Very fun! I enjoyed this book a lot. I have been buying Denise Williams's books for my library and they have been circulating well. I will buy this one too!

Denise Williams returns with a sexy romance between an out-of-place wedding planner and a divorce lawyer slash officiant.

RJ was a hard-hitting divorce lawyer who gained viral popularity for officiating TV’s hottest couple during their unexpected wedding. Lear had just ended a relationship and was looking to start over. His cousin came to his rescue when she needed him to run her wedding planning business during her maternity leave. While the two got off on the wrong foot, they kept meeting at various weddings they were working, and couldn’t ignore the magnetic pull of the other. What started off as an “enemies with benefits” situation led to them becoming more open and finding happiness.

Do You Take This Man was a joy to read! RJ and Lear had both experienced betrayal from a trusted loved one, and it was easy to understand why they had their guards up. Like in all of Williams’ books, both characters complemented each other, and it was a joy to see all of the different weddings and the couples who were getting their Happily Ever Afters.

Teddy Hamilton and January LaVoy are absolute pros and I loved hearing their banter in my ear. There was a moment when I couldn’t tell if January was attempting to do an accent for a character, and if she was, it was unnecessary and surprising.

Do You Take This Man is the escape you’re looking for. Enjoy.

Included as a top pick in bimonthly September New Releases post, which highlights and promotes upcoming releases of the month (link attached)

Do You Take This Man by Denise Williams is another one of her sweet fun romances. We meet our heroine, RJ, who is a successful divorce attorney, and after conducting a well written marriage ceremony in the park, which had a video going viral, she has become the most wanted wedding officiant. When RJ rushes from her job to perform a ceremony, she collides with a man, with all her paperwork flying all over.

Lear, is an event planner, who is helping his cousin run the events. Even though he crashed into RJ, Lear doesn’t apologize and is abrasive; to his surprise, he notices the woman he bumped into is the wedding officiant. They both immediately do not like each other, with each being sarcastic; especially with Lear constantly interrupting RJ, telling her what he wants to do, and she is fuming, as she is in charge of the ceremony.

RJ is very good at her job, being a divorce lawyer, working with wealthy clients, even if she does not believe in love. Lear is also not interested in finding love, as he is still trying to get over a terrible breakup. They both clash a lot at first, and gradually things will change and they become frenemies with benefits. It was amazing to watch them slowly begin to feel the sexual tension between them, and their banter was also fun to watch; literally unable to keep their hands off each other. It was at times frustrating, as they continued to not allow themselves to fall hard for each other, only enjoying the sex.

Do You Take This Man was a romance novel with a enemies to lovers trope, that is a fast-paced, sexy story with lots of banter, emotions, and humor. I did enjoy and root for RJ and Lear, but early on they were both very toxic to each other, but it did change fast.

What follows is a wonderful, fun, emotional and sexy enemies to lover’s romance, with a couple that we weren’t sure they would fall in love. Do You Take This Man was a challenging, fun, engaging contemporary romance that was very well written by Denise Williams. I fully suggest if you enjoy pure romances, that you read this book.

Denise Williams can do no wrong.

Hot Takes
- One of my favorite things about Denise Williams books are that the rep is FANTASTIC and dare I say passive? These characters are diverse yet not necessarily dealing with the trauma that is usually depicted with diverse characters. Instead they are dealing with things that literally anyone could relate to and showing the world that not all BIPOC characters are a monolith.
- RJ is top tier main character energy. I love her. I love her career driven stance. I love her energy. I love her forward personality. I LOVE HER!!!!
- Lear is such a great main dude. He's the perfect mix of personality where he is tough and in charge yet the most sensitive and sweet dude. Which is my favorite kind of dude.
- If you miss Britta and Wes, fear not, they show up a ton and it's lovely!
- I'm going to bring it back to Denise Williams again, but let me tell you, she can write an adult feeling book. Yes, most romance comes with some sort of miscommunication or third act breakup situation, which this book does, BUT instead of it feeling juvenile and like these people are acting like teenagers, they still maintained a maturity that was so beautifully done.

Read If You Like
- Strong leading women that most men couldn't handle.
- Enemies turned enemies with benefits turned lovers

Honestly, Denise Williams does it again. And might just be getting better and better (although idk if anything can beat Britta and Wes for me!). RJ sure is going to try though. RJ, RJ, RJ. I love a career-focused women in romance. I love a hidden softie. I love a loyal b*tch*. And RJ is all of those things. Denise truly writes fully fleshed out, complex, SMART women and I love her for it.

"I'd learned young that people were rarely worth trusting, and baring your teeth was easier than baring your soul, only to be shown you weren't worth someone's time."

