4 stars — I liked this one more than I was expecting to, especially after having read a few of the lower reviews and assuming I would feel similarly…but maybe because I lowered my expectations, it reverse psychology’d me? I don’t know, but I’ll take it.

Honestly, breaking this book down, I really shouldn’t have liked it. Lear starts off as a bit of a jerk, though we do immediately get the sense that he is in the midst of heartbreak and anger, and trying to act opposite of his normal self. And then we have RJ, whom I have NOTHING in common with and kind of makes me uncomfortable at times with her cold demeanor. To top it all off, it’s enemies to lovers (essentially), which we all know I struggle with.

But I think where this one ended up working despite my expectations is that BOTH Lear and RJ have an equal amount of flaws, and BOTH have a LOT of growth ahead of them in this story. And while I’m not a personal fan of the weird meanness sexual tension thingie that pervades enemies to lovers, for some reason it worked better in this one. Maybe because you could see the moments where it was wonderful banter, and you could see the moments where they hit their marks and they regretted it, but then those walls would come up. Like, I could honestly see them meeting each other equally on the banter playing field, so it wasn’t necessarily one more than the other.

I saw a quote from an author for this book that labeled the love as “hard-earned”, and that is an understatement. It was a hard, sometimes frustrating road to watch these two continually resort to their defense mechanisms whenever they made a step forward…but those steps forward were really delightful. They were like little sweet amuse-bouches sprinkled through the story.

I have a feeling if I hadn’t lowered my expectations, this one would have been a 3 or 3.5 stars. But somehow knowing what I was getting into gave me more patience. *shrugs* Don’t question it Lenore, just be thankful.

Do You Take This Man thrives on the hilarity of a cynical divorce attorney moonlighting as an earnest, heartfelt wedding officiant. She might not believe that love can last for most people, but a small part of RJ still hopes that it can. When circumstances conspire to throw her together with an annoying dude-bro wedding planner, RJ is not pleased, to say the least. And she's the kind of lady to let him know exactly what she thinks of him. At their first meeting, he tells her to smile more, so I was really strong "Team RJ" as the feud develops. Lear is running from a collapsed life in LA, and he desperately needs to get his life together and keep his cousin's business afloat while she is on maternity leave. Frustrated when his usual people-pleasing charm fails to smooth things over with RJ, he can't help but rise to meet her combativeness.

With Lear constantly challenging RJ's patience/sanity and RJ giving as good as she gets, no one's more irritated than RJ that she's attracted to him. When Lear suggests a friends-with-benefits arrangement, RJ reminds him that they're not friends, so the term doesn't apply *applause.* They go with the term enemies-with-benefits, instead, by the way. It's not my favorite trope, but I still ate it up. Does it make me weird that I found the banter about who's more type A the cutest? Lear finds RJ's label makers sexy, people. Red alert.

The book tricked me into being at least a bit on Team Lear, so excellent news on that front. Both leads have tricky romantic pasts to tackle, circumstances that lead them to keep each other at an emotional distance. The specific details of their histories are revealed slowly, giving the reader plenty of space for speculation. The author does a great job helping us understand the hows and whys of their decisions.

For romance readers seeking a mashup of friends-with-benefits and enemies-to-lovers, you need to pick this one up. Also, if you want to see our protagonists grace all kinds of weddings with their presence (many of them queer), you'll love the ambiance.

Thanks to Berkley for my copy to read and review!

When divorce attorney and accidental wedding officiant RJ ends up working with wedding planner Lear, the two initially butt heads. However, their physical attraction pulls them together. Will they be able to get over their pasts in order to get together?

I enjoyed this - the audiobook was great. I feel like the premise was a little weird (like RJ’s job didn’t approve of her being a wedding officiant), but Denise Williams made it work. This was a slow burn that paid off!

Thank you so so much @berkleyromance for sending me a physical copy and @prhaudio for the complimentary audiobook in exchange for an honest review!

