Addison Murphy is the funny friend, the girl you grab a beer with–the girl voted most likely to start her own sweatshirt line. And now that one of her best guy friends is getting married, she’ll add “groomsman” to that list, too. She’ll get through this wedding if it’s the last thing she does. Just don’t ask her to dive for any bouquet. When Tucker Crawford returns to his small hometown, he … hometown, he expects to see the same old people, feel comfort in the same old things. He certainly doesn’t expect to see the nice pair of bare legs sticking out from under the hood of a broken-down car. Certainly doesn’t expect to feel his heart beat faster when he realizes they belong to one of his best friends.
If he convinces Addie to give him a chance, they could be electric…or their breakup could split their tight-knit group in two.
Hiding the way he feels from the guys through bachelor parties, cake tastings, and rehearsals is one thing. But just as Tucker realizes that Addie truly could be the perfect woman for him–he was just too stupid to realize it–now she’s leaving to follow her own dreams. He’s going to need to do a lot of compromising if he’s going to convince her to take a shot at forever with him–on her terms this time.
Each book in the Getting Hitched series is STANDALONE:
* Just One of the Groomsmen
* Always a Bridesmaid
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loved it, would read again!!!
This is a delightful, small town, best friends to lovers romance, written in a charming and humorous voice and the first in a new series. Quirky and eclectic characters that populate the town add to the wonderful characters and provide amusement.
Tomboy, Addison (Addie) Murphy Murphy) had grown up with her gang, Tucker Crawford, Will Shepherd (Shep), Easton and Ford in the small town of Uncertainty, Alabama, but her best friend had always been Tucker. They have all grown up, but only Tucker left, to become a lawyer in Birmingham, as his father had drummed into him after his parents divorced, that he needed a high paying job, to keep the wolves at bay. But Tucker hated the city. For two years he had no life and rarely was able to come home. He missed his friends, his town, but most of all Addie. When he finally does make it back for a weekend, Shep reveals at their weekly poker game that he is getting married and ALL his friends, including Addie will be his groomsmen. Soon, Tucker is back for good, trying out a few ideas, how to make a living. Addie is a PT, but hates her boss. Easton is a policeman and Ford, search & rescue. When Tucker comes back home, he starts to see Addie differently and Addie is drawn to him too. But they are both afraid to mess up their friendship, to reveal their feelings and communicate, as they had done in the past, almost destroying their relationship when they both put the needs to put the other’s best interest first, causing heartbreaking misunderstandings. Fortunately, they have friends to straighten them out.
I received a free ARC from NetGalley.com. This is my unbiased and voluntary review.
Just One of the Groomsmen kicks off Cindi Madsen’s new series Getting Hitched in Dixie and after reading Addie and Tucker’s story, I am looking forward to what comes next.
This is a fun, friends to lovers romance with excellent characters. Addie and Tucker are both easy to like, even when you want to bop them upside the head. The secondary cast is entertaining, I especially liked that Ms Madsen made Lexi a female character that Addie was able to bond with instead of being competitive with for Shep’s friendship. The town itself is a fabulous character! I also liked the emotional growth we saw. Both Addie and Tucker had soft spots and insecurities that they had to face in order to have a chance and I appreciated how that was handled.
Book 1 in a series is always a challenge to balance world building with the story and Ms Madsen did an excellent job. She gave us a chance to know the town and Addie’s core group of friends, but didn’t over power the relationship growing between the main characters.
After reading this, I am looking forward to seeing more of Uncertainty, AL!
4.5 stars for a sweet friends to lovers romance.
This book was fun; still made me cry; and chuckle and swoon.
Addison and Tucker have been friends for years, decades even which makes their pull of attraction towards each other tough to give into. Tucker will drive you crazy with his inability to fight for what he should.
“…until Tucker put himself in the equation, Addie needed to take him out of it and then make her decision.”
Addison is strong, independent (to a fault), and such a loyal friend. The characters were so interesting in this one that you will enjoy learning about them hopefully in future books.
