Reviewed by Larissa

TITLE: Fancy Free

SERIES:  Friendship and Desire Book 3

AUTHOR: Mia Monroe

PUBLISHER: Self-published

LENGTH: 243 pages

RELEASE DATE: September 17, 2021

BLURB: 

The last thing I need is a curious straight guy sniffing around me. So why is he so hard to resist?

My life is everything I ever wanted—by design. Being one of the nation’s most sought-after wedding planners has led to a life of traveling to glamorous locations, bumping elbows with the rich and famous, and sampling every handsome hunk the world has to offer. I gave up the idea of happily ever after long ago, embracing my single status.

I was completely fulfilled until Luke barreled his way into my life. He’s jaw-dropping, can’t-take-your-eyes-off-him gorgeous, but alas, he’s as straight as they come. According to Luke, he was never into men before he met me. Flattering, but I’m not going there again. Been there, done that, have the scars to show for it.

I insist on an arm’s length friendship. It’s the right thing to do. As tempting as it is to help him explore, I simply don’t have the time or patience. That is until he kisses me. It isn’t long before I’m wondering if I’m ready to give up my Fancy Free life and take a chance on an unlikely forever. But if I do, will I get my heart crushed once again?

Fancy Free is a friends-to-lovers, bisexual awakening, steamy romp featuring a fabulous but reluctant wedding planner and his curious but inexperienced suitor. It’s book three in the Friendship and Desire series featuring men discovering that maybe they were always more than friends.

REVIEW: 

Ever wonder if you’ll meet Prince Charming?  Well, read Mia Monroe’s Fancy Free, the third book in her delightful Friendship and Desire series, and you will.  He’s right there in the gorgeous Luke Ellison, a man who will have you clutching your e-reader to your chest, happily sighing, with hearts in your eyes. 

In Fancy Free, we get a deliciously addictive, opposites-attract, friends-to-lovers romance between Luke and Hayden.  We met Luke briefly in Book 2, Chasing Fate.  He’s a pool and tile business owner who works on landscaping projects with Zach and Dom (from Book 1, Dirty Forty).  Luke is simply breathtaking – tall and tan, with dark, wavy shoulder-length hair, tattoos, and muscles for miles, thick beard … yummy.  Hayden is the free-spirited, colorful, out and proud, twinky wedding planner Zach and Dom used for their wedding.  He’s also the guy who gave Sydney valuable relationship advice in Book 2, Chasing Fate.  That advice is highly (and ironically) relevant to Hayden’s own romantic quandary with Luke in Fancy Free.  

Luke experiences a bisexual awakening at the age of thirty-eight when he lays eyes on Hayden for the first time.  It’s that movie moment he’s been craving, but it comes in a context that he doesn’t know how to initially process.  He explores this new facet of his sexuality and pursues his staggering attraction/love at first sight for Hayden in an overwhelmingly earnest, forthright, and guileless way. Do you remember Chasing Fate’s Diego?  (NB:  If you haven’t read the two prior books in this series, I highly recommend you do so, even though it’s not strictly necessary to enjoy Fancy Free.)  In my review, I described Diego as a kind, respectful, loving man with a heart of gold, eternal optimism, and endless patience.  Well, Luke is Diego … times ten.

The Fancy Free title speaks to the societal importance placed on sexuality labels.  Across the story, we see that fixation on labels can drive misguided decisioning concerning attraction and love.  It can also create artificial restrictions on who a person thinks they “should” be with, meaning they may rule out someone who might be their perfect match because they don’t fit the label they’ve adopted.  Casting labels aside provides the freedom to evaluate true feelings and the open-mindedness to consider love that arrives in an unexpected package.

This is an issue both Luke and Hayden confront.  Luke is a baby bi who is reeling from a revelation that’s rocked his world. Who is he now that he’s acknowledged he’s not straight and does the label matter?  Hayden also struggles with labels.  He considers himself “fancy free”- free from emotional involvement or commitment to anyone.  But he’s not at all.  Hayden resists Luke because Hayden assigns to Luke a label that is incompatible with the label he assigns himself.  Additionally, Hayden is in love with his married best friend Avery.  Because Hayden misguidedly leans into his self-assigned label, he struggles to free himself from his emotional tether to Avery and open himself up to love with Luke.  Ms. Monroe deftly creates a complex, dynamic relationship between Luke and Hayden that I found riveting.

Ms. Monroe’s Friendship and Desire series is exceptional from start to finish.  However, Fancy Free may be my favorite installment, despite my soft spot for Dirty Forty’s Zach and Dom.  That’s because Fancy Free checks all the boxes:  an authentic romance with emotional complexity, two extremely well-crafted, multi-dimensional, endearing leading men, lots of hot AF sex, heartfelt romantic declarations, more swoony moments than you can count, an immersive plot, and a rewarding HEA. 

This is a one-sitting read; you won’t be able to put it down once you start it.  Also, prepare for a book hangover when you are done.  Personally, my book hangover remedy of choice for Fancy Free is a Friendship and Desire series re-read.  So I highly recommend Fancy Free, and the hangover remedy too.  😉

RATING: 

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