May The Best Man Win
by Mira Lyn Kelly
Published by Sourcebooks Casablanca
Book #1 in The Wedding Date Series
For their friends, Emily and Jase will let their mutual resentment simmer just beneath the surface, right alongside their mutual attraction.
Jase Foster can't believe his bad luck. He's been paired with the she-devil herself for his best friend's wedding: Emily Kleinof the miles-long legs and killer smile. She may be sin in a bridesmaid dress, but there's no way he's falling for her again.
They can barely stand each other, but given how many of their friends are getting married, they'll just have to play nice-at least when they're in company. Once they're alone, more than just gloves come off as Jase and Emily discover their chemistry is combustible, and there may be something to this enemies to lovers thing after all.
Genre:
Triggers
Trauma from relationship/friendship of someone who loses their life to alcohol/drug use
May the Best Man Win is the first book in Mira Lyn Kelly's The Wedding Date Series. The Wedding Date Series follows four men, all of them best men, and their relationships. This first book centers around Jase and Emily, high school friends, but Jase also had feelings for her. He finally worked up the courage to ask her out, but before he could, his best friend Eddie asked her out. Jase starts distancing himself from Emily in hopes his feelings for his best friends girl would go away. In the year Emily and Eddie are together, Eddie becomes addicted to drugs. Emily tries to get her parents, Eddie's parents, and Jase to see what is going on, and get him help, but no one believes her. It all comes to a head one night when Emily tells Eddie she is done, and Eddie drives his car into a divider, almost killing himself, and injuring Emily. Jase blames Emily for messing with Eddie's head, and cheating on him (something Eddie accused Emily of, but she never did).
Fast forward eight years later. Jase and Emily are enemies, but unfortunately for them, their friends run in the same circles, and they get matched up, quite a bit, at their friends weddings. While they trade off insults at one another, there is also an undeniable chemistry between the two, and attraction. After being forced to spend time together so many times in a short period of time, they get into each others heads, and succumb to a moment of passion ... that leads to several moments. They try to not get feelings involved. It's easier to hate a person than face your issues, after all.
I do appreciate that the arc of Jase's and Emily's relationship isn't typical of other romance novels. It's a rocky start. Just sex once, turns into multiple times. Jase admits he has always had a thing for Emily, and she wants none of that, because she doesn't trust that he won't hurt her, like he did in high school. When she needed a friend the most, needed someone to believe her, he wasn't there for her. Blamed her even. So Jase decides to be her friend. After a few weeks of friendship, they succumb to their attraction again, and they finally start dating. Which is good for a while. Until their married best friends are having difficulties, and it brings up all of Jace's issues, as at this point, Emily has closure and opened herself up to Jace.
Jase, growing up with a mother who abandoned him and his dad, who had multiple affairs, doesn't have an easy time trusting women. He watched his father suffer from a broken heart for 20 years. He even still believed that Emily cheated on Eddie, which messed him up. His mother, coming back into his fathers life (much to his anger), and finally talking to Jase about why she was the way she was, brought him the much needed closure he needed.
Jase helps their best friends fix their marriage, and he tells Emily he is going to try to win her back. And he does. Less than a year later, they are married.
I had a hard time with this book. I actually liked the story, but it had some weaknesses that kept me from thoroughly enjoying it. The story itself wasn't overly original, but the added twist of Eddie livened it up a bit. The story dragged on a bit at times, and while its normal as a reader to get frustrated with characters, it really bothered me that so much could have been fixed with some simple communication. I did enjoy the characters. The guys featured in this series, Jase, Brody, Sean, and Max, Max's little sister Molly, and Emily are fun to read, especially when all together. The chemistry leaped off the pages between Jase and Emily, and the sex was great to read. That being said, I am not sure if I would recommend it to everyone. 2.5/5
Emily: "Oh, man up and stop being such a crybaby. Or do I need to get you a tissue, princess?"
Jase: "Emily, you're going to apologize for stepping on not one of my feet, but both. Nicely."
Emily: "You're delusional."
Jase: "Oh, you'll apologize, all right, and you'd better make me believe it. Because if you don't, in about five seconds, I'm going to dump your sweet ass on this floor."
Real classy, Jase. What a dickhead. - Emily
Lena: "It was like fifty shades of hot."
Emily: "That was no Jamie Dornan moment, please."
Emily: "Shitty day, I hope?"
Jase: "Worse every minute."
Emily: "That's what I like to hear."
