Stuntman Draven O’Connor never turns down a dare—even if it means getting down on one knee to propose to his former college roommate and friend. The same man he’s been crushing on since the first day they met. The same man that has grown distant over the past year. And the same man who just agreed to be his fiancé.Julien Bouchard is tired of living a lie. He spent the past year exploring his … exploring his sexuality in secret, enduring countless dates with women to appease his mother, and dodging his best friend, Draven, who knows everything there is to know about him, except the one thing that could change their friendship. Ready to face his friend, he meets him at a bar and is greeted by an unexpected marriage proposal. The dare isn’t surprising; it’s the scorching hot kiss that sends Julien’s head and heart in a tailspin—and gives him an idea for the perfect plan.
But perfect plans are never go according to plan, and news of their fake engagement spreads to their families as fast as a wildfire, forcing them to confront their true feelings about each other and hope they don’t get burned.
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I’ll be honest and say that I didn’t like Julien at first. He really rubbed me the wrong way. But after having met his parents I could understand him a lot better and slowly he began to show what kinda man he really is.
As for Draven; I loved his personality. He was outgoing, funny and so passionate towards his work and love for Julien. They chemistry was hot and the banter has me laughing out loud.
All in all this was a nice first read by the author for me. Definitely picking up more books in the future to read.
***Review copy requested and reviewed on behalf of OMGReads Blog***
A fun read with some of my favourite tropes. This is my first book by this author and I quite liked it. This is a dual POV book and I love Jules and Draven together. There were times I just wanted to hit their heads and scream at them to get their shit together. There is much angst. Jules’ parents wins the ‘A+Parenting’ award!
I loved the secondary characters. Tate is just amazing. Jules’ brother, Quinn, was one of my favourite characters. I’m looking forward to reading his book. It was a fun, lighthearted read. Jules and Draven are quite adorable together.
*ARC provided by the author in exchange for an honest review
Grace Kilian Delaney’s Living on a Dare is the first book in A Shore Thing Novel series. It is an amazing story between best friends who find love while pretending to be engaged. I love Draven and Julien together. They are best friends and so sweet together (and hot)… they just have some obstacles to overcome. The story is fun, sweet, sexy and definitely satisfying.
I received an advanced reader’s copy of the book and I am voluntarily leaving my honest review and recommendation.
Draven and Jules are best friends but there is the issue of unrequited love between the both of them and it starts to drive a wedge between them. I did get annoyed with Draven at times as he was punishing Jules slightly due to past hurts and expecting him to guess what wasn’t said. Jules is really caught up in his work and doesn’t have any spare time for friends and he misses that closeness they once had. A joke gone too far has Jules’s mother up in arms and taking over his life. I genuinely enjoyed their interactions and how they both didn’t see what was in front of their faces, the heat level was just right, not too heavy or lacking. We come full circle with the ruse and it makes my heart happy to see everyone get what they want. Jules’s brother was interesting and i can’t wait to get my hands on his book.
This book includes several of my favorite tropes, including fake relationship, friends to lovers, first time, and sexual awakening. Having them all together had me chomping at the bit to read this story. It did not disappoint.
Dares can be fun, and some may even change your life. Draven loves dares and never turns one down. He accepts an outrageous dare, which, with a twist of fate, brings his estranged best friend back into his life. As his fiancé. Yup, he just proposed to a man he hasn’t even talked to in a year, and has had a crush on longer than that. Julien has his own secrets, and one hot kiss later, and he’s on a journey of revealing it. Can they find happiness, or will it crash and burn—like a stunt gone wrong?
This was a fun book to get lost in. It was well written, and I liked the characters. It had just the right amount of angst, to give it a sense of realness, yet stayed light enough to be enjoyable. I’m looking forward to the next book in the series.
***Copy provided to Bayou Book Junkie for my reading pleasure. A review wasn’t a requirement. ***
Grace Kilian Delaney is fast becoming one of my favorite authors. I loved her Bars and Butterflies, and this first installments of her Shore Thing series won my heart quickly by taking the fake boyfriend/fiance trope up a notch. The characters have great chemistry, the story is fun but with some tender achiness to it. I thoroughly enjoyed it!