WHEW WHEW WHEW. RJ is it for me honestly.

Then you've got Lear. Who, despite trying to hard not to be a "nice guy" is SUPER SWEET. He is a dirty talking cinnamon roll and his backstory is quite frankly, devastating. And RJ and Lear truly felt enemies - they didn't like each other from the jump while LOVE IT YES. But when they went enemies to lovers???? then lovers to friends????? then to LOVEEEEE????? I was in it y'all. In it to win it.

Now Denise, I know that Cord and Pearl are next. And ma'am. I need that book in my hands TODAY.

My favorite part about Denise is that individualism of each book. None of her books feel the same - they are all different people, different problems, different tropes. But you know you will always get smart women, sweet men, and beautiful love stories.

this is actually my first denise williams romance and it was so fun! i had so much fun reading about rj and lear falling in love even if they didnt want to at the beginning. if you're looking for an enemies with benefits romance, you've found it｡･:*˚:✧｡

one thing that i know will annoy a few people is the hot/cold dynamic. it annoyed me quite a bit, but i think it works for them. still, im not going to deny that i wanted to shake them up and tell them to talk to each other!!! but i get it, i get it. their walls are way up high, they dont really trust each other even if you think they do. they have been hurt and don't want to go back to that place, so they protect themselves in the only way they can. STILL. i wanted them to talk, communicate, because there are a lot of hot and cold moments between them where they want to but then don't.

but the dynamic between them, the banter and the bickering and the competition aspect of their relationship is so cute. i laughed and had so much fun reading about them. the weddings and the cute locations they were at made this novel so enjoyable. whenever they texted or called each other, i was like swooning. YOU KNOW ME: i love a good soft, quiet moments where a text, a call, a finger graze between shoulder blades, makes for an epic love story.

Just the idea of a divorce attorney being a wedding officiant makes me giggle, talk about an unlikely match up but it works here. Even though RJ is far from a romantic she’s able to push her feelings aside and enjoy her time uniting couples. Her and Lear have the opposite of a meet cute and while RJ wants to strangle him she can’t fight their insane chemistry. So a rough start for these two but they quickly fall into a enemies with benefits situation and the steam is hot! Besides their obvious physical chemistry they have more in common than they think. Both are type A and super driven and watching them try and navigate their situationship was pretty entertaining. I actually liked RJ more than Lear in the end which is rare for me in a romance but her being so prickly made her endearing to me. Overall a really enjoyable read with a fun and sexy feel.

This was an ok read for me. I didn't feel as much of an emotional connection between RJ and Lear which is the reason for the 3 stars, but overall a decent book to pass the time and I did enjoy watching their work and personal relationship progress after they started actually communicating with each other:). Thanks to Netgalley for giving me an early copy!

RJ (who we met in the author's previous book) is a lawyer who also is a wedding officiant on the side. She is forced to work with Lear, who she deems a dude-bro,
Lear is working as a wedding planner for his cousin, Penny after a relationship ending and his being fired by his previous employer in California. He and RJ do NOT have a meet cute. They pretty much despise each other on first meeting.
They are forced to work several weddings together and eventually decide to act on their attraction. RJ insists on calling it "enemies with benefits." Both start to catch feelings but can they forget about their difficult pasts and become something more?
I enjoyed both characters very much though they were both extremely guarded. I love how the fact that Lear is White and RJ is Black is never an issue in their relationship just as it wasn't for Wes and Britta before them. They are just a couple dealing with normal couple issues. I was surprised to see some characters from How to Fail at Flirting but it was an interesting look into what they are up to.

3.5*
A divorce lawyer moonlighting as a wedding officiant. Is it just me? Wouldn’t that be considered a conflict of interest? Then again it's probably job security too!?😅

Trope: enemies to…Well, friends with benefits 💁🏻‍♀️

Lear's life has been turned upside down with a devastating breakup. While he tries to figure out his next step he stays busy helping his cousin’s wedding-planning business.

RJ is a straight-shooting, take no prisoners divorce lawyer! She’s also one of the most sought after wedding officiants in the area.

As you might guess, Lear and RJ don’t exactly hit it off when the two collide…literally! But maybe, just maybe they can find a way to 'work' together.😉

Told from both perspectives RJ and Lear’s. I frequently had difficulty knowing who was narrating, forcing me to refer back to the chapter’s heading. Frustrating!

This was just an average read for me. I had a really hard time warming up to RJ, who at times, was so rude to Lear I wanted to tell him to “just move on”! But he just kept going back for more!🙄

There’s a lot of heat between the characters🔥 with multiple open door scenes. But everything just lacked heart.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing.

