Avon | February 4, 2020
Source: Library
Critically acclaimed author Mia Sosa delivers a sassy, steamy enemies-to-lovers romantic comedy about a woman whose new job requires her to work side-by-side with the best man who ruined her wedding: her ex-fiancé's infuriating, irritating, annoyingly handsome brother. Perfect for fans of Jasmine Guillory, Helen Hoang, and Sally Thorne!** spoiler alert ** I am trying to put my thoughts about this book in a way that is coherent. I think my issue comes in the fact that I liked the story but I can’t say that I loved it. As much as I disliked the beginning of the story, I did end up rooting for both of the characters. However, I still didn’t love either of them. This all sounds very contradictory and that’s the vest way to describe my thoughts: a mix of contradictions.
A wedding planner left at the altar. Yeah, the irony isn’t lost on Carolina Santos, either. But despite that embarrassing blip from her past, Lina’s managed to make other people’s dreams come true as a top-tier wedding coordinator in DC. After impressing an influential guest, she’s offered an opportunity that could change her life. There’s just one hitch… she has to collaborate with the best (make that worst) man from her own failed nuptials.
Tired of living in his older brother’s shadow, marketing expert Max Hartley is determined to make his mark with a coveted hotel client looking to expand its brand. Then he learns he’ll be working with his brother’s whip-smart, stunning—absolutely off-limits—ex-fiancée. And she loathes him.
If they can survive the next few weeks and nail their presentation without killing each other, they’ll both come out ahead. Except Max has been public enemy number one ever since he encouraged his brother to jilt the bride, and Lina’s ready to dish out a little payback of her own.
But even the best laid plans can go awry, and soon Lina and Max discover animosity may not be the only emotion creating sparks between them. Still, this star-crossed couple can never be more than temporary playmates because Lina isn’t interested in falling in love and Max refuses to play runner-up to his brother ever again...
Obviously, I don’t know what it’s like to be left at the altar so I can’t really fault Lina for acting the way that she did. But I really don’t think that she and Max should have left their lie at the beginning go on for as long as they did. As this was still looming over both of them and they couldn’t move on from it, I found myself more annoyed with them than feeling for them. This added another level of conflict that didn’t need to exist.
As much as I appreciated her more closed off nature, and Max’s confusion, I really wish both characters would open up with each other. I know how Lina felt throughout the entire story but Max didn’t and vise versa. This led to too many moments of “we should—we shouldn’t—we should” that got boring after a while. Among other things, I found myself loving more of the side characters than the main two.
What I absolutely loved about this story, however, were all of the mentions of Brazilian culture. I know a little about the culture but it was fun to read about it from the view point of someone who is actually Brazilian American. The Brazilian Portuguese was also fun and I loved that we only got translations when it was necessary.
Overall, this was a quick read for me and I enjoyed it more than it sounds. I’m excited to read Dean’s story next as he was one of my favorite characters.
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