Mr. Nice Guy unfortunately did not live up to its promise. It was neither like The Devil Wears Prada nor Sex in the City. I also don’t think this should have been listed as a romantic comedy. I read romance for a few main reasons: connection and chemistry between the characters, and a HEA. You know what to expect. After reading the book, I got none of that with this storyline.

Lucas just moved to NYC from North Carolina after quitting law school and being dumped by his ex-girlfriend of 6 years. He lands a job as a fact checker at his favorite magazine. After having a one night stand with a beautiful older woman, he realizes she’s a journalist at the same magazine and wrote about their encounter in her sex/relationship column. He decides to write his side of the story, however, remains anonymous to the readers and his editor.

Carmen is tired of only writing about sex and relationships, however, her editor (who she’s slept with on and off for a couple of years) has no plans to allow her to advance. She wants to write about sexual politics and human rights, not fluff pieces. After the first letters of the sexual encounter gain readers and online views, her editor comes up with an idea; Continue to have sex and have both sides write about it.

The storyline picked up a bit during this portion and we got to see a little bit more into the minds of the characters, however, it wasn’t enough. I couldn’t connect with either of the characters and the supporting characters annoyed me even more.

Thanks to NetGalley and Saint Martin’s Press for the ARC. It was an interesting premise and I was looking for something different, however it just didn’t resonate with me

This is another first from these two authors that I have read. While it was entertaining in certain areas, it lacked in others. The basic “tropes” were there. Small-town guy moves to the big city, falls in with a chip on his shoulder. While meeting a straight arrow of a woman who somehow makes him see his world view differently.

While I didn’t think the characters were horrible, I’ve read worse. I felt they might have been more fleshed out. Not so one dimensional. Were we suppose to be sympathetic to the main characters problem? He wasn’t very “nice” at all until the woman happens albeit slowly. I’d have to say this was the most gullible if not naive male character I’ve ever read. Not that the female character is any better!

Mr. Nice Guy for me was a 3 out of 5.

I received this ARC for a honest review.

Mr. Nice Guy had all the great components of a classic rom-com. The high profile, out of most guys' league female. A male lead struggling to find his place in the big city. An awkward one night stand. And a shocking reveal of a shared connection between the two lovers. This story felt really similar to the likes of How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.

It started out slow, diving into the minutia of Lucas' employment and day to day life. About 50% through the read is when the story really started picking up and became intriguing. The back and forth banter between Lucas and Carmen through their columns was hilarious and witty. I was truly rooting for the couple!

I fancied the story once it picked up the pace and big things started happening. The thrill and the suspense that followed the couple's journalism adventures as well as the drama taking place within Empire was enjoyable. The fallout that followed was emotional and shocking. I felt the authors did a great job wrapping up the story and giving closure to all characters you started to care about in the story.

3/5 stars

I have something to admit: I could not get into this book. Lucas's voice didn't appeal to me, and I found myself feeling "forced" whenever I tried to pick back up on his and Carmen's story. Though the description sounded like something I would enjoy, there was something that didn't work for me that I can't quite put my finger on.

Mr Nice Guy finishes last- or does he? Lucas is a wide eyed country boy when he moves to New York. Thanks to a sleezeball boss and “friends” he soon learns the ways of the world. Carmen starts out as another sleezeball but quickly moved into my heart. Every guy should have a Carmen to help him learn about women. Overall, a fun romp of a book.

What a lovely story, it was easy to read and fast paced.Apart of this I didn't find anything else to make me excited for this story.I couldn't connect 100% with the characters and this make me not to enjoy it as much as I wished.

The thing is, from the description I was hesitant. But part of me wondered, how could this premise actually work? How could this get through editorial and marketing and sales at a publisher and have no one say, maybe now isn't the right time to publish a book with such horrible sexual dynamics?

It doesn't matter how much consent is implied, these two characters essentially prostitute themselves for their jobs. You can't get beyond that. The sex becomes their job and neither of them really enjoys it. I mean, maybe they get their rocks off, but it's angry and resentful and not good.

