To Not Date My Best Friend by Gianni Holmes (The Simple Rules #2)

Title: ⟫ To Not Date My Best Friend (The Simple Rules #2) 

Author: ⟫ Gianni Holmes 

Blurb: ⟫ What do you do when you meet the man of your dreams, but you’re already engaged? You become best friends and hope for the best. 

BAZ 

It was a meet-cute that should have come with a happy ending. I was hardly at my best when I caught Andy snapping photos of me topless in the name of street photography. I fired angry words at him. In exchange, he gave me his jacket to keep me warm. 

Thus began our friendship and an unrequited crush on a man who was about to get married. 

ANDY 

After a photography assignment in the Middle East left me scarred, I have no choice but to face the many issues in my life—my marriage is over, my wife has moved on, and I may never hold another camera between my hands. 

But there’s no hurdle I can’t get over once I have my best friend, Baz, in my life. When he tries to transition from a stylist to a journalist at the magazine where he works, he enlists my help in writing a column. 

How can I prove to him that moving from best friends to lovers makes sense when he’s determined to prove the opposite? 

To Not Date My Best Friend is a bi-awakening romance between a plus-sized stylist who’s claimed his place in the fashion world and a bi-curious photographer who happens to be his best friend. 

This book can be read as a stand-alone and has mild angst in some parts. 

Review: ⟫ I should preface this to say that I think this is more about me than the book. 

I wanted to like this story, I really did. I thought the premise was excellent and I loved the idea of the two of them dating whilst Baz was trying to confirm that it couldn’t work whilst Andy wanted to prove that it could. 

But that wasn’t what the story was. 

I wanted to learn more about what Andy went through that made him decide he needed to face his issues; the whole friends-to-lovers thing happened in a flash with what seemed like very little thought about the consequences if things didn’t work out; and I can’t fully explain it, but it felt like it held little substance. 

I didn’t like the cheating thing with the wife and thought it was unnecessary to the story, and perhaps that affected my perception? I don’t know, this just didn’t work for me. 

It was very well written, descriptive and interesting in parts, but somehow didn’t strike a chord for me. 

3.5/5. I received an ARC from GRR.

To Not Marry My Enemy by Gianni Holmes (The Simple Rules #3)

Title: ⟫ To Not Marry My Enemy (The Simple Rules #3)
Author: ⟫ Gianni Holmes
Rating: ⟫ 4/5
Blurb: ⟫ He’ll rue the day we say “I do”.

Ford

Being jilted once was bad enough, and it won’t happen again. This time I’m marrying for business. When my current fiancee dupes me a few days before the wedding, luckily she leaves behind someone who can take her place. It’s the right thing for him to do, since he convinced her our wedding was a sham. If he doesn’t agree, I know just how to get him down the aisle.

River

The first time I met Ford, I knew instantly we were bound to be enemies. I loathe every gorgeous, pretentious inch of the man, even after the I dos. If it’s a marriage he wants, then a marriage he’ll get…starting with our honeymoon. I’ll make our marriage such an unbearable hell that he’ll ask for an annulment. When my plan backfires and I accidentally sleep with my new husband on our honeymoon, things take a turn I least expected. Now I need a divorce…or maybe not?

To Not Marry My Enemy is an enemies-to-lovers short novel with marriage-of-convenience and bi-awakening.

Reviews: ⟫ Enemies to lovers, marriage of convenience, bi-awakening – this book had a lot to live up to! And it did!

River and Ford were so blinded by their hatred of each other that they struggled to see past it to the people behind the masks. Their pride did them both favours, making it so that neither of them would back down and giving them a chance to make their marriage of convenience much more real than either had planned.

I really loved the banter between the two of them, the hate-sex was off the charts hot, and the fact that this wasn’t one of those miscommunication plot devices that could be fixed in one conversation really worked for me. I enjoyed watching them learn about each other, figure out what made the other person tick and slowly reveal the true feelings that were bubbling beneath the surface, and the banter and chemistry showed through clearly. I didn’t love the character of the brother and his motivations/actions felt like they were forgiven far too easily; I also wasn’t a fan of Cammie as it felt like she just abandoned River without considering that there might be consequences for him caused by her actions.

A nice addition to the Simple Rules series and I enjoyed it very much.

I received an ARC from GRR.