Thanks to Harlequin and NetGalley for the ARC!

The Best Man's Problem is an opposites-attract, easy-to-read romance between Rafi, a by-the-book, routine-oriented man, and Etienne, a chaotic, energetic man with a strong sense of adventure. Having already met once before, and both aware of a spark between them, they're convinced they can't get along - until Rafi's sister's wedding comes around, and they have to work together to make it the perfect event. United in purpose, they begin to discover that maybe they're not as incompatible as they think.

The strongest point of this book, and what sets it apart from other Harlequins, is the sense of culture, community, and family which permeates the story. Both Rafi and Etienne had interesting, compelling relationships with their siblings and parents, as well as their respective communities; it was always a pleasure to have these larger groups on the page. The leading characters were made richer for this association.

However, the writing throughout was bland and amateurish, the plot was incredibly strangely paced (we spend about 16% of the book at a single party), there was an awkward tell-don't-show rhythm to characterization, and these weak points were more constant than any of the aforementioned good things. Unless you're particularly craving a gay Harlequin centered in these particular communities, there are better books out there.

Review date: 2/21/2023

I am so happy the Familia Navarro is back! I felt an affinity with this family (especially Papi Enrique) since Sera introduced them in A Delicious Dilemma and I've been impatiently waiting for Val's siblings to have their own stories. And now, they're here beginning with Rafi's story in The Best Man's Problem.

"Grab the moment because life is too short to waste any of it."

I knew from the start that I would like this story because opposites attract is one of my favorite Romance tropes.  And boy, are Rafi and Étienne opposites. Rafi is so controlled, super organized, and a lot uptight while Étienne is a little chaotic, seize-the-day kind of person. This is the main reason for all the pushing away that happens in the story. And the pull? It's the physical attraction between them plus the similarity in their love of their respective families and fierce loyalty--Rafi to Val and Étienne to Philip. 

"I know my worth ... I deserve to have someone love me with their whole chest."

As always, Sera's writing is lush. Her prose is lyrical and evocative. She makes me relate to the characters and feel for them. I may have related too much to Étienne because, during the point of high conflict, I wanted to kick Rafi's stubborn ass. Oops!

"Life has no loyalty to anyone, so you must live it without remorse."

I love the diversity, the rich multicultural background, and the steam in Sera's stories. The first two books in the series have been excellent. I can't wait for Nati's turn!

The Best Man's Problem by Sera Taino is a queer opposite attract romance between a man and the best friend of his soon-to-be brother-in-law.

I really enjoyed the main characters, Rafael and Étienne . Rafael took me a little bit to warm up to, whereas Étienne I knew that he was going to be so much more than what he portrayed on the surface. Both men have been shaped in opposite ways by an emotional trauma in their past, which brings a heaviness to their story. They have a back and forth of bickering and sexual tension that delivers with delicious open door intimacy scenes. The intimacy between them is passionate, and I adored that after their first time while Rafael is nervous the morning after, Étienne was immediately openly snugly and affectionate with him. That man had such a big heart and just wanted to shout his feelings for Rafael from the rooftop.

The Best Man's Problem has a rich and diverse cast, with more than a few queer side characters. Rafael is Puerto Rican, his parents immigrated to America when they were young and Étienne is Haitian, him and his family came to America when he was in his teens. Both families lives are enriched by their roots. I really enjoyed that the author had the characters naturally speak in Spanish and Creole throughout, which enriched the story even more. I also loved both their relationships with their families, especially Rafael with his sisters and father.

Overall this was a satisfying queer romance filled with family, photography, wedding planning, over thinking, sexual tension, steam, cheesecake for breakfast, and taking a chance.
9 minutes ago

This is the 2nd book in “The Navarros Book Series” and my first time reading a book by Sera Taino and I will be reading the next book in this series after I go back and read the 1st book in this series “A Delicious Dilemma”. This is awesome read that is tasteful done, witty, entertaining, fast-paced easy quick read, with great characters and a plot that held me captive turning page after pager. I enjoyed reading about Etienne who is a Haitian photographer and Rafi whom he shared an unforgettable passionate kiss with. Rafi and Etienne have history and when the two find themselves reconnecting at Rafe’s sister’s wedding these two are finding that neither can forget the other.

