In order to inherit and fully takeover her family’s lumberyard business after her dad retires, Addison Monroe legally must be married for at least a year. Addison’s attempts at finding a temporary husband aren’t going well and she refuses to ruin her friendship with her best friend Luke Fletcher by agreeing to his proposal. Thus, Addison determines to find herself a husband at the upcoming lumberjack competition. But Luke is secretly in love with Addison and fears the potential consequences of her marrying a stranger. So, with the help of his meddling matchmaking niece Everly, Luke devises a plan to get his best friend to fall in love with him for real before the end of the year, which all starts with him entering the lumberjack competition in order to prove to Addison that he would make the perfect “fake” husband.
Honeymoon Phase features the marriage of convenience, fake relationship, cinnamon roll hero/golden retriever male main character, he falls first, friends to lovers, and forced proximity tropes. This book series would be perfect for fans of spicy interconnected smalltown romance series like the Silver Pines series by Paisley Hope, Rose Hill series by Elsie Silver, Blue Moon series by Lucy Score, Bergman Brothers series by Chloe Liese, and Hot and Hammered series by Tessa Bailey. Honeymoon Phase deals with themes and topics like self worth, love and heartbreak, grief and loss of family members, alcohol abuse and drunk driving, imprisonment, fear, protectiveness, friendship, family, parenthood, truth and lies, and women in male dominated fields. Whilst this is the third book in the Mountain Men Matchmaker series, it was the first book of Amy Daws that I picked up, so Honeymoon Phase can be read as a standalone, however there was some context that was missing without having read the others.
Honeymoon Phase reminded me of one of my all-time favourite interconnected series, the Bergman Brothers series by Chloe Liese, so that was a huge plus! Furthermore, like the Bergman family, I loved how the Fletcher family in the Mountain Men Matchmaker series had a sweet and close-knit relationship that often featured well-meaning yet excessive meddling and matchmaking schemes. There was a good