This has a down home Southern flair to the story and best friends who fall in love is one of the best kind of stories!! Friendship makes for a strong relationship if you can overcome the risks of taking the plunge. So glad these two did.
I voluntarily requested and read an uncorrected advance reader copy.
Loved, loved, loved this book! I loved the friends-to-lovers storyline, the camaraderie of the group of “guys”, the secondary characters – especially Addie’s grandmother Nonna Lucia, the Southern charm of Uncertainty, Alabama – I just loved everything about the book.
Addison “Addie” Murphy is a tomboy who has been friends with a group of guys since high school. One of the guys is getting married, and Addie is asked to be a “groomsmen” along with Tucker Crawford, who had moved away and become a “big city lawyer.”
Tucker realizes that big city life is not for him and moves back to town because life is too short to be miserable. Addie had always been his “go-to” when he needed advice, and he missed his best friend.
While Addie was close to all the guys, she had a special connection to Tucker and, when he returns to Uncertainty, she feels things are realigned.
“It was as if something she hadn’t even realized was broken was fixed.”
Both Tucker and Addie are afraid to cross the line from friend to lover but, as Addie’s grandmother tells them
“Friendship is easy. You add fire, it gets tricky. But if you find a way to have both…”
This is my first Cindi Madsen book, and I definitely want to read more of her books. I laughed out loud when Nonna put Tucker on retainer and promoted him to the whole town and at the Star Wars and Harry Potter references. I highly recommend this book and hope there will be more about the rest of the “guys”!
I received a copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review
Just One of the Groomsmen
Cindi Madsen
Entangled Publishing
A big THANK YOU to Cindi Madsen for allowing me the privilege to read & review the ARC of this great book.
Along with Shep, Easton, Ford & Tucker, Addison “Murph” Murphy has always been just one of the guys, and she’s spent her life getting into mischief with her best friends in Uncertainty Alabama.
When one of the guys calls an emergency meeting Addie’s thrilled to see everyone’s there, especially Tucker who rarely makes it home to visit due to his job in the city.
Sick of being so far away & working in a career with no joy, & after a weekend spent with his best friends Tucker decides to move home to Uncertainty.
What happens when he finds the gorgeous pair of legs coming out from under a broken down car belong to one of his best friends? What else but fall in love.
JOotG is a cute, funny, light-hearted & sexy friends to lovers romance with awesome characters & a great storyline. I loved the group dynamic, Addie & Tucker have a great chemistry and steam up the pages well, after some heavily built sexual tension. The supporting characters all had their own charm and I’d love to see Ford & Easton get stories of their own. Speaking as someone who grew up with more male than female friends, it was lovely to see the relationship between Addie & the bride to be spun positively, instead of the usual bitch-fest. No spoilers, but as always there’s the dark parts the main characters have to go through to reach their HEA and Madsen has written this well.
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I laughed and smiled throughout this book. This group have been best friends since before high school. The 4 guys have treated Murph like one of the guys. She is perfect example of a tom boy. Doesn’t like dresses, high heels and doesn’t wear make-up. Even though this book is supposed to be about Shep and Lexi getting married, Tucker and Addie steal the show. In the end, small town living is the place for all. The secondary characters are a hoot.
Just One of the Groomsmen was a fun and entertaining book that had me captivated from start to finish! This is a great small town romance, which is my favorite! Tucker and Addie had amazing chemistry and I loved their story! Just One of the Groomsmen is the perfect summer read!
This is the perfect weekend read sexy, fun and flirty. The characters are easy to relate to and I love the friendships between everyobe. Abbie is the token chick in the group total tomboy but super sassy. She can fix a car and take your breath away with her beauty in minutes. She is off limits the total friendship before all else. I love how Tucker gets knocked on his butt when he realizes his true feelings. Struggling to find his path in life he just may find what he has been missing this entire time. But the question is can he take the risk and lose it all? You need to read this amazing book and find out for yourself. It’s such a great romantic comedy you don’t want to miss out.
Well, this was delightful.
