I love a good enemies to lovers workplace romance and this one is EXCELLENT, especially on audio narrated by Teddy Hamilton and January LaVoy!

RJ is a badass divorce attorney slash wedding officiant who butts heads immediately with wedding planner Lear - a new to LA, post divorce guy trying to start over. Both these characters have been burned by love in the past and aren't looking for anything serious but the sparks between them are inescapable as they work closer and closer together on a number of weddings.

I loved the banter and the emotional vulnerability in this story! RJ is a big softie at heart and she can't help taking a chance on love with Lear. Together these two are really great together even though the road to their HEA is a bit bumpy.

Much thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review. Highly recommended for fans of books like The hookup plan by Farrah Rochon!

I have enjoyed Denise Williams so much since I read her first book. This Divorce attorney who is also a high sought after wedding officiant makes a run in with Lear who she immediately butts heads with. This enemies to lovers book is a great read.

How does a divorce attorney become the most sought after wedding officiant? Turns out when you perform a ceremony off the cuff for two blockbuster actors in the park and it goes viral, everyone wants RJ.
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Lear left his job as a pro-football event manager and is now helping his cousin with her wedding planning business. He has never had a problem winning people over with his charm, until Rj. As they butt heads at work, one thing is clear, their chemistry is off the charts.
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This is a fast, enjoyable one and it is out today!
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Huge thank you to @berkleypub @prhaudio and @netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

RJ is an up-and-coming divorce attorney who reached notoriety when she officiates a wedding. Now everyone is reaching out wanting her to officiate their upcoming nuptials. She doesn’t mind as long as it doesn’t interfere with her career. The biggest snag is working alongside a hotshot event planner that makes her blood boil.

Lear is a former football events manager who has switched gears just a bit and started working as an event planner. He has his share of heartbreak but that doesn’t stop him from working weddings as well. He is naturally competitive and that comes into play with RJ. She brings out his competitive side and the two bicker back and forth on every single wedding they attend.

This was a fantastic fun read. I enjoyed RJ and Lear’s relationship from beginning to end. They went from enemies to friends to lovers in an organic way. I love a good enemy to friends read and this one fit the bill. Both RJ and Lear were kind of grumpy together which was different than the normal sunshine and grumpy pair.

The steam factor was level 10. They scorch the pages. The author does a great job building it up and letting all the intensity from them their day-to-day fights spill out into the bedroom. I loved it all! However, she relied too heavily on the sex instead of the emotional connection. The characters don’t develop until the very end when they finally stop fighting and let their guards down to express themselves.

Overall, I enjoyed this fun read. I recommend this for fans of contemporary romance lovers.

~ Samantha

If you love alpha heroines and enemies to lovers this is the book for you. Also, recommend if you like characters with complex pasts. Also recommend if you like lots of steam because this one had tons.

For me though there was a little too much miscommunication and lack of communication. Don't get me wrong I like 🔥 but I'd prefer a little more verbal communication.

I did love the strong female lead - especially in a male dominated career. I loved how assertive she was.

I received an advanced copy of this book through NetGalley. This is my honest review.

This is one of my favorite romances this year. The chemistry between Lear and RJ sparkles from the moment they meet and I really enjoyed both of their back stories. Denise has a way of writing her characters that makes some facet of their life or personality relatable to all and I love finding that bit that I identify with. It adds depth to her books and draws me in every time making her stories so memorable.

The cover is what first got me--so glad to be getting away from all-white all-the-time romances.

Enemies to lovers is also a bullet-proof trope for me, with conditions. I don't like bickering and tearing each other up, and I want to see real transformation happen.

What I got from this book is a lot of hot sex, but I never got the feeling these two really got *each other*. It left me with the feeling that once the spark went out of the bashes on the beautyrest, these two would be heading for divorce court, or cheatersville. Not what I want in a romance.

So it was fun, and fine, especially if you like a lot of whoopee in your romances! But didn't emotionally engage me as much as I'd hoped.

