Review: 3.5 stars
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 11 26, 2013
(Source: I received a digital copy of this book for free on a read-to-review basis. Thanks to author Christy Hayes and Netgalley.)Emily has been dating Zach for years, but she’s also best friends with his brother Dylan, and feels like her relationship with Zach wouldn’t work without Dylan.Zach is planning to ask Emily to marry him, and gives the ring to Dylan for safe keeping, unfortunately though Emily sees it in his bag, and incorrectly assumes that Dylan is going to ask another girl to marry him.Realising that she is jealous of whoever Dylan is going to propose to, Emily starts a plan to stop Dylan, not realising just how deep her feelings go.Will Emily admit how she feels about Dylan? And is she nuts for thinking that her boyfriend’s brother is the best part of their relationship?This was an okay contemporary romance, but it was very awkward in the beginning.Emily was an okay character, although she really let Zach rule their relationship. I found it a bit bizarre how she thought that if Zach was a bad boyfriend it was her own fault, and that she thought that the best part of their relationship was his brother! I don’t know what she was thinking, but thinking that it’s your fault that your boyfriend isn’t perfect? Thinking his brother is the best part of your relationship? Weird, and not good in so many ways.The storyline was okay, but it did have its issues. The start of the book was really awkward, and things felt a bit forced and unnatural. Even the first conversation between Zach and Dylan felt awkward, and it took a long time for me to actually begin to like this book.It annoyed me that Emily tried to get her friends to flirt with Dylan without considering that things might be awkward if he actually came on to them! I could totally see what her friends were saying – she wanted them to pretend to be drunk, and come on to Dylan, but what would they have done if he’d actually started flirting back?There were some funny moments in this book though, and even though it wasn’t supposed to be funny, I found these lines quite amusing –"Her eyes went wide as she realised what she felt against her leg."And"He considered excusing himself to the bathroom to spank the monkey."And"Do you know who we're playing this weekend? I can't believe you're doing this to me now."The romance was actually quite good when we actually got some romantic scenes, but I personally would have liked there to have been more romance. We didn’t really get more than one scene between Dylan and Emily which was a bit disappointing, and this was the best aspect of the book.The ending was okay, although it seems pretty obvious that this couple is not going to have an easy time of things after all that has gone on. It seems like the second book in the series will be about Zach, but after reading this and knowing what his relationship with Emily was like (including the fact that he just wanted to get the job done in bed, and didn’t bother with foreplay) I can’t say I’m desperate to read his story!Overall; an okay contemporary romance, with the occasional funny moment.7 out of 10.