Storybook Ending didn’t quite have me picturing fluffy bunnies and happily ever afters; it’s actually surprisingly blackly comic, filled with mordant chuckles that provide plenty of amusement. Do not come here expecting something cozy – this is a dash of arsenic in a glass of iced tea. But for what it is, it’s fun – if not as romantic as it thinks it is, and then not even until the last act.

Children’s book illustrator Imogen didn’t want to give up her life in the city, but has agreed move to the country for her husband’s sake. But then, Nigel is killed in an accident, leaving her alone, pregnant with their first child, and dealing with their plans to move to a small town in the English countryside. Imogen is more vexed than grieved; her marriage was never really that great, and she rapidly learns about his (apparent) infidelity and recalls the fact that he always sided with his mother against her. She decides to go through with the move to Middlemass and settles into the country quaintness of Storybook Cottage – which she just barely manages to keep legal hold of by the skin of her teeth. Perhaps here she can regroup and find a steady job. She meets many eccentric villagers there, the most important of whom is Gabriel.

Handsome, broody hunk Gabriel is a blacksmith and artisan. He’s very serious about the rules and manners and ways of life in Middlemass and, owing to an ancient clause in the deeds of her cottage, has the power to evict Imogen should he be so minded.

It’s banter and hate at first sight for Imogen and Gabriel, which rounds out into friendship and caring, once she learns Gabriel is a fellow widower. But then it looks like a snafu between the bank and the town might result in Imogen packing back to the city.

In spite of all of this, Imogen settles in at Storybook Cottage and the countryside begins to inspire a direction for her career. She’s shocked to realize she’s very attracted to Gabriel, but trying to figure out who he really is threatens to lead to more nightmarish complications. Can true love really prevail under such conditions? Is there happiness in the country for Imogen?

Well, yes, but it was difficult for me to watch. Storybook Ending is delightfully unconventional, but its romance is vexing. Gabriel is kind enough once he gets to know Imogen, and she is kind, with doses of prickliness that appeal, though she lacks agency. Their romance is constructed of awkward conversations, followed by Imogen getting badly hurt in some manner and Gabriel swooping in to help. When Imogen suddenly calls him the love of her life near the end of the book I was floored; they haven’t even had sex! – and past the halfway point she’s even convinced he’s interested in someone else. Only in the last quarter of the book did I buy the possibility of them being a couple, and the relationship mainly involves him sweeping in and making decisions for her, in contrast to Nigel making decisions for them by himself. It’s not the improvement the author seems to think it is. The very last act features Gabriel doing something that’s supposed to be romantic but is very much not.

To accomplish this possibility, Nigel is created as a cartoon villain first husband, a reckless, cheating mama’s boy with no depth until a sudden shocking third-act twist. Nothing evolves naturally from there – it’s all flat and rote.

Though the romance isn’t great, I did like the citizens of Middlemass, who generally stand out as an unusual bunch who support the heck out of Imogen. They provide the sort of happy ending she deserves, which is more than the book dares give her. Thus – if you approach Storybook Ending as a black comedy rather than a romance, you’re much more likely to enjoy it.