I'm not sure why this was tagged as romance or as women's fiction, because this is not a romance, and the main character here is a man, which makes it not women's fiction. Mr. Nice Guy is full of hateful characters doing hateful things, which is generally how I describe literary fiction so there's that. I think this book should come with a buyer beware, it's packaged as if it were one thing, but it isn't that. And if you get the ickiness from the description, don't be fooled into thinking it can't be that bad, it is that bad. I should have trusted my gut.

**Mr. Nice Guy will publish on October 16, 2018. I received an advance reader copy courtesy of NetGalley/St. Martin's Press (St. Martin's Griffin) in exchange for my honest review.

First off – this is not a romance. It’s lit fic about two characters who have sex with each other and then write articles about it, layered on top of a traditional “boy meets city” theme. It’s a bit of mash-mash of several themes, and while some of them work, some of them most definitely don’t. It, like Lucas, is a bit too naively ambitious, and they both fall short.

“Jesus! We’re not sexual altruists working for the greater good. This is about making people buy magazines. And do you know how?”
“Apparently not.”
“We’re creating a titillating, tidy little circle of judgment. I’m going to judge you. You’re going to judge me. And the good people of New York are going to judge both of us.”


What starts out as a one-night-stand turns into a snarky popular sex column, when Lucas finds out that the woman he picked up at a bar is actually the sex columnist at the magazine he works for, and her latest viral article excoriates, well, him. Full of fury for himself and all the other “nice guys” she’s panning, he pens a scathing response, and before he knows it, they’re meeting weekly to have bad sex and then write mean articles about the other person’s performance. In the midst of this, Lucas is trying to manage his day job as a fact-checker, going to lavish and over the top PR parties, and trying to find a way to move himself up the career ladder. In that sense, at least, this reads as more of a “young man comes to the big city to make something of himself!!!” book, with the whole sex column thing plastered on top. The book itself references The Great Gatsby several times, and to be honest, it’s been a long time since I read that book, so I’m not sure how much of this can be read as an updated response to it.

My main issue with this book is that the characters are unlikeable. I think we’re supposed to sympathize with Lucas for his gullibility and honesty, but goodness, even in his vulnerability he’s a jerk. While he does live up to his “nice guy” status in the end, he spends most of the book stumbling from one stupidity to the next, and ignores advice from his friends that could’ve helped him. Reading the parts of the book from his POV – which is the majority of it – was eye-rollingly frustrating, because it was so obvious how each gullible action he took would backfire on him. My least favorite was when he realizes that Jays (his boss, the main editor of the magazine) had also slept with Carmen, and is elated because it “puts him in the same league.” Delightfully sexist, right? He makes his mom cry when he comes home for Christmas! Carmen’s not much better, though I appreciated that she was much more self-aware about her actions and how they appeared. I do have sympathy for women trying to fight the glass ceiling. Carmen’s searching for a way out of the sex columnist box she’s found herself in, and trapped in the persona she’s had to craft to survive in the cutthroat world of journalism.

The romance is nonexistent. I was expecting a “hate-to-love” but instead we get something more like “hate-to-friends-with-benefits.” They’re forced into this relationship, and Carmen’s determined to handle it in a business-like manner while Lucas is constantly pushing for “vulnerability” and “meaning.” From the beginning, there’s a level of disdain and judgement on both sides that wreck any chances of an actual relationship forming. Lucas’s insistence on an emotional response to what was honestly a business transaction was annoying, rather than endearing. While they have some chemistry, I don’t feel like it was communicated to the reader very well, and frankly I found most of the sex scenes (and the erotic retellings of them in their columns) to be decidedly unsexy. We’re halfway through the book before the two even start actually talking to each other, and that’s when they finally became interesting. Unfortunately, it’s not too long after that the big misunderstanding occurs, and they basically cut contact with each other.

“She felt tall and powerful, towering above Jays in her Louboutins. And, yet, the rush of total victory eluded her. Negotiating the terms of a contractually bound fuck buddy was not what Sheryl Sandberg had in mind when she instructed women to Lean In.
Still, Carmen felt competent. She hadn’t been totally steamrolled—a small and perhaps pathetic kind of success, but also the only one available to her. Working with what she had, she’d harnessed that same resourcefulness from her childhood bedroom. She wasn’t much different from Jays, in this way. She was taking care of herself, first and foremost, as always.”


