Rating: 4 🌈
Fake boyfriend trope is a favorite of mine so when I saw a story written by a must read author, Lily Morton, with that as a factor, I was in.
It also was a age gap, no surprise, with humor, again, a usual hallmark of this author, and a curmudgeon of a fellow in need a of a bit of a change in perspective about himself and his path in life. So yes, I settled in for a Morton romance.
Best Man didn’t let me down. Indeed our first meeting with the irrepressible Jesse Reed walks into the offices of Zeb Evans’ employment agency for an unforgettable interview. It’s funny, full of the sparkling dialogue and warm chemistry that draws me over and over into Morton’s stories.
We then snap forward several years as Jesse ‘s become a mainstay employee at Zeb’s agency, if a bit of a occasionally over exuberant when carrying out his clients wishes. We fall right into a guffaw moment with Jesse and it’s instant love!
We see the type of relationship Zeb and Jesse have grown into, as well as the potential one that waits if Zeb could allow himself a lessening of the restraints that so tightly bind him.
A wedding and a promise to be the best man necessitate the need for a fake boyfriend for Zeb. Who better then Jesse?
Especially when it’s something both men want truthfully anyway.
Their romance starts remarkably full of exploration and joy but Morton shows that the past history that’s been ignored has a way of interfering until it’s dealt with.
I would have thought Zeb a tad more intelligent about his ex given his past experiences with him in this story so it made events here seem less believable.
But Jessie’s father was a wonderful element and the entire last section of the book warm, inviting, and wholly satisfying.
They made a great couple and I look forward to Charlie and Felix’s books. Especially Felix. I adore that man.
I’m recommending Best Man to all lovers of contemporary romance and Lily Morton. Have a wonderful read!
Close Proximity series:
Best Man #1
Charlie Sunshine #2
After Felix #3
https://www.goodreads.com › showBest Man (Close Proximity, #1) by Lily Morton – Goodreads
Synopsis:
Zeb Evans doesn’t do messy.
The product of a disorganised and chaotic childhood, Zeb likes order and control, and as the boss of his own employment agency he can give that to himself. Life runs along strict lines and he never mixes business with pleasure. Everything in his life lives in neat, alphabetized boxes. Until Jesse.
Jesse Reed is Zeb’s complete opposite. He’s chaos personified. A whirling cyclone of disorder. He’s also charming and funny and a very unwanted distraction.
Which is why it comes as a complete surprise to Zeb to find himself asking Jesse to pose as his boyfriend for a few days in the country at a wedding.
Zeb doesn’t do impulsive, but as the time away progresses, he finds himself increasingly drawn to the merry and irreverent Jesse. But can he bring himself to break the hard-won lessons he’s learnt in life? And even if he can, how could Jesse be attracted to him anyway? He’s so much older than Jesse, not to mention being his boss.
From the bestselling author of the Mixed Messages and Finding Home series comes a warm and funny romance about one man’s fight for control and another man’s determination to circumvent it.
This is the first book in the Close Proximity series, but it can be read as a standalone.
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 