Is there a future in the romance department for Etienne and Rafe?

I received an ARC via NetGalley HARLEQUIN - Romance (U.S. & Canada), Harlequin Special Edition LGBTQIAP+ | Romance and I am leaving my review voluntarily.

This book is from a traditional publishing, Harlequin Special Edition. These are the books that as a teenager, if I got one...oh my...lol. I'm glad to see how they've evolved more. More diversity in the MC's as well as the side characters, and different sexualities are referenced. This isn't your grandma's romance novel, and that was all right with me. :)

This book had such great representation. In fact, there really was only one character who was a white male, and cisgender. Both Creole and Spanish language phrases were sprinkled throughout the book as well. I really enjoyed that. Quite often, when MC's speak different languages, you might see one or two references to it, but this book had the languages represented from beginning to end.

Rafi was a control freak, trying to keep everything exactly in the path that he laid down, and love wasn't really in his life's plan. The guilt over how his mother died permeated every interaction he had in his life. This made the book a bit of a slow burn, from enemies to lovers. Their first kiss was before the book started, then the first reader read kiss wasn't until over halfway through the book. It took them a while to get from calling each other names to calling each others' names.

Étienne, meanwhile, was very much the opposite of Rafi. He was open to love, open to life and new experiences. He'd had his own tragedy on his island in Haiti, before moving to NYC. For Étienne, it caused him to not want to waste a minute of life. It did lead to some heartbreak for him, as well.

There were some issues that I felt were unresolved, or not fully resolved to my satisfaction. In addition, the book is written very formally. The everyday language used was stilted in some places, using words that are not normally in the vernacular. That piece definitely harked back to the older days of romance novels.

This was definitely opposites attract with, of course, a Harlequin guaranteed HEA. An enjoyable read.

3.5 pieces of eye candy

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
Sera Taíno delivers another fun category length gem following the Navarro Family and Co. The concept is super sweet, with Rafi struggling with his emotions around Etienne, someone he ghosted, being the best man in his sister’s wedding. Despite this, they have some cute moments and romantic tension, especially as they’re opposites personality wise. Ultimately, it’s a solid concoction of tropes, making for a lovely read, and I’m excited to continue to get more from Taíno in this universe!

Such fresh and colorful writing!
I enjoyed this book so much and cannot believe how quick I finished it.
One night these two share a passionate kiss after dancing all night and Rafael quickly ghost Etienne.
Chance brings them back to each others lives as they both have to work on the big family wedding.
Rafa is so stern and determined to not fall for Etienne and his charms but their chemistry is so palpable.
They are true opposites through and through. The bickering is fueled by Rafa's determination to not fall for Etienne and the more he fights the less control he has on his feelings.
The families on both ends are rich with love and culture, its a true joy filled read. I cannot wait to keep reading onto book 3.

The Best Man Problem
By: Sera Taino

📚💕⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💕📚

Can opposites become everything?

Can two of the sweetest men find happiness together? Can they put themselves first? Only time and trust can answer that question. In my first read from this author I found myself rooting for both me and begging for patience throughout the entire book. Both men have huge pain in their pasts but are even close when it comes to meeting in the middle it’s either all or nothing or running scared. The author writes with so much intensity and emotion pulled from each book it’s felt page after page. Some are quick witted story lines are so perfect and lets you believe you have a front row seat. So being able to read this love story didn’t disappoint. The authors ability to have two separate individuals struggling in their everyday life and try to navigate someone else’s thoughts, needs and desires was intense and gives all the

Authors blurb: He can’t forget the kiss he shared with the best man.

But is he the best man for him?   