Despite the fact that I didn’t enjoy the majority of the book, I think there are some interesting points to take away from it. Many of the main characters are well-off white men who came to NYC to “make something of themselves.” Lucas, while living the life on a “poor” fact-checker in NYC, comes from an upper middle-class Southern family that’s constantly trying to appear richer. Spragg, the eccentric and obscenely wealthy heir to a hotel empire, is constantly trying on new origin stories that play better than his midwest roots. Even Jays fits the mold of the guy who came from nowhere and hit it big, with his magazine, restaurant, and other ventures. The differences – and similarities – between the men’s approaches to success, and the degree to which they get it, was thought-provoking. Carmen, in contrast, is a native New Yorker, who, along with her grandma, is struggling to maintain her place in a city that doesn’t seem to return her loyalty, and seems to want nothing to do with her now that she’s no longer in her twenties. Of course there’s also the obvious media ethics angles – should a magazine be paying people to have sex, and what does it say about us that we want to read about it?

Overall, I think you can guess that this isn’t my kind of book. I went in expecting a romance, and was disappointed by the lit fic angle instead. If you’re looking for something Gatsby-ish, love stories that idolize NYC as the “greatest city in the world,” and looking for stories about ambitious – but gullible – people, I think you’d have a better time of it.

One extra note, about the content warning: There’s a scene where Lucas, while investigating someone for an article, finds an allegation of attempted rape and he confronts the victim.

“Why’d you let some rich kid get away with it?” he asked. “Why not press charges?”


I know this was written well before the Kavanaugh allegations came out, but this struck me as really tone-deaf. I understand where the authors were going with this, but I feel like it was addressed in a way that could be harmful for survivors.

I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

This didn't really have anything that I felt was unique. As someone who read a lot of contemporary romances I really like when books have something specific that sets it apart. It could be something as simple as really good dialogue or character mannerisms.

This book I felt was pretty typical of a contemporary romance and it didn't really have anything memorable for me. I feel like some more expanding upon characters and their build up would have been beneficial for the romance. I just also didn't like the guy which is a bummer.

Mr. Nice Guy is tagged as both Romance and Women's Fiction, but I'm going to open this review by telling you that it is not a romance. There is no Happily Ever After. The hero has a relationship with one woman during the book, while he is sleeping with the woman you think is the heroine (for work) and then he ends up with neither of them.
The story follows Lucas, a 24 year old Southern boy fresh off a broken engagement and newly moved to New York City to work as a fact-checker at Empire magazine. One day, he receives an invitation to Editor Jay Jacobsen's (called Jays) office and is ushered into the glamorous, over-the-top NYC media world.

Around this time, Lucas goes to a local pub that was once a writers' scene and ends up going home with a gorgeous woman a few years older than him. Turns out, she's Carmen Kelly, who writes the sex column for Empire... and she writes about him.

In the column, she dubs him "Nice Guy," and mocks him for being so solicitous that she felt she was teaching him what to do, he was not good at it, etc. He writes a rebuttal and sends it to Empire, without giving his name. Reader reaction is so overwhelming that Empire wants to make it a weekly thing and they launch a joint column called "Screw the Critics." Lucas won't tell them who he is, so he isn't getting paid, BUT they get assignments on where and how to have sex.

Now, let's pause a minute. Carmen and Jays had a messy relationship and breakup in which he mostly used her and then used his power to make her keep quiet. Charming, right? Fast forward to now, when he's telling her to have bad sex every week with a specific person. For work. Any alarm bells ringing?

Fine, I said, let's keep going. I'm only 10% into the book, let's see where it goes.

The rest of this review will contain spoilers, so consider this your warning.



