Life of Bliss (Love Life #2)

Title: Life of Bliss (Love Life Book 2)
Author: Erin McLellan
Publisher: Self Published
Release Date: April 30, 2018
Genre(s): Contemporary Romance
Page Count: 211 pages
Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5

Read book blurb here

This is book #2 in the series but can be read as a stand-alone.

We first meet Todd in Life on Pause as Rusty's faithless ex. As Life of Bliss starts, Todd and Victor (Nile's BF) find themselves on the outside of Rusty and Niles' domestic bliss and act their parts as the respective BFFs who absolutely despise one another. Except ... they have been enemies-with-sexy-benefits for about six steamy sexy months.

Todd and Victor had a thorny relationship. Victor was horribly gorgeous, sarcastic, and infuriating . . . And Todd loved hate-fucking him.

Todd has NO confidence in his relationship skills (after breaking up with Rusty, AND the guy he left Rusty for) and tells himself he's content with what he and Victor share. For his part, "Victor’s Todd crush was the reason he didn’t have a date for his cousin’s wedding. It was hard to woo other guys when you were carrying a torch for some fickle motherf@cker you only saw when you visited your best friend, who lived hours away."

Todd agrees to go with Victor to that family wedding, loves Victor's quirky family, much drinking ensues, and the two wake up married. So far, so good. But at this point,
Victor and Todd pretty much seclude themselves from their family and friends and spend the summer living together, telling no one they are married. Todd also spend the summer agonizing over his marriage.

Todd's indecisiveness over the entire summer grows weary, IMHO and the pace of the book feels very slow at times due to the sameness of Todd's angst. Also limiting the "married by accident" trope by keeping it secret dulls some of the impact for me personally, since part of the fun is watching two unlikely mates working through their situation in front of equally parts horrified and supportive family and friends.

I really enjoy the initial set-up of the love/hate/married situation, and Victor and Todd's chemistry is ridiculously hawt, but Todd's unwillingness to make a decision stalled the story for me personally, as well as the secret marriage. 3.5 stars, and Your Mileage May Vary.