His sister’s wedding isn’t the ideal place for Rafael Navarro to reconnect with the man he kissed in a moment of reckless abandon. But it’s impossible to avoid best man Étienne Galois! The gorgeous Haitian photographer hasn’t forgotten the intimate moment they shared, even if Rafi is the most maddening person he’s ever met. Can the two find common ground, proving opposites not only attract they can become lovers for life?

This book has everything I love in a book. Then you add that it's beautifully written and believable. It is easily a five star read. Written in dual POV my personal favorite this story flows so incredibly well that the next thing you know your 80% into the book and loving every second of it. The believable way the characters interact is perfect. Run, Hop, Jump or use your (1 click) finger to do whatever you have to do and get this amazing book. It'll break your heart, you'll want to scream with frustration and it'll let you discover that love just might conquer all. The chemistry is steamy and sweet and oh so romantic.

Thanks Netgally for letting me read and review.📚💕

Four and a half stars

The Best Man’s Problem by Sera Taino is the second in her series about the Navarro siblings. Rafael Navarro and Etienne Galois don’t seem to have much in common except their fierce love for their friends and families, which is how they find themselves tasked with ensuring that Philip’s bachelor’s party goes off without a hitch. Etienne is Philip’s best man, and Rafi would do anything for his sister, Philip’s fiancée. So this inconvenient attraction they can set aside, can’t they?

Sera Taino writes Etienne and Rafi’s intense chemistry beautifully, as well as Rafi’s uncertainty about a future together and their gently growing friendship and trust as the time they spend together reveals the people they are to each other. I also enjoyed her portrayals of Rafi and Etienne’s Puerto Rican and Haitian heritages, and their families and traditions. I very much look forward to reading more by this gifted writer.

A lovely book that could have used a better edit. Seriously, there are things an author should do, and things an editor should do, and Taino didn't get the benefit of a good edit.

Etienne was a joy; I absolutely loved his character, his family, his relationships, all of it.
I liked Rafi as well, though his initial characterbuilding had a bit of info-dump to it (see above re edit).

It's hard to do a second-chance romance and Taino did an excellent job showing why Rafi ran away in the first place. And why he was drawn to Etienne and why they came back together.

I wasn't such a fan of the third-act-breakup: or rather, I didn't like how Etienne brushed over Rafi's real and valid preferences and then never addressed it during the reconciliation.

These weaker points hit right in the areas I most watch for, so I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as book 1. But that's me! This is a good book and I'm definitely going to be reading book 3 in the series.

I got an ARC from #NetGalley, opinions are my own.

Opposites Attract
Forced proximity 
HEA
After a shared kiss and hurt feelings, Etienne and Rafael are forced to share best man duties for a wedding.
They are both upset with each other for different reasons but the attraction is still there. Rafael needs everything a certain way and is very specific about his time while Etienne goes with the flow and seems carefree.
After working together for a few weeks the chemistry is too much and they give in to their attraction.
These two characters had experienced a lot of trauma with a parent who passed away and devastation of an earthquake in their hometown. There was so much that they had to learn about each other and let go of their assumptions.

Thank you harlequinbooks for the e-ARC for my honest and voluntary review.

Highly addictive and emotional! Sera Taino’s Navarro family series is continuing with a relationship between Val’s brother Ravi and Philips’s BFF Etienne and you are not going to want to miss this slow-burn, sassy gay romance! The characters are easy to like and the family dynamics pushing them together adds a warm setting for the start of their romance. I adored Etienne and loved the way he opened up his heart to Ravi. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a sincere group of characters who have to deal with the ins and outs of life and how it shapes you on their way towards forever. I’m looking forward to more in the series!

The Best Man’s Problem is a low-angst romance about two very different men who have been asked to partner up to plan the bachelor’s party and other Best Man duties for an upcoming wedding.  Etienne, the groom’s best man, travels a lot for his photography career, so the bride asks her brother, Rafi, to work with him on the pretext that he’ll need help. Etienne is bi, Rafi is gay. No secret what sis is hoping for. What nobody knows is that Etienne and Rafi have already had a go at one another: a kiss that Rafi walked away from, and Etienne can’t forget.  If event planning is your kink, this book doesn’t focus too much on those details, though there is a tension over excel spreadsheets that I totally identified with. Instead it is a tale about two opposites, confused by their attraction.

