Modern romance The Worst Best Man by Lucy Score is really two books. The first is a wacky adventure story in which heroine Frankie and hero Aiden have to rescue their friend Chip from a kidnapping in the Bahamas. Hijinks include use of a precocious twelve year old taxi driver, Frankie flashing her boobs in exchange for information, and Frankie and Aiden double crossing each other to try to conduct separate rescues.
After the successful resolution of the kidnapping plot, we are transported to an entirely different trope: working class but ambitious girl Frankie dates poor little rich boy Aiden. All conventional beats are ticked off: Aiden's family warns him that Frankie is not appropriate for his station in life; Aiden buys Frankie expensive dresses; paparazzi follow Frankie around; Aiden is put in a compromising position by a conniving socialite; Frankie runs away because she believes she does not belong in Aiden's world; and, finally they get married and SPOILER
decide to gentrify -- er, help -- Frankie's working class neighborhood by buying up all the property in it, putting in chi chi coffee shops, renovating a house and moving into it, and generally living happily ever after.
It was a bit difficult to reconcile the two parts of the novel, but both were enjoyable in their own way. I appreciated that the characters were a bit older than we often see in romance novels -- Frankie in her mid-30s and Aiden turning 40. They both have a romantic past. We don't hear anything about Frankie's, but she comes to the relationship with Aiden just as sexually experienced, skilled, and enthusiastic as he is, which is a nice change from the typical romance. (As a side note, why doesn't anyone write romances where the characters have great sexual chemistry but still need to work out with each other what they both like? Bodies are not fungible.) (Another side note: Frankie is great at deepthroating. This is a specific skill and I would like to know where she learned it, especially given her seeming lack of serious past romantic entanglements.)
Overall, this is an enjoyable if not particularly memorable novel.