Yeah, that was his girl. - Jase
"Morning, Em," he said, meeting her at the garden's edge to hand her a steaming cup of coffee."Eye of newt and toe of frog, just the way you like it."
Emily: "But I hate you."
Jase: "I know, honey. I feel the same way."
Jase: "Wow, Em. You need a minute alone?"
Emily: "Yes, please. And if you've got a s-snapshot of Max to leave with me,that's be swell."
Jase: "Just once. Just to put an end to the curiosity."
Emily: "No way will it live up to the hype. I'll walk away disappointed. Probably feeling sorry for the girls with such high expectations."
Jase: "You'll walk away wishing for more."
Emily: "Not a chance."
Emily: "What's that look?"
Jase: "Just thinking about how pissed you're going to be when I ruin you for all other men."
Emily: "Good luck with that."
Jase: "Don't need luck."
Emily: "Was that three times, or four"
Jase: "Four. Why Trying to figure out how many notches to carve into the bedpost?"
Emily: "For Facebook."
Janice: "I heard someone saw you crawling out of a dark corner or a certain church this weekend ... with the flames of hell licking at your feet, Jase."
Romeo: "Yeah, man. I need it. Don't want to get soft."
Max: *snorts looking at Jase*"Come on, man. I know he just got married and has a baby on that way, but no way can I let that one go." *looks at Romeo* "And this was the only place you thought you could get hard? Man, I'm flattered, but I respect the institution of marriage far too much to -"
Romeo: "aww, shit, Bite me, Brandt."
Max: "That's what I'm saying... I want to. You know I do. But it's over, lamb chop."
Jase: "Trying to sneak out on me?"
Emily: "No way, darling. I was just going to check with the movers about getting my stuff moved in while we're at the ceremony. Maybe see if Delphine minds if we piggybacked their wedding."
Emily: "I'm pretty sure we're clean."
Jase: "If it was clean I was after, we'd have been dried off thirty minutes ago."
Emily: "So what you're after is something dirty, then?"
Jase: "Usually."
Emily: "Then why? I get those first few times. The sex. It was hot nd intense and ... I get it. But you could have left it at that. Why ask for that first date? Why push? Why spend weeks trying to sell me on something that doesn't even exist?"
Jase: "Don't say that."
Emily: "Tell me why!"
Jase: "Because I couldn't fucking help myself! Is that what you want to hear?"
Molly: "The best? Have you even seen yourself, Jase? You're a mess. Minus the hot."
Max: "She's right. You look like hell."
Sean: "Week-old roadkill."
Jace: "You could use a hand and I've got one. It doesn't have to mean anything other than I care about you, Em."
Emily: Then leave me alone, Jase."
Jase: "Why?"
Emily: "Because, Jace, when I look at you now, all I see is the lie I fell in love with. And the truth just hurts too much."
Brody: "Let me guess. You fucked up, again."
Clara: "I know it's too late for me to be your mom I know I gave up that privilege twenty years ago. But please know that I love you. I always asked your father about you. I always wanted to know. I just thought it would be easier for you if I ... I did what I thought was best. And if it's something you can't forgive me for, then I'll respect that. But I hope in time you'll give me a chance to get to know the man you've turned out to be. I hear you're pretty great."
Jase: "But what you said, Em, you were wrong too."
Emily: "To fall in love with you?"
Jase: "No. Christ, not that. Never that."
Jase: "I love you, Emily. I'm going to fight for you. I'm going to fight for us."
Jase: "Hey there, big eyes. Your favorite babysitter is here, princess. And I wore the T-shirt you like to hurk on."
Jase: "You think she's going to notice?"
Max: "Hell yeah, she is going to notice."
Joe: "Oh yeah, Jase. She's going to notice. There's no hiding all this. It's bad. Ugly. I still don't know what you were doing getting right up behind the driver while he was trying to change the flat, but that elbow, and then with the running. And Christ, Jase, sliding over the hood of a moving cab only works in the movies. What were you thinking?"
Max: "Forget the split lip. You got here on time."
Jase: "I couldn't be late, man."
Max: "I know. So, you're here, and when Emily sees you, she's going to know you did this for her."
Sean: "It'll be like an extra wedding gift. Dude, she'll love it."
Damn, Jase had always said a scary side lurked beneath all that soft and pretty, but Max just thought the guy was being a pussy. Lesson learned. - Max
Check out the next three books in Mira Lyn Kelly's Wedding Date Series