This novel is full of close-knit families, delicious sounding Haitian, Puerto Rican and fusion foods, a lot of frustration, and a dose of petty.  Rafi sees Etienne as careless, carefree, and no one he can trust.  Since his mother died when he was young, he has lived his life with a habitual rigidity that serves as a ward against bad things happening.  He has tried to be there for his dad, who immigrated from Puerto Rico, and his two sisters just about every day of his life, working in their restaurant in addition to his job teaching math. Etienne is also close with his family, though his parents don’t believe photography is a stable enough career, despite his success. He moved to the United States from Haiti after the catastrophic earthquake of 2010 and though he is an outgoing, vibrant person, he is also haunted by his losses.

I had a little difficulty getting into the relationship between Rafi and Etienne, in part because I couldn’t see what Etienne would even see in Rafi.  Sure, we, the readers, understand why Rafi is such an inflexible person, but that doesn’t make it any more appealing.  With Etienne, we get scenes with his assistant, details about his career, his personality, but Rafi just appears to be Mr. Routine, albeit good looking.  I was not raring for them to get together.  But as it started to happen, and as Rafi started to recognize his wrong assumptions about Etienne, I was able to get over my earlier ambivalence.

At the end of the novel Rafi and his father have a heart to heart in the kitchen. I have to ask: Rafi’s father waits until he’s almost 30 to have the conversation about how Rafi is not responsible for his mother’s death?  In the book, this didn’t sound like well-trod conversational ground, but something Rafi hadn't heard before. If his Dad knew he was carrying that load, why wait so long? Since Rafi is so shaped by this guilt, it seemed like a big deal to me and made me angry with his father.

“Life is short, but it can become long and monotonous if we don’t stop to celebrate the milestones along the way.”

“It wasn’t fair that one person should contain so many perfect multitudes.”

Rafael and Étienne shared a kiss that neither can forget about, and now have been tasked with coordinating best man responsibilities for Rafi’s sister’s wedding. They can barely stand each other, and now it seems everyone has found a reason for them to spend more and more time together.

I loved the diverse representation in this steamy MM romance including Latinx and Caribbean cultures and Spanish/Creole dialogue!

While both Rafi and Étienne had past trauma, I had hoped to see their challenges more fully developed in the context of their relationship. Each partner acknowledged the other’s feelings, but more depth would have enhanced the progression of their connection.

- Forced Proximity
- Opposites Attract
- Matchmaking Family

CW: grief, death of a parent

Thank you to Harlequin, NetGalley, and the author for a digital review copy!

I loved this book, from both Rafi and Etienne's characterization to the dynamic around Rafi's somewhat large family and their own partners/friends. It was a book that immediately immersed me in its world, and I didn't want to come up for air.

Thanks to Harlequin for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a light read with some easy tropes.

Overall, I found the work to be over-written and under-edited. There was a lot of obvious explaining and extra details (eg the clothing, the decor, the skin tones). The backstory of each MC and resultant psychological frame of mind were simplistic and then explained repeatedly. The emotional reactions occur quickly and without much to substantiate them. And each time someone spoke "Dominican Creole" or Spanish felt forced and awkward.

Thank you Netgalley and Harlequin for access to this arc.

Although this is book two in The Navarros series, I think people who haven’t read the first one, “A Delicious Dilemma” will do just fine. In that book, Val and Philip fell in love and here Val’s brother Rafi and Philip’s best friend and best man Etienne are charged – well kind of arm twisted by Val – into working together to help plan Philip’s bachelor party. It would be bad enough that the two men are polar opposites when it comes to planning methods but they also – of course – have history.

