Lucas Callahan left his fiancee, his law studies, and his family behind in North Carolina and moved to New York to realise his dream of becoming a journalist. He gets a job as a fact-checker at Empire magazine but he is desperate to fit in in New York City and to be more like his charming boss Jays.
One night, at a bar, he meets Carmen and they spend the night together. He doesn’t know that Carmen writes a sex column for Empire and she recounts her night with Lucas in humiliating detail. When Lucas writes his own rebuttal to Carmen’s article, their story goes viral, prompting their boss to take advantage of it and convince the two of them to sleep together every week and then write about it for the magazine.
I had higher expectations for this novel, written by a married couple. I thought it was going to be a fun and sexy read but it’s more serious than expected. The story in itself is interesting, but it didn’t kept me glued to the page and I couldn’t really connect to the characters who I didn’t find very likable, although they did get better towards the end.

A funny look at life and love in the big city and trying to find a weird balance between truth and sex.

Authors Jennifer Miller and Jason Deirdre have an interesting concept writing as a married couple. I hope this book is satire in nature as most of the scenarios are beyond far fetched . This book was graciously provided in exchange for an honest review.

This was not a quick read for me. It took effort to stay with the book but overall it was a decent read. The story was complex for Carmen and Lucas with the characters of Jay, Nicholas, Sofia, Tyler added to the story. It's hard for me to understand some of the characters as deceit, entitlement, duplicity, and other negative traits we see in these characters is beyond me. I like a story to give me a definitive ending - and I felt that I had to make my own conclusion as to whether Carmen and Lucas made it as a couple. I hope this story is more fiction than a factual representation of the publishing world. We all know there is plenty of nastiness in the world but I don't like to dwell on it when I'm escaping with a book.
I received an ARC from NetGalley and leave this honest review voluntarily.

Mr. Nice Guy has good flow, is well written, has well developed characters, and is fairly interesting -- just not what I expected based on the description! The book description that got me to read this story was something about a romantic comedy cross between Sex in the City and The Devil Wears Prada. That sounded great to me, so I was excited to read it. Unfortunately, I didn't laugh, I really wouldn't call it romance, and I could maybe see some of The Devil Wears Prada. It was a let down for me, more because it didn't meet my expectations based on the published description, than the actual Mr. Nice Guy story. For me, it was a coming of age story, and in retrospect, a good read that I would recommend.

Prior to Mr. Nice Guy being released I had heard a lot about it and was seeing it advertised a ton, so was excited to get a chance to read it. However, after reading it, I was just left with that "meh" feeling- it wasn't awful by any means, but it wasn't necessarily as great as I had hoped it would be either. The story focuses on wanna-be journalist Lucas, who moves to New York to become a fact-checker at the prestigious Empire magazine. After having a one-night stand, with Carmen, who he meets in a bar, he hears about an article in Empire magazine written by a woman critiquing- and not so kindly either- the performance of her recent sexual partner, only for Lucas to realize that the columnist is Carmen, and he is the man she was critiquing. Lucas responds back with his own submission to the paper, critiquing her as well, and sticking up for himself, and submits it as from "Mr Nice Guy." Empire then ends up picking up the regular back and forth articles between the two of them- without realizing that Mr Nice Guy is one of their own employees- as the "Screw the Critics" column grows increasingly popular. Of course, the magazine only wants to capitalize on the popularity of the column, while Lucas and Carmen end of developing more than just sexual feelings for each other. The book had an interesting premise, but it just didn't keep my attention throughout. An interesting look at the magazine publishing world. Thanks to Net Galley and St Martin's Press for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review

It's rare to find a Romance that actually has a decent story that pertains to anything other than the romance of the two main characters. Every character in this book was realistic and had a distinct voice. I also loved that it didn't have the quintessential "happy ending". The story ended naturally and didn't feel forced. If I had to complain about anything I would say, I could've used some more descriptive "sexy time" with Carmen and Lucas. The descriptions when they're writing their columns are great, but there wasn't a definitive sex scene, it was all much more implied.

