Not So Happily Ever After

3.75 stars-engaging and energetic

3.75 stars--NOT SO HAPPILY EVER AFTER is the third instalment in Christina Phillips’ contemporary, adult BRITISH BAD BOYS romance series. This is investment banker Will Hamilton, and med student/artist Mackenzie Carter’s story line. NOT SO HAPPILY EVER AFTER can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Any important information from the previous story lines is revealed where necessary.

Told from dual first person perspectives (Mackenzie and Will) NOT SO HAPPILY EVER AFTER follows the friends to lovers, best friend’s little sister / friends with benefits relationship between investment banker Will Hamilton, and med student/artist Mackenzie Carter. Two years earlier Mackenzie Carter crossed the line with her brother’s best friend Will Hamilton, and in the resulting aftermath Mackenzie lost her best friend and the man that she loved when Will didn’t show up for her gallery showing. Fast forward two years wherein Mackenzie, now about to enter her third year at med school, struggles with her future direction including her ongoing attraction to the man that broke her heart. Enter Will Hamilton, Lucas Carter’s best friend, and the man with whom Mackenzie had fallen in love. What ensues is the friends to lovers, best friend’s little sister / friends with benefits relationship between Lucas and Mackenzie, and the potential fall-out as our couple keep secret their forbidden affair, as Mackenzie prepares to return to university, leaving a heart broken Will behind.

A promise to her dying mother meant Mackenzie Carter’s career had all but been procured by a university scholarship, but our heroine’s heart was destined for something else . Two years without her best friend, and the love of her life, pulled Mackenzie away from her art, and head long into her studies, studies she had no desire to continue or proceed. Will Hamilton has no idea why Mackenzie Carter pushed him away two years earlier but family obligations prevented Will from looking too closely, obligations that tied our hero to a job he no longer enjoyed.

The relationship between Will and Mackenzie is one of second chances, of a sorts, between former best friends who spent one glorious night together but the aftermath destroyed any hopes for a future. Mackenzie has never stopped loving the man who broke her heart but miscommunication, secrets, and family commitment meant Will and Mackenzie went their separate ways. The $ex scenes are intimate and seductive without the use of over the top, sexually graphic language and text.

There is a large ensemble cast of colorful secondary and supporting characters including Lucas and Violet (Once Upon a Player #2), Lucas’s friends Caleb, Harry and Alice (Cinderella and the Geek #1), Atomic Fire, boy band member Jake Myers, and their manager Jax; Lucas and Mackenzie’s father and his girlfriend Margo, and their friend Duke; as well as Will’s mother Cynthia, and her boyfriend Jeremy.

The world building follows several paths –from boy band melt-downs, to the lack of communication between parent and child, and the misunderstanding between former best friends. The multi-troped relationship between Will and Mackenzie has out couple treading a fine-line between secrets and lies, secrets they fear will break their family’s hearts.

NOT SO HAPPILY EVER AFTER is a story of family and friendships; secrets and lies; second chances, and startling revelations. The premise is engaging and energetic; the romance is emotional and encouraging; the characters are sexy and spirited. NOT SO HAPPILY EVER AFTER has a little bit of everything including romance and love; heart break and grief; humor and fun.I did have a small issue with the numerous thoughts and ‘asides’-we spend an inordinate amount of time inside the characters’ heads.