I think the construction of the plot worked better for me in this book. In the first, it got a little bland before the Big Conflict hits in the very end. Rafi and Etienne start this book with some seething tension and a few outbursts of (understandable) anger. Things are not pretty to begin with. Rafi is going to avoid even thinking about the kiss and Etienne is going to subtly poke him about it whenever the chance arises. But then, just when I was getting annoyed at them, they had a “aha, we’re adults and we need to act like it” moment and agreed to put aside their drama for the good of all. Wow, adults being adults.

That is when I began to get into the book and the growing relationship. Things aren’t rushed, good food is eaten, and I’m enjoying Rafi’s relationship with his father and Etienne’s with his family (though I needed a bit more closure in regards to how his parents still feel about their son’s profession). Both men have some trauma to deal with and I would have enjoyed seeing these dug into a bit more as well. Rafi gets a little more page time and a lovely talk with his father but both men deserved more space for these issues.

When the third act conflict hits, it is because of baked in character traits. Rafi is just not one to be rushed while Etienne is the grab the moment and live it type. That they clash in the way they do makes sense. All through the book, weeks long separations were mentioned, allowing the men to think and rethink about things and their issues. I liked this as it kept the changes in the relationship and romance from feeling too rushed. Yet, I felt this last – and most serious – conflict got fixed with a conversation before the moment when one screws his courage to the sticking point and goes for it. The outcome is lovely but given that he’s attempting to overcome years of habit and feelings of self worth, yeah, it’s fast. B-

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC in exchange for my honest review!

This was so cute. Like adorable from start to finish. I loved Rafi and Étienne they were so cute and I wanted them to be together forever. Reading this actually makes me want to read the first book with Val and Philip as well. I’d love to see how they got together.

Rafi is used to having things go according to plan. He has to have everything structured and written out and he can’t do anything spontaneous. Kissing Étienne at was one of those things. Étienne is a photographer who is always away doing fantastical things and isn’t like Rafi, who is a high school math teacher. They are completely opposite, but sometimes opposites attract.

I loved their banter and sweet talk the most. It was so freakin cute. When they started being sweet and then it got sad again, I wanted to shake Rafi. Like come on! This man is your dream! I also love how accepting everyone was. Both of their families were on board with their sexualities. Étienne’s family might have been a little pushy about his job, but they accepted who he was whole heartedly. I love that. I want to get more of their story and what comes after now.

5.5/10
I have very mixed feelings about this one. On one hand, I really loved the character backstories, their emotional situations, etc. On the other hand, the execution of the actual story fell short and felt underdeveloped. The main conflict felt like "not liking each other for the sake of not liking each other." There wasn't much substance to the romantic conflict, and when there were moments for the relationship to progress, it was stopped by petty things. I still am not sure what the first argument was about, it just suddenly happened. The character's backstories gave a lot of room for conflict, and (more importantly) things for the couple to work through together. Instead, it was an endless loop of juvenile treatment of adult situations. It just felt contrived.

Like I said, I did really like the characters and their environment, it just lost me in the actual plot of the story. I'll probably still look into this author in the future, but I will not be purchasing a copy of this book.

I enjoyed this book. I didn’t realize it is sort of second in a series (both of the MCs in this book are introduced in the first book), but it can be read as a standalone, as I had no trouble catching up.
I liked that both of the MCs, Rafi and Étienne, had past traumas that they brought to their relationship and that they were each so accepting of each other’s stuff. I mean, I don’t like that they had trauma, but I liked how it was handled. Rafi has a lot of guilt around his mother’s death and Étienne has some anxiety from having survived the massive earthquake in Haiti.
This was a solid read, and the reason I didn’t rate it higher is that I felt like there was a lot of very surface level stuff, but that the book really could have dug a bit deeper in several areas. I know that these are short books, but I think it really could have benefitted from being slightly longer and taking a bit more time to delve deeper. I also didn’t entirely believe Rafi’s change of heart, it felt too easy/simple. And again, that’s something that could easily have been better developed if the book had been a smidgen longer.