This was my first Denise Williams book and I am in love! RJ and Lear felt so real. I really appreciate that this was a genuine slow-burn. Both Lear and RJ had their terrible past relationships and it actually affected them, it didn't take two or three chapters for them to move on and fall in love with each other. I always love a true slow-burn because it feels not only more realistic, but you also get more time to fall in love with the characters and their relationship.

I love the wedding planning aspect of this. I loved their banter and enemies-with-benefits they had going on. Of course, I have to talk about steam: there were so many great steamy moments! I felt they were really well timed and spread out.

RJ was such a powerhouse, the fact she was a divorce attorney as well as a wedding officiant was so amazing and I was all here for it. Lear was such a sweetheart, I loved his humor, protectiveness, and playfulness.

Overall, this was a very fun and smexy read! I highly recommend it!

----> Recommended if you like
• Slow-Burn Romance
• Enemies-with-Benefits
• Wedding Planning/Wedding Officiant
• Divorce Attourney
• Lots of Steammmm

What a fun read! I love a strong female lead who is confident in herself and isn't pining after a man to complete her life. RJ is exactly that character. Despite the assumption that realistically a divorce attorney moonlighting as a wedding officiant would probably be a conflict of interest in some way, I liked the environment set up.
I didn't love Lear in the beginning and totally related to RJ's defensiveness of feeling like he was taking over and disregarding her expertise. But again, loved that she stood up for herself. After learning more of his backstory and seeing him acknowledge more with RJ and then become more of a team, I grew to really like him.
I've enjoyed all of William's novels and look forward to more!

I loved Denise's past books, but I could not get into this book. I didn't like the chemistry... it felt like they were too polarizing and it didn't feel natural. For example... not wanting to get in the car with him to then wanting to invite him up to her apartment?! It was like enemies with benefits to all of a sudden tons of work sex...

There were also some bothersome details that I know from being around weddings a lot, and that's officiants don't plan, they just show up and leave. For some reason, that was extra bothersome to me.

Overall, I thought it lacked the plot to go with the romance and I was just bored and disappointed.

This was my first Denise Williams book and I quite enjoyed it! I liked the premise, liked the main characters. She was a very strong and smart woman, and it was refreshing to see a man accept her and love her for exactly who she is instead of trying to change her. It was fun and sexy, and I will definitely be reading more of Williams’s books.

As a big Williams fan, I knew I'd love this and I did! Witty, charming, sexy, and smart, everything I've come to expect from Denise!

⭐️⭐️⭐️

This one was cool! RJ is a badass and she knows it. I appreciated the depth of her character and she delivered on entertainment. Ultimately I’m not sure this one had a wow factor for me, her and Lear were cute but I’m not sure I buy a happy ever after here ultimately, but I still enjoyed the journey and appreciated the story for what it was.

Denise Williams does it again! Do You Take This Man was the perfect blend of two characters who don't want to fall in love due to past bad experiences mixed with forced proximity. I love a strong female lead who is self sufficient and doesn't need a man to come in and fix anything in her life, but instead can come in to support her like a good partner should. The chemistry of the main characters in this book was great and I loved that the characters were real enough that you got to experience their flaws in addition to their strengths. Something else Denise Williams does in this book is give us some good healthy arguments, in addition with some good healthy angry spicy scenes. (Which are surprisingly hard to come by) Overall I definitely recommend this for readers who are a fan of Denise Williams' other works and of romances with the trope of enemies to lovers, anti-romance, and force proximity.

✨ 4.5 stars ✨ ⁣
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A divorce attorney who moonlights as a wedding officiant strikes up a romance with the wedding planner she really doesn’t want to like. 💕⁣
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This book, just like Denise’s other books, has characters you will fall in love with, conflicts that aren’t annoying, lots of open door steamy scenes, and so much going for it. DO YOU TAKE THIS MAN was the first of Denise’s book that I did the audio for and I was very pleased with that experience! Great narration. Hooray for my new Las Vegas library card that made the audio available immediately on Libby. ⁣
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All of these books stand alone, you don’t need to read them in order or anything, but it’s fun to find the little thread that connects them if you’ve read them all.

