Rating: 4 stars
When wedding planner Carolina "Lina" Santos was mere moments from her own wedding, the best man, the groom's younger brother came to tell her that his brother had cold feet and would not be showing up to the ceremony. Since that moment, Lina has kept a very tight check on her emotions and is now proud of her reputation as trusted, efficient, and very unflappable She obviously doesn't want anyone to know about her own wedding disaster a few years back. So it's not all that surprising that she panics a bit, when offered a very lucrative and potentially life-changing opportunity, and finds herself face to face with her former fiancée and his brother, the best man. She lies and claims never to have met either of the men before, and agrees to work with Max Hartley (the best man, she really can't even contemplate having to work with her ex) for the next few weeks.
Max was looking forward to a chance to really show the client (the managing director of a very successful hotel chain) that he is better at marketing and promotion than his brother. For years now, Max has felt like he's basically doing all the work, with his brother keeps getting most of the credit, since their boss, who also happens to be their mother (no, it's not a good look), keeps insisting that they work together. So when their client insisted that she wanted two teams, with each of the brothers working separately to prepare a presentation with different wedding planners, it should have been Max' sure win. Except the person he has to work with to land the deal that might secure his career, is a woman who (quite rightly) hates him.
Lina starts out determined to make Max' life difficult, but he seems to so gamely accept that it's her due to gently torment and blame him, and before long, she can't really make herself stay too angry with him. Once she discovers that Max isn't exactly his brother's biggest fan and that he feels awful about possibly having influenced his brother into jilting Lena, she tries her best to make their partnership work. Of course, the more time they spend together, the more their chemistry sizzles. Of course, Lena is determined to stay single, and she certainly has no plans to ever fall for a Hartley again, while Max, for all the attraction he feels towards Lena, can't forget that she was with his brother first, and can't stand the idea of being in his brother's shadow.
After a promising start to my reviewing year, I'm now back trying to write reviews for books I read several months ago. Since reading this book, I've also read a LOT of romances, nearly all of them contemporary, so it can be a bit tricky to keep the various characters and plot lines straight in my head. This book purported to be about enemies to lovers (which is one of my favourite romance tropes), and while starting out, Lina absolutely considers both Max and his brother (I can't remember his name, and I certainly can't be bothered to look it up now - he's just the weaselly ex) her enemies. Max, on the other hand, always sort of liked Lina, and doesn't even blame her for her rather impulsive actions and pranks at the start of their partnership. Of course, he has a whole host of complicated feelings about his brother, so finding said brother's ex irresistibly attractive is a problem that he tries manfully to deal with until his and Lina's pants feelings take over and they can't keep their mouths and hands off each other anymore.
What I remember liking:
- Lina's support network - her assistant and her family. They were fun and protective but never went too far.
- Lina and Max, separately and together. They feel like fully-rounded characters and the build-up of their relationship was good.
- The competence porn aspect. Lina and Max are forced to work together on a presentation that is extremely important to both of them. They have to set aside their differences and any old grudges because neither of them can afford for the other one to half-ass it. They are both dedicated to their work and good at what they do.
What I didn't like:
- Max' brother, Lina's ex. I get that Ms. Sosa possibly needed him to be extra weaselly so that there was no doubt that Lina wouldn't have any lingering feelings about him, and his actions would also cause Max to see that he wouldn't be overstepping by entering into a relationship with Lina - but the character didn't really work for me.
- I think I was annoyed at whatever third act obstacle that appeared in the path of our lovers' HEA, but having read so many romances in the past few months, I'm not entirely clear on the details of said complications.
This was a fun book that had been on my TBR for quite some time. I'm happy a couple of reading challenges finally gave me the push to read it. Ms Sosa has apparently written a follow up novel about Lina's cousin, involving another wedding. Not sure I liked this enough to check that out unless I find it in a sale, though. The premise doesn't sound as interesting.
Judging a book by its cover: Of course, it's another cartoony cover, that's just how romances look nowadays. At least this one is rather playful and funny. It definitely caught my eye and made me interested in the book in the first place.
Crossposted on Cannonball Read.
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