Back in February, I put The Worst Best Man on my February TBR. It had everything I was looking for to spend my February alone romance and a Latina protagonist. I was finally able to check The Worst Best Man out from the library, after waiting a month. I spent many mornings consumed by this book. Now that I’ve hyped up this book, I’m going to dive into a summary.
Three years have passed since Carolina Santos’s finance, Andrew, left her stranded on her wedding day at the behest of his younger brother Max. Since then, Lina has been thriving, running a successful wedding planner company called “Dotting the I dos,” her ex is the furthest thing from her mind. However, when Lina is offered a job as a wedding concierge of a fancy hotel, she doesn’t expect to meet both her ex and his brother at the business meeting. At the meeting, the hotel’s CEO informs them that she needs them to divide into teams and pitch their best wedding ideas.
Lina teams up with Max, figuring she can enact petty revenge on him for ruining her wedding day and land a great pitch. However, as Max and Lina become closer, Lina starts to see that Max is trying to move beyond their past while she’s stuck caught up in it. Rightfully so, considering he ruined her life. However, once Max wins the approval of Lina’s family, it doesn’t take long for Lina to end the games.
“He’s cute in the eyes and thick in the thighs—a deadly combination that’s wasted on him.”
Mia Sosa
Max, on the other hand, is starting to crush hard on strong, badass Lina. He tries to fight it, knowing damn well a relationship with his brother’s ex equals complication, but he can’t help but let his feelings for Lina grow once she starts to let her guard down around him. Soon after, the two become more than friends but their pasts with Andrew threaten their relationship. Lina and Max need to decide quickly whether to continue their relationship or forget each other forever.
The Worst Best Man was a great romance novel to read during isolation. Mia Sosa’s writing is snappy and witty and the sex scenes in this novel are both sexy as well as playful. The most memorable sex scene that comes to mind is towards the end when Lina procrastinates leaving her apartment because she couldn’t stop looking at Max’s swaying penis. I laughed so hard during this scene that my dog Apollo gave me the are you okay look?
Additionally the main characters are super stubborn. First, there’s Lina who battles with allowing her emotions to control her. Lina’s entire family immigrate to the U.S from Brazil and from an early age Lina has been told to hide her emotions.
“A woman gets emotional in the workplace, she’s irrational and not fit for leadership. I was fired for being overly emotional in a male-dominated space.”
Mia Sosa
When Latin women become emotional or angry they’re disregarded as crazy. Which is only made worse by the Latin women are crazy stereotype. Unfortunately, for Lina she’s experienced first hand the effects of this stereotype. After a messy break up, Lina is to stressed to focus on her job and as a result she’s fired. Lina only continues to repress her emotions after that.
In comes, Max the first guy she’s ever felt comfortable enough to be emotional around, and that fucking terrifies her. But Lina learns to overcome that fear and to look at Max as a safe person to cry around. Most importantly, Max gets it. He understands how hard it is for Lina to express her emotions even though, he has never had to think twice about it.
“It’s a privelege I take for granted- the ability to be who I want and say what I want no matter the space I’m in.”
Mia Sosa
Max allows her a space to process her feelings, and Lina couldn’t be any more in love.
“He knows.
Somehow he knew I was overcome with emotion and stepped in to help me save face.”
Mia Sosa
I love Max for that. A lot of men don’t know how to handle someone simply expressing human emotions. Especially women. Which is how Max becomes the perfect man for Lina.
Max may not have difficulty showing his emotions, but he does struggle with an unhealthy sibling rivalry. Max and Andrew work at the same PR company, as a result, they are often pitted against each other. Max desperately wants to stand out from Andrew, so when he teams up with Lina, he is determined to prove to himself.
Max overcomes the sibling rivalry, for the most part, however, the reason he resists his feelings for Lina so long is that he has already experienced a significant other who chose his brother over him. Even though Lina is completely over Andrew, it takes Max quite a minute to realize it
Aside from that beautiful theme in this novel I also enjoyed seeing Lina feel guilty about wanting to give up her business but knowing that doing so would be an insult to her mother and her tias who all invested money into her, not to mention all the sacrifices they endured to start a life in the U.S.
I wish I could say that first-generation guilt goes away, but I don’t think it ever will. I continue to experience it now even as a part of the first generation in my family who attended and graduated from university.
Mia Sosa intertwines culture, struggle, romance, and comedy all together beautifully. The writing for this book sucked me in immediately and reading both Max and Lina’s chaotic inner dialogue made me laugh out loud in the darkness of my room.
I hope to read more books by Mia Sosa in the future because it isn’t everyday, I come across a Latinx writer writing about romance in an adult genre.
I recommend this book year-round, but if you need some books to add to your Latinx heritage month Tbr, considers this one. Until next time continue living in libros,
Gaby
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