Lucas and Carmen write columns for a few weeks that are mainly them being mean to each other. There's hate sex, hate kissing, etc. Carmen is criticized for being unemotional and for taking notes during sex. Lucas is criticized for not being able to read Carmen's mind and for not paying attention to her cues. Fair and also not fair. *shrug*

At one point, Lucas makes a mistake and his friend Sofia finds out that he's Nice Guy. She offers to "teach" him and they embark on a physical relationship. Mind, he's still having sex with Carmen once a week for the column. That wasn't a dealbreaker for me, but I know a lot of people don't like the hero/heroine to sleep with anyone else during the book. Lucas falls in love with Sofia, even though she expressly told him she didn't want a relationship, it was just sex. He takes it very personally and carries his hurt feelings forward into what becomes a friendship and then a real relationship with Carmen.

And then he decides to publicly state his love for her to the whole world. She tries to get him to a more private setting, over and over, while the cameras record and she tries not to lie to him but also not to give up on her whole life. She has a Netflix deal in LA, which not only represents a career change but also an opportunity to escape Jays. Lucas just wants her to agree to be with him. When she doesn't immediately give him what he wants, he reveals her as a fraud (she doesn't have sex constantly and sometimes makes up her columns) and ruins her life. ON CAMERA.

Shivers of heat ran up Carmen's arms. Sweat prickled the back of her neck and her upper lip. This had not happened. Lucas had not exposed her to the world. He had not retaliated against her with flippant, destructive cruelty. Not her lover and best friend.

This is at 78%, what you'd expect to be the Dark Moment of the book. And it is, for sure. But I almost stopped reading again, because I did not want these two together and I'd been told that this was a romantic comedy. (I didn't laugh once in this book. I also didn't want the main couple together. Hmm.)

Lucas is portrayed as painfully naive and optimistic. Over and over, though, I was reminded that he's 24-25 during the book. He's old enough to have a job and apartment and a college degree. If he was a woman, he would be expected to be more socially aware by now out of self-preservation. If he was a Black man, he'd be shot for half of the things he does. I'm simply unable to sit in his POV for so long without drowning in his sense of entitlement. Why does he go along with Jays? Because he believes he's deserving of the completely unearned praise and privileges Jays gives him. Why does he treat Carmen so terribly when she won't give up her career for him? Because he thinks she's the Bad Guy. He wants so badly to be the Nice Guy that he's willing to believe everyone who supports the narrative he's tried to build.

Jays had brought Lucas along to 'show support,' which meant they would appear and shake some hands. Lucas liked this; his mere presence was supportive.

There's a subplot with a scummy character, Nicholas Spragg, who is trying to buy himself into the NYC social scene. Early in the book, Lucas and Nicholas go out on a drug and alcohol bender with two "socialites." Everyone but Lucas (including me, the reader) can tell that they are sex workers. Lucas wakes up unaware of what happened the night before. It's really icky. At one point, Jays asks Lucas to write a profile on Nicholas, and Lucas jumps on the chance. Eventually, he's tipped off that Spragg tried to rape a girl in college and Lucas has this exchange with himself:

After the way last night ended, he wasn't sure what to think of Nicholas. The guy was much seedier than he'd thought. And weirder. And creepier! But a rapist? That seemed hard to -

Lucas stopped himself. This is how rapists get away with it, he thought. Nobody's willing to believe that the guy they know is a rapist. And yet why would Nicholas rape someone when he clearly had no hang-ups about just paying someone for sex? Wouldn't that just be -

Lucas stopped himself. He was doing it again.

Lucas then goes to ask the girl and finds out that yes, Nicholas is a total shitbag. He writes up the profile and sends it off to Empire, where it never sees the light of day. Does Lucas call Jays out on this? Not until 90% through the book. Does he do anything else? No. This is at the 49% mark and I read the rest of the book waiting for something, ANYthing to happen. Imagine reading this book during the Kavanaugh hearings and tell me you're not setting your hair on fire with incandescent rage.

