I have been meaning to read a Mia Sosa book for a while, so when her newest was released I decided to give it a try. This felt like a movie romantic comedy and had some genuine funny moments that had me laughing out loud.  However, the romance itself was just so-so and I found myself wanting more.

From Goodreads:  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. 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…

Things I Liked:

One of my favorite things about this book was how Sosa wrote the character of Max.  He is a refreshing male lead who isn’t afraid to ask his friends for advice and to be vulnerable and while this is an enemies to lovers story, he doesn’t do anything horrible that would make me question why Lina would ultimately fall in love with him.   It was nice to read a male character like this and I wish more romance novels had male leads that aren’t horrible people.  I also found every character in this book to be likeable, with one exception, so I cared about what happened to them. I appreciated that Sosa included a lot of Brazilian culture into the book and showed why Lina’s heritage was important to her AND the story.

Things I didn’t Like:

The plot, more specifically the way in which Lina and Max are forced to work together, is very far-fetched.  As I said earlier, this felt like a rom-com in book form (not always a bad thing) but I found myself taken out of the story sometimes by the situations they found themselves in.  I wanted more of a love story, or at the very least, more of why Lina and Max love each other and not just want to have sex. While they had good chemistry,  their feelings were not given time to develop so the ending felt rushed.

Conclusion:

This was just a “meh” romance for me.  The writing was fine and the characters were good but I just didn’t buy the love story and thought the idea had more potential than what was put on the page.

Author:   Mia Sosa

Published:   February 4, 2020

Rating:   3 Stars