Book Review: Zora Books Her Happy Ever After by Taj McCoy

‘Zora Books Her Happy Ever After’ by Taj McCoy was released in 2023. It was her second novel, and is available to read via Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited service.

The story follows Zora, a small-business and home owner, who runs a bookstore. After an author event with her favourite writer, Lawrence Michaels, she finds herself being swept off her feet by none other than Lawrence himself.

But when his prickly best friend, Reid expresses an interest in her, too, she can’t deny that there’s chemistry. At Reid’s suggestion, and Lawrence’s agreement, she dates both, until she decides who she’d like to be exclusive with.

This book is a fun, body-positive, sex-positive story about how an institution, and the good people behind them, can make significant impact in a community. This is demonstrated through how Zora organises community events with her grandmother, and best friend, Emma.

However, I’m not sure if it was just me, but the second we get to know both Lawrence and Reid, I guessed the plot twist, and then grew increasingly irritated that Zora hadn’t put the pieces together. So much for Zor-lock Holmes, more like a Zor-toise! That aspect of the plot really put a dampener on the experience. Maybe it’s because I exist in the writing and publishing sector, so I could make an educated guess, but I don’t know. It really threw me, and took me out of the story.

Despite this, I did enjoy the read, it was a fun little rom-com that I ploughed through when I had a second to myself to read. I did enjoy the book, and I am eager to read more of McCoy’s work, since I’m sure I’ve only been thrown because of my proximity to the sector Zora and her love interests are involved in.