I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
The Worst Best Man by Lucy Scoreon January 16, 2024
Genres: Fiction / Romance / Contemporary, Fiction / Romance / Romantic Comedy, Fiction / Small Town & Rural
Pages: 446
Format: Paperback
Source: Publisher
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Buy on BookshopNewsflash. You don't buy me, a$#%^*e. You earn me.
The bride is a doll. The groom is the perfect gentleman. But the rest of the wedding party? They're the stuff of nightmares. Rich? Check. Vapid? Double Check. Entitled? Not enough checks in the world. And the Best Man? More like the Worst Man.
But Maid of Honor Franchesca takes her duties seriously. Kidnapped groom? She's got this. Rude attendees? You just watch her handle them. So a Best Man with a big attitude and an even bigger...checkbook? Yeah, there's no way she's going to let that pretentious, judgmental jackhole ruin her best friend's wedding. No matter how sexy he is. (Well, that's the plan anyway...)
Aiden Kilbourn doesn't do long-term relationships. He's busy ruling the business world, and has yet to find a woman he can tolerate for longer than a month, two at the outside, anyway. Conquering the unconquerable is basically his bread and butter. And he hasn't met a challenge that he can't win. But Franchesca Baranski? This smart-mouthed girl from Brooklyn may just be his downfall.
Let me start off with: I had no intention of reading this book, and it could be objectively said that I read the whole thing against my will. In less than a day. And a book that can manage to do that deserves, at the very least, that I tell you about it. I shall explain. I received this book in the mail from the publisher. (Thank you, Sourcebooks!) I saw it was a romance novel, and I shrugged, and set it aside. On a pile of stuff near my desk. This will be important later.
Now, I am not one of those “ew, romance genre cooties” kind of folks. Romance writers are prolific and formidable and they do more ass-in-chair-words-on-page in a year than most writers will in a lifetime. No, I respect romance as a genre, I have read plenty of them, and they just don’t generally contain the things that I hope for in a story. I like stories with sarcasm, explosions, and where the lines are clearly drawn between Good and Evil. Things that happen on an epic scale appeal to me, not small ones. I love found families but Relationships Between People perplex me. Interpersonal drama makes me tired, and on-page sex scenes are titillating, sure, but I don’t view them as furthering the story in particular. I understand that they CAN, but the thought of sleeping with someone in order to get to know them better / bring us closer is a frustratingly backwards sequence of events in my mind. It kind of creeps me out. That is the way MY mind works. It is not usual. I understand. But this is why I don’t read much straight-up romance. Romance that happens in other genres? Okay, great! As long as something is at stake besides A Relationship, I am on board.
So I wasn’t planning to read this. But. Then I had a bad day.
I had a really bad day, and I said to myself: “Self, I need a break.” And Self replied: “You sure do! Let’s take five minutes and read a couple of pages of this random book you haven’t put in the stack with the rest yet! You will maybe chuckle a little at the rich people wedding drama and then you can go back to work.”
Spoiler: I did not go back to work. (Unless this is my boss reading, in which case, yes, sir, I absolutely went straight back to work right away. Just kidding, I was waiting on [redacted, because I don’t talk about work here] anyway.)
For one thing, Frankie just has… the Voice. The snarky, witty, sarcastic voice that happens when a woman is fed up to there, overworked, underpaid, and no longer taking any shit. It is the voice that was in my head the day some rando at the office said, “You should smile!” and I showed him my teeth and said, “PAY ME!” and walked away. Then you layer in Rich People Behaving Badly, and I have to say that I’m interested. I can’t help it. Rich assholes that might get their comeuppance is a story line that appeals to me. Then the groom gets kidnapped, and Frankie, of course, decides to save the day for her best friend but UGH, the best man is insisting on coming along. Now we’re sneaking into a fancy expensive hotel during a private event and whoops! Now they have to kiss so security thinks they’re drunk idiots instead of trespassers!
These are the tropes that I enjoy, dammit, and I resent that the author hit so many of my buttons. I had no intentions of reading this book!
After that, sarcastic Frankie and Rich Jerk are dating! Here we go, I muttered to myself. This is when the misunderstandings and the drama and all the fighting happens and this is where I put the book down. Because people who are invested in their relationships talk to each other! They may fight. They may even walk away for a moment, but real people who want real relationships tackle problems together and they don’t give up over some stupid petty drama! This is the part that makes me tired.
It also is the part that never happens in this book.
Is there an eventual short-term breakup? Sure. This is a romance novel, it’s a trope. It’s gonna happen. But it was not over some stupid, petty, bullshit like “a drunk girl fawned all over him so clearly he was cheating and I’m going to dump him rather than talk to him”. The author actually managed a complete fake out, too. There is one scene where you go, Oh! Here comes the petty bullshit! She’s going to think he’s cheating! But. Nope. SIKE! Frankie almost immediately realizes, no, that’s not what fucking happened. I don’t think I’m gonna spoil anything by saying: yes, they do end up together. Duh. That’s a requirement for the genre, yes?
Also, there’s quite a bit of wish fulfillment in dating a man who can literally buy half of Manhattan, and then teaching him how to use his money to make not only himself (and his lady friend) happy, but how to use it to do good. Yes, you can revitalize small businesses AND wear the $1,000 designer dress! Well. Not in real life. But that’s why romances are fantasies.
I absolutely did not intend on ever reading this book. I was only going to read a couple of pages. I was going to put it down as soon as the petty breakup happened, I swear. Lucy Score could have stood over my office chair with a literal gun to my head and I would have sworn I would never, ever get around to reading this book.
Until I read the damned book. 4/5 stars for giving me pretty much everything I could want in a romance novel and almost none of the things that I don’t.
