Man Hands by Sarina Bowen & Tanya Eby

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Title: Man Hands
Author: Sarina Bowen, Tanya Eby
Series: Man Hands,
Published by: Indie
Release Date: December 11th 2017
Format: eARC
Pages: 239
Genres: Contemporary
Source: the author
Find it: Goodreads
My rating:

Blurb:

He puts the "screw" in screwball comedy...

BRYNN
At thirty-four, I’m reeling from a divorce. I don’t want to party or try to move on. I just want to stay home and post a new recipe on my blog: Brynn’s Dips and Balls.

But my friends aren’t having it. Get out there again, they say. It will be fun, they say. I’m still taking a hard pass.

Free designer cocktails, they say. And that’s a game-changer.

Too bad my ex shows up with his new arm candy. That’s when I lose my mind. But when my besties dare me to leap on the first single man I see, they don't expect me to actually go through with it.

TOM
All I need right now is some peace and quiet while my home renovation TV show is on hiatus. But when a curvy woman in a red wrap dress charges me like she’s a gymnast about to mount my high bar, all I can do is brace myself and catch her. What follows is the hottest experience of my adult life.

I want a repeat, but my flying Cinderella disappears immediately afterward. She doesn’t leave a glass slipper, either—just a pair of panties with chocolate bunnies printed on them.

But I will find her.

My Review:

I received a free copy through the author in exchange for an honest and unbiased review/opinion.

4 stars — OK, I adore Ms. Bowen, and writing with Ms. Eby obviously brought out another side to her!!  I was surprised with how much I enjoyed this one, b/c I’m not actually that attracted to those outrageous humour books that I see so many people love.  I have a bad case of sympathetic embarrassment, in that when characters are doing something *I’d* be embarrassed about, I tend to spend a lot of time cringing.  My favourite example is the movie Meet the Parents.  Subconsciously I understand how funny the scenes were, but I honestly barely laughed b/c I was too busy feeling uncomfortable.  This book was not even close to that bad, but there were definitely elements….  It took me outside my comfort zone, but you know what?  I laughed anyways…and I laughed HARD at times.  Yes, I cringed, but it was worth it.

As with all books that I enjoy, I loved the characters in this one…and that’s partly why I was able to work around my sympathetic embarrassment.  Brynn was unlike any heroine I’ve read.  She was a bit crazy…OK, a LOT crazy.  But I sympathized with her, and what she was going through, and the damage that had been done by her ex.  They were actually an interesting pair, b/c I felt for Tom too.  He had his own damage from childhood, and I kind of wished we’d learned more about what happened there…I mean, we didn’t find out what happened to his family, did we?  Regardless, they were two lost souls just wanting someone to love them for who they were.  Talk about heart squeezing.

And they had great chemistry!!  Normally I’m less enamoured with a couple when they go right to the sexy times, but once you read their “meet sexy/crazy” you’ll understand why it just works for some reason.  So despite their rush into sex, I still really believed their relationship progression.  I felt their feelings turn from just lust/attraction to more.  I loved how they both couldn’t stop thinking about the other, and I adored how they went from sex back to almost bashful crushes.  It’s hard to explain.  I seriously loved how drawn to each other they were…and, because I’m a girl, I was particularly enamoured with how Tom appreciated all the things about Brynn that made her unique, and even the things that she thought made her less desirable (her love of food, her gorgeous curves).  They were just kind of perfect together, and so adorable.  And obviously the steamy moments were awesome.

I also really appreciated that the climax in the plot didn’t play out in a stereotypical way…you have no idea how relieving that was.  Brynn’s a smart girl and I applaud her for cutting through the crap right away.  I always love it when a story surprises me in a good way.

Another thing this story brought to the table was a great friendship between Brynn, Ash and Sadie.  I love good friendship stories.  These girls made me laugh so much when they were together, they were just very unapologetic.  I did like the friendship between Tom and Braht as well, though I would love to know what brought them together in the first place…but let’s be honest, it was the girl’s friendship that was the star of the show.  But I will say that as far as secondary characters go, Tom’s penis took the cake.  He had his own personality and some good things to say, and Tom’s interactions with him made me laugh and laugh.

So yeah, if you love a good dose of comedy with your romance, this is the book for you.  I can’t wait to see what’s going to happen with Ash and Braht in Man Card.