Here we meet Addison and Tucker, they’ve known each other their entire lives and she’s seen as ‘one of the guys’, with an all male group of friends. Because of this, she’s never been seen as a girl by others. Or at least she thinks so, lol.
When Tucker comes back to the city after resigning his life in the city, he starts seeing Addie VERY differently. The same happens with her and between trying to ignore those feelings and just give in, this shows a lot of fun times with these two, lol.
I loved them, particularly Addie, she was so awesome. How could girls not want to be her friend? It broke my heart to see some of her insecure moments, I hated that people made her feel almost inadequate. 🙁 And THAT’s one of the things I loved about Tucker, he truly saw HER. And it was awesome.
They have some ups and down, but all in all it was lovely seeing them fall for each other.
Loved this and looking forward to more I the series. <3
*Thank you to the author for providing a copy for which I’m giving my honest opinion*
Great, fun read! Addison is a tomboy who falls for one of her best friends Tucker. The group of five is like a pack of Rambunctious puppies getting into all kinds of mischief. The story is filled with fun antics and characters from all across the town of Uncertainty. Nonna is a hoot. As the relationship progresses Addie has to overcome her insecurities and open her heart. Tucker also has to learn to trust that he is enough as he is to be loved. The story ends beautifully and sets up for the next in the series.
“Just One of the Groomsmen” was overall a very cute book with likeable characters. I was slightly annoyed by the characters’ accents, however; sometimes they had them, but sometimes they didn’t, even within the same sentence or paragraph. This is especially true of Addie’s Nonna Lucia with her Italian accent, but some of the characters’ Southern accents seemed to be sporadic as well. (Why would they drop the “g” at the end of one word but not at the end of the one RIGHT AFTER IT?) To be fair, I read an ARC of this book, so it is entirely possible that this is an issue that will be fixed in the final edition of the book, but Nonna Lucia’s speech was especially frustrating to me. It just didn’t make sense to me that she could speak perfect English most of the time, then all of a sudden seem to have a strong accent and drop/misuse verbs, etc.
I also found myself growing somewhat annoyed towards the end of the book because it seemed like most of the problems between Addie and Tucker could have been solved with an honest conversation. I like a grand gesture as much as anybody, but things never should have needed to go that far. I thought that both of their insecurities were perfectly understandable, and I can also understand that they were both afraid of what might happen if their relationship changed, but they were lifelong best friends. They really should not have had as much trouble communicating with each other as they did.
Still, I would read more books by this author, especially if there are future books planned for the remaining single guys in this group of friends (Ford and Easton). The interactions between the core group of friends were a lot of fun and I wouldn’t mind seeing more of them.
*ARC provided by the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.
Just one of the Groomsmen was a delightful and easy to read. This book was entertaining, sweet and charming. I enjoyed reading about the characters in this story.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you NetGalley and Entangled Publishing, LLC
This book was pure perfection of a friends to lover’s story.
Addison “Murph” Murphy spent her teenage years hanging with a group of guys who are still her best friends. Even though she loves all of her guys the same, Addie was always closest to Tucker Crawford. When the group gets summoned together by Shep to tell them he is getting married to his girlfriend, Lexi, he informs the “guys” that he wants them all as his groomsmen….well technically Murph will be a groomsmen but she will have to wear a dress and stand by the other girls. Murph isn’t thrilled with the whole girly thing, especially the dress part, but she will do it for one of her best friends.
When Tuck ends up quitting his big city lawyer job to move back to his home town, Addie and him start spending a lot more time together and start to see each other in a different light. Both of them want to throw caution to the wind and see if what they are each feeling is real, but they also don’t want to ruin the best friendship they have. When they finally give in to their feelings, their world explodes….who knew it could be so right. Just when it looks like things are ending up perfect, their world implodes. It will take a huge leap of faith to get these two back on track to their perfect ending but they finally do get it.
I just adored this book. Addie was such a fun, non-girly girl. Tuck was just a perfect balance for Addie and together they were perfect. I cannot say enough wonderful things about this story….I laughed, cried and swooned.
