I always enjoy a Milly Johnson story but OMG, this was the best! My emotions were all over the place with this one!

This author has such a skill with writing relatable characters and I identified with each and every one in The Happiest Ever After. I’m sure a lot of readers will relate to Polly’s experiences from the men in her life – whether that’s at work or at home. Such a contrast between her life with Chris as Polly and her life in Slattercove as Sabrina (although it’s not all plain sailing with Marielle and her friends!). Maybe it’s just me but a surprise like that? Pants. Sums up her relationship with Chris really.

This story was all about the feelings for me, the highs and the lows. Milly gets some crackers in there amidst the sad stuff and The Daily Trumpet – if you’ve ever read any of Milly’s stories, you’ll know how funny they are. This time I also enjoyed how they created tension at a key moment in time. I shook my head in despair! … but didn’t really expect anything else.

Nothing stays the same, change happens and the people who slot into place aren’t always the right ones for us. The Happiest Ever After shines the light on the message that no matter how hopeless a situation might be, we do have the power to take control and find our own way.

As well as being a fictional story that draws you in, I’m sure this will also give inspiration and hope to others who might be going through similar things in their own lives or who aren’t feeling heard.

The Happiest Ever After is a positive and uplifting story that will take you through ALL the emotions.

Don’t miss it!

Another stunning read from Milly. A fantastic balance of characters with some, not all, allowed to redeem themselves a little! You will find yourself invested in the lives of the characters and willing them (some of them) to get that happy ending. Milly's incredible skill as a writer keeps me coming back for more with every new book. The way she connects the characters is unique and there are a few twists and turns along the way. She champions women but also the decent blokes out there. Lots of laugh out loud humour and every character allowed to shine. Any book that mentions ELVIS, ISLE OF WIGHT and DONKEYS is also a winner for me! The only bad part of a Milly book is when you've finished it and have to wait for the next one! Grab yourselves a copy, run don't walk, and lose yourself in a wonderful world away from the mindless scrolling for a few hours.

Polly Potter’s life is not going to plan. She is taken for granted by her partner, Chris, who is not willing to put any effort into their relationship, and sidelined and exploited by her misogynistic boss, Jeremy. The only thing that makes her life bearable is her creative writing class, and the novel she is writing where her heroine Sabrina is everything Polly is not. Unable to bear it any longer, Polly plans her escape, but is thwarted by what happens at the wedding vows renewal ceremony where she is forced to be a bridesmaid (in a hideous frock) to her horrible snobbish sister-in-law, Camay (great name and yes I’m old enough to remember the soap). Forced to make a run for it, she heads for the coast where she remembers being happy as a child with her uncle and aunt, only to be mugged and suffer a head injury. She wakes up in hospital believing she is Sabrina, with no memory of her life as Polly, but a strong sense that she needs to stay hidden.
This is Milly Johnson’s twenty-first novel and I’ve read and loved every one of them. She writes wonderfully believable characters (nice and nasty) and doesn’t shy away from serious issues, always treating them with sensitivity and humour. The Yorkshire settings are like characters in their own right. I really enjoyed the corporate espionage thread in this one and the sense of karma in the ending. The excerpts from The Daily Trumpet, correcting misprints but somehow managing to make them even worse, are hilarious. The Happiest Ever After is by turns heartbreaking and uplifting, and will leave you with the idea that sometimes friends are better than family as you can choose them yourself. I always read every new novel by Milly Johnson, they just keep on getting better and better, so I look forward to reading her next one very soon. Thanks to Simon & Schuster UK and NetGalley for a digital copy to review.

Books are a great form of escapism, and sometimes you do not need to go far to experience the tastes of abroad. Polly after some unfortunate work events and an accident finds herself not that far from home but also in the warmth of an Italian family.

That Italian family runs a restaurant, but it is threatened by changes from a much larger well known company and it seems that Polly has the skills to sort this out. Enter Sabrina. Sabrina escaped her previous life, drudgery at home, belittled at work and can help this restaurant thrive. She has the skills.

However, it is all very complicated as Polly and Sabrina are one in the same person and that needs to resolve itself before the happy ever after we are promised by the title. On the way though, we can taste the fresh pasta, enjoy the cold ice cream and imagine the family enveloping us with love and food. Milly Johnson’s books are like a new recipe ever year in joy, escapism and happiness.

Milly Johnson has become my go to author when I need a really good laugh. Her books never fail to make me smile. I could quite happily read a whole volume made up of Daily Trumpet apologies. This book has a great cast of characters. I loved label obsessed Camay and her odious husband. As soon as I saw that she was named after a bar of soap I knew I was in for a treat. I think it was a pity she never came up against Cilla, it would have been like an episode of Real Housewives. Poor Polly had such a hard life so I was over the moon when Marielle takes her in hand. They were so good for each other. Marielle should have had a dozen children and Polly had never had a mother to speak of. I was praying for their friendship to last. It was great to see the venomous Jeremy get his comeuppance and the last snippet from the Daily Trumpet just rounded off the book nicely. I had a smile on my face all the next day after reading this

What if you could write your own perfect storyline?

