The Happy Ever After Playlist (The Friend Zone #2) by Abby Jimenez

It was with much reservation that I read The Happy Ever After Playlist by Abby Jimenez after despising The Friend Zone, the first book in the series. I am happy to report that this book was much better and it was worth giving Jimenez another chance, although she's still on my watchlist. 

Sloan is grieving a loss. She's been hanging on by a thread for a couple of years when she rescues a lost dog. She calls the number on the dog's tag, but the owner doesn't respond, so she starts taking care of this dog. The owner Jason eventually calls Sloan back and he's overseas and he can't get to the dog right away, so Sloan takes care of the dog. Soon Sloan and Jason start texting regularly and then he comes back to Los Angeles, and love blossoms.

Interesting characters: Our heroine suffered a terrible loss in the first book in the series and in this book, she's really dealing with the grief. I thought she was interesting, her job as an artist was interesting, and her love of the dog made me like her. BUT. Oh, for heaven's sake. Always with the "doing the women's work" of cooking and doing the care work. And while in many ways Jason is a dream, he's also a stereotypical "man" fixing the things and hunting the animals.  (How did these two meet in Los Angeles anyway?) Something about all this heteronormativity felt...off.

Believable conflict: I think all of this came off as reasonable to me. Someone who has been through trauma might speak to this better than I can, but Sloan's grief seemed plausible to me. It seemed like she might have some challenges in a new relationship. Once she decided to go all in on the relationship, though, it seemed like that grief just melted away and maybe that's right? Maybe that's how it goes? It just seemed abrupt.

But then there was a situation that was just these two people love each other, but they are in different places in their lives and maybe they can't be together. It's the best part of Evvie Drake Starts Over and the second half of the novel reminded me of that book a lot. It's not miscommunication or incompatibility, it's that these two characters have dreams and goals that are currently in conflict with one another. 

Emotional tension: Sure. Jimenez can write a tale and make you care about the characters. You want Sloan to succeed. You want Jason to make her happy.  Their banter is great. Their chemistry is great. The conflict causes stress and you definitely want that stress to be resolved by the end of the book.

Happily ever after: This was well done, I think. I mean, it always has to be children with Jimenez (she said after having read all of two novels), but at least there wasn't any trickery about IUDs falling out.  (Still bitter about The Friend Zone. I will never get over it.)

Lines of note:

"No! You can't send him to a shelter!"

His hand froze on the mic, and he arched an eyebrow. "Because this is your dog?"

"No, because he'd be terrified. Haven't you seen those ASPCA commercials? With the sad dogs in cages? And the Sarah McLachlan song?" (page 6)

Whenever the cat is yowling pathetically for food or I accidentally step on Hannah's foot and she looks all wounded, we always say that they're going to report us me to Sarah McLachlan. 

"If I'd taken you to a carnival and won you a stuffed animal, that would be part of the date, right? Or if I'd bought flowers or paid for a movie?"

"Yes. But that's typical date stuff. Buying me parts to fix my sink isn't."

"So you want me to be typical?" He grinned. (page 92-93)

Is this sweet or not? I couldn't tell.

He'd never met the best version of me, and for some reason he still seemed to want to be here. (page 134)

Aw. This is 100% sweet. 

A solid entry from Jimenez. 3.5/5 stars