Book Review: This Won’t End Well by Camille Pagán (ARC Review)

Posted February 27, 2020 by Alana in Blog Tour, Book Reviews, Women's Fiction / 0 Comments

Book Review This Wont End Well by Camille Pagan
This Wont End Well by Camille Pagan Book Cover
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This Won't End Well by Camille Pagán
Published by Amazon Publishing on February 25, 2020
Genres: Fiction, Literary, Women, Family Life, General, Contemporary, Family & Relationships
Pages: 300
Format: eBook
Source: ARC

An ingeniously witty novel about the risks--and rewards--of opening your life to new people by Amazon Charts bestselling author Camille Pagán.

No new people: that's Annie Mercer's vow. It's bad enough that her boss sabotaged her chemistry career and her best friend tried to cure her with crystals. But after her fiancé, Jon, asks for space while he's gallivanting around Paris, Annie decides she needs space too--from everyone.

Yet when Harper moves in next door, Annie can't help but train a watchful eye on the glamorous but fragile young woman. And if keeping Harper safe requires teaming up with Mo, a maddeningly optimistic amateur detective, who is she to mind her own business?
Soon Annie has let not one but two new people into her life. Then Jon reappears--and he wants her to join him in France. She's pretty sure letting anyone get close won't end well. So she must decide: Is another shot at happiness worth the risk?

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Pagán has written another clever, engaging, and relatable story. This Won’t End Well is one of those books that I found impossible to put down. I adored Annie right away. She was incredibly sweet, charming, and her eccentricities made her instantly relatable for me. Readers have the pleasure of watching Annie’s small changes throughout diary entries, emails, and letters and I truly found it satisfying. The relationships Annie navigates are enjoyable and not limited simply to her romance with Jon. Each of the side characters was beautifully penned, their quirks forming a community that feels authentic. 

My absolute favorite parts of the book were the responses on the community message boards. I found myself barking with laughter, disturbing the toddler and her stuffed animals earning myself a stern “shushing.” When I wasn’t laughing, I was surprised by how truly invested I was in Annie’s happiness. Right up to the end, I was tied up in angsty knots, biting my nails wondering how everything was going to play out.

Ultimately, I highly recommend this delightful story. Learning to let other people in and recognizing vulnerability isn’t necessarily a terrible thing is an important concept to take away from this beautiful piece of fiction. If you haven’t had a chance, make sure to read I’m Fine and Neither Are You by Camille Pagán (my review) as well! I mean… you may as well just pick up the rest of her backlist titles and thank me later.

**I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.**

An Open Letter From the Author

Dear Reader,
 
For my fortieth birthday, my husband, two children, and I went to Paris. We’d planned the trip for nearly a year—and by all accounts, it went swimmingly. We stayed in a magical apartment in Montmartre that had window boxes teeming with lavender, a stairway lined with books, and sweeping views of Paris and the Eiffel Tower. We couldn’t have found a bad meal if we tried, and managed to do just enough sightseeing to make the most of the vacation without burning ourselves (read: our kids) out. We even celebrated in the streets with the rest of Paris as France captured the World Cup.
 
​But eight days is a lot of family time—especially for a writer used to spending long stints alone in front of her computer. By the day after my birthday, I’d had so much togetherness that I felt like I couldn’t hear myself think. Sensing this, my husband volunteered to take our kids to a park on the Seine so I could go for a walk by myself.
​
I was strolling along the river, watching the water rush wildly and thinking about what a feat it is to successfully manage relationships—even, or maybe especially, when they’re with the people you love most—when a single sentence popped into my head:
​Hello seems like such an innocuous word, but it’s really a portal to loss.
​
Which is, of course, the opening line to This Won’t End Well. As with all of my books, the story came to me almost at once. I thought: What if a sweet but cynical scientist’s heart was broken by her fiancé, who flew to Paris without her—and she decided to protect herself by swearing off new people, only to find herself entangled in the affairs of her glamorous new neighbor and the amateur detective investigating said neighbor?
​
The result is a book that has all the humor and heart of my previous novels, but in a fresh epistolary format and featuring a protagonist unlike any I’ve created before. This story was a true joy to write; I hope you’ll find joy between its pages.
​
Warmly,
​Camille
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About Camille Pagán

I’m the author of Woman Last Seen in Her Thirties (out 2/27/18), Forever is the Worst Long Time, The Art of Forgetting, and the #1 Kindle bestseller Life and Other Near-Death Experiences, which was recently optioned for film. My novels have been translated into twelve languages.

In another life, I was a health editor at Real Simple and Fitness magazines; these days, I write for publications like Fast Company, Forbes, O: The Oprah Magazine, Parade, Time, and others.

When I’m not at my computer, you’ll find me with my nose in a book, running after my two kids, or planning my next trip (most likely to Puerto Rico, where my husband was born and raised).

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Anonymously, Alana