Mister Bridesmaid

De: Ivy Oliver

Narrado por: Stephen Dexter, Noah Michael Levine

I haven't seen him in six years...now we're married.

When my best friend asked me to serve as her Man of Honor, of course I said yes. A trip to Vegas for the week before her wedding and then on to the Florida Keys for the nuptials was an added bonus. The icing on the cake was her brother, Colt.

I didn't expect anything to happen. He's almost 10 years older, aloof, mysterious, and devastatingly handsome. All the time I spent fantasizing about his powerful muscles, piercing eyes, hungry mouth, and grasping hands leave me tongue-tied and stammering every time I see him. I can't hold a conversation with him without picturing my hands running down his taut stomach to that perfect muscular V to grab at his belt buckle.

Then one night the music was pulsing, the beat was pounding, and the next thing I know I'm in bed with my dream crush for a wild night of consequence-free pleasure.... Almost. There's just that little problem of a drunken ceremony at an all-night wedding chapel just off the Strip and what happens after we say "I do"....

Contains mature themes.

©2018 Ivy Oliver (P)2019 Tantor

Good narration

This was a great fast listen, it kept my attention and wasn’t hard to follow while traveling.

Funny, sassy, spicy

Straight to gay spicy, romantic comedy. Great characters except for the rich father who is an absolute bleep bleep, with funny but believable circumstances and scenarios. Narration was done by two people one was great the other not quit as good but not to bad. Another new to me author I look forward to reading more from.

Fluff with serious topics, hot sex scenes, lots of subplots. Don’t overthink this one. ~Some spoilers in review~

I enjoyed both narrators. Colt’s deep voice mode was very good, his mid-range voice was sometimes hard to reconcile with the deep voice, but that’s a small point. At times Julian’s voice went super high, as if to feed into a stereotype, but that didn’t last. Julian’s calm, caring, listening side was very well performed.

For a short audiobook it had too many subplots for me, and some motivations were missing, almost like they’d been edited out. It did drag in places, and some of the descriptions were bizarre, but I’ve listened to it twice already for entertainment in general, as well as for Julian and Colt.

Adding some trigger warnings here: Possible PTSD or Post-Violence Trauma, Military Violence Mentions /long-term results, ___Multiple___ Alcohol Issues, Childhood Trauma, Homophobia, Misogyny and some sketchy relationship dynamics. There are probably more I’m missing but somehow this manages to have a Happily Ever After (or two).

SPOILERS BELOW:

How this book combined •marrying your teen crush in reckless circumstances •after being put into insane, thoughtless, potentially dangerous and definitely humiliating positions •by your only friend who is also your employer •being left to fend for yourself in a rolling Vegas party of people who have TONS of money while you have very little •somehow initiating hot sex with a sizzling, cranky, thought-he-was-straight broken guy (repeatedly) •and including some fun banter along the way —

Then after all kinds of intrigue the author *fails to tell us what happened to the sapphire and GIANT DIAMOND ring (!??)* after covering so many other details which could have been easily skipped, while still including enough fun moments in the book to be entertaining, is honestly a puzzle to me.

There are some scenes which are real gold and some that could have used an editor’s heavier hand.

As others have said, give it a shot if it’s free and you like your rom-com laced with a lot of tension and serious topics.

Considering the parts of the book that kept drawing me in, and knowing it’s an older work, I admit I’m curious how this author is writing now.

I have to make the joke, sorry! In this case it was the author, not the best man, who lost the ring.

Good thing it wasn’t central to the plot.

A funny and wild ride!

What made this story so engaging for me was that it was a light hearted romp through a romantic story.
I hope to read more from this author

3 STAR average, grab if free

I actually only clicked on this play because of search for all things narrated b Stephen Dexter after his Chandler Moon charaxter in the ICECATS SERIES. I didn't even read the summary or any reviews.
Got a surprise when I realized it was a MM trope......omg....so many bantering one line zingers had me laughing. 😃 I recognized the signs/symptoms of military PTSD. Too many veterans suffer in silence and self-medicate. The author addressed these with dignity and grace. The generational wealth "better-than-thou" superiority was a reminder that wealth doesn't guarantee happiness, confidence, or self-worth.
First time with this author.
Will definitely look into othe stories.

My favorite character was Colton.
Sex spice was delicious 🌶🌶

Narrators

Sorry to say tge story was okay but the narrator doing the even chapter was not okay to me, I prefred for the other narragor yo read everything.

Very Entertaining Story

I really enjoyed listening to this story, Colton and Julian were really great together. I especially enjoyed the beginning of this, and how they ended up getting married. Right after though it dipped a bit, Julian’s personality seemed to change completely there for a few chapters and he became really pushy which was a bit jarring, and is why I can’t give the story a 5. His personality righted back to more normal after a while but I have to admit it threw me, and if I was Colt I would have ended up feeling rather uncomfortable. I have to say too I still wonder about Karen’s motivations in some of this too, especially when she was getting rid of Julian because of her cousin. That kind of made me sideeye their friendship a bit, and it was never revisited after same said cousin pulled a stunt. The dad in this story was horrible but a good foe for the story. I think I did go into this expecting a little more, there were certain times it seemed to drag a bit but I will say the passion and banter between the characters was a real highlight. Overall I did like it though and felt it was worth the listen.

Colt

Useless and Childish Best friend who wants a best friend that's not honest, but than again she's a Childish whiney sister who needs to grow up who blames her brother for her parents negligent, I like the storyline but not the characters themselves well Colt was the only one I actually liked

Good narration. Good story.

If you are looking for a M/M romance with a drunken Vegas wedding trope and charming characters, this will be a good read/listen. If you are looking for a well-researched story with realistic characterizations, you might want to try another story. Modern-day fighter pilots have a bachelor's degree that is usually in engineering. They do not whine about not having any skills when they leave the military. Just no. It was only one inaccurate sentence, but I couldn't unhear it, and it bothered me for the rest of the book, even when the statement was partially retracted by the character. I might be a bit sensitive about the subject because I wanted to be a fighter pilot when I grew up...

I appreciated the story for what it was, and the narration was entertaining.

Delightful Gay rom com

I went into the audiobook blind solely based on the narrators because I like them and I was not disappointed. Stephen sounded delightful as the younger man with a crush on his bff’s older brother and NML growly voice gave the lead who is fighting his demon the anguished tone he needs. Overall the book has many light moment but the pacing drags at some point. Overall it’s worth my credit.