Really enjoyed this fast reading, well written, friends to loves book. I couldn’t believe it when Draven proposed to me the first time I had seen him in over a year on a dare. We had been best friends all through college, but between my high preformance job and some personal issues going on in my life and I was just not up to having to deal with my best friend so I ghosted him. Even thought we’re not really ingaged someone outed me, and now my family knows about it and everything has changed between us. But the sad part is all I can do is hang on and hope he realizes I want us to be really together forever.
I have to admit that the fake boyfriends trope has been overdone recently, IMO. However, the unique plotline of this book made it a very entertaining read and kept it from being just another book in the trope. The characters are well developed, and the storyline was entertaining.
Draven and Jules became friends back in college. Draven is out and proud, and comes from a loving and tactile family. Jules, on the other hand, comes from a very sterile environment, lacking warmth and the support he found in his friend.
Fast forward several years, and the two men are living on opposite sides of the country. They have remained close until the last year. Unfortunately, when Draven needed his friend the most, Jules was having a crisis of his own, and it hurt their friendship in a serious way.
When Draven comes to Boston, once again hoping to see Jules, he and his friend/boss are waiting at a bar. As tradition goes, Tate dares a commitment fearing Draven to propose to the next person to enter the bar. That person just happens to be Jules.
Jules is in the line of work he loves, but his job is wearing him down. He’s secretly on a journey of self-discovery, as he comes to terms with the fact that he is bi, and it’s not just because he’s attracted to Draven. When Draven proposes, he goes along, not thinking about the repercussions of saying yes and the scorching hot kiss that followed happening in public.
Soon, things get out of hand, but Jules is not ready to tell his mother the truth. The lies bother Draven, and his past makes him question every motivation, feeling, and desire; both Jules’ and his own. Eventually, after circumstances give them time to be together, the lines between friends and lovers blur. But, even with love, real life adult decisions have to be made, like them or not. However, when a choice between love and everything else needs to be made, love wins.
I think I really enjoyed this story for a couple of reasons. First of all, even though it eventually was used as something else, the fake relationship does not happen out of necessity. Secondly, the two men have been friends for years, and this is not a GFY situation. The author tells a good story, and I am so looking forward to seeing what happens with Quinn and Xander. This is definitely a happily ever after for Draven and Jules.
Happy reading!
* I received a free copy of this book and I am leaving my honest review. *
This is a new to me author and I loved the characters. Draven and Julian …the best friends to lovers and fake boyfriend tropes mixed together but I am almost more excited about Quinn’s book and hoping the author does his androgynous nature justice. Julians mum annoyed the heck out of me and I know she is just a character but I wanted to slap her. I thiught the endinf was slightky rushed but overall I’d give this book a 3.5 stars .
Living on a Dare is the first book in the Shore Thing series, and we start off with two friends, Draven and Julien. Draven is gay, and has known it for years. Julien is struggling to come to terms with his bi-sexuality, and as such, pushes Draven away until he is sure. Both of these have had feelings for the other for years, but neither thought anything would come of it. It takes a dare to bring their feelings to the surface, but even then, there is a lot of confusion going on.
This was a great story, with plenty of action and steam. I loved how these two worked together, although I could also slap them upside the head at times! There is a great cast of supporting characters too. I actually loved Julien’s mum, and the role she played. This is the first in the series, and I can’t wait to see what comes next.
A sweet, hot, humorous story that I definitely recommend.
* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book, and the comments here are my honest opinion. *
Merissa
Archaeolibrarian – I Dig Good Books!
A good start to this series.
Living on a Dare is the first book I’ve read by Grace Kilian Delaney and I enjoyed it. It’s a pretty quick and entertaining read. It’s told in first person POV, alternating between Draven and Julien and has a couple of good tropes: friends to lovers and fake engagement/marriage.
There’s not much angst to the story and it didn’t really give me a lot of feels as I read it, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t like it. Other than Julien’s homophobic parents it a fairly light read but I wouldn’t exactly call it fluffy. Both men have hang-ups to overcome for their relationship to work. Draven got burned by his last long-term boyfirend and Julien has some insecurities because of his parents.
Julien’s brother, Quinn, was an interesting secondary character and I’m looking forward to reading his story in the next book.
An advanced copy of this book was provided to me but my review was voluntary and not influenced by the author.
***Reviewed for Xtreme-Delusions dot com***