Review: The Best Men by Sarina Bowen and Lauren Blakely

Item: The Best Men (The Best Men, #1)
Rating: 4.5
Author: Kate

Posted September 7, 2022 by Kate

Review: The Best Men by Sarina Bowen and Lauren Blakely

Check out on Goodreads | Buy on Amazon
Genres: Adult, LGBTQ, Romance, Contemporary Romance
Also by this author: Top Secret, , Him (Him, #1)
Series: The Best Men #1
Publisher: Independently Published
Source: Libby (My Library app)

Bestselling authors Sarina Bowen and Lauren Blakely team up for the first time in an enemies-to-lovers, opposites-attract, irresistibly sexy standalone romance between the best man and the other best man!
In my defense, I was left alone with a bottle of single-malt and a life-long penchant for protecting my baby sister. Still, that's no excuse to send ten drunk-texts on why her hasty marriage would be a mistake.
If only I had just texted my sister. But nope. I accidentally sent the message to her, her groom, and his super hot wingman.
I also used the phrase “super hot wingman,” so I’d like to die now.
Instead, I have to plan a wedding with the aforementioned hottie and share a too-small guesthouse in steamy Miami.
Three days in the sun with the cocky, charming former athlete who likes to push my buttons? Fine, two can play at that let’s-infuriate-each-other game.
Until Asher ups the stakes with one wildly sexy suggestion. A no-strings fling, then I go back to my single dad life in New York, and he returns to his star-studded one.
Sign me up.
But the more nights I spend with the other best man, the more I want days too, and that just can't happen. Especially when I find out the real reason why…
Contents Include: First times, a secret to-do list, champion-level flirting, fast cars, #eggplants, and two men who look good in formal wear.

💞 Heavy Flirt Alert 💞

Obsessed. OBSESSED. I loved the back-and-forth between Mark and Asher, and the sexual tension was *thicc*. Asher is a heartfelt “player” and freelance brand photographer for advertising campaigns, and Mark is a single dad and a Wall Street trader… and deceptively commanding and passionately decisive. He comes off a laidback nerd (true), but he knows what he wants and doesn’t hesitate to act on it. I loved watching Mark cooly and intelligently sidestep his way out of Asher’s flirty traps, leaving Asher to wonder how the heck Mark turned it around back on him. GOD the intelligence was sexy.

I also really enjoyed how Mark’s bisexuality was never an issue or a conflict. He became a single-dad really young, and married his college girlfriend because of it. Now divorced, he’s able to explore his full sexuality for basically the first time but is hindered by fatherhood. This narrative really worked for me, because it’s real. But forced to spend a few days alone with Asher to prep for his sister’s wedding, Mark has no reason not to explore things with Asher. Even though Asher was flirting, he’s totally knocked off guard when Mark turns it back around on him. It’s was so adorable.

Or maybe he’s checking out my ass. Or my abs. That can’t be it.
But wouldn’t it be fun if it were true?

Really, I already knew Sarina Bowen could do no long! Most of my favorite MM romances either come from her or her frequent co-author Elle Kennedy. Now I just need to explore Lauren Blakely more…

Other things I loved…

• Spreadsheet Love! I adore spreadsheets, and I will never think of row/column coordinates the same way again. Hell yeah, Mark. Tear it up! I’ve always said spreadsheets are sexy, but never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that Bowen and Blakely would prove me so correct.

• Ohio rep!

• The sibling relationship between Mark and his sister Hannah. They’re so close, and I love how easily Hannah brushed off Mark’s stupidity, because she knew better. They were so close and it was adorable.

• THE DAD ENERGY. I’m so here for it. What a good single dad :) The swimming scene?? le sigh. I want a Mark.