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Title: The Worst Best Man
Author: Mia Sosa
Sub-genre: Contemporary
Trope(s): Enemies to lovers with a dash of there’s only one bed/fake relationship
Straight up: It’s tough for me to read and enjoy wedding planner heroines. There are a lot of them out there, and having been one for the past ten years myself, few people really get it right. So I was a little hesitant to pick up this book, but everyone’s been raving about it, and really this cover is just too cute for words. So I decided to give it a shot.
Lina is a wedding planner who is left at the altar. Her fiance dumps her via his brother (the titular worst best man), claiming said brother (Max) convinced him he was right to call off the wedding. Lina rebounds, becoming one of Washington DC’s best wedding planners. She is approached by the owner of a hotel and presented with the opportunity to apply for a job as the hotel chain’s wedding coordinator, where she would be overseeing a team of people and given the chance to take her career to the next level. Only one problem: She has to prepare a presentation with a member of the hotel’s marketing team, and that marketing team just so happens to be her ex-fiance and his brother. Lina chooses to work with Max (as the only other option is her ex) and the two (obviously) get off to a rocky start. When the two are stranded at a couples’ retreat (with only one bed!), they start to realize their true feelings for one another. But with plenty of hurdles to overcome–his brother/her ex, their work presentation, lying to their boss, his mommy issues–things for the pair take some unexpected twists and turns. But of course, they live happily ever after.
So I think this worked for me for a couple of main reasons. One, enemies to lovers is always going to be my numero uno, so starting there really worked. I am also a big fan of fake dating, and even though it was minimal here, it exists and therefore I loved it. In terms of the wedding planner angle, I think the reason this instance was so much better for me than many others was because there wasn’t a ton of actual wedding planning on the page. There were some glimpses and small moments, but for the most part, a lot of the career stuff is about putting together the presentation, and not planning actual weddings. I didn’t have any of those yeah-that’s-not-how-that-works moments, which is probably a first for a wedding planner heroine for me. Plus, Mia’s voice is sharp and witty and fantastic, so I found myself lost in the story, not in the details. Overall, it was a lovely read!
Overall Rating: 4.5 stars