I really wanted to like this book more than I did. I think the main character, Lucas, was actually a semi-decent guy who got too caught up in trying to get ahead. Unfortunately, the character just isn't that likable and it's hard to keep reading about someone who annoyed me so much and so often.

I can't really recommend this one, sorry. Thanks to St. Martin's Griffin and NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is a delightful story, written by a creative real life husband and wife writing team. The story features a young man names Lucas Callahan, who is trying to make it in the writing world, in NY. He finds himself there, alone, as he gave up his fiance and his fancy law degree, to do what he has always wanted to do, despite the pleas from his family to be smarter. Louis is single, broke, and willing to do what it takes to become a staff writer at Empire Magazine. First, however, he has to start at the bottom, like everyone else. His job is that of a fact checker for the magazine. One night, he goes to a bar after work and sees a beautiful woman writing on a napkin. So, he approaches her and offers her paper from his reporter pad. She seems to find him charming and she takes him home with her that night.
It is not until Lucas reads Carmen Kelly's wildly popular sex column in Empire magazine, that he learns that he had slept with Carmen Kelly. He also unhappily discovers that her column that day, negatively critiquing a recent sexual encounter featured, none other, than himself, now dubbed "Mr. Nice Guy." Lucas decided that he is not going to take this laying down. He pens a response to the article, critiquing Ms. Kelly right back. The magazine decides to publish his response, and soon a new magazine column is developed that features the two of them, critiquing each other. No one but Ms. Kelly and the magazines editor know who Mr. Nice Guy is, but the absolutely want to find out and will do whatever they can to uncover his identity.
The novel goes through the ups and downs of writing for the magazine, trying to make it in New York, and trying to move beyond being a sex columnist. There are hilarious twists and turns, some fun and joyful moments and a whole lot of heartache.
If they can write like Miller & Feifer, maybe more couples should try their hands at writing a novel together. This one is fun, smart, witty, sexy and teaches their readers that no amount of money can buy the feeling we are all fighting for... to be wanted and cherished by another soul. However, if you play your cards right, it is a feeling that can be won for all.

Mr. Nice Guy starts off so hilariously, full of laugh-out-loud moments, that it's a surprise when you realize you are no longer laughing but instead are thinking and feeling.

Most of the laughter is directed at Lucas, who is one of those earnest, kind-hearted, truly good people. His naïvety is alternately uproarious and cringing. You want to reach into the book, pull him to you, and beg him to become a bit more world-wise, a bit more hardened.

A bit more like Carmen.

She and Lucas begin having sex for strictly professional (on her part, anyway) reasons, and it doesn't look like emotions will come into play. Except that you know they will. You know that these two, however hard they work at not caring about each other, will. The problem is that the world they live in is full of people who do not want happily-ever-afters for anyone unless it's for themselves and only on their terms, according to rules only they understand.

The question that Jennifer Miller and Jason Feifer, a wife and husband writing duo, pose is whether you can withstand all that Lucas experiences and come out of it the nice guy he was when he started. Can he face down the worst that New York throws at him and remain standing, with his dignity and ethos intact?

Miller and Feifer don't serve up the underbelly of New York so much as show you the filth of bright, shiny things. As I read this book, I found myself thinking of the Bruce Springsteen song "Magic": "Trust none of what you hear and less of what you see." And I wanted to pass that advice along to Lucas.

I enjoyed this book so much mostly because I loved Lucas. He isn't too good to be true; quite the contrary, in fact. He screws up, he misses certain clues and thinks he sees opportunities where they do not exist. He mishandles relationships, both personal and professional. And yet I believed in him. I wanted him to stay Mr. Nice Guy. I liked Carmen, too. Her toughness conceals a huge heart, one she is loath to expose. And yet I worried for her. I did not want her to get hurt.

This book lends itself well to book club discussions. If yours chooses it, please let me know. I'd love to know what you think about it, particularly its ending.