Do You Take This Man is a flirty and fun romcom about a wedding planner and an officiant / divorce attorney caught in tropes of enemies to lovers and friends with benefits to feelings. It is cute, sparky, full of 🔥 and a perfect long weekend beach read. The banter was fun and I really loved their dynamic - from the flirting to the sensitive discussions a it just worked. And lots of overlaps with characters from the rest of the books in this series.

RJ is a powerful divorce attorney and anything but romantic. After a viral video, she somehow becomes a wedding officiant as well. Lear is a wedding planner at many of RJ’s weddings and they do not get along. At all. They both want to take charge and control everything. Neither of them is looking for a relationship, but maybe they can still have some fun?

I’ve been a big fan of Denise Williams since her first book. You can always be sure you’ll get lots of banter, plenty of steam, and fabulous friends. This may not be my favorite of hers because RJ was a little too icy for me at times and I had a hard time connecting with her. However, I still very much enjoyed this book.

Read this book for:
Friends with benefits
Dual perspective
Strong independent woman
Lots of banter

A favorite of this year for sure!
I love the FMC in this book, she is a force and to be reckoned with. I love everything she stands for. She is my ultimate girl crush.
I also love romance books set in the wedding season premise, there is so much love around the MCs and both really try to resist each other.
This book stands for something greater than courtship that leads to romance, it about finding your person that will take you for you. That is a message that I will never forget from this book.

RJ is a badass, take no prisoners attorney who happened to go viral after stumbling into officiating a celebrity’s impromptu wedding. Now she’s in high demand not only for her legal mind but her ability to wax poetic about love. The catch? RJ doesn’t believe in love all that much herself.

Enter Lear, cousin to Penny - the wedding planner RJ works closely with. After suffering a personal loss, he comes home to lick his wounds, taking a job assisting Penny while she’s on maternity leave.

The two have a terrible meet cute and an equally cringy second interaction. But forced to continue working together, the two eventually find their footing as well as a budding attraction to one another.


What I Liked:

* These characters. I loved the MCs separately, but I loved them together even more. I have a soft spot for broken heroes with a solid character arc 🙌🏻 & I felt like I got that here. This was my first book by Denise Williams and I felt like she wrote the confident yet scared (of love / committed relationships, etc.) MC’s really, really well.
* The gradual build from strangers to enemies to enemies with benefits to lovers. It felt subtle without any outrageous circumstances. Like the perfect build of realistic tension.
* The banter! These two really got off on the wrong foot and under each other’s skin. That paired with RJ’s sharp tongue lead to some top good bickering & banter.

What I Disliked:

* I know I said I liked the slow build, but.. there where times where the pacing felt excessively slow. I’d like to have seen the MC’s find their way to each other a little faster with a little more climatic HEA.

Thank you @berkleyromance and @netgalley for the eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I really hate it when publishers put cute rom com covers on non-rom com books. I was expecting light and funny, but this book was neither. Denise Williams is very good at what she does. Unfortunately, what she writes is not what I like to read. The tone is too tense and serious for me. The characters are unable to laugh at themselves. I’ve no doubt that other readers will enjoy this novel, but it’s not for me. DNF.

Loved this enemies to friends-with-benefits romp! RJ and Lear were such compelling main characters, RJ a strong, independent divorce attorney moonlighting as an officiant and RJ, a supremely down on his luck people-pleaser trying to start over without wrecking his cousin's wedding planning company. What I appreciated so much was how these two challenged each other and ended up being just what the other needed. Oh, and there was plenty of heat, too--and deliciously pun-filled dialogue!

I loved Denise Williams’ first two books, How to Fail at Flirting and The Fastest Way to Fall because Williams writes such smart, vibrant, and relatable characters. She also excels at writing snappy dialogue and at bringing the heat during those steamy scenes when her characters finally connect. I’m thrilled to report that Williams has another winner on her hands with her latest novel, Do You Take This Man.

