Man Buns

By: Shari J. Ryan, Lisa Brown - editor

Narrated by: Samantha Summers, Adam James Conner

Length: 7 hrs

Publisher's summary

A single Marine dad romantic comedy

I got out of the Marine Corps to give my daughter a better life. I'm a strong and capable single dad. I got this, right? Not so much.

The one thing my daughter wants is the hardest to find - a mom. It's not like they're selling hot intelligent women at Walmart these days, and with the amount of baggage I'm carrying around, I might be out of luck.

Yeah, so.

We moved from Oahu to Maui. I needed a job, a place to live, and to get us settled. I thought it would be simple, but let's just say...mistakes have been made.

• Mistake #1: I took the first job I was offered. (Should've probably asked a couple more questions about the required uniform.)
• Mistake #2: I flirted with Kai, the first attractive woman who crossed my path. (So far out of my league she might as well be a Hawaiian princess.)
• Mistake #3: I fell head over heels for that woman. (See Mistake #2.)

Now I'm standing here showing my butt - no, literally. It's the required uniform at Man Buns, the restaurant I'm working at. (See Mistake #1).

In any case, I can tell you one thing - it's damn near impossible to convince the woman I can't live without to take me seriously when I'm serving up burgers, half-naked, and women are constantly ogling my assets.

I've gotta try, though. Because Kai is the woman for me, and she's perfect with Aya. I've just gotta get these man buns in gear and figure out how to win her over.

©2018 Shari J. Ryan (P)2018 Insatiable Press

Critic reviews

"Man Buns by Shari J. Ryan was a nice surprise! Light, funny, charming and sweet all wrapped up in one package. I loved the crazy characters and the story so much. I was captivated from start to finish." (Liz, Sultry Sirens Book Blog)

"The blurb for Man Buns hooked me in and the story kept me! This was a highly entertaining romance, light and easy reading, with a sassy, fiery heroine, a hot single dad hero and an adorable 7 year old who is a real scene-stealer!" (Sunny Shelly Reads)

"These two are great characters which made it an easy read to get lost in. This one is a really great read." (Amazeballs Book Addict)

4.5 credit worthy ⭐

Story = 4⭐
Narration = 4.5⭐
Overall rating = 4.5⭐

This was my first Shari Ryan book but it certainly won't be my last. With a title like "Man Buns" and the hard bodied, tatted display of eye candy blatantly splashed across the cover of this book, I went in expecting fun, flirty, light, beach read type material. The kind of feel good romance where you can almost just use a fraction of your brain power to read it because it's all about the fun and escapism. But color me surprised (in a totally good way) when Shari Ryan actually took it deeper than I expected touching on topics like loss, grief, betrayal, loneliness and self doubt, all while still maintaining an air of fun and flirty with a solid touch of humor. The family dynamics between Denver, as a single dad, with his young daughter as well as with Kai in her role as a sister & guardian really resonated.

Samantha Summers and Adam James Conner did a great job bringing these characters to life with their narration. Conner did particularly well with the watered down texas drawl of a Southern native who's been away from home but still has that touch of their roots when portraying Denver.

So fun!

I just loved this book. Light and Entertaining. My first read from this author and will most be checking out more.

Potential for greatness

This book was good but it has the potential to be great. First, let's start with the audio recording ; it skipped in between a few chapters and there were a few long seconds of silence. That should have been edited out. Secondly, the story could have exploded. but there where gaps in the story that didn't make sense how they connected them in the end like the initial meeting between the characters, why was it never brought up till the last five minutes and nothing about it was ever eluded to ever in the whole story. Then there was the estranged wife/mother, we first hear about her looking for her ex husband in one breathe and in the next, she miraculously found his place, broke in, and waited for him to come home from the party he was just at, where he got the phone call about her. The structure and balance could use some work.

Narration was good with the female but the male was putting me to sleep Everytime he spoke.