Bethany reviews ‘Life Of Bliss’ by Erin McLellan. Self-published on April 30th, 2018, 207 pgs.
Why I read this book: I love a good enemies to lovers book so I figured this would be right up my ally.
NOTE: We were provide a copy of this in exchange for an honest review.
Nobody plans to accidentally marry their frenemy-with-benefits.
Todd McGower and Victor Consuelos do not like each other. They can’t have a conversation without insults flying, and Victor seems to get off on pushing Todd’s buttons. The fact that their antagonism always leads to explosive sex . . . well, that’s their little secret.
Victor has a secret of his own. His full-blown crush on Todd is ruining his sex life. He hasn’t looked at anyone else in months, and he’s too hung up on Todd to find a date to his cousin’s wedding.
In a moment of weakness after a heart-stopping night together, Todd agrees to be Victor’s fake boyfriend for the wedding. Victor will have his plus-one—which will get his family off his back—and Todd will get a free mini-vacation. It’s a win-win.
But pretending to be fake boyfriends leads to real intimacy, which leads to too much wine, and suddenly, Todd and Victor wake up with wedding bands and a marriage license between them. That was not their plan, but a summer of wedded bliss might just change their minds.
So enemies to lovers is one of my favorite troupes and I always enjoy reading them, watching two men who think they hate each other fall in love. I mean really what’s not to love about that. So when we got the request to review this one, after reading the blurb I knew I HAD to review it. Now going into this one though I figured it would be pretty predictable. This premise has been done before, in movies and a few of the M/F books I use to read. So I thought, yes I will enjoy it but it would be like been there, done that. Boy was I wrong, so very very wrong.
When I started this book, I wasn’t prepared for the emotions it would make me feel. I thought it would be light and fun, and it was, but it was so much more. This new to me author took two very different men and made me fall in love with them. She was able to build and transform them in such a short amount of time, but making it feel that I could see their growth. I read this in one sitting, and when I was done I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face. I knew this would be a book I would be re-reading often.
Todd, well Todd, at times, highly pissed me off. I wanted to yell and scream at him for not opening up and almost pushing Victor away out of fear. Then I met his parents and I understood him so much better and why he did the things he did. I will never understand people who cannot love their kids unconditionally. Todd’s parents love was definitely conditional and after learning this I could see why Todd thought he didn’t deserve true happiness. I wanted to hug him so much and tell him, yes Todd you deserve all the happiness and Victor can give it to you.
Now let’s move on to Victor. I adored him from the very beginning. While Todd made me want to pull my hair out at times, Victor wasn’t completely innocent in this whole thing, lol. Yep there were plenty of moments I wanted to scream at him too, times when I kept thinking to myself: Victor if you want this to work, you HAVE to talk to him.
Now these two together, well that was so much fun to watch. From the beginning when the insults were in every other sentence, to them trying to make a marriage work. Finding out how the other person ticks, what makes them happy, and what irritates them, is the definition of a relationship. This author created something so wonderful between these two that you forget that at one point they hated each other. It wasn’t always an easy journey that they faced, but how they handled things, and how they made it their own made my heart very happy.
I can say without a doubt that I will be reading more from this author. Which leads me to the fact that this is book two, but absolutely can be read as a standalone, though characters from book one do make several appearances in this one. I have not yet read book one so I can safely say you don’t have to read in order, though as much as I loved these two I am going back and getting book one. Enemies to husbands, seriously how can you NOT need to read this. Brilliant.
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Erin McLellan writes contemporary romance with characters that are complex, goodhearted, and sometimes a little quirky. She likes her stories to have a sexy spark and a happily ever after.
Erin has a bachelor’s degree in creative writing from Oklahoma State University and a master’s degree in library and information studies from the University of Oklahoma. Though no longer a public librarian, Erin still enjoys being surrounded by books and readers, but now she hopes to find her stories on the shelves as well.
Originally from Oklahoma, she currently lives in Alaska with her husband and spends her time dreaming up love stories set in the Great Plains. She is a lover of chocolate, college sports, antiquing, Dr Pepper, and binge-worthy TV shows.
Find Erin here: Website ~ Goodreads ~ Twitter ~ Facebook ~ Instagram
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