Reviewed by Larissa
TITLE: HEA: Happily Ever After
SERIES: After Oscar, Book 5
AUTHORS: Lucy Lennox & Molly Maddox
NARRATOR: Michael Dean
PUBLISHER: Self-published
LENGTH: 9 hours and 26 minutes
RELEASE DATE: May 2, 2024
BLURB:
Have you heard the expression “twelve times a groomsman, never a groom”? Neither had I… until it suddenly became clear that every man I dated found their One True Love in the person they dated after me.
Now I’m writing Best Man speeches for my former boyfriends twice a month, the “After Oscar” thing has become a legend, and I have finally accepted that Oscar Overton is nobody’s Happily Ever After.
Which is fine.
Between running my investment company, providing for Frank, my emotional support hedgehog, and keeping my enthusiastic family from getting in my business, my life is plenty busy. The last thing on my mind is a relationship.
Until Hugh Linzee.
One hot night with the gorgeous wedding photographer somehow turns into a text conversation I just can’t quit, but I’m determined to keep my distance. Hugh has ideas… ideas about romance and fireworks and capital-L love… and I care about him too much to let him get those ideas about me.
Fate keeps throwing us together, though. After an accidental all-night phone call and a convenient wedding run-in, suddenly I find myself agreeing to be his fake boyfriend, and distance quickly becomes a thing of the past.
But how long until Hugh figures out he’ll only get his HEA… After Oscar?
REVIEW:
Lucy Lennox and Molly Maddox’s After Oscar series gets better with each successive book and the culmination of the series in HEA: Happily Ever After gives the titular Oscar his long deserved HEA and rewards us with a blissfully happy read. HEA is a joy. Perfectly titled, we finally meet and fall for the irresistible Oscar, a man who desperately wants a HEA and (inadvertently) makes it happen for all his exes, but is too afraid to go after it for himself.
This romance is all about romance. Falling in love, staying in love – it shows perfect moments and messy moments, the adject fear and the euphoric joy. Oscar (who we don’t even meet until the third After Oscar series book) is so much more than I expected. He’s adorable, generous, has a heart of gold and is an overall gorgeous human being. He’s the best man for countless of his ex-boyfriends … People care for him and want him around, but Oscar struggles to let them share – share their lives, their feelings, their love with him. Until Hugh. Hugh is lovely and a perfect match for Oscar. The authors create a captivating, unpredictable journey for Hugh and Oscar and we get to visit with the other After Oscar couples along the way. The icing on the cake is Frank, Oscar’s emotional support hedgehog (talk about metaphorical perfection).
I truly didn’t think this book could be improved upon but Michael Dean unsurprisingly brings the “extra” to it, breathing life into these characters and immersing us in the love story as it unfolds. He captures the nuances of the characters through the textures of the voices he gives them. Notably, Oscar and Hugh’s voices aren’t all that different (Hugh’s is a bit lower and richer and Oscar’s veers more towards Dean’s twink voice, but there isn’t a huge gap between them), but Dean is able to keep them distinct throughout.
I don’t often read books that I start rereading immediately upon finishing, but HEA is a book that grabs you and won’t let go. I read this book twice before I listened to the audio and could have easily began listening again. HEA is a romance to put on repeat. Hands down best of series. Highly recommended.
RATING: 
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