Reviewed by Valerie

TITLE: Awfully Ambrose

SERIES: Bad Boyfriend, Inc. #1

AUTHORS:  Lisa Henry and Sarah Honey

PUBLISHER:  Pride Publishing

LENGTH: 260 pages

RELEASE DATE: June 7, 2022

BLURB:

Bad Boyfriend, Inc.—When you can’t find a good boyfriend, why not hire a bad one instead?

Liam Connelly is a university student in Sydney. He leads an orderly and predictable life of studying, working as a waiter in an upscale harbour restaurant and spending lots of time with his cat, trying to convince himself that after his last cheating boyfriend, he’s perfectly happy alone. Well, mostly happy.

Ambrose Newman is a Bad Boyfriend. Professionally. Someone’s parents don’t approve of that long-haired unemployed bass player they want to date? Well, that’s where Ambrose comes in. For a few hundred dollars a night, he’ll go to dinner with them and their parents and show them that the grass is definitely not greener on his side of the fence. It’s dead. When Ambrose brings a date to Liam’s restaurant, it’s not sparks that fly—it’s glassware.

When Liam needs a date to prove to his visiting parents that he’s not destined to die sad and alone, he calls Ambrose, desperate. If Ambrose can be a bad boyfriend for money, he can be a tolerable one too, right? Which works out great—right up until Ambrose is too nice, and Liam’s parents invite them up to their winery for the long weekend.

Suddenly Ambrose has to be a Bad Boyfriend again, to give Liam an excuse to ‘break up’ with him before his mum starts planning the wedding. But as Liam gets to know the real Ambrose, real feelings start to sneak into the fake relationship on both sides. Under the watchful eyes of Liam’s protective family, who have no idea what to make of Ambrose, their fake relationship evolves into a chance at something real.

When Ambrose has an ugly run-in with Liam’s sister’s fiancé—who’s an even worse boyfriend than him—it might cost him not only any chance he had of convincing Liam’s family that he’s not the nightmare they think he is, but his fledgling relationship with Liam, too.

REVIEW:

Awfully Ambrose, the first novel in the Bad Boyfriends Inc. series, is a whole lot of romantic fun. It’s an engaging twist on the fake boyfriend trope, a fresh variation I haven’t seen before – a bad, fake boyfriend for hire.

College student Liam is at work waiting tables when he notices a friend from school at a table with her parents and a despicable boar he assumes is her boyfriend. His behavior is so atrocious, embarrassing, rude and loud he gets kicked out of the restaurant. Liam can’t imagine why Kelly is with such a louse. When he confronts her at school, he discovers the dude is a professional fake boyfriend pretending to be an awful date so that her parents will love her actual boyfriend in comparison.

Liam has a lightbulb moment… he can get his mother off his back about dating by hiring Ambrose to be a good boyfriend at a family dinner. His mother is obsessed with finding him a boyfriend. He can later say they broke up. After dinner, Liam’s parents strong arm Ambrose into attending a family weekend at their vineyard. This time, though, Liam is worried they’ll like him too much so it’s time for Ambrose to channel his fake, repugnant side. Hilarity ensues when the family struggles to be polite about Ambrose’s increasingly obnoxious behavior. All but Liam’s granddad Billy, a delightful character who adores Liam.

Ambrose isn’t enjoying his Bad Boyfriend gig because he’s becoming too invested in Liam. The thing is, they’re both falling for each other and they have to share The Only Bed in the honeymoon cabin. You’ll just have to wait to see how the rest of the weekend goes; let’s just say it’s not without its problems.

“He wanted this weekend to be real, was the problem. He wanted him and Liam to be real. Just for once, he wanted to be the kind of guy whose boyfriend took him home to meet the parents.”

This is a well-written, well-paced book with great characters. Both Liam and Ambrose are lovable guys and you’ll be rooting for them, too. As mentioned, Granddad Billy is a hoot. I liked Ambrose’s roommate, Harry, too. It appears that he’ll be taking over the Bad Boyfriend role in the next book of the series. If the premise is similar, it should be a great read because this one certainly was. Any contemporary MM readers should enjoy this sweet story, especially those who like fake boyfriend tropes.

RATING: 

BUY LINKS:

Amazon

Pride Publishing