Fun from the first page I really enjoyed this book and all it had to offer. I will be sure to keep an eye out for anything else written by this author in the future as I know it will be a hoot!

3.5 stars
I really wanted to love this, but it was just okay. I figured out the "twist" from the very beginning—it was all extremely obvious and Zora was oblivious to these hot men. The dialogue was very repetitive and some side characters felt one note. While I did enjoy the overall story, I think the execution could have been better.

After reading Taj McCoy's first book I knew I'd want to read anything and everything she puts out next. I'm happy to report that Zora Books Her Happy Ever After did not disappoint.

Zora owns a bookstore (one I'd love to visit) and it's there she meets the first potential love interest, Lawrence, and shortly after the second potential love interest, Reid, too. It turns out that both guys are best friends, but Zora decides to date them both and see where that goes.

I had a clear favourite from the start, AND IT WASN'T LAWRENCE!!! He was okay at first, but the more he opened his mouth the less attractive he became. I hated the way he wouldn't listen to what Zora was telling him, wouldn't ask her about herself, and yeah the fact that he was an idiot who seemed to only care about himself.

Reid started off being kind of mean, but as the book went on we got to see that he wasn't like that at all. He was very sweet, attentive, and cared a lot about his students. He also didn't have the memory of a goldfish.

The steamy scenes with Reid were great while the Lawrence ones...let's not go there.

This book even managed to make me cry a few times, I consider that a good thing.

The one thing I didn't like (apart from Lawrence), was how Zora's granny kept pestering her for great grandbabies throughout the whole book. It was funny the first time, maybe even the second, but it felt like every time she entered the scene she was reminding Zora that she wants her to have babies.

I did like her as a character though, and Emma too. The way they were with Zora was so precious. You know the three of them will be tight for life (or until grandma passes, as she liked to remind us).

Aaaaaand I saw the twist coming from the second time Reid talked to Zora, I sensed it during the first time, but confirmed my suspicions that second time and I turned out to be right. It didn't hinder my enjoyment though.

P. S. My aunt's name is Zora!!

4.5

*Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review*

What a delightful read. Zora was such an amazing protagonist - I love her passion and dedication for books and for her community. I absolutely want to be friends with her!! I enjoyed reading about Zora's friendship with Emma as well as her relationship with her grandma - these two are absolutely unhinged and hilarious yet supportive at the same time and I LOVE IT!! The only critic that I have is that the plot has been quite predictable from the beginning for me.

3.75 stars
Zora has committed every inch of her life to establishing her thriving DC bookstore, making it a pillar of the community and she hasnt had the time for romance. However, when a mystery author who she has been crushing on for years agrees to have an event at her store, she starts to rethink her priorities…

Lawrence is charming as she imagined, even if his understanding of his own book seems just a little shallow. When he asks her out after his reading, she's almost elated enough to forget about the grumpy guy who was sitting next to her making snide comments throughout the evening. Apparently he is Lawrence's best friend, Reid, but she can't imagine what kind of friendship that must be. They couldn't be more different.
As Zora starts seeing Lawrence, and spending more time with Reid, Zora finds first impressions can be deceiving. Reid is smart and thoughtful, and also, is very interested in Zora. After years of avoiding dating, she suddenly has two men competing for her affection.
However, she struggles to choose between them and she can’t shake the feeling that they are both hiding something.

I don’t usually go for love triangles, as that's something I don’t like as much BUT BUT I did enjoy this one!! It was a little predictable in some points, but nonetheless, it was an enjoyable read and I loved Zora who was strong, confident, passionate about her bookstore, and just the perfect main character me thinks!! The two potential love interests tho… I’m not sure how I feel about them!!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for sending me this ARC. Zora books her happy ever after by Taj McCoy comes out on April 27th.

3.5*

This was a largely fun and enjoyable read, with a great female protagonist and excellent supporting characters. I did however find part of the central conflict disappointing and at times, even irritating.

