Reviewed by Sadonna

TITLE:  Dirty Forty

SERIES:  Friendship and Desire

AUTHOR:  Mia Monroe

NARRATORS:  Tim Paige and Liam DiCosimo

PUBLISHER:  Self-published

LENGTH:  6 hours & 24 minutes

RELEASE DATE:  July 13, 2021

BLURB:

If I’m as straight as I always thought, why does kissing my best friend feel so right?

Zach has been my ride-or-die since we were nine. Business partners, roommates, best friends… we do everything together. But the last thing either of us expected was to be staring 40 in the face just as single as we both were when we made a silly, drunken marriage pact 20 years ago.

The problem?

Zach is gay…and, well, I’m not.

Under pressure from family, that pact comes rushing back, and I lock us into a fake engagement. But is it possible some part of me wants it to be real?

Convincing Zach I’m legit is another story. With each passing day, I wonder if my feelings of affection for my best friend can morph into the love I desperately want in my life. Something in Zach’s eyes tells me we can have it all if we just try.

It may have taken me a lifetime to see Zach with new eyes, but with every touch and discovery, it’s been worth the wait. On the edge of Dirty Forty, it’s time to go for it.

All I have to do is convince Zach it’s real.

Dirty Forty is a best-friends-to-lovers, marriage pact, demi/bisexual awakening featuring 30 years of pining, a fake engagement, curious kisses, and two guys finally embracing what’s always been in front of them.

REVIEW:

Dom and Zach are best friends – since third grade.  The are each other’s ride or die.  They have done everything together.  Dom’s big Italian family considers Zach one the kids.  When Zach turned 21, they made a drunken pact that if they were both single at 40, they would marry each other.

Fast forward to Dom turning 39.  At his family birthday celebration, to get his family off his back, he tells them that he and Zach are engaged.  He didn’t exactly run this past Zach first, but as usual Zach has his back.  But the problem is that Zach is gay and has been in love with his straight BFF for years.  They both date – nothing ever fits.  Dom did had one sort of longer term girlfriend, but that didn’t work out – he knew something was missing.  But Dom figures that he and Zach can both find the right one in the year long engagement and then they will let their families down easy.

So they decide to go on dates to look for the one.  But Dom begins to realize that he’s really comfortable with Zach and maybe this idea of them getting married isn’t so farfetched.  He does know that Zach is looking for romance and a real love connection.  When he tells Zach that he might have more than friend feelings for him, Zach is not convinced.  He doesn’t want to get his heart really broken AND potentially ruin their friendship.  They spend all their time together – they own a business together, they own a house together, the spend their evenings at home, etc.  When Dom thinks he’s ready to get physical, things really change.

Zach is still not convinced and insists that they both need to date and Dom has to date guys to see if this is really what he wants.  But it turns out Dom doesn’t really want any guy.  It’s just Zach.  He get educated on other sexualities – including Demi and he thinks that may apply to him.  He’s going to have a hard time convincing Zach though because Zach doesn’t want to be an experiment gone bad 🙁  Dom is going to really have to pull out all the stops to convince Zach that what he feels is real and that what they’ve been looking for has been staring them in the face all along.

This book!  I absolutely love Zach and Dom 🙂  They were sweet as besties, but HAF as besties turned lovers.  Poor Dom – he just was kinda clueless but he eventually got with the program 😉  This was such a cute, very low angst bi/demi awakening story and I loved every second of these two figuring out how they were going to make this relationship work.  Their friends were definitely ahead of the curve on this one.  Zach’s fear of having his heart really and truly broken was legit.  Dom’s desire to convince Zach that he really wasn’t playing was also on point.  Dom being introduced to gay sex practices was worth the price of admission 😛  Both Dom and Zach’s families were adorable in trying to “help” them plan the wedding.  I got more than a few chuckles out of the mother’s trying to run the show 🙂  Also the dates that both Zach and Dom went on to try to find “the one” before they had to go through with the wedding were hilarious.   But at least they got a couple of friends out of it 😉  And I’m excited to get Sidney’s story next 😀

Tim Paige and Liam DiCosimo are a favorite MM narrating duo.  They very reliably and expertly brought this story to life.  I believed both characters and also loved the voice choices for the many secondary characters as well – especially Dom and Zach’s mothers and their other friends.  Honestly, these guys are pretty much an autobuy for me at this point.  I have loved every book they have narrated to date in this genre.  There is plenty of comedy, drama and tender and believable scenes in this one that I totally enjoyed.  Highly recommended – but especially for fans of  best friends to lovers stories, because this one is a gem.

RATING: 

BUY LINKS:

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