Do You Take This Man is a light-hearted, sweet, tempting enemies-to-lovers romance that will take your breath away. The characters are well written, and the author did a great job diving into their pasts which makes them easy to relate to. I enjoyed the complexity of the story and the fast-paced, spicy hot romance with serious emotional depth balanced by plenty of humor. I can't wait to see what she will come up with next.

I love the premise of this book, a divorce attorney that starts marrying people. I feel like RJ was the perfect divorce attorney and it does seems out of character to marry people since she is shying away from love. Lear is such a charming man and their chemistry is off the charts with their FWB arrangement. I enjojes the banter with this enemies to lovers romance. I also enjoyed seeing RJ's friends appear in this book. I adored Britta and Wes in The Fastest Way to Fail.

It’s a rare occasion when I click with a male MC over a female MC. It’s even rarer when I want to cry for the male MC. When I hurt for him, when I cry for him. But I did. I cried for Lear, my heart broke open for Lear, I felt his pain. I wanted to hold him, I wanted a lot of things for him.

And Dear God, did I cry. I sobbed. I have never, in my reading life, cried as hard as I did in this book. Both of these characters deserve so much. So much. And yet, they continue the push and pull. The ‘will they, won’t they’. They hurt each other because of their own issues, and it BREAKS. MY. FREAKING. HEART.

But did I love this story? Yes, yes I did. By golly I loved this story so much, even with the tears. There’s so much to unpack, and it all comes together so beautifully, and I can’t wait for the next installment in this world.

I could ramble about this book forever, but I will spare you…for now.

Thank you immensely Berkley for sending me a free finished copy of Do You Take This Man.
*This review is being left voluntarily all opinions are my own.

Thank you Berkley Publishing for my copy! All thoughts are my own.

I am an unofficial but probably official fan girl of Denise Williams. Since her debut with How to Fail at Flirting, I’ve fallen in love with her writing. It’s fun and sexy but also so real and reflects the world we live in today. When she told us about her latest novel last year on Read It or List It, i’ve been chomping at the bit to get my eyeballs on it.

And it did not disappoint! I think it may be my new favorite of hers…but it’s hard to rank them because they’re all so individual. But I loved Lear and RJ and I hope you do too.

Synopsis:

“Divorce attorney RJ would never describe herself as romantic. But when she ends up officiating an unplanned wedding for a newly engaged couple in a park, her life is turned upside down. The video of the ceremony goes viral, and she finds herself in the unlikely position of being a sought-after local wedding officiant. Spending her free time overseeing “I dos” isn’t her most strategic career move, but she enjoys it, except for the type A dude-bro wedding planner she’s forced to work with.

Former pro-football event manager Lear is a people person, but after his longtime girlfriend betrayed him, he isn’t looking for love. He knows how to execute events and likes being in control, so working with an opinionated and inflexible officiant who can’t stand him is not high on his list. He’s never had trouble winning people over, but RJ seems immune to his charms.

Surrounded by love at every turn, their physical attraction pulls them together despite their best efforts to stay an arm’s length apart. Lear refuses to get hurt again. RJ refuses to let herself be vulnerable to anyone. But when it comes to happily ever after, their clients might not be the only ones saying “I do.” —StoryGraph

What I Liked:

The Concept—A wedding planner and a divorce attorney who can’t stand each other but are undeniably attracted to each other. Brilliant! So fun. Denise Williams is SO GOOD at crafting full, complex characters that you want to root for but also get frustrated with.

The Characters—I loved Lear and RJ. Especially Lear, but I could relate to RJ’s fears of letting people in so much. I love that Williams always writes women who are passionate about their careers.

The Spice—DENISE! She always writes good spice but wow, this one checked a lot of boxes. Their attraction to each other leaps off the page and it does not disappoint.

What Didn’t Work:

Nothing, I loved this book and swooned over RJ and Lear. Also, best names I’ve read in awhile!

Character Authenticity: 5/5 Spice Rating: 2.5/5 Overall Rating: 5/5

Content Warnings:

sexism, infidelity (past)

DNF at 42%.

This author is hit or miss for me. I DNFed her debut, loved The Fastest Way to Fall, and now we are back to another debut.

One of my biggest pet peeves is the whole misogynistic/mansplaining type of character ESPECIALLY when it's a white man addressing a Black woman, which is the case here.

RJ is an incredible character. She's a headstrong and intelligent divorce attorney who is trying to claw her way to the top of an elite firm while officiating marriages on the side thanks to some good press.