The story follows RJ, an up and coming divorce attorney who also, oddly enough, officiates weddings in her spare time. When we meet RJ, she is running late for a wedding, and in her haste to get there, she accidentally crashes into a handsome stranger and ends up in a heap on the pavement. What could have been a meet-cute instead becomes a hostile encounter as RJ gives this guy a piece of her mind. Their conversation ends with him telling her she should smile more. Instead of murdering him like she would love to, she hurries to get to her wedding. Things take a turn for the awkward when it turns out this guy, whose name is Lear, is the cousin of the event planner RJ always works with and Lear is filling in for his cousin for the foreseeable future. So RJ finds herself stuck working with this “dude bro”, as she has dubbed him.

I love a good enemies to lovers romance and was totally on board with this story from the moment I knew RJ and Lear were going to have to work together so closely. The tension was pouring off them in those opening scenes so I knew I was in for one heck of a ride!

Burned by her ex, RJ has no interest at all in a romance for herself and instead buries herself in her work. I really loved RJ. She’s smart, independent, headstrong, and she knows what she wants and what she doesn’t. Well, at least she did before Lear came into her life. His presence shakes her up in ways she did not anticipate and really throws her off kilter to the point where she can’t decide what she wants from one moment to the next. It’s frustrating for Lear, but I just loved how realistic and messy RJ was in this situation. I was also tickled that RJ turns out to be the best friend of Britta from The Fastest Way to Fall and it was so much fun to watch RJ go to Britta for advice.

Like RJ, I’ll admit that I wanted to smack Lear upside the head the first couple of times he and RJ interact. He kept interrupting her, overstepping when it came to overseeing the wedding ceremony, and even tried to mansplain her at one point. RJ puts him in his place, and thankfully Lear is a man that learns from his mistakes so I quickly grew to like him, especially as we learn more about him and the heartbreaking circumstances that have led him to leave his life in L.A. and come all the way home to NC.

I very much enjoyed the progression of RJ and Lear’s relationship, both their working one and their personal one. There’s of course lots of cute and flirty banter and some sexy, steamy scenes, but what I especially loved about this relationship is how real it felt. RJ and Lear’s journey to that coveted happily ever after ending is a rocky one. They are both dealing with baggage from previous relationships, and RJ has such a tough outer shell, but it’s clear that underneath, she’s pretty vulnerable as well. It takes a lot of work to break down her walls and really get to know her, as Lear finds out. RJ thinks that she is hard to love, so I was thrilled that Lear seemed determined to try to prove her wrong.

Denise Williams just never disappoints. I love her dynamic characters and their relatable journeys, and Do You Take This Man is no exception. I highly recommend this one to anyone who enjoys enemies to lovers romances, headstrong female protagonists, witty banter, and sexy, steamy love scenes.

Denise Williams has quickly turned into an auto-buy author for me. Although I didn't fall in love with this story as much as I did some of her others, this was still very much an enjoyable read.

The chemistry between Lear and RJ was amazing and their competative natures and the banter that it created was so much fun. I didn't always enjoy the push and pull thing they had going on but I understood it and it was fitting to their personalities and their histories.

Over all this was a fun read but it would probably not be the first Denise Williams book I would recommend to new readers.

*I received an ARC from NetGalley for voluntary review

Thanks for the free book PRH International!

I am a huge fan of Denise Williams and I am very happy to say that her newest novel is just as good as her previous ones! I have said it before and I say it again that the way Williams writes makes you feel like you know the characters, and you cry with them, you laugh with them and you just want to go and hug them.

RJ is no-nonsense kind of woman who also happens to be a very good divorce attorney. Not only that but she also officiates weddings and that job brings her into contact with Lear. Lear has just moved back to Asheville, North Carolina, from California and works as a wedding planner with his cousin. RJ and Lear's first meeting doesn't go well at all but they continue meeting each other, both on the job and off. However, they both have things that really hurt them in their pasts - Lear's story especially is a really heartbreaking one - and it's easier to build walls around themselves than let the other person in...

