Tempting her Best Friend, by Gina L. Maxwell is a 172-page contemporary romance novel and is the first book out of a 17-book series. I will not be reading all 17. Every once in awhile a publisher will come up with a themed concept and get their writers to author books for the series. These books are standalone so you do not have to read one to read the other. I chose to read this one because I know I already like the author. It is written from a third-person POV, two-sided.

Spoilers Ahead ***

The story of two friends who don’t believe in happily ever after because of how their parents relationships fell apart

Alyssa comes from a family where the men can never keep their men, they come and go out of their lives and Alyssa’s father is no different. He is a gambler and grifter who floats in and out of her and her mom’s lives when he needed money. Alyssa grew up watching her mom hope that her dad would hang around, only to be disappointed when he left so Alyssa vowed to never allow herself to be put in that position. She had hoped with Dillon he would always be there, afterall, they’d been friends since she was 6. When she finally realized that he couldn’t commit to one woman she decided that her upcoming trip to Vegas would be the thing to get him out of her system by getting another man in her.

Dillon’s father has been married more times than he could count so as far as he was concerned, like father like son. He never let himself commit to a woman and did his utmost to be clear about his intentions with the women he brought to his bed. When Alyssa told her what she planned to do in Vegas, he followed her down there and convinced her that if she needed physical satisfaction, he was the man to give it to her.

Overall, I found the characters likeable.

Generally, here are my thoughts

1. Realistic scenario between the two protagonists
2. Alyssa’s plan has merit, this is totally something I would do to get over someone
3. The author’s style of writing sucks you in, especially in the romantic scenes so their attraction to each other is palpable
4. The ending was…the scene through the airport was kind of ridiculous and truly did read like a bad bar joke (A priest, a rabbi, and father walk into a bar)
5. The ending was nicely wrapped up. The book does read as a standalone, but there is a suggested character for the next book, or at least one I’d like to read, which is Dillon’s twin sister

In summary, I give this a 3 out of 5.