Enter Lear. The first time Lear bumps into (literally) RJ and knocking her over, there's some banter that's exchanged, but he ends on "you should smile more" knowing full well its a misogynistic dig that he even admits to. Ugh Whatever. Fast forward, and of course these two must work together on an upcoming wedding. Lear was instructed to have RJ take point because it's her specialty, but instead, he proceeds to talk over her, ignore her, and mansplain his way through the whole meeting with the clients. At this point, I just wanted to put him in a chokehold.

As a Black woman who is also incredibly type A as RJ is portrayed, I just wanted to take Lear out. Yes, RJ does give her a piece of his mind after completely embarrassing her in front of the clients, but it was just too much for me. I didn't care for their budding romance, and the chemistry just felt forced because the author is pawning the story off as "two headstrong people just finding their way" while completely ignoring the nuance surrounding how Black women are expected to shrink themselves to conform to society.

Well I guess this turned into a rant, but yeah, this is a hard pass for me. If you're going to write interracial romance, please put some damn respect on Black women. We don't need them talked down to or to cater to white men.

Thank you PRH Audio & Berkley Romance for providing a review copy. This did not influence my review. All opinions are my own.

This was another enjoyable book from Williams. With a strong heroine, an enemies with benefits to lovers trope, and taking place in the same universe as The Fastest Way to Fall, it was a good read!

This book was dual pov which seems to be more normal in romance books nowadays. I think the plot of this book was really well suited for dual pov. If it had only been RJ's pov, I think we would have missed a lot of development and emotional aspects from Lear, and vice versa.

Both RJ and Lear were Type A people so it was nice to see them so put together for the weddings they worked together and so out of sorts about their relationship. Depsite this similarity, we still see a lot of differences between them which makes for a nice enemies to lovers trope. As well, they both had skeletons in their closets they had to deal with before they could get serious with each other which added to the plot. It also added some mystery as we slowly got to know both Lear and RJ and what they were so desperately running from.

I thought there were lots of great side characters that were well thought out and gave wonderful support to our two protagonists. I wonder if we're going to get to return to this world again with a third book? I wouldn't mind.

I don't love a friends/enemies with benefits trope so maybe that's why I didn't connect with this book as much as I would have liked, but it was still enjoyable. I think I'd recommend this book more for people who enjoy that trope than for those who don't.

This is a difficult book to review. I like both the MCs but I didn’t really like them together until about 80 percent into the book. RJ is a successful divorce attorney working her way up in a firm. As a side hustle she officiates at weddings because she got notoriety when a video of her performing a spontaneous wedding goes viral. She limits herself it to clients and their friends and families not wanting it to impact her career. Lear is a former professional football player who is now working in for his cousin as an event planner. Sparks fly between RJ and Lear. They are sizzling hot and competitive with each other. But the hot and cold games between them fit RJ's character but it doesn’t make you feel like they’re building a relationship.

I really liked the role reversal with the man as the event planner and a woman being the attorney. They begin a very steamy friends with benefits relationship but because many of the hook-ups are in a closet or against a wall at events I found it unprofessional and cringe worthy. (There are other more tender moments.) Also I thought Lear’s back story has holes. I thought the thing with his ex was dramatic and enough to make him change coasts. But I didn’t think the whole him getting beat black and blue by a team mate and getting fired made sense. The fact that he threw the first punch didn’t help me like him more. And if he’s been playing pro ball for years it didn’t fit that he is living in his cousins basement. I was confused that money or finances were never brought up and discussed.

The book doesn’t say it is a sequel but her best friend is Britta who is featured in The Fastest Way to Fall (2021). I was happy to catch up a little with her and Wes. Even though there were a few things that didn’t work for me the story is still smart and sensitive. There is good representation, they are interracial, and several side characters are queer. And yay for the cover fitting the story. I will look forward to Denise Williams next book. Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Denise is an automatic read for me. She delivers a romance full of quirk, sex appeal, drama, and the warm and fuzzies. Do You Take This Man was the spiciest of them yet and I look forward to what she has in store for her readers next.

Many thanks to Netgalley for my arc! I'm a huge Denise Williams fan!

What happens when a divorce attorney and a wedding planner start working together at weddings? And these two decide to embark upon a "with benefits" relationship, not a "friends with benefits" relationship, because they are not friends.

One thing I enjoyed about this book is the fact that the female MC was so prickly! I don't often see that in romance novels. Being (maybe) (possibly) hard to read myself, it was nice to see that represented. RJ knew EXACTLY what she wanted and was not afraid to take charge. I also liked when she talked about her name and how some people knew her as Ruthie and some others knew her as RJ and why.

Lear was such a fun character. I loved seeing a male sensitive side shine through. He seemed to be always up for a challenge and maintaining a relationship with RJ was definitely a challenge.

I also enjoyed seeing friends from Denise's previous two books. I can't wait to see what she will come up with next. This book is a winner!