Fancy FreeFancy Free by Mia Monroe
Series: Friendship and Desire Book 3
Published by Kindle Unlimited on September 17, 2021
Genres: Gay Fiction, LGBTQ+, M/M Romance
Pages: 243
Format: eBook
Source: Kindle Unlimited
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three-half-stars

The last thing I need is a curious straight guy sniffing around me. So why is he so hard to resist?

My life is everything I ever wanted—by design. Being one of the nation’s most sought-after wedding planners has led to a life of traveling to glamorous locations, bumping elbows with the rich and famous, and sampling every handsome hunk the world has to offer. I gave up the idea of happily ever after long ago, embracing my single status.

I was completely fulfilled until Luke barreled his way into my life. He’s jaw-dropping, can’t-take-your-eyes-off-him gorgeous, but alas, he’s as straight as they come. According to Luke, he was never into men before he met me. Flattering, but I’m not going there again. Been there, done that, have the scars to show for it.

I insist on an arm’s length friendship. It’s the right thing to do. As tempting as it is to help him explore, I simply don’t have the time or patience. That is until he kisses me. It isn’t long before I’m wondering if I’m ready to give up my Fancy Free life and take a chance on an unlikely forever. But if I do, will I get my heart crushed once again?

Fancy Free is a friends-to-lovers, bisexual awakening, steamy romp featuring a fabulous but reluctant wedding planner and his curious but inexperienced suitor. It’s book three in the Friendship and Desire series featuring men discovering that maybe they were always more than friends.

Fancy Free was… a book that I tried to love as much as Chasing Fate, but I just couldn’t. I’ll be honest, there were moments that I saw a real person behind Hayden, but it was few and far between. I enjoyed Luke as a character enough that I was able to forgive his ‘insta-love’ for Hayden.

This was definitely a bisexual awakening story, so you have to expect a few tropes because you’re reading it -for- a trope. But Hayden just left me cold. He’s a wedding planner without a romantic bone in his body. He spends the entire book looking for reasons Luke isn’t gay enough for him because he ‘doesn’t do straight boys.’

I know that is a real thing, but Luke is the most direct and devoted guy from the moment he meets Hayden, and he’s eager for everyone to know it. Maybe that’s not too realistic, but this is the suspended belief that we are given. A straight guy finds the one man he’s attracted to and doesn’t have to answer to anyone about it and is proud that people know how much he adores Hayden.

So…why does Hayden seem like a stick in the mud? A very pampered, spoilt…stick in the mud. It honestly feels like the more Luke gets to know Hayden, the less he should see that Hayden is for him. But yet, this pairing is forced through to the end, and everything magically works.

Here’s my honest opinion on this book. It wasn’t ready to be written yet. Hayden was not prepared to be in a relationship. The book wasn’t bad. I don’t regret reading it, but it is my professional opinion that this book, this pairing…should have been put off for at least another book to give more time for the characters to develop in that world and for Hayden to grow into someone who was truly ready for the spotlight.

That being said, this book is worth a read if only because Luke is worth the time, and if you think about it, this book clearly made me care enough to want more, so that’s something!

three-half-stars