Tempting the Best Man

Gamble Brothers, Book 1

De: J. Lynn

Narrado por: Kaleo Griffith

Madison Daniels has worshiped her brother's best friend since they were kids. Everyone thinks she and Chase Gamble would make the perfect couple, but there are two major flaws in their logic. 1) Chase has sworn off relationships of any kind and 2) after blurring the line between friends and lovers for one night four years ago, they can't stop bickering.

Forced together for her brother's wedding getaway, Chase and Madison decide to call a truce for the happy couple. Except all bets are off when they're forced to shack up in a tacky 70's honeymoon suite and survive a multitude of "accidents" as the family tries to prove their "spark" can be used for more than fighting. That is, if they don't strangle each other first...

©2012 Jennifer L. Armentrout (P)2013 Tantor

Alright start to the series

2.5-3 stars

This was an alright story. Madison was nice but needed some backbone at times. Chase was pretty much an idiot who couldn't see how his actions affected others and lived a lie out of fear of being something he wasn't. The story was alright but the constant angst throughout the story was annoying. J. Lynn is actually a pseudonym for Jennifer L. Armentrout. I've read one book (which I liked) by her before this but it was in a different genre.

Madison works for a big museum and loves her work. She has a loving family and friends that she likes hanging out with. What Madison doesn't have is a man...this is because she's been in love with her brother's best friend, Chase, since she was very young and can't seen to find anyone remotely as good to help her get past him. She's tried to have a life but it's hard when they constantly run in to each other...like him getting an apartment in her building and always going to the gym at the same time as her...

Chase owns multiple night clubs and has done very well for himself. He's 1 of 3 brothers who were raised in a household where his father cheated on their mother and their mother drank away her sorrows. Chase decided that he's his father's son and he'll only hurt anyone he gets involved with so he decides never to get in a relationship.

So...Madison's brother and family think that her and Chase should be together so when a booking issue comes up, it's arranged so that Chase and Madison have to share a cabin. Since the resort that the wedding is taking place at is out in the boonies, there's no chance of either of them finding other accommodations. Madison is pretty much already horrified to be the Maid of Honor to Chase's Best Man and to have to bunk with him just makes it worse. She's always wanted Chase and she's the type of girl that wears her feelings on her face and doesn't lie well so it's not a hidden thing. Because of this, Madison is embarrassed when her family brings it up like it's cute. The fact that Chase treats her like a little sister doesn't help. They had one slip years before and haven't been able to get past it to their old friendship. They both miss it but don't know how to fix things.

So, Chase and Madison are stuck in a cabin together and of course Chase has trouble keeping his hands off Madison but when he does he stops and runs off like he's kissed a zombie so Madison is rightly feeling crappy about Chase's treatment of her. This is really where Chase showed how much of an idiot he is because he keeps pushing Madison away to "protect her" from the eventual heartbreak he's bound to make her feel when all the pushing away was doing the job quite nicely. Basically the drama is ongoing until the very end. Chase can't get past his determination that he's bad news (even though none of his past actions really demonstrate this) and Madison is trapped in the situation and keeps getting hurt by Chase being an idiot. Thankfully, Chase does come to his senses and goes after Madison and they have a nice ending to the story as they start planning their HEA.

This was an alright story. I liked Madison but yet at times I wanted to shake her. She was trapped in a situation she couldn't easily work around but I really felt she should have been more vocal about her issues with Chase's treatment of her...maybe he would have started realizing how his actions looked to others. Chase...well he seemed like a decent guy but he was an idiot and he just kept doing stupid things that, if he'd have thought about it from her PoV (or any other PoV other than his own), he might have figured out some things instead of things going to crap. Overall the story wasn't bad and was even enjoyable at times but the whole relationship drama seemed overdone. Hopefully this improves in the next book in the series as I've already purchased books # 2 & 3.

Loved it!

As always, I love another one of Jennifer Armentrout's books. Not to mention the narrator's voice was deep and sexy!

Amazing narrator

Cute, sexy story but the guy reading this really made it! I’m going to look up other books he reads. His performance was that good.

Nice contemporary love story

Nice contemporary love story with a swoon-worthy male voice by the reader. The romance is very mild but sweet to listen to.

Love!

I love a good sweet love story and this one is great. Sure it’s not as long as normal JLA books, but this first Gamble brother story is sweet and one I would definitely read again!