RATING: ★★★★★
TITLE: Best Man (Close Proximity, book 1)
AUTHOR: Lily Morton
RELEASE DATE: 10/03/2019
SETTING: London / Cotswolds, England
PUBLISHER: Independently Published
GENRE(S): Adult Contemporary Romance, Office Romance, LGBT, Friends to Lovers
BLURB:
Zeb Evans doesn’t do messy.
The product of a disorganized 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.
A sexy romance that runs the full gamut of emotions.
I enjoyed this so freaking much!
This book had me smiling like a fool, laughing out loud, gave me that fluttery tug in my tummy, and made me cry. Not every romance can pull me in like this one did. I mean Jesse?!?! Is there anyone sweeter than his adorable soul? And what better to balance him out than the strong and honorable Zeb?
This had everything I love in a great romance. The immediate connection, but the fact they are both unattainable in each other’s eyes. They are drawn to one another from their introductions, but life has other plans. They work together and Zeb refuses to mix work with pleasure… not to mention he has a boyfriend, Patrick. But somewhere along the line, that relationship ends and Zeb winds up agreeing to be Patrick’s best man in his upcoming wedding… Since they are already in the business of providing people with services that include fake relationships for awkward situations, who better to ask to be his fake date than Jesse?
The inevitability of dangerous and very real feelings comes to the surface, though. And Zeb just cannot get past the 20 year age gap between him and Jesse. But, Jesse, again… I mean he is just everything! He is fun and sweet and so full of life! Who could resist????? Definitely not Zeb.
Then, we have that juicy “jealous ex” trope that I can’t get enough of (when done properly, as Lily has definitely done here). Something about an ex that won’t let go makes the romance that much better in the end. It makes it that much more worth it!
I love the supporting characters and the set up for the next books in the series. Charlie Sunshine is one I am immediately starting, followed by an arc of After Felix, which I am so pumped to have gotten my hands on!!
To sum up this review, nobody does a romance like Lily Morton does!
feather bound books 