Happy Ending

Bear with me: the setup takes a minute for this one. Thea Meyer is recently divorced, still smarting from the dissolution of her thirteen-year marriage. A week after the divorce is final, she heads to her old house to pick up her golden retriever from her ex-husband, Ethan. When she arrives, she runs into a tall, dark, handsome man who is picking up his four-year-old daughter, Mia. That man is Alex Bruscato, and his ex-wife, Jen, is now dating Ethan.

Spontaneously, Thea manufactures a connection with Alex to incite some jealousy. Alex plays along, and before long the two concoct a backstory for their exes: they’ve known each other since they were teens, recently reconnected at the bookshop Thea manages, and were actually first loves. The pair leave together—dog and daughter in tow—and Alex invites Thea over for dinner. Neither is anywhere close to ready for a relationship, but having already invented a past, they decide to give a real friendship a try.

Fast-forward two years: what started as a fake friendship is now the real deal. The only thing in jeopardy is their vow to stay "just friends." Thea has fallen hard for Alex—and by all appearances, the feeling is mutual—but she is terrified of risking the most important relationship in her life. As the narrative unfolds, it bounces between the present and flashbacks to the past, revealing how their bond and mutual feelings developed.

"Friends-to-lovers" romance always invokes a bit of "why won't they just get together already?" sentiment, but this book leans into it heavily. The pair cuddle, tell each other "I love you," and are a couple in every sense except physical intimacy; their lives are completely intertwined. We know where this is going—it would be a cruel joke to title a book Happy Ending only to have it end tragically—but be prepared to wait a long time for the payoff.

Then again, that's exactly why we pick up a friends-to-lovers romance, isn't it? Chloe Liese meticulously draws out Alex and Thea's dynamic to build steady tension while crafting sweet, loving characters you can't help but root for. It leans on the sappier side—even for this genre—a trait heightened in the audiobook by narrator Jesse Vilinsky, whose portrayal of Thea's emotionally charged, verge-of-tears delivery brings the character vividly to life. Overall, it’s a sweet, heartwarming read that checks every box you'd want from a trope like this.