Best Man by Katy Evans
Release Date: December 10, 2019
Best Man, a brand new contemporary romance from New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestselling author, Katy Evans.
When the wedding of your dreams is just around the corner, everything needs to go as planned. Only problem is, the groom didn’t get the memo.
Aaron forgot the rings, and Lia is determined to make the long drive home to get them in time for their “I do’s.”
But there’s a catch. There always is with Aaron, isn’t there?
Aaron is too hungover to come, and sends a replacement.
The best man.
Miles Foster. The cocky, arrogant, sexy best man…and the last person Lia wants to be trapped in a car with for hours.
But Aaron insists, and Lia wonders if there’s another reason Aaron wants Miles tagging along–aside from sticking her with a hot, surly babysitter.
Yet how bad can it be? It’ll be over before she knows it, and she’ll never see him again. Just like in college.
But when secrets are revealed, and Lia’s whole world is turned upside down, she realizes she’s been living a lie–and so has her groom.
Miles is supposed to be the best man at her wedding.
But what if he is simply the best man she has ever known? The best man for her?
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My Review
The twofold meaning behind the title of Katy Evans’ newest release, Best Man, applies to Miles Foster – the man who is the best man in the upcoming wedding of his best friend, Aaron Eberhart, and his girlfriend of 5 years, Lia Ripley. But even more, he’s the man who is best for Lia, despite the fact that they seem to hate each other and her wedding to Aaron is just days away.
The idea that things aren’t what they seem dominates the story line until it reaches the point of no return, but the defining concepts of that point aren’t the same for every character, which means that some seem to hold on too long while others give in too easily, leading them to question everything about their lives, where they should be and who they should be with…
Full disclosure, I went blindly into this story because I’m an avid reader of Katy Evans’ romances, and while there are things about the story line that I liked, I struggled with a few facets of the plot line, especially in relation to the heroine, and because of the way everything comes to a head toward the end of the book, I didn’t feel like enough of the story was spent illustrating exactly why Miles and not Aaron was the best man for Lia, and this left me feeling a bit unsatisfied, even after the couple I rooted for, ended up finding their way to each other when it counted the most.
While Best Man wasn’t my favorite Katy Evans’ story, the writing was solid and the fact that each chapter heading had a time stamp, placing it on a continuous timeline that comes to a head on the day of the wedding drove the story forward and illustrated that one way or another, everything would be decided by the time Lia walked down the aisle.
3.5 Poison Apples
Excerpt
The dress is a strapless Carolina Herrera, with layers and layers of whisper-thin organza. It blows my budget and the “less is more” mantra out of the water, but like Eva said the day we bought it in downtown Denver, when you know, you know. The locale is the sumptuous Midnight Lodge, nestled in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains, every tiny detail of the place costing my father more than an entire year of his salary. The twenty-three members of the bridal party are assembled. It’s the scene of every little girl’s fairytale fantasy.
My fantasy.
At least, the one I’d been harboring up until today, when everything changed.
Eva smiles at me. “Ready to make your dreams come true?”
I stare at myself in the mirror. I look like Cinderella, if the wicked stepmother had just materialized at the castle on Cinderella’s wedding day and gunned down Prince Charming in cold blood. I’m also about three minutes away from losing the mimosa I’d polished off earlier that morning at breakneck speed. I go to chew on my nails but then I remember Eva painted them, and the last thing I want is for him to see the chips.
He notices things like that. He’s an observer.
And I want to be perfect for him.
Him.
The wrong him.
Oh, god.
I go to chew on my lip, but I can’t do that because they’ve been lacquered with bubble-gum pink gloss, and he’d probably notice if I got it on my teeth, too. All my normal ways of freaking out are off limits.
This is the day of my dreams, the day I’ve planned to the letter, just so I could avoid any potential calamities that might make me freak out.
But I am freaking out. Oh, lordy, am I ever.
I’ve been waiting my whole life for this day.
This perfect day, where the sun is shining, the snow is melting, birds are singing, and the sky is the deepest blue I’ve ever seen.
But there’s a problem.
A problem in the form of a pretentious, bearded, six-foot-three wall of hot man flesh who stalks around hating the world and thinking he’s better than everyone in it.
My fiancé’s best friend. The best man, Miles Foster.
This is all his fault.
“You okay?” Eva asks.
“I am,” I insist, pushing the infernal veil out of my face for the thousandth time. “This dress is itchy as hell.”
I stand and pluck the dress up under my armpits, hoisting it over my boobs. I try to take a step but…too much fabric, in all directions. It’s a wonder I don’t drown in this sea. In this sea, or in this mess I’ve created for myself. I sit back down on the vanity stool and pout. “I’m stuck.”
In more ways than one.
She gathers handfuls of too much organza and helps me up, depositing the pile of fabric safely in my wake. I shuffle to the full-length mirror and glance at myself. I don’t look like a bride, or even a fairytale princess. I look like a prisoner who just got her death sentence.
“It’s too loose,” I whine. I never had much of a rack, and now it’s super obvious. Why did I decide to go strapless again? “I think I must’ve lost some boobage during my diet. What if the top of my dress falls down while I’m walking up the aisle?”
Eva smirks. “I’m sure Aaron’ll love the show.”
The thought makes the mimosa turn in my stomach. I used to live for what Aaron thought. Whenever I had a choice to make on something, be it a new movie coming out, or a sweater at the mall, or a new hair style, I’d think, Would Aaron like this? But I realize, as she says his name, that it doesn’t matter to me in the slightest what Aaron thinks. The only opinion I care about now is that of the man who will be standing precisely two feet to my husband-to-be’s left.
I am such an idiot.
In less than fifteen minutes, I will be marching down the stone steps outside the Midnight Lodge to a picturesque gazebo at the foot of the hills, on the arm of my father, who has socked his entire life’s savings into making this day picture perfect for his only daughter. I will take the hand of the man I’ve been attached at the hip to for over five years, ever since I met him in a dank frat cellar when I was a wide-eyed little college freshman. I will join with this man—this man I’ve spent all of my adult life with—in holy matrimony, ’til death us do part.
I will become Mrs. Aaron Eberhart.
But I know I’ll be looking past my husband-to-be to the man who, up until twelve hours ago, I’d thought I hated. Miles Foster.
And I will be wondering What if…
I wish choosing a husband was as simple as choosing a dress.
When you know, you know.
I did know, or I thought I did. Up until twelve hours ago, I thought Aaron Eberhart was my true soul mate, the one I’d happily spend the rest of my life with. That’s when things took an unexpected turn.
Right now? I don’t even know my own name.
And I have a feeling I might be making a huge mistake.
About Katy
Katy Evans is a New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author. Her debut REAL shot to the top of the bestselling lists in 2013 and since then 9 of her titles have been New York Times bestsellers. Her books have been translated into nearly a dozen languages across the world.
Connect with Katy
Email: katyevansauthor@gmail.com
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Amazon Author: https://amzn.to/2rdox8A
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