e-ARC, 320 pages
Release Date: April 5, 2022
Published by: Avon Books
Read from: March 12-23, 2022
Companion to The Worst Best Man
Source: Edelweiss (I received a copy of this book from Edelweiss and the Publisher in exchange for a just and honest review. This did nothing to influence my review.)
TW:
For Readers Interested In: Contemporary Romance, Fake Dating, Friends to Lovers, Spice Level II, Racial/Ethnic Diversity, Dual POV, BIPOC Author, BIPOC MC, BIPOC MC on cover, AdultThe USA Today bestselling author of The Worst Best Man is back with another hilarious rom-com about two strangers who get trapped in a lie and have to fake date their way out of it…
Just weeks away from ditching DC for greener pastures, Solange Pereira is roped into helping her wedding planner cousin on a random couple’s big day. It’s an easy gig… until she stumbles upon a situation that convinces her the pair isn’t meant to be. What’s a true-blue romantic to do? Crash the wedding, of course. And ensure the unsuspecting groom doesn’t make the biggest mistake of his life.
Dean Chapman had his future all mapped out. He was about to check off “start a family” and on track to “make partner” when his modern day marriage of convenience went up in smoke. Then he learns he might not land an assignment that could be his ticket to a promotion unless he has a significant other and, in a moment of panic, Dean claims to be in love with the woman who crashed his wedding. Oops.
Now Dean has a whole new item on his to-do list: beg Solange to be his pretend girlfriend. Solange feels a tiny bit bad about ruining Dean’s wedding, so she agrees to play along. Yet as they fake-date their way around town, what started as a performance for Dean’s colleagues turns into a connection that neither he nor Solange can deny. Their entire romance is a sham… there’s no way these polar opposites could fall in love for real, right?
*MY THOUGHTS*
I really enjoyed Mia Sosa’s debut, so I was super excited to read more about the crazy family! And let me tell you, she did not disappoint. Solange is every bit as crazy as Lina (and then some) and she is Dean was an even better hero. TWBM is still my fave, but this one isn’t one to miss!
“Remembering the premise of my latest romance novel on my nightstand, I can’t help wondering whether this could be the start of my own love story: friends to lovers, with a side of fake dating.”11%
Solange is a romantic at heart, so when she happens upon a bad bride while helping her wedding planner cousin, she knows she has to say something…. So she does in true Solange fashion… She crashes the wedding. Dean is the unfortunate groom whose marriage Solange stopped. He had his future all mapped out before this, but then Solange made that come crashing to a halt. And in a stunning development, she also came crashing into his heart…..
“The fact that you felt you had to clarify which cheek you meant is cause alone for me to abandon ship. Let me be absolutely clear: Ass cheeks are off the table.”16%
Ok so Sosa’s last book was so good! It had your run of the mill enemies to lovers plot, and it was still so so good. With this one tho? I can’t help but think she was trying to do something like Out there for the whoa factor because this was friends to lovers (which a lot of people say is boring). I say this because this one was OUT THERE. There is a lot going on in this book that you won’t expect. And it kind of happens out the blue? Idk it was weird. It kept going from like a 2 to 10 and then back to a 2 again. It was weird. I was even telling my husband about it (as one does) and he asked me did I mean to say that it was a tv show and not a book. When I say it was weird, it was weird.
“All work and no play makes Dean a dull boy, you know. […] ‘Don’t let my meticulous apperance fool you. I’m never dull when it counts. Oof. I don’t appreciate that information. At all. In the hands of someone with a dirty imagination like mine, it’s titillating.”18%
As someone that doesn’t mind pop culture references, I do feel some type of way when they are definitely going to date the book. And this is one of those times. Trust me when I tell you that there will not always be someone who understands what you mean about “commitment being lava.” Hell some people don’t get it now. My momma was confused (she’s in her 60’s) and asked me what I was talking about when I was telling her about it. I just think there was a better way to say that.
“We can’t forget the people who work in the shadows,’ she would say.”20%
Also, it took me a while to warm up to Solange. I know without her getting involved there wouldn’t have been a story, but I just could not shake that feeling the whole book….. I would never get involved in someone else’s affairs and potentially embarrass them like that. I thought it was something she should have talking to Ellie about. But Solange did seem like a drama queen, so I can understand why she went there.
“I’d rather be alone than with someone who isn’t prepared to love me with all their heart.”31%
However, I LOVED the culture depicted in this one. The food itself was enough for me to write down and look for places around me that might have that dish. And the family aspect was also superb. It very much reminded me of my own. The one person everyone doesn’t like when they come around, the person who thinks they’re better than everyone sometimes, and so on and so forth. I don’t have a big family, but our families did draw some parallels.
“Sometimes having choices just means you’ll make the wrong ones.”33%
There were a lot of unexpecteds in this book, but not enough for me to stop reading this. And now I can’t wait to see what else happens with this family, or who’s next. We shall see!
Overall, I give this
