I was in serious need of sunshine in my life so I ended up binge-reading the entirety of the Paper & Hearts Society books in the space of about two weeks. Bookishly Ever After is the final book of the series and it focuses on Ed, an exuberant member of the gang who has just started working at a bookshop. He begins to bond with his new autistic co-worker and might even be getting a crush on her, but alas things never go entirely to plan in this world.
Ed is one of my favourite members of the Paper & Hearts society so it was great to get a whole book focusing on him. I will admit, I was a little confused about his romantic arc. He is presented as being gay in the first book, comes out in the second and then has two sort-of flirtations throughout those two books. His sexuality wasn't discussed at all in this book and he has a female love interest, which of course doesn't negate him being queer but it would have been nice to just have a line or two clarifying it, even if the character isn't sure of his identity yet. Having said that, I loved Hannah as a character and her and Ed had such a great dynamic. One of the strengths of this series as a whole is the way it explores different relationships between these lovable characters, and I liked how Ed and Hannah had a dynamic we hadn't seen before. I am not autistic so can't speak for the representation, but there were no red flags to me and Hannah felt very real and very likeable.
As a finale to the series, this was very well-handled. I liked how details from Tabby's life from the first book came back, and I really loved how Tabby was the one who best understood Hannah from her own experiences with anxiety. Having started the journey with Tabby, it was only right to have her play an important role in this book and it was great to feel like her story kept going and didn't just stop because we weren't focusing on her.
Overall, if you love the series then this is a fantastic final addition to it. It has all of the same character dynamics and representation that really make the series strong, whilst adding new kinds of scenarios and developing the characters we already know and love. As a whole, this series is a love letter to friendship and being yourself and those themes can absolutely be found here. This was a series created for people who love books and it has been a joy to live in this world for a little bit.
Overall Rating:
.5
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