I’m going to post a review on pub dates (heck, maybe even Monday) but I finished this book in basically…one day? Maybe a day and a half? It was such a fun read, one that really gets to the core of what it is like to be vulnerable and put yourself back out there again. I really enjoyed RJ as a main character, even though I wanted to be like “Girl, get a grip!” sometimes, which wasn’t always fair since we’re all working through our traumas. Lear started off a little rocky for me, but I grew to love him too and how he cared for RJ. It was a really great novel, and I’ll happily read anything that Denise Williams writes!

✨I have untook the man✨

This was just alright. I wasn’t ever really incensed, but I was perplexed and confused. I guess there were just so many choices in this book that left me simply asking…why?

✨

Why make Lear such a dude bro “you should smile more” type of frat boy? I mean really he was UNSAVORY to say the least at the beginning and I really want to understand but I just can’t. He immediately regretted the “smile” comment but what the fuck Richard? Why was that something he even thought to say? His backstory was actually very tragic and I was very touched when he revealed it…but it doesn’t translate to him reverting to blatant toxic masculinity as a defense mechanism??

I just thought it was a WILD way to introduce the hero. Especially as a contrast to R.J. who is such a strong and bad ass character. Dare I say she deserved better? Yes and no. I do think the book did a good job in changing my opinion of Lear (for the most part), but I’m not quite convinced I wanted them to end up together.

✨

Why start the book of banging and then just drop off? The book rather abruptly starts banging pretty early on, which was rather detrimental in my opinion. Obviously this is an enemies/friends with benefits situation so it needed to bang early (!) but it kinda set the tone for quickies than never held any emotional depth. Every sex scene was surface level, even if well written and hot.

There was a moment where I thought we were going to finally have an intimate bed scene, but then it faded to black so suddenly. The next full scene (with no fading) was HOT but it was a hard, rough, denying feelings scene. We never got the slow burn love scene after they realized their feelings. The sex scenes just function differently here than I would’ve liked.

In and out of bed, I never felt like the two even knew each other. There were like two deep moments between the two of them, but most of the book was them denying feelings and avoiding each other or getting a quick fuck and starting the cycle over again. I’ve realized that friends with bennies is just not for me. I’ll takes an eggs benny instead.

✨

Why reference the pandemic RANDOMLY for the FIRST TIME at 98% in the epilogue???? In what world was that necessary??? I sincerely hope that it was just an ARC flub and will taken out of the book because it was so odd. Random mentions of the pandemic are so off putting to me.

✨

The writing was great, it is Denise after all, but the plot just wasn’t there for me. I’ve been the head caterer at dozens of weddings and always enjoy reading about the wedding industry. The pressure is absolutely real!! I also really liked how they both held accountability at the end after the breakup. That doesn’t always happen and I was very happy to see it here.

The contrast of R.J. being a divorce lawyer and an officiant was quirky, but it got kind of muddled. There was a random bit at the end that was very abrupt regarding the overlap of her two jobs. The concept was fun but the execution was just a bit blah. Book one remains my favorite by the author, but I’m happy I gave this one a shot nonetheless.

⭐️⭐️⭐️.25/5 🌶🌶🌶.25*/5

*I think this is technically a 3.5🌶 but none of the scenes hit me emotionally and none were particularly memorable.

Thanks so much to the publisher for an eARC via NetGalley. All opinions are honest and my own.

Williams (The Fastest Way to Fall, 2021) has crafted a fun enemies-to-lovers tale set in Asheville, North Carolina between a no-nonsense divorce attorney who moonlights as a wedding officiant and a wedding planner who used to be a pro-football events manager.

Full Review: Booklist, Sept 1 issue

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review

CW: death of family (past), cheating (past, non-MC relationship)

This book had such a smart premise. Two people burned by love, one a divorce attorney to boot, working to help people on what is one of the most romantic days of their lives, their wedding day.

For some reason I just could not connect with RJ and Lear's dynamic. I loved RJ's drive and her allergy to emotion. Lear unfortunately came off as mean and a bit of a mysogynist especially in their beginning interactions. A bit too much will they won't they and I kept waiting for more intimacy to build.

This one just didn't work for me but I think a lot had to do with personal preference.

Steam: 3.25