End of Story

Author:  Kylie Scott

STATS
Genre:	Romance, Contemporary	Amazon Rating:	4.2
Publication Date:	2023	Goodreads Rating:	3.68
Pages	283	POV (Susie)	1st, past

DISCLAIMER:  

1. Trigger Warnings.  Should you desire trigger warnings, please seek them out.  If you do not know where to look for said warnings, I found this article from Book Riot to be a helpful starting place.  
2. Spoilers. I apologize in advance, but there may be some small spoilers.  I try to limit discussion to information found in the back cover copy.  If you are sensitive to spoilers, you may want to skip My REST section.  

SETUP.

Meet Susie Bowen, who, in the last six months, was publicly dumped and then her beloved aunt died, leaving her a lovely fixer-upper in a coastal Washington town.  All Susie wants is to grow her business, – she is a successful freelance social media manager – sort through her aunt’s belongings, and fix up her new house.  Enter Lars, the love interest, contractor, and best friend to Susie’s Ex.  (Cue forbidden romance.)  Lars is the only one available for the job, so instead of delaying renovations, Susie decides to push forward, ignoring the awkwardness.  

However, within minutes on the job, Lars discovers a divorce certificate from ten years in the future in the walls of the house.  Is this document real?  How did it get there?  Is Susie and Lars’ love doomed before it even begins?

MY WHY; or, What I Thought I’d Like About This Book.

I wanted to get back into contemporary romance/rom-com books, so I picked a bunch of books.  I didn’t want books that I knew too much about, so there was no pre-planning or scrolling involved.  I simply picked books that sounded interesting, had illustrated covers, were published in the last few years, and were on sale.

All I really wanted was to laugh and fall in love.  

NOTEWORTHY ELEMENTS.  (You decide if they are Pros or Cons.)

1. Magical Realism/Fantastical Element.  A divorce certificate from ten years in the future is found sealed up in the walls of the house Susie just inherited from her aunt.

2. Healthy Relationship/Communication.  Though there is dysfunction around Susie, her Ex and family, she works to establish healthy communication with Lars and he quickly evolves from manly Viking grunts.  Susie also has a great relationship with her bestie, Cleo, who might also get a secondary romance in this story.

3. Low Angst/Low Drama.  Despite dating/not dating the Ex’s best friend, there is no over-the-top drama.  Don’t get me wrong, there is longing, but in the normal, healthy, I-want-you-but-can’t-have-you kind of way.  Aaron, the Ex, is the only real pot stirrer.

4. Open Door Romance.  In fact, there weren’t even walls for one scene, they were one with nature. 

My REST.  (Reaction. Experience. Summary. Thoughts.) 

My only issue with this story was the magical realism/fantastical element part of the story: the divorce certificate from the future.  I thought there was going to be a cool twist or revelation relating back to this document.  There was not.  (I realize this is totally a me problem, but I was a little sad.)  It was just *poof* resolved.  However, I guess it could be argued that Susie and Lars corrected whatever wrong in this timeline which would have led to the divorce, thereby making the divorce and subsequent divorce certificate nonexistent in the future.  Right? Maybe I just don’t read enough romance with this particular element.

Anyway, End of Story was a solid romance depicting healthy relationships and competent adults trying to navigate life and friendship and family and work.  At times it felt that the characters were in service of the plot, but clocking in at under 300 pages, Scott has to keep the story tight and rocking along, which she does.  

Also, did I mention there is a little black cat that appears around the same time the mysterious document appears.  Kat, as Lars names her, may or may not be an animal companion/familiar.  I’ll let you decide.