Best Man by Katy Evans Review

4 SMOOCHES!

* * * * * * * * * *

SYNOPSIS:

When the wedding of your dreams is just around the corner, everything needs to go as planned. Only problem is, the groom didn’t get the memo.

Aaron forgot the rings, and Lia is determined to make the long drive home to get them in time for their “I do’s.”

But there’s a catch. There always is with Aaron, isn’t there?

Aaron is too hungover to come, and sends a replacement.

The best man.

Miles Foster. The cocky, arrogant, sexy best man…and the last person Lia wants to be trapped in a car with for hours.

But Aaron insists, and Lia wonders if there’s another reason Aaron wants Miles tagging along–aside from sticking her with a hot, surly babysitter.

Yet how bad can it be? It’ll be over before she knows it, and she’ll never see him again. Just like in college.

But when secrets are revealed, and Lia’s whole world is turned upside down, she realizes she’s been living a lie–and so has her groom.

Miles is supposed to be the best man at her wedding.

But what if he is simply the best man she has ever known? The best man for her?

* * * * * * * * * *

REVIEW:

It is said that love and hate are opposite sides of the same coin, and Katy Evans dives into those feelings in her latest contemporary romance, Best Man. The title seems to imply that this could be a light and breezy wedding-themed romcom, but this story isn’t that simple, and the only thing breezy about it was the weather the couple encountered.

It’s been a hot minute or two since I’ve read anything by Katy Evans, however, I’ve read the entire REAL series, and, well, that isn’t a series a romance reader ever forgets. While Best Man is not nearly as intense as any of the REAL series books were, it was still thick with the angsty emotion that Evans is known to serve up. Part enemies-to-lovers, part second-chance romance, part forbidden romance, the relationships in this book are complex and complicated. The author does a good job of sorting through the entwined histories of Miles, Aaron and Lia, although I can admit that I wanted more depth, especially from Miles. The vast majority of the book takes place in the 24 hours leading up to Aaron and Lia’s wedding, with a heavy focus on the 12-hour road-trip Lia and Miles, the best man in their wedding and Aaron’s childhood best friend, make back to Boulder to retrieve the wedding rings Aaron forget, a fairly symbolic gesture that sums up their relationship pretty accurately, for Lia’s perfect day.

Aaron and Lia ’s relationship definitely felt a bit forced to me, and that’s because it was. When it came down to it, they really were just going through the motions because that’s what they knew and what they’ve always done—it’s who they were as a couple. Instead of working on that, Lia was consumed by planning the wedding, and her sole focus was on making the wedding an absolutely perfect day, the day of her dreams. The problem was that she was overlooking the fact that her relationship with Aaron wasn’t what dreams were built on, and he wasn’t her dream man. It takes a 12-hour road trip with a man she can’t stand for her to come to terms with that reality before she can recognize what is right there in front of her.

Best Man by Katy Evans was much more emotional and angsty than I was anticipating it to be, and considering the timeline of the plot, the author really packed a tremendous amount of feeling into this fast-paced story. Brimming with those edge-of-your-seat emotions, Best Man was a twisting, turning, heart-achingly hard-fought road trip to love. Four smooches from me for Best Man by Katy Evans!

~Danielle Palumbo

 


BUY IT NOW!

Amazon  |  Apple Books  |  Kobo  |  Nook  |  Audible