Polly is existing in a life she’s really not happy in, her only escape is her creative writing course where she writes about Sabrina. After a terrible encounter Polly loses her memory and truly believes she’s Sabrina. She soon makes caring friends who enable her feel safe but as she starts to remember bits of her past will she really want to return to that life?

I loved this book, just what I needed after quite a few thrillers. The characters made this book for me and although quickly realising how it would all end I was really invested in them all. Thanks to @netgalley for the opportunity to read this great book.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

#TheHappiestEverAfter
#MillyJohnson

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I liked Polly, Marielle, Flick, and Teddy. The story ended nicely, but I wasn't keen on the focus on the criminals, and I think the story could have been about 50 pages shorter.

An absorbing story, full of live and colourful characters who quickly become friends, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this fabulous story by the wonderful and hilarious Milly Johnson.
This made me want to go and have an Italian meal and complain about then help the editor of the Daily Trumpet, because although the mistakes were hilarious, they were still mistakes!!!
Many thanks to Simon and Schuster for the opportunity to read this arc copy via Netgalley.
#Netgalley, #SimonAndSchuster, #MillyJohnson.

My Review: I read this wonderful book in one sitting, only pausing for coffee and my egg banjo lunch. I loved every moment.

Such a good story, The Daily Trumpet Bulletins had me in stitches. It’s made me want to look into having a name put in one of them.

Polly Potter is a woman who loves her job, hates her new boss and tolerates her Partner Chris, she doesn’t even know why she came back to him after he cheated on her.

The only good thing about him is his son Will who has always been kind and welcoming, unlike his sister who is the complete opposite.

Polly adores her creative writing course, it’s the best thing. She is a bit of a loner, with maybe one good friend called Sheridan and needs this escape that the course offers her.

Then the ‘OH MY GOODNESS PART TWO!!!!’

Something happens and she loses herself to her character Sabrina, a whole new list of people enter her life. Her soul feeding from the strength of the character and truly stepping into her power she finds a sense of happiness long missing from her life.

I loved the quick reference to HRT and the ‘Menopausal friends who had gravitated together, like planets!’ I felt I had found my own pals.

Marielle, Diana, Jackie, Sylvie, Bev and young Flick prove to be such wonderful people.

Of course there are twists and some very ugly moments. The journey of Polly/ Sabrina from who she was to who she is has been written wonderfully and Polly has some incredible people on her side. Especially, restaurant owner Teddy, who really looks out for her.

Part three brings everything together and there’s no going back.

I also felt like making myself a Black forest hot choc in my Velvetiser, but I was too engrossed to step away from the book. 100% recommended read.

Milly you have done it again
I just love this ladies books and this one didn’t disappoint
This book is full of lovable characters and a great storyline
You will not want to put it down
Thanks NetGalley

What a wonderful story! Milly Johnson can do no wrong in my eyes, her books and ways of telling a story are absolutely second to none and I know I will always love what she writes.

The characters in her books are you like you and me alright they have sometimes lost their way in life. Polly Potter in The Happiest Ever After has become slightly downtrodden and has a way of not really sticking up for herself. She has a job where she is looked over, despite being very talented and a partner who doesn't really have a lot of time for her. She has become a bit of a shadow of herself but in the novel she is writing, she is the complete opposite. She is Sabrina, a career woman with a family and does not take any rubbish from anyone.

One day, Polly snaps. She disappears and runs away to a place only she will know - a lovely seaside town she visited with her beloved aunt and uncle and a time when she was happy. Following a mugging incidence she wakes up in a hospital with no recollection of who she is, apart from knowing her name - Sabrina.

Milly Johnson has written another wonderful book that completely entices you in as you are cheering Sabrina/Polly on and live her life, her own way and not be taken for granted.

Amazing as always.

The Happiest Ever After by Milly Johnson is an uplifting rom com with the perfect balance of romance and comedy. If you are familiar with Milly’s work, you will know that in some of her novels fictional excerpts from a newspaper called The Daily Trumpet, a disastrous paper that was once local to Yorkshire and is now available nationally, which is renowned for crushingly embarassing typos, and provides incredibly funny interjections of perfect northern humour to storylines that may have a more sombre theme, such as the memory loss experienced by the main character in the book.

In this story, Polly Potter, the main character is downtrodden in life, both at home and at work where she is constantly undermined by men who expect and get constant compliance from her. She finds her voice in a creative writing class where she writes a novel where the main character Sabrina is the best parts of her.

When a situation causes her to lose her memory, Polly wakes up and believes that her own name is Sabrina. Living a new life as Sabrina, she is taken in by the Bonetti family. Marielle, a retired nurse, gives her accommodation and Marielle’s son Teddy gives her a job in his restaurant.