This book was billed as a wild rom-com, a laugh filled, laugh out loud sex romp. Well, it definitely had sex - too much and gratuitous sex, but I never laughed out. I never even cracked a smile.
When a book is advertised as a cross between Sex and the City and The Devil Wears Prada a reader expects many things. Wit. Charm. Pathos. Characters you can root for. Sorry, but I didn't find any of that in this book. The characters were unlikable and I had a hard time suspending my disbelief that two people who loathed one another would actually consent to having sex just to become famous.
Having said all that, the storyline is consistent, the pacing good, the central character's arc fulfilled. I just didn't like any of the people and could believe people would actually act the way they did in the book.
Thanks to Netgalley for giving me an opportunity to read this for an honest opinion.

Unfortunately I had a lot of difficulty getting into Mr. Nice Guy. Lucas, as a character, was very unlikeable and unlike the typical main character. His insecurity and naivete made it even harder to enjoy being in his POV, and his POV was a huge chunk of the story. I don't even know how to explain what I felt while reading the part of the story that I did, but I had a difficult time believing he had any depth or ability to be anything other than a caricature. I feel like a lot of that was due to the writing; a shallow and stereotypical writing that did little to make any of the characters in this novel three-dimensional. The secondary characters were just as bland, mere placeholders for their 'type', and it was actually rather baffling to encounter all of these cookie cutter characters (main characters included). I simply did not like the hero, there were no redeeming qualities, and I could not finish the story because of it. I don't figure I'll be reading this writer duo in the future.

I’m not going to lie, this book was really disappointing.

I requested it based on the blurb because it seemed so funny and that it’d be one of my fave thing, a kind of hate to lovers. Or really I guess sleeping together, to hate, to lovers in this case. I felt like it had so much potential to give me all the angsty feels but it did not pan out like that at all. It’s interesting to note that this has been tagged a romance on Goodreads multiple times because for me, this does not fit the definition of a romance novel (happy ever after for the core couple or at least a strongly defined happy for now with potential for the ever after).

Firstly, it’s quite slow. There’s a lot of background about Lucas and how he fulfilled his dream to move to New York, leaving behind his southern family and their social climbing ways and his former fiancee. He works as a fact checker on a big magazine for a pittance and looks up to the editor, generally referred to as “Jays”. Lucas wants to move into writing features but his ‘break’ comes when he unknowingly has a one night stand with the magazine’s sex columnist and finds out that he’s the topic of her column. His roommate, not knowing that the column is referencing Lucas, suggests that “Nice Guy”, which is what the column refers to him as, should write a rebuttal. Incensed, Lucas does and it’s published after he proves that he is the “Nice Guy” although he keeps his actual identity a secret. This segues into Jays deciding that the columnist, Carmen, and Lucas should meet up weekly, have sex and then write about it from their opposing sides.

This had so much potential – I liked a sort of role reversal, where Carmen was the one who appeared to have all the power and the experience. She’s an actual well known columnist, love her or hate her she brings in business and her frank portrayals of her sex life seem to give women a power over their own sexuality and an attempt to smash through the double standards of sexual interaction. Lucas is very inexperienced, has only really been in one relationship and he’s the one in the invisible job, slaving away in a cubicle fact checking articles on Manhattan restaurants and boring socialites.

Lucas and Carmen had zero chemistry. Nothing. They honestly just did not work for me at any stage of this book, not when they first met before Lucas knows who and what Carmen is/does for a job, not afterwards when they’re doing the experiments. Lucas even gets some sort of ‘sex tutoring’ to try and impress Carmen and it falls spectacularly flat as she rips him to shreds basically in column after column (Lucas rebutting in his ‘Nice Guy’ way) until randomly, for no real reason, she doesn’t. And to be honest, Lucas isn’t particularly a very ‘nice guy’ at all. He’s horrid to his former fiancee (and the true callousness of his actions towards her isn’t revealed until quite late in the book, after Lucas has acted in appallingly jealous and small minded ways), he’s selfish and entitled and actually, pretty boring.

The one thing that was sort of interesting was the shenanigans Lucas uncovers about the magazine and the profiles it was doing on prominent New York identities but this was kind of done in such an over the top manner about people that were complete caricatures that I think it lost its impact. I spent a large portion of the book wondering if I was supposed to take anything seriously or if it was just satirising a city and industry I don’t know well enough to be sure about. I didn’t really get the whole point of Jays and Carmen, or Lucas and Sonia. Overall this was just really not what I was expecting and what I got was not for me.

4/10

This isn't a romance book. Mr. Nice Guy is about finding your place in NY. To have it advertised as a rom-com is misleading. The book was okay, but definitely wasn't what I wanted to read. As a mood reader, I was sorely disappointed. Also, the male protagonist Lucas is absolute trash. It's hard to sympathize with the lead in a book if he's sexist and self-centered. Like, he's supposed to have a whole redemption thing, but he still sucked by the end?? This book was compared to The Devil Wears Prada, and while I can see the similarities, at least the protagonist in that novel/movie is likeable. This was not the case for either protagonist in Mr. Nice Guy, so I had a hard time rooting for either or them or caring about the plot.

Touted as Sex in the City meets The Devil Wears Prada. This comparison nails it. Lucas moves to New York from his small town in North Carolina, looking for a fresh start fleeing an engagement gone sour and high hopes of success at a magazine he will be working at. Lucas is naïve, undecisive, and inexperienced in the love department. He is quickly thrown into the fast paced New York lifestyle and cut throat business practices of the magazine. He meets a beautiful woman, Carmen, in a bar. This turns into a one night stand with consequences that will turn Lucas and Carmen’s lives upside down when he reads a scathing article about his encounter the next day. He writes a response defending himself signed Mr. Nice Guy to hide his identity. This soon turns into a regular feature and the dueling columns boost sales as readers take interest. No one is more aware that sex sells than their boss, Jay. He manipulates the two for juicier sexual encounters for bigger sales and soon has a reality tv feel. We see the characters start to become introspective about their personal character and where their careers are taking them. The whole charade begins to back fire and sparks start to fly. I wanted more than anything to see the boss take a fall.

This is a fun read and I loved the New York setting. There are characters that I question their importance to the story except to make it overly long. It dragged in parts for me, but overall I liked it and look forward to the next book these authors collaborate on.

Thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Griffin, and the authors for an advanced copy.

A sweet romance that will keep you entertained. Cute charismatic characters that you can see would be your friends. A easy page turner!

Lucas and Carmen, what can you say about them? Are they a match made in heaven or hell? This book has me laughing and gasping in some parts. What happens when to people go home together and one writes about the others ineptitudes and the other reads about them? Will they work together or will it be an all out war when they find out that they will be seeing more of each other?

Mr. Nice Guy had some big shoes to fill with a blurb saying it was "The Devil Wears Prada meets Sex and the City." Unfortunately, it didn't live up to that hype.

I never connected to the characters, finding both Carmen and Lucas unlikable and I don't believe that was the intention of the authors. I was hoping for that fun, fluffy rom-com movie feeling, but what I got was uncomfortable, cringing scenes with none of the feel good romance I wanted.

I was really interested to read Mr. Nice Guy based on the description, and especially the quote that it was like Sex and the City meets the Devil Wears Prada. I didn't share that opinion, and I have a difficult time considering this book to be a romance. Most of the book is more related to the inner workings of the magazine Lucas and Carmen work at, and their boss. Lucas and Carmen's relationship was interesting, and the story was intriguing enough that I kept reading to see where things would go, but I felt the story spent too much time on other characters, and I was disappointed in the ending. It was also really hard for me to like any of the characters.
I received an ARC of this book in exchange for honest feedback.

To me this book was about the maturing of the two main characters, Carmen and Lucas, mentally, emotionally, and sexually. Both Carmen and Lucas seem to have stopped maturing somewhere in their teens. Lucas was very self-centered, Carmen was very controlled by her boss. The romance wasn't very romantic. However, having said this, there was something about the book that kept me reading it. I hoped Lucas and Carmen would have something right happen to them. I enjoyed the ending and thought it was the best part. I received this book free from NetGalley for an honest review.