Nice implementation of the "I don't want to fall in love" trope coupled with forced proximity. I enjoyed RJ and Lear's banter; they're a perfectly matched couple. Also featured great side characters that offer insight to the characters.

2 stars!

The premise of this book is fun - a little bit of animosity between two people who are ridiculously attracted to each other is always entertaining.

Unfortunately for me, I had a hard time getting into this one. I found the characters too hard to root for, the set up of their back stories and emotional depth happened too late in the story for it to feel organic, and some of the tropes fell pretty flat.

Thank you Berkeley Publishing Group and #NetGalley for the arc.

Denise William books just touch a special part deep in my soul that I absolutely love. It's raw, and emotional and Do you Take this Man is exactly that!

This book was a solid read for Denise William's fans out there. RJ doesn't believe in love, but somehow she still has officiated plenty of weddings. Lear is a wedding planner trying to find his place. The two definitely butt heads from the start, but are still drawn to one another.

I just love Denise Williams' books. Do You Take This Man is Denise Williams' latest book and is SUCH a good audiobook. This story is about RJ who after going viral officiates weddings on the side while her dayjob is working as a divorce attorney. Lear was an athletic event planner, but after a messy relationship and an event gone wrong, he's returned from LA and is working at his cousin's wedding planning business. RJ and Lear meet and well, it isn't a love connection or anything. Actually, RJ can't stand him. That's right - we have HATE TO LOVE trope in this book. And the way it plays out is PERFECT. Seriously, I loved how this book was plotted as well as the chemistry of the romance.

The audiobook of Do You Take This Man has dual narration with Teddy Hamilton narrating Lear's chapters and January LaVoy narrating RJ's chapters. Both are immaculate in their reading of this book. The audiobook is 9 hours and 53 minutes long. I listened to it sped up to 2x speed which was honestly still easy to follow and process. At this point I am a devoted Williams fan -- particularly the audiobook version of her books.

DNF - couldn’t find myself invested in the plot or characters. this was disappointing for me only because i loved her last book so much

Denise Williams never misses! She knows how develop characters and plot and to keep you guessing in the third act! I can't wait to read more from her in the future!

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an arc for an honest review!

i've found that while I love a romcom movie with a wedding setting, I haven't had as much luck with books and the same setting. It's always a jaded love recluse who's heart is change, and maybe I'm just not in the mood for that story, but this wasn't a win for me.

An attorney with an "anti-romance stance" who moonlights as a wedding officiant meets a sports events manager who lands himself in the wedding planning business. They make for an oddly endearing couple in Do You Take This Man, a contemporary opposites-attract romance from Denise Williams (The Fastest Way to Fall; How to Fail at Flirting).

RJ is a high-powered divorce attorney with no confidence in the lasting power of love, despite the words she recites as an in-demand wedding officiant whose first ceremony goes viral. Lear is a bruised, newly single event planner working for his cousin's wedding planning business while he figures out his next steps in life. The two are far from compatible, yet their disdain for each other seems to spark something between them as their work lives are thrown together over the course of several months. When that spark ignites, the two agree to an "enemies with benefits" arrangement in the bedroom: "We made each other feel good, and then we went back to veiled contempt [at work]."

Romance readers will know where Williams is taking this set-up from the first pages of Do You Take This Man but, as with all of the best romance reads, knowing where it will end does nothing to subtract from the clever twists and turns it takes to get there. As their relationship evolves, RJ and Lear must learn to take down the many walls they've put up against love in the name of self-protection and decide if there's something, after all, to what they sell to their wedding clients--the idea of lasting romance. --Kerry McHugh, freelance reviewer