Sweet, & Deliciously, Sexy! If you love a romance that brings all the feels, full of smiles, tingles, butterflies, and longing liquid, hot need. This is the book to read. I couldn’t stop smiling as I read this in one sitting. This was a delightful and entertaining friends to lovers romance, that will make you blush, laugh and swoon for days. And then you will go back and read it again. Why are you still reading? BUY IT NOW!!
A great start to what promises to be a fun series!
I loved Addie and Tucker’s rather unconventional friends-to-lovers story. The “groomsmen” aspect was just part of it–I especially liked that Tucker was the first one to be feeling all the feelings and that Addie didn’t have to do any changing of who she was to “get her guy”–despite what her mother and the entire town of Uncertainty(!) had been telling her for years. Ms. Marsden’s writing style was a lot of fun here–there were just as many LOL moments as there were swoony ones. (Addie’s grandma–OMG)
I’m a little bummed that we don’t get Shep and Lexi’s story (the bride and groom) but there’s still plenty of single groomsmen left in the friends group, and I can’t wait to see what Ms. Marsden has in store for them!
Rating: 4 stars / A
I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book.
Cindi Madsen has done it again! She’s brought us a wonderfully charming story with characters that will win your heart and a storyline that will have you smiling and swooning. Loved these characters and as always the writing is top notch. Definitely a book I recommend to everyone.
Addie has always just been one of the guys in her group of friends. Her love of sports, poker, and comfortable clothes help her fit right in with the guys. Now that one of the group is getting married she finds herself as one of the groomsmen….err, groomspeople? With all the wedding duties she finds herself spending more and more time with Tucker and not minding it at all. Except she’s starting to see him as more than just one of her besties. Not good. Not good at all. Starting anything at all with Tucker could ruin their friendship and change the whole group dynamic. Right?? Tucker disagrees and plans to prove to Addie they are worth the risk!
Just One of the Groomsmen by Cindi Madsen is book One in the Getting Hitched in Dixie Series. This is the story Tucker Crawford and Addison Murphy.
Addison has always been one of the ‘guys’ around her friends which are all guys. Now one of the friends in their group is getting married. This leads to Tucker coming home who has been away working on his career. One the way he happens upon someone working on a car that has some dropped dead gorgeous legs. But he soon learns those legs belong to one of his friends but what she does to him his to friendly in the attraction zone. Addison too is seeing Tucker in a new life but neither will admit it at first nor do they want to upset their group of friends.
Sweet Cute friends to lovers story.
Addison AKA “Murph” is the only girl in her group of friends. She is one of the guys and she likes it that way. Why not hang out with those you have more in common? Well with a wedding to be a part of this could be interesting.
Tucker has always loved his home and his friends. He misses them and realizes that he is pretty lonely. When he suddenly notices the body on one of his closest friends he finds he must re-evaluate his priorities.
This was such a fun start to the new series. I find this author to be a must click – and I will tell you why. This story, like many of her other books, has great humor, some hijinx, and always a great tale. Let’s not forget the sexy heat and steady pace too.
***This ARC copy was given in exchange for an honest review only.
Just One of the Groomsmen by Cindi Madsen is the first book in her Getting Hitched in Dixie series and I absolutely loved it. This friends to lovers romance had me smiling throughout the entire story. Addison was such a great character. Just one of the guys, all her best friends a guys and she is just one of them. When one of them is set to get married, he asks her to be one of his groomsmen. Which is fine with her.
Tucker is one of those best friends and is back home, but he never expected to see Addison in such a different way. Can he take a chance and tell her how he feels or risk their friendship? They had great banter and I loved the friendship they all shared. Tucker and Addison had such great chemistry together, but personal issues seemed to keep them apart.
I loved Just One of the Groomsmen by Cindi Madsen. The story was sweet and charming and had me smiling throughout the story. Such great characters and fun and light read.
Read and reviewed for Sultry Sirens Book Blog.
Happy reading!