Happily Never After
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4.2 • 104 Ratings
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
Their name? The objectors.
Their job? To break off weddings as hired.
Their dilemma? They might just be in love with each other.
When Sophie Steinbeck finds out just before her nuptials that her fiancé has cheated yet again, she desperately wants to call it off. But because her future father-in-law is her dad’s cutthroat boss, she doesn’t want to be the one to do it. Her savior comes in the form of a professional objector, whose purpose is to show up at weddings and proclaim the words no couple (usually) wants to hear at their ceremony: “I object!”
During anti-wedding festivities that night, Sophie learns more about Max the Objector’s job. It makes perfect sense to her: he saves people from wasting their lives, from hurting each other. He’s a modern-day hero. And Sophie wants in.
The two love cynics start working together, going from wedding to wedding, and Sophie’s having more fun than she’s had in ages. She looks forward to every nerve-racking ceremony saving the lovesick souls of the betrothed masses. As Sophie and Max spend more time together, however, they realize that their physical chemistry is off the charts, leading them to dabble in a little hookup session or two—but it’s totally fine, because they definitely do not have feelings for each other. Love doesn’t exist, after all.
And then everything changes. A groom-to-be hires Sophie to object, but his fiancée is the woman who broke Max’s heart. As Max wrestles with whether he can be a party to his ex’s getting hurt, Sophie grapples with the sudden realization that she may have fallen hard for her partner in crime.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Sophie feels hopeless. Family complications mean she can’t dump her lowlife fiancé without her dad paying the price for it at work. Enter Max, the professional objector. Unhappy would-be brides and grooms hire him to show up on their big day, just so he can speak up when the officiant asks if anyone has a reason why the couple should not be wed. We absolutely loved this fun, unusual premise and the strange but perfect chance it gives Sophie and Max to totally click. Soon, they’re joining forces and stopping doomed weddings as a duo—since of course, they both believe love is a scam…right? From their banter to their off-the-charts chemistry, author Lynn Painter makes the connection between these two absolutely burn through the page. Happily Never After is heartfelt, funny, and as steamy as it gets.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Painter (Betting on You) delivers a charmer of a rom-com with this lively tale of professional wedding objectors. When Sophie Steinbeck finds out her fiancé, Stuart, has been unfaithful, she wants to call the whole thing off—but her father-in-law to be is her father's boss and she worries about the repercussions. Enter Max Parks, who gets paid to object at ill-fated weddings and who helps Sophie to call things off mid-ceremony without getting blamed for the relationship's end. Both Sophie and Max have been burned by love, but when Sophie asks Max to show her the ropes of the hired objection gig, their attraction is undeniable. They agree to a purely physical relationship even as Max hopes feelings will grow. When Sophie is called to object at Max's former girlfriend's wedding, however, his instinct to protect his ex from heartbreak creates a huge rift between Max and Sophie. Will they be able to sort out their differences? Alternating between Sophie's and Max's perspectives, the zippy plot comes complete with a winning supporting cast, especially Sophie's entertaining senior-citizen roommates and mischievous cats. Rom-com fans will find this scratches the itch.