Polly could never find the strength to stand up for herself but her inner strength shines through when she is Sabrina. When the pieces of her memory finally recall enough to return her to her old life, she realises that she is stronger than she ever believed and is not going to allow herself to be taken advantage of any longer. I loved her true vibrant nature that had been worn down by misogynistic men in her home and work life. With her memory returned she finds herself needing to choose between pitiful and complacent Chris who expected her to continue to put his needs first, and Teddy who just wanted to make her happy. It really didn’t seem like a difficult decision to me, Italian chef every time!

I loved the corporate espionage story, and the way in which Polly was able to utilise her own skills in order to successfully resolve the matter for the best outcome.

Friendship was at the heart of the novel, in terms of how friends are the family we choose for ourselves, and I loved the intergenerational friendships ‘Sabrina’ had with both older and younger women.

There were some heartbreaking moments within the story, which deal with bereavement and abuse, but friendship and hope as the underlying themes of the story carries the reader through. Friends really can mean more than family at times, and The Happiest Ever After really shows that. I found the book such an inspirational read, and could not have loved Polly as a character more.

The Happiest Ever After, in true Milly Johnson style, is the perfect balance of romance and comedy, set among some truly poignant events and a small but immensely satisfying moment of smashing the patriarchy!

Absolutely fantastic, feel-good fiction!!

Polly/Sabrina was such a lovely character, and it was easy to warm to her straight away. But there was also an exceptional supporting cast of women in the form of Sheridan, Flick, Marielle and her friends the “Mad Cows”.

There were times when I was reading this story that I couldn’t see the words through the tears of laughter! If you’re looking for something light and heart-warming this is the one.

As always, a delightful story by Milly Johnson. I would love to find myself in a little community like this - although the horrible partner at the start I'd be happy to forgo!

When I start a Milly Johnson book it's always with the expectation that it will play my emotions like a well tuned fiddle and after the tissues have run out leave me with the biggest of grins and a total sense of wellbeing, this one has been no exception!
The Polly we first meet is not the star of her own story, she is letting everyone around her dictate her story to her but that is mostly what she has become used to. When a chain of events transforms Polly into Sabrina, she really does being to shine and becomes a character that you just have to root for and hope that this is the character Polly/Sabrina is as we turn the last page.
Viewing the character development in this amazing book was a delight to read, there were times of great joy and intense ire, some very heartfelt moments and some "why would you do that?" ones too.
This story was an absolute delight to read and yet already I am looking forward to Milly's next book too!

An absolute pearler of a book. If you started reading this book without knowing who had written it, you'd soon guess it was Milly Johnson as it has her sheer brillance from the first page until the last. An amazing skill of writing about daily situations, memory loss,work issues, life & relationships(which may be relatable to many) with such authority & knowledge, with warmth,wit & humour and weaving in amongst it the hilarious Daily Trumpet, an absolute treat for those that have never read any before. So many incredible stand outs for me, the boardroom showdown, poogate, the seagull, absolutely brilliantly written. I cannot praise and recommend this book highly enough. I also encourage you to read the acknowledgements where Milly writes about the romance genre👏

An absolutely fantastic read. Milly Johnson never fails to deliver. This book is full of great characters along with a storyline full of humour. An unputdownable book. I loved every page.

Absolutely Fantastic! Pure escapism at its best !
Polly’s story, a woman who gets taken for granted and is undervalued .
Brilliant characters, great storyline , lots of humour and an unforgettable read which I highly recommend. Milly Johnson at her best !
Thank you to Netgalley, Simon and Schuster and Milly Johnson for letting me read this book in exchange for an honest review

Polly Potter should be living her best life but is pulled down by a mediocre relationship with her partner Chris and working for a boss who neither appreciates nor values her contribution to the business. Her escape from the mundanity of her life comes in writing about a fictional character called Sabrina who is everything that Polly is not. However, when an unexpected event occurs Polly wakes up believing that she really is Sabrina and her life takes off in a whole new direction ,

The Happiest Ever After is quite simply joy wrapped up in 400 pages of delightful writing in a story which which has you laughing out loud one minute and then reaching for the tissue box as your heart strings get well and truly pulled. I loved reading about Polly/ Sabrina, I cheered at her small triumphs and desperately wanted her to find the happiness she so richly deserved and hoped against hope that certain people in the story would get their comeuppance. I especially loved the snippets from the Daily Trumpet which had me chortling into my cuppa at their apparent daftness.

I really believe that special books come along just when you need them and as I gleefully escaped into the story the grey skies and rain clouds around me disappeared. Brilliantly observed, and as expertly written as all Milly Johnson's books are The Happiest Ever After is an absolute joy to read from start to finish.

This book is just the best of Milly! Witty, while dealing with real issues and written so well, that you fall in love with the characters and are rooting for Polly from the off!
I love her books, and always think my last read is the best yet, but this has really pipped it to the post. You are right behind Polly from the off, she's underappreciated and feeling low, writing a book where the main character takes control. And boy does she follow suit! There are some toe curling, heart stopping moments, you'll laugh out loud and you will feel all the feels! A must read!
I say this every time, because her books are so good, I genuinely can't wait for the next!