Title: The Happy Ever After Playlist
Series: The Friend Zone, #1
Author: Abby Jimenez
Narrators: Zachary Webber and Erin Mallon
Publisher: Forever
Publication date: April 14, 2020
Print length: 401 pages
Audio length: 9 hours 17 minutes
Genre: Contemporary romance
Source: Library
Rating:

Dear Romance Writers:

PLEASE STOP MAKING CHARACTERS BREAK UP WITH THE PERSON THEY LOVE FOR THEIR OWN GOOD WITHOUT TELLING THEM WHY.

Phew. Glad I got that off my chest.

Moving on with my review… which includes unavoidable spoilers for The Friend Zone, so proceed with caution.

The Happy Ever After Playlist picks up two years after the events of The Friend Zone, moving the best friend from book #1 to center stage.

Sloan may not seem to be a prime candidate for a romance lead — her story in The Friend Zone (spoiler alert!) was a tragic one. Just one week before her wedding, Sloan’s fiancé was hit by a drunk driver while riding his motorcycle and eventually died.

As The Happy Ever After Playlist opens, Sloan thinks of her life as being in the “in between”. Since Brandon’s death, she’s stopped cooking, stopped painting original pieces (focusing instead on Etsy commissions for pieces such as astronaut cats), and basically just gets by. If not for best friend Kristen and her husband Josh, Sloan would barely even eat.

All that changes when Sloan heads to the cemetery to visit Brandon’s grave, and nearly hits a dog wandering on the road… who then jumps into her car through her sunroof. What’s Sloan to do? She takes him home, tries in vain to contact his owner, and after a couple of weeks, has settled into a happier sort of life with Tucker as company — until Tucker’s owner Jason finally returns Sloan’s many calls.

He’s a musician, has been working in Australia, but is now headed home and wants his dog back. After some initial resistance, Sloan agrees, but only if Jason proves he’s worthy. As Jason and Sloan banter via text and then phone calls, a spark of life comes back to Sloan. She’s having fun, she’s enjoying getting to know this random person, and (after seeing his picture), she thinks she might actually be open to meeting him… although only if they call it an appointment, not a date.

Needless to say, Sloan and Jason have amazing chemistry, and within days, are inseparable. As Sloan works through her complicated feelings about allowing herself to be open to attraction and possibly romance, Jason is beyond perfect, making clear his desire and interest, but only at her own pace and comfort level.

Things become even more complicated once Sloan shows Kristen a picture of Jason… and Kristen freaks out. Does Sloan even know who she’s kinda-sorta dating? That’s Jackson Waters, the recording artist behind the cover of The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald**, the song Sloan listened to on repeat during the worst of her days of grief. Jason is poised for stardom, about to leave on tour, with a major record label promoting him and propelling him into the spotlight. But how can Jason leave when things are just getting started with Sloan, and how can Sloan fit into the high-pressure world of a world-famous rock star?

**And believe me, it makes me mad that the Jackson Waters version of this song (and its accompanying claymation music video) does not actually exist!!

The Happy Ever After Playlist is engaging right from the start, although in some ways, it feels like two (or possibly three) different stories smushed into one. At the beginning, it seems to be about Sloan allowing love back into her life, and that’s quite lovely to see. Her cautious first steps toward happiness turn into a running leap, once she and Jason start to connect on a deeper level. They realize almost instantly that what’s between them is the real thing.

Midway through the book, the storyline turns much more into the celebrity romance trope — how can an ordinary person fit into the world of fame and paparazzi and constant scrutiny, much less endless months on the road?

Jason and Sloan are worth rooting for, but it drives me mad (see my declaration at the start of this review) when one romantic partner makes a decision (usually a break-up) for what they perceive to be the good of the other person, without even telling them why or giving them the opportunity to discuss it. Of course, in a romance, this is the 3rd act big blowup when all seems lost, but we know (because romance) that it will all work out, and that there will likely be some amazing, over-the-top big moment to bring it all to a happy ever after. (There is).

I really did enjoy The Happy Ever After Playlist as a whole, but certain fights and then the breakup made me a little batty. If ever a situation calls for couples’ counseling, or at least a neutral third party, this is it. These two characters do not do a great job of talking to one another in crucial moments. Yay, they work it all out eventually, but the pain and suffering before they get there could have been avoided through actual communication.

As in The Friend Zone, the men in this second book are once again very manly indeed. Hunting, home improvement skills, and general outdoorsy-ness abound. Jason is a sensitive singer/songwriter/guitarist, but he’s also great with his hands (in all ways), can fix anything, and goes camping on remote islands for the fun of it.

Overall, The Happy Ever After Playlist is a great audiobook listen. Despite the plot points that bugged me, I never wanted to stop once I started listening, and the narrators do an excellent job bringing the characters to life and conveying their banter, humor, fights, and sorrows.

I will absolutely finish the trilogy, although based on the peek I took at the 3rd book’s synopsis, it seems to only have a very tangential connection to the first and second books. Still, I know what I’ll be listening to next!