In summary, Lucas is not, in fact, a nice guy. Maybe he's a "Nice Guy," but he's a garbage person for much of the book. If I'm going to rate a romance highly, I have to at least want the couple to be together. I did not. By the time Lucas realizes how awful he's been, it's about 85% of the way through the book and a year into the narrative. He deserves to do a couple of years of therapy and a lot of work before he can deserve Carmen. And that's sort of what we get? Lucas enrolls in journalism school and tries to separate himself from the avarice and ambition he'd been caught up in. Is he successful? I don't know. We know that he volunteers at a law firm to help out Carmen's grandmother. We know that he's still in graduate school when he runs into Carmen at her book launch, two years after they last see each other. That's it. That's the end.

The authors do a good job of depicting the absurd double standard in our culture, of the ways in which Carmen was immediately thrown under the bus not just by Lucas but by Jays, by the media, and by pretty much everyone. In my opinion, the book would have had a happier ending if Carmen had simply gone off and had a fabulous career and left Lucas in his own mess.

For better or worse, the narrative is mostly from Lucas's point of view, however, which means we need to see his happy ending, not hers. Maybe that's why this book didn't work for me. This book reads like Women's Fiction for Men. Men's Fiction. Man gets to go around NYC and have instant success, fuck multiple beautiful women, then screw up bigtime before becoming the hero and exposing a Bad Guy.



Content Warnings: Mention of sexual assault, drug use, manipulation, slut-shaming, misogyny

I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley for review purposes.

I couldn't quite get in to this book, as I was not sure that I really liked either of the main characters. That said it was well written and easy to read.

I apologize, but I will be unable to leave a favorable review for this title. I would rather just let you know here, then leave a review on my blog or retail sites. The story was choppy. The characters were underdeveloped and just plain unlikable. I am unsure that I would pick up another title by these authors but I wont rule it out just yet. Thank you again for the chance to read this story.

➳Flirty banter, two individuals that portray different characters and attributes but come together to spell out a marvelous chemistry and relationship...

➳There is a lot of controversy when it comes down to this novel... My head kept spinning around the idea of "hmmm... why is it taking so long for the real action to come," or "why is this character so annoying..." OR, "why am I loving this part and cannot grasp the rest of the story plot?" Yes, this is one of those novels that makes you act or think that way because of everything it has. This novel specifically is very unique in a way that as a romance reader would say it is lacking romance. It revolves around the idea of a one night stand and the after math of said one night stand. So far... interesting? Yeah, I thought so.

➳What I did not think was necessary to add was the very thorough details about Lucas' job, Carmen's life outside her job. I comprehend why an author, or in this case duo-authors, would write this in a novel. But what I don't understand is why go the extra mile and write about so many different things that had nothing to do with the story plot.

➳Anyways, I finished the novel... Which is saying a lot in comparison to other reviews I read about this novel. I have the rights to rate it because I FINISHED IT. Some reviews of this novel are being rated after said reviewer is DNF-ing it. Don't do that... You didn't finish the book so why would you DNF it? It makes no sense... At least leave the rating part out of it, and write your honest opinion. Because finishing it, you are at least respecting the perspective point of the authors and the publishers.

➳Overall, I did enjoy the novel don't get me wrong. There were moments where it was fast paced, and other scenarios where it was a slow pace in the turn of events. Thank you SMP for sending over a copy of this novel, I am looking forward to see what the authors write in the future.

Enemies to lovers is one thing but how is this acceptable behavior? Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. This one wasn't for me.

When Lucas Callahan decides to leave his home in NC and law school and head for NYC to become a writer, he had high hopes. It wasn’t long before he realizes he’s employed as a lowly fact-checker at Empire Magazine and had to have a roommate to barely scrape by. He meets a woman at a bar and even though he is obviously naïve and inexperienced, she takes him home.

My favorite parts of the book are where Carmen Kelly writes a story for the magazine about the encounter, which was quite cruel and blunt. When Lucas writes back as Nice Guy, keeping his identity hidden, the responses go viral.

Lucas seems like an earnest young man, wanting a career and money while Carmen is struggling to be able to write something other than a sex related column. As the story progresses, their interactions are quite awkward although that changes over time and I enjoyed the parts when they became friends. As Lucas is invited to attend many parties for the magazine, he becomes accustomed to being around the wealthy and debauched.

