Review: HEA: Happily Ever After by Lucy Lennox & Molly Maddox (After Oscar #5)

May 02, 2024

Note: An advance reader copy (ARC) was provided by the authors.

Sometimes this man made it too easy to want to fall in love with him.

This was a long time coming, but Lucy Lennox and Molly Maddox have made the wait oh-so-worthwhile. Four exes have found their happy endings with their respective partners, and they all have one thing--or person--in common: Oscar Overton. It's not that he's averse to a committed relationship, but each break-up has taken bits and pieces of him over the years. Maybe he's just not meant to have a happily-ever-after of his own. He has Frank, anyway, and his emotional support hedgehog, along with continuing to be at the helm of his investment company, is more than enough for Oscar. Truly. Who needs romance and a fairy tale-like HEA? Well, Hugh Linzee does. The wedding photographer has captured many a love story that's culminated in an exchange of vows and taking their commitment that next step. He wouldn't mind having that for himself. Inasmuch as he's drawn to Oscar, the billionaire's reputation with men and the legend of his exes finding their forevers after their relationships with him end should be enough to give him pause. Oscar himself makes it clear that he isn't Hugh's "one"--he isn't anyone's. Time and experience has proven that. But how do you stop yourself from falling for someone who doesn't believe a happily-ever-after doesn't exist for him, and when does that someone realize he's been falling all along?

There's no denying it: Oscar Overton's hard-earned happily-ever-after is my favorite novel in the entire After Oscar series. Readers got bits and pieces of this titular series character, a smidgen more in the previous book, ISO: In Search Of, but Lucy Lennox and Molly Maddox finally peeled back that sheen of mystery and suffice it to say that Oscar as a main character surprised the heck out of me. He's always come off as refined and on-point, but there's a vulnerability to him in this book that made me want to give him a hug, which he would, in fairness, probably have him call in security. But he was never a villain in his previous relationships, and I get that there may be some who saw him as some sort of heartbreaker of a playboy, but learning his history when it came to relationships--and I'm not just talking about romantic relationships here--gave me pause, allowing me to truly see who this man was and how the past thirty-nine years have shaped him. Hugh Linzee was a game-changer, and he understood Oscar in a way that very few others did. His adoration of Frank was a definite bonus as well. I also feel that this story wasn't just about how Oscar believed he deserved an HEA, but also how Hugh realized that while fairy tale musings were great and all, imperfect realities were a whole lot better and could lead to that happy ending, too. I laughed a lot and loved more than I thought possible, glimpses of the previous After Oscar couples was a bonus, and Frank undeniably takes the cake, or the Girl Scouts cookies in this case.

In real life, nothing is ever guaranteed, but with Lennox and Maddox's books, laugh out loud moments are. By the way, I shall now be in search of life after Oscar since he's now living his happily-ever-after with Hugh, Frank, the Flower Family, and those nearest and dearest to them by their side. And just like he deserves his HEA, HEA: Happily Ever After deserves my highest rating, too. To be honest, there was simply no way I couldn't give this novel anything other than five-plus stars because that's what its worth.

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Read my reviews for the After Oscar series: