This book was super cute and it had some really fun pop culture references! I loved the characters, they were so funny and great. This was a fun read!

"Considering my track record, a happily-ever-after like that is about as likely as my meeting a shape-shifting bear in line at my neighborhood Dunkin' Donuts."

This silly, fun, entertaining rom com opens with our main girl Solange deciding to do that thing no one ever does when the priest asks for the audience at a wedding to "speak now or forever hold your peace." That's right - a non-guest (she's the cousin of the wedding planner for crying out loud) breaks up a wedding between two people she's never met when she overhears that the bride-to-be has fee fees for someone who ain't the groom. So in an obvious next step, Dean, the groom-to-be-who-is-no-longer, asks Solange if she'll fake date him for a hot sec so he can come across as a stable and reliable gentleman to some stuffy lawyers at the DC firm he works at. The whole thing doesn't really make any sense, but they're trying to lure some hot shot out of town lawyer to join the firm and the partners only want couples to show her and her significant other around the city, so okay? And of course Solange rolls with this fake dating plan because she feels so bad about breaking up this wedding that she had no business breaking up in the first place. But I digress. The reader subsequently finds out that these two have nothing in common, so of course they're never going to get together. I mean, they're both young, hot, attracted to each other, hard working, driven, kind, honest, gentle souls with strong family ties and solid friendships. See? Nothing in common at all!

Oh wait - I remember what the issue is now, given that Sosa reminds us about it ad nauseam: Dean is the type of guy who has a life plan with a checklist. The goal is to own a home, be married, and make partner before he turns 30. He's got the first item locked and loaded and thought he was on track for items 2 and 3... until Solange enters the picture. And then we've got Solange:

"I'd rather be alone than be with someone who isn't prepared to love me with all their heart."

If you forget Solange's stance on love, fear not, because it's mentioned roughly every other page or so throughout Wedding Crasher. What do you think - is it even feasible that these two clearly opposite people will ever end up together? I guess you'll have to nab a copy of Wedding Crasher to find out for sure!

While my review up until this point has been a bit flippant, I did find this read to be entertaining. Plausible? Not really. But did anyone really believe Drew Barrymore was in high school in Never Been Kissed? Did removing Rachel Leigh Cook's glasses really transform her from hideous to gorgeous in She's All That? I don't think so. Rom coms are supposed to be lighthearted and fun, which fits the bill for Wedding Crasher. If you're looking for a Pulitzer Prize nominee, you're looking at the wrong book. But if you're looking for some mild chuckles with the possibility of saying "awww!" out loud at the mushy parts, you've found yourself a winner.

This was a fun read and while predictable it was cute and the premise was fun. I always love a fake dating scenario that just gets out of hand with too many people knowing its fake and the main characters falling in love of course. It was a really cute story and it was a fast read.

Thanks to Avon and Harper Voyager and Netgalley for the complimentary copy of this book in e-book form. All opinions in this review are my own.

Fake Dating, Axe Throwing, and Sex Parties! Plus we get to revisit the delightful characters from The Worst Best Man. We will be buying copies for our library.

This was a fun and funny read! Solange was a delight and together with Dean I really enjoyed this one. There were so many scenes that had me laughing, really laughing. Genuwine's Pony anyone???...I am giving zero context because you need to experience this yourself LOL. I looove the combo of MC who has a whole plan for their life wih MC who really doesn't have one.

And Solange's family reminds me so much of my Caribbean family. meddlesome, loud, loves to eat and feed people all the delicious things. always trying to get in your business and match make.

Also Dean and Solange are pretty steamy together and I loved how they went from strangers to fake dating to actual friends and more. Loved this one!

DNF at 50%

Given that I enjoyed Mia Sosa's first book, The Worst Best Man, so much, I was excited to read this. But in the first 50% of the book, I felt there wasn't much significant interaction between the main characters, Dean and Solange. Dean was prepared to walk down the aisle in a modern-day marriage of convenience, but Solange interrupts the wedding to tell Dean his bride-to-be is in love with someone else and shouldn't go through with it. So Dean, in order to get ahead at his law firm, asks Solange to be his fake girlfriend. I mean I do enjoy fake girlfriend/boyfriend trope, that's fine.

Right around 40-50% of the way through, we go completely, totally off the rails. Dean and Solange find themselves at a sex party! And they decide to hang out in like a voyeuristic type scenario and watch other people having sex. If this is your thing, that's great. I can appreciate when fully consenting adults, if that's what they want to do, I'm all for it. However, it's really, really not my thing and it was so bizarre for me. THEN, immediately after, Solange's cousin goes into labor, and her husband isn't with her, so Dean and Solange rush to bring the cousin to the hospital. The cousin puts ELECTRODES on Dean (who consented) so she can shock him every time she feels a contraction because "it's supposed to help with labor." Like...I do consider myself a feminist, but again, this is too much for me. I completely lost interest in this book.

This book was enjoyable and I found myself taking my time reading it just to prolong it. A fun and sweet romance. Sosa has done it again and I can't wait to read more of this series.

I love a good fake dating novel! When a woman Dean's never met derails his wedding, he's not devastated, but what will be devastating is if his lack of significant other affects his ability to make partner at his law firm. Solange knows she did the right thing stopping Dean's wedding when she realized he fiancé was in love with another man, but she knows she owes Dean, so when he needs to convince his law firm that he's in a serious relationship, she's willing to be his fake girlfriend. I loved all the characters and the way feelings developed between Dean and Solange as they got closer and closer.

Thanks NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for honest review! Sosa delves back into the Pereira family for another romance! This time we follow Solange, Lina's cousin, and Dean, the man whose wedding Solange crashes when she overhears the bride admitting she loves someone else. A solid use of the fake dating trope, what works so well in the first one (the Pereira family's warmth and vivacity) is just as excellent in this one. The sex scenes are bolder and more risqué than Lina and Max, but Sosa is an expert at building in consent into the story. It's so nice to see Latine romantic leads, I will snag anything from this writer in the future!

The fake relationship trope is twice as much fun as usual when a lively, meddling family is in on the secret! Solange crashes a wedding of two strangers when she finds out the bride is in love with someone else, When the groom, Dean, needs to pretend to have a girlfriends, Solange figures she owes him one. Soon things are no longer pretend as practical Dean realizes how much Solange brightens up his world. She, however, isn't ready to settle down and Dean isn't ready to put his heart on the line. How will this pretend relationship end?

Mia Sosa returns with another heartfelt romp, hilarious, steamy and guaranteed to keep you turning the pages to see how it turns out!

The Wedding Crasher is exactly what it claims to be: a quick, fun romance between Dean, a man who believes in his life plan, and Solange, the woman who crashed his wedding.

I just couldn't get into this book. There was practically no chemistry between the two leads until about half way into the story and by then I just didn't care enough to be invested in them. I love a good fake dating scheme but the multiple fake dating scenarios were just ridiculous and so many scenes felt random and out of place (going from a sex party to her cousin giving birth gave me whiplash). I also felt the ending was super out of character for both of them.

This was such a fun romantic comedy with a plot that should have felt convoluted but never was. A double fake dating trope is exactly my catnip. I didn't love The Worst Best Man, but this was a delight.

I love romance books. I swear I do. But at this point I think I'm over it.
The Wedding Crasher is a sweet book with a very interesting premise that, somehow, doesn't come off as unrealistic. The progression of Solange and Dean's relationship is natural and I often found myself rooting for them. The humor, too, worked very well. I will say the writing felt stiff at times, but it wasn't so reocurring as to annoy me. But the problem always comes at the 70%-80% mark, by which point I'm completely done and ready for it to be over. One particular conflict in this novel also felt extra silly, considering it had a very easy solution that, for some reason, none of the characters thought of?
And I must say, after reading this I am unsure as to why people ask for representation in books so much. As a brazilian myself I found the mixing of portuguese and english absolutely horrifying to read, and could do without so many coxinha mentions.

I read and enjoyed the first book in this rom-com series (The Worst Best Man) last year, and after binging The Wedding Crasher in a single sitting yesterday, I think Mia Sosa has a really great thing going here! I know she's not new to writing romance, but between these two books at least, it feels like she really hit her stride with this one. The social world of the story, which centers on our MC Solange's extensive Afro-Brazilian-American family (including Lina from book 1 and a close-knit set of first cousins who I'm hoping each get their own romances in this series?) is delightful and refreshing. Like the love interest, Dean, by the end of the story I was longing for Solange's tías to adopt me and feed me sandwiches, haha! (So much good food in this book btw). The more I think about it, the more I really admire the story and characters Sosa has put forth here. This is a great example of what romance can be in the "post-Me-Too era" with thoughtfulness surrounding consent in its many forms/layers (if I had a daughter, I'd recommend it to her for this reason). While it's a rom-com and the premise is fantastical (fake dating, yes please!!), the conflict felt emotionally realistic to me. The two MCs aren't unnecessarily bad communicators or oblivious to what's in front of them, but people genuinely trying to do right by each other and be careful with each other's hearts, all while figuring out their unexpected yet powerful attraction and how it fits into their lives. The personal growth that takes place for each of them is subtle but honest, and it rings true for this "aging millenial" of a similar age to the MCs. Long story short, I loved this one. I think it will appeal to more avid romance readers and to contemporary fiction readers alike!

This fake dating romcom is a winner.
Thoroughly delightful, implausible fun. The angst is low and the writing is frothy. A jilted, romance skeptical groom enlists the wedding crasher who doomed his nuptials to play his girlfriend for work reasons. Multicultural in the best way (organic and specific), laugh out loud funny, sweet and HOT. Plus it’s got interesting plot twists.
Full Review to come in BookPage!

This book will have you laughing so hard you'll cry! Not only is this a modern "marriage of convenience" trope, but also has my other favorite trope - fake dating! Add in a wedding crasher who thinks the groom is making a mistake after she finds out the bride is in a situation (not with the groom!). If you loved The Worst Best Man then you'll love this book!

Okay so first of thank you to the publishers for giving me an ARC of this book!!!

This book has the fake dating trope and it was so good. The romance between the two characters was amazing, they had so much chemistry and Solange was so funny. Like Dean and her were so different but at the same time they fit so well. The plot was very unique I liked the aspect in the beginning too where Solange was the one who ruined Dean’s wedding and then at the end they actually are together. I just thought that was funny asf. Also, I loved the fact that the main character was Brazilian. I’m also Brazilian so it was nice to be represented. This book has a dual pov too. It makes the book so much more interesting. Everything about this book was amazing. I recommend this book. 5/5 stars :)

This book was surely much better than THE WORST BEST MAN, but after reading two books by the author, i have realised that this author is really not for me.
this is honestly just my take, and while i did enjoy it, it didn't stand out and it didn't wow me. there was nothing different about this book so yeah.
there was insta-love and this book was very heavy on trope and that just clearly doesn't work for me.

What's not to like about a book that features wedding crashing, fake dating, friends with benefits, axe-throwing, and an extended Brazilian family with the added bonus of a sex party and simulated birth shenanigans? If you're anything like me, you'd say nothing. Then you'd probably aggressively clap your hands and levitate off your sofa with glee because what a romance trope "du jour!"

Am I right...or am I right?

Anyway, the story begins when Solange Pereira objects in the middle of a wedding ceremony because she'd overhead the bride declare her love earlier, only, to a man who happened not to be the groom, and she can't let that go without speaking up. Not in good conscience, that is. Not until the groom knows the truth.

After all, what could be worse than marrying someone you don't love or who doesn't love you?

To Solange's surprise, Dean - the jilted groom - doesn't seem bothered by the fact that his bride is enamored with someone else. In fact, it turns out their wedding wasn't about love at all. It was a plan. Part of an itemized checklist. It was nothing more than a marriage of convenience that was supposed to help him get ahead in his life and career.

Solange doesn't know what to make of that. They talk for a bit, flirt, then part ways.

When things start to implode for him at the office after that, with his floundering mess of a personal life now threatening his chance at acquiring a coveted promotion, Dean enlists Solange's help. Begging her be his fake girlfriend for a few work events. She, still feeling guilty about imploding his nuptials like a wrecking ball, of course, agrees.

So what starts out as a stranger-ruined wedding soon becomes a fake relationship which then spirals into something a little more than "just" friendly...

Solange and Dean are fun, engaging characters. Cute as far as book couples go. They have an interesting dynamic because they start off as strangers as well as opposites: with Dean being the kind of guy who's stringent, focused, and skeptical of love, but who has his whole life mapped out multiple choice style; and with Solange being the type of woman who is spontaneous, extroverted, and free-spirited, yet staunch in her convictions, which means she refuses to invest in a man or a relationship unless both parties are all in. (Three cheers for a girl who knows her worth! Woot woot!)

The two have different wants when it comes to love and romance so that's the major obstacle sitting between them from the outset. However, the lovely thing about that is they're able to build a friendship that's built on genuine like, comfort, and communication FIRST before they think about acting on their mutual attraction to one another. I have a preference for slowburn, so their dawdling romantic progress worked well for me.

Overall I thought this was cute and entertaining, if a bit flat in places. I loved the multicultural feel of the story with the tias and the Brazilian dishes and the Portuguese. I've been teaching myself the language since the pandemic began so the dialogue between Solange and her family members added a little something extra for me.

This one's perfect for spring wedding season! Or simply for those of you who are in need of a big slice of fluff in your reading life.

3.5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon Harper and Voyager for the ARC in exchange for my review.