This was an unusual story with little romance. There are secrets, betrayal, and a bit of a mystery. Both Lucas and Carmen decide to learn from their mistakes but I didn’t get the HEA that I love. The story shows how social media can make or break a person.

I wasn’t quite sure how I felt about the story at the end – I didn’t love or hate it. It was different, a bit quirky and quite slow at times. I liked that we get dual POV’s but the majority of the story is from Lucas’s POV. We get to see his vulnerability and how his lack of experience with women becomes more evident to him as he meets a few women and misunderstands relationships.

Thanks to Netgalley, the author and publisher for the opportunity to read this book.

Thank you Nergalley for this ARC.

DNF... I was so bored. I could not get into it. It was all over the place. Didn't like the male main character.

I amgoing to stop right here. ✋ 5% is where I will end it. I refuse anymore to wade begrudgingly through mediocre reads. I know this book is not for me. The characters are distasteful and cringe-worthy. The plot seems to be done all wrong. On to the next!

[insert shrugging shoulders here]

This is chick lit. It was a nice break from all of the heavier things I usually read, but at it's core - it's still chick lit. It's a girl meets boy story with a predictable ending. There's a formula - and it works - because it sticks to the formula.

Mr. Nice Guy was okay - but not something I will ever read again.

I was attracted to this title by the enemies-to-lovers theme. Although this story definitely centered around an accidentally manufactured love-hate relationship , I found it more had a women’s fiction feel than a romance.
Yes there was a theme of romance. There was also talks and dialogue about sex and intimacy, but the main plot line centered around character growth.

The primary protagonist, Lucas, is an NYC transplant via small town America. He works as a fact checker for a large NYC based magazine. The heroine, Carmen, also works at the magazine, but stuck in the sex/relationship staff writer role. Though they hold different positions, both are ambitious and have the high hopes of climbing the proverbial career ladder. This story unfolds when they get thrown into an unconventional assignment of having casual sex with each other, and then writing about it.

In romances, I look for a connection; to some way to relate to the characters and get the spark of feelings: anticipation, giddiness, anger, hate, love. That element of empathy was simply missing. I felt vastly disconnected from the characters. Most of the time, it was like watching a news report or reading an article about their story rather than feeling integrated into the folds of the plot. The way this was written, I felt like someone was telling me about what happened rather than showing me. Ironic as the very same topic was brought up in the story.

The prose felt purposefully separating. I wanted to know these characters, but was constantly held at arms length. Perhaps that was the intent. The two main characters are journalists after all. Yet, the language and tone used to tell their story was sterile and generic and sometimes pretentious. It wasn’t until the excerpts of the actual article where each described their experience, that I felt the true and genuine voice of each of their characters. Again, perhaps this was the intent: have the tone of the prose parallel the plot. The problem with that is that it turned me off and inevitably precluded me as the reader from taking an early interest and investing in the story.

It wasn’t until about the 35% mark that I started to feel and understand the events and purpose of the characters. Some conflict and a little mystery rise to the surface, and I finally had something to be curious about, to keep my interest. Up until this point, the story seemed flat and ordinary. It spotlighted the growing animosity between Lucas and Carmen, and introductions to some quirky secondary characters, but all felt one-dimensional.

The second half of the book reveals conflict with a side of manipulation and mystery. More dialogue happens (yay!) which finally added some much anticipated layers to the characters. And when climax occurs, I eagerly turned the pages. Unfortunately the aftermath - resolution - was disappointingly underwhelming. It did bring closure to the major plot points, sure. I just didn’t feel it.

3 STARS
An ARC was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
​

Thanks to St Martin's Press for providing a copy of this novel through Netgalley.

Unfortunately this novel while quite lengthy but well written was a let down. This was a battle of the sexes gone bad reality show, where both characters spend most of their time whining about their own personal woos. While the concept of incorporating the articles is intriguing and the responses sometimes comical, there was zero romantic chemistry between the characters.
Luke is used as a scapegoat because he's young and ambitious and Carmen is dragged through the mud because she's older and jaded. Just not my idea of how romance should read. I found a bit too cynical and satirical.