Michelle Blanchard Ardillo

First of all, since this was an offering on NetGalley I assumed this was a brand new, yet to be published book, perhaps by a debut author. Silly me, wrong on all accounts. The Accidental Rewrite was first published in February of 2024 in the UK under the title The Happiest Ever After.

And, Milly Johnson is far from a debut author. I gather from my research that she is something of a phenom in the UK. She has published or will soon have published 30 books, which is phenomenal by anyone’s measure on any continent!

I gave this book ✨✨✨✨ but in reality, in my opinion it is more like a 3.5, but since Goodreads won’t break down and give us a method for denoting half-star ratings, I tend to round up rather than down. I tend to be more liberal in my star ratings for the simple fact that as a wanna be novelist, at work on my own debut novel, I am in awe of anyone who writes an entire book, finds an agent, secures a book deal, and can actually hold said book in her hand someday! That’s worth at least one additional star in my books.

My husband sometimes questions my own personal rating system. And, I understand why he questions me. Frankly, I don’t really understand my own personal rating system myself! Since we are both retired and are together nearly 24/7 (some days that is wonderful and some days I think a little space might not be such a bad idea, lol), we talk about what we are reading a lot. We don’t read the same kinds of things, so I suspect if we were honest with each other, we would both admit that we only “half-listen” to the other when our current reading material is being discussed. But, also being honest, he listens to me waaaaay better than I listen to him, and often I will say things like, “I’m not really enjoying this book at all.” OR “I think I might DNF (did not finish) it.” OR “This could have been so much better if only the author would have xyz or abc or lmn instead of what they did.” He then wonders why I end up giving a book ✨✨✨✨, or in the case of a book I didn’t enjoy at all, My Friends by Fredrik Backman, in my review I gave that book ✨✨✨✨✨.

In the case of The Accidental Rewrite, I probably said at least two of those statements to my husband while reading it, so naturally, he was surprised to see that I gave it ✨✨✨✨. But, as I was nearing the end, I was really enjoying it. And when I finished it, I thought to myself: ✨✨✨✨.

So here are my issues with this book, being republished in the US on September 30, 2025, with a new title, but I assume no other changes to it. I read a lot of books by British authors, and most of them, contemporary authors. I mean, a lot. Of the 50+ books I’ve read so far this year, about half of them have been by writers in the UK. I also watch a lot of British TV shows, with PBS and BBC America being two of my favorite channels. So, I am surprised when there is a British phrase or slang word that I can’t parse. There were quite a few examples of this in this book that I just didn’t get. Usually when a book is published first in the UK, there are changes in the editing process by the US publisher to break some of those down into American English terms. I don’t mean things like “flat” for apartment or “lorry” for delivery van. These were things I had not heard of before. I can’t pin that on Milly Johnson though; I think that is something that should have happened by her US publisher, Harper Muse.

In reading other reviews for the US edition, I see several reviewers commenting on the minor characters getting a little too much time muddying up the plot. I agree, and this is my only other issue with the book. There was an awful amount of time spent on a minor criminal and his “work” life as well as his personal life. The female main character is unhappy at work and unhappy at home and she is ready to make a BIG change on both fronts. I feel like the lead up to the big change went on a bit longer than necessary. Lots of pages at the beginning are devoted to despicable characters Camay and her husband, when they don’t really come back in to the story until the very end.

I felt like this book really took off about halfway through when the female main character started a new life, literally, and her new life was so much better in every way than her old life. I loved how the author wrote this section of the book. I absolutely loved the ending, and I loved that there was redemption for so many of the characters. I also loved that there were just deserts served to those from her previous life who had stood in the way of the main character’s happiness for so long.

One last thing, there is a very clever and funny device used by the author at the end of each chapter. It’s an advertisement from The Daily Trumpet, the local newspaper. Each one has typos and/or spelling errors that create a somewhat scandalous announcement. It is very clever and I understand from my research that the author used this device to raise money for a charity near and dear to her heart, Yorkshire Cat Rescue, selling the right to have your name in the actual book! I think that is so lovely!

Thank you to NetGalley, Harper Muse, and Milly Johnson for the opportunity to read this ARC.