Zora was great, I loved her determination and enthusiasm, and her unapologetic sense of self. Her bookshop was perhaps a little on the idealised side, but a gorgeous fantasy to dive into. Granny and Emma lit up the pages too, and I enjoyed the vibes they all shared. I did find Granny's banh obsession hard to read, and was disappointed that this was addressed properly near the end...only to be walked back.

Where I struggled the most was with the central issue - Zora is dating two men and trying to choose between them. But Lawrence's behaviour and attitudes were huge red flags for me from the first date. And while I assumed this was deliberate, like the signalling of the plot twist, it felt *too* obvious for me, in that I couldn't work why she was continuing to date him? He didn't seem to have any redeeming features and I got so frustrated with Zora for not just dumping him. Then his behaviour at the end was so abhorrent but it didn't seem to land that way for the others - Reid still refers to him as his best friend? I don't know, it's probably me, but I was so mad at the poor behaviour to both Reid and Zora that I was dismayed he didn't get a huge comeuppance.

Overall I found I enjoyed the friendships and bookshop parts far more than the romance, which was a shame. This was my first Taj McCoy book, and I'll definitely read more by her as I enjoyed her style, but this was a bit too hit and miss for me romance wise.



*Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the free ARC*

This was a fun, lighthearted read. Great representation and I loved that the character being plus sized wasn't used as her stand out point or done in a cliché way. The focus on her career and family and friends was also a plus for me. I appreciated the sneak peak of the other book by the author at the end too. The Epilogue was also cute and I think it was appropriate as it linked to the rest of the book and resolved some issues, but I think we could have also benefitted from seeing a moment further into the future in addition to the month later. I really enjoyed this book though and I am thinking of purchasing other titles by the author.

Sigh.

After the dumpster fire that was Savvy Sheldon, I vowed to never read another Taj McCoy book again. Obviously I lied.

The book started off meh but it really did grip me when we got the reveal of Reid. It gave the book new life and I was very excited to see where it was going.

However, the plot was so incredibly predicate and I had guessed it to a T. Which limited the enjoyment I had. The characters were dull and one dimensional. I just did not enjoy this in any way shape or form.

The casual fatphobia, misogyny, chauvinism? You could not fool me into thinking that man was ever going to be a viable candidate for a relationships.

I really enjoyed the bookshop setting of this and how it focuses on black based businesses and characters but the rest really let me down. I found the dialogue a bit stiff, the motivations and reasonings a bit questionable and the plot twist with Reid and Laurence quite obvious. I wouldn't mind the last part, after all it isn't a mystery, but Zoras reaction was so silly to me and her response to Reid for 'lying' to her bizarre. He had a contract! Also the grandma just felt too repetitive. Zora was too perfect. Just didn't work for me sadly

I love reading books about characters who also love books, and characters who are authors so I was definitely intrigued by this book, not only because of the cover, but because the synopsis sounded like something I would really enjoy.
I definitely enjoyed this book, it was not one that I would ever reread or consider a favourite but it was one that I would recommend if you want something a bit lighthearted and fun.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this one. I was initially drawn in by the cover of this book and had high hopes. All in all it wasn't terrible but I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would.

I loved this book from the first paragraph. It felt like a real human story, something that everyone would have to deal with.

The character of Zora felt very familiar to me and her relationship with her family was amazing.

My only con for this book was there are some descriptions that are too long. Like the food or make up BUT they’re small things!

Amazing book and I can’t wait to read the authors backlog!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for this arc.

I don't think I am the intended target audience for this romance novel. I found Zoya's indecisiveness a bit redundant and frankly annoying. The whole premise of the story would have worked if certain choices had been made early on. Honestly, I got bored around the 30% mark and started skipping chapters, just to get to the end. I am a Black woman, so it is always great to read books by Black female authors, but this fell short for me.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this eARC of 'Zora Books Her Happy Ever After' by Taj McCoy.

I'll be honest, the only thing I enjoyed about this book was Zora herself. I loved her. She was strong and such a perfect main character, I rooted for her from the offset. The reason why this was so disappointing is because it is a romance and neither of the two love interests were great. I didn't like them for Zora, I wanted to plop my own love interest in for her. If there was a third option, then maybe it would be perfect but I really hated these men.

I really enjoyed this story, though I do have a weakness for books about strong, confident, black women. I liked the relationships between Zora, and her friend, and grandma. There was also an element of mystery with this story which was well written, though I had guessed what it was early on. The bits I thought the author could’ve done better, may have just been due to a difference in black culture here in the UK compared to the USA where this is set, but I got fed up of the heroine always cooking Italian food, and never anything like Jollof or plantain, which I’d expect from someone as in tune with her heritage as she was. Also there was just a throw away statement she made when going on a date to the vineyard, where she checked the owner was Black, which felt unnecessary, and to be honest slightly racist, as the way it was written made it sound as though it wouldn’t be ok if a different race owned it. As I say this may be due to cultural differences between black culture in the USA compared to here in the UK, but we’d never say something like that, and it made me a bit uncomfortable. Otherwise it was a good story, but could’ve done with less graphic sex scenes, as I’d love to recommend it to my nieces as an example of a strong black woman being successful whilst still giving back, but this is a serious 18 rating on this book

Thank you for granting me access to this advance copy.
The only thing I enjoyed about this book is the relationship between the main character, her best friend, and her grandmother. It was a very refreshing dynamic. I also love that she is as book obsessed as me. I usually don't like the love triangle and this novel reinvigorated my dislike for the trope. It was too obvious who she was going to end up with and I didn't enjoy that it was so cut and clean.

This had a strong start and I really thought I was going to love it. I love Zora, love the bookshop, love the dynamic between Zora, Emma and Granny Marion. I liked Reid. But I started to struggle about halfway through as the back and forth dating of both men became repetitive, and Lawrence massively outstayed his welcome.

I LOATHED Lawrence, he had so many red flags it's hard to see how Zora tolerated him for so long! The disrespect for the romance genre (after she JUST said she wanted to write one!) should have been enough, not to mention the lies, but the sex? Throw the whole man away!

The constant harping on about producing grandbabies really dragged too - she's a successful businesswoman, leave her be. It's 2023, we don't need that outdated bullshit! Oh! Speaking of outdated - what was with trying to make smoking cool again?! The 90s called, they want their lung cancer back!

Anyway, my enthusiasm seriously waned in the second half. Overall it was pretty unsatisfying. Much like Lawrence in bed! 🤣 But I liked it enough for 3* and some strong opinions which is more than a lot of things I've picked up in the last year!

Thanks for my earc of this book. I so so wanted to love this and thought the premise and setting was brilliant.
I couldn’t finish it in the end because of the obsession over Zora having children, the pressure around her giving her grandma grandchildren and constant discussion over it. It made me really uncomfortable

Zora was a such badass, i loved her. The love triangle in this book was definitely not my favourite but this was a cute, easy fun read. If your looking for a book to read in one sitting, this is it.

Zora has an incredibly strong independent woman who is running her own book store whilst doing all she can for her DC community. She hasn’t had time for love, but when one of her favourite authors comes to her store for a book event with his best friend - she decides it might be time to change that.

I really enjoyed the strong female characters in this book - knowing what they want and not letting people stand in their way. Zora’s granny is obviously a star of the novel, but there’s also female characters peppered throughout who do a great job of showing where hard work and determination can get you.

I did feel like there was character introductions and back story that got mentioned once and then didn’t develop further. I also felt like you didn’t need to be Zor-lock Holmes to figure out the plot twist here, and actually it could’ve come sooner and shifted the story from less love triangle to monogamous relationship trying to fix an issue.

Overall it was a fun and flirty read.

Thank you NetGalley and Dialogue Books for the ARC.