizzy clearly has not learned that. She feels guilty about not being attracted. She feels guilty about not pleasing lover boy 1. She feels guilty about not enjoying sex. She feels broken. She feels bad. And - the worst part - she feels like, when Adam cheated on her, he didn't really cheat, since for him to cheat, they - him and Fizzy - would have to have a sexual relationship first. So what the book does with this is to sayfuck sex repulsed people. She isn't changing her view on that part by the way. NEITHER on the cheating NOR on the guilt. She feels like she should have been a better lover and a better sex partner till the very end. Especially after she had oh so amazing, best sex in the universe sex with Nat - love interest 2. Not once does the book stop for a second and talk about that part. There is ONE scene where Adam is like Maybe you should considering seeing a doc and Fizzy is like I don't need fixing and I'm like YES but I haven't even finished that thought, before she takes that sentence back in her mind, falling back into her self hatred. You wanna know what vibe this book gives off? :) It makes it sound like the MC has sexual desire disorder which I can assure you, is THE WORST VIBE YOU CAN GIVE OFF ABOUT A BOOK FEATURING AN ACE CHARACTER, just saying ^^
This could be excused if she didn't know about asexuality - which she does :) - OR she goes through character development - which she does not :)
She herself never uses the word ace to identifie herself, although it's clear to me she clearly IS ace. Yes, attraction and action are two different things, B U T the experience we share as aces is the same. I knew I was repulsed about sex - just like Fizzy- before I could pinpoint the attraction part. But ALSO Fizzy does eventually say ON PAGE that she never felt sexual attraction E V E R. So there you go. Aceness confirmed....oh wait. It's the same sentence where she says that Nat makes her expericne attraction. Considering the context that came before and her never ever really addrassing this part in an appropiate way, this kinda sounds like a fix it move. It's NOT demisexuality because this is not how demis work ^^
And BOY oh boy, it gets only worse from there. Like I said, I have multible screenshots of her stating that she doesn't like sex. She endures it. Even if she isn't repulsed, she is also NOT favourable. So for her to turn 180° is not a good way to show aceness. Before she didn't like sex. It made her feel uneasy. She tried to avoid it as much as possible. But now she is extremly into it and seeks it even out. You wanna know this does? :) It trys to push the message: You just haven't had good sex yet :) If you just have good sex, your opinion on sex will change :) If you just find the right guy your attraction will come :) This is the message the book is going for for about 88% of the book. It's only at about 88% where the author remembers that maybe this narrative might come of as not cool, that she decides to label MC as grey-ace. Because after 88% and her knowing about aceness and deciding that nope she is not ace, she'd totally randomly google ace spec orientations :P Yep. Totally believable. Oh and is she sharing this with her new lover? No, because why should she.
The ending is a hot MESS and the worst ever. I can't say anything about it without spoiling the whole thing. Just know my reacion was: What the actual duck.
I'm not hating on grey ace people by the way. If this book was written as a book of self discovery. As a book of overcoming and escpaing toxic people and learning to love and accept yourself and your aceness, I'd be fine with it. But this isn't such a book. She is jumping from one dude to another. Has lots of sex with him, changes her view on sex and attraction although they don't know shit about each other and then it has the audacity to end with they lived happily ever after
I'd call him toxic too, but I don't know anything about him to really make that decision, because he is as developed as a potato.
Could this book have been good? Yes. It could. But the author punched the potential in the face so we're left with this, which is neither a good story, nor a book I'd reccomand to anyone.
Uptade: Yes, there IS a word limit. Nice to know :P Tripping Into Happily Ever After (That Series Book 1)
Fizzy Fitzgerald is tall, fat, possibly asexual, and doesn't see how she'll ever get her happily ever after.But a stranger, Nat Bligh, saves her from breaking her nose against a concrete wall and goes on to make her think twice about the sexuality she'd almost come to accept.And then everything in Fizzy's life comes crumbling down. Now nothing makes sense. She's left with a broken heart and some new personal understanding.She could find her HEA with Nat, but something large stands in the way. Is there any possibility of mending her broken heart? Tripping Into Happily Ever After (That Series Book 1)
