Reviewed by Ro

TITLE: Something Borrowed

SERIES: Confetti Hitched #2

AUTHOR: Lily Morton

PUBLISHER: Self Published

LENGTH: 286 pages

RELEASE DATE:  July 22, 2024

BLURB:

Stan has never let his blindness hold him back, but he’s beginning to realise his love life is keeping him from moving forward.

He can’t remember a time when he wasn’t in love with his best friend. Rafferty is everything to him—his partner in crime, his confidante, and the person who understands him best. But Rafferty is incapable of reciprocating Stan’s feelings.

As a successful wedding planner, Rafferty is passionately committed to helping newlyweds begin their happily-ever-afters, but after a rootless childhood he’s equally determined not to seek his own. How can he trust in love and marriage when so many of his brides and grooms are repeat customers?

Stan is the glue that keeps the pieces of Rafferty’s life together, and as such Rafferty has always kept Stan safely in the friend box where he can’t lose him. However, lately that conviction has wavered and now Rafferty is bursting with complicated feelings for his best friend. The timing couldn’t be worse because Rafferty has realised he’s in love with Stan just as Stan is moving on.

From bestselling author Lily Morton comes a friends-to-lovers story about realising you have the perfect man when you’re on the brink of losing him.

This is the second book in the bestselling Confetti Hitched series, but it can be read as a standalone.

REVIEW:

I have been anxiously awaiting Rafferty’s story, which did not disappoint. This is the second book in the Confetti Hitched series, focusing on the Confetti Hitched wedding planners.  In book one, Confetti Hearts, we get to meet Rafferty, a wedding planner who doesn’t believe in happily ever after for himself. He goes from man to man, seeming to be relationship-phobic. In this book, we get to see why. While Rafferty may not ever want a relationship, he has one in his best friend, Stan. Stan and Raff have been besties since the age of five when Raff’s family moved next door to Stans. They are loyal and always there for each other, sharing a flat and supporting each other. Stan starts losing his sight at seventeen, and Raff has never treated him as fragile, knowing Stan is capable.

Everyone around them knows they are it for each other except them. This story was different from the usual friends to lovers because at one point, they were lovers. They had opened the floodgates by having sex but with conditions. “We’ll do it until one of us meets someone special.” Raff knows it will never be him, but he never expected Stan to meet someone until he met Bennett.

Bennetti is a massive tool. He treats Stan like a child, hates Rafferty, is rude to Stan’s friends, and basically is a bore. Ex-boyfriends have warned about Bennett and how he hates to lose, and you can see why as you read about him. Throughout the story Bennett is a jerk, yet has these small moments of humor or kindness that keep Stan from leaving. Until he pulls a whopper of a stupid move, that is, yet won’t take a break up for an answer.

The problem is Rafferty’s upbringing. His parents, Saorise and Rollo, are self-absorbed, nonmonogamous drinkers and drug users who honestly shouldn’t have had a child. “ Saoirse is drunk and asleep so she won’t get up until tonight, and Rollo is out with another woman.” This was from Rafferty at age five. By the time of the story, his mom was on marriage 5, his dad marriage 4. The examples of what not to do are everywhere, and it was only Stan’s parents, who took him in all the time, that showed Raff love. Stan’s parents are amazing, awesome and delightful, so that was good. Also, funny and romantic. “Once I told you your eyes were as blue as the urinal cakes in the gent’s toilet.”

This was a wonderful addition to the Confetti Hitched series as we watch Raff and Stan try to get through miscommunication and fear of losing a friendship. It has Lily Morton’s trademark snark, which I appreciated. Supporting characters, including friends Leo and Richard, are funny and provide a solid foundation for Raff to see commitment does not always mean terrible things like it did with his parents. When soft-spoken, mild-mannered Art speaks up about the difference between yes and yay, I wanted to hug him. We need, and I mean need, Art and Jed to be the next story.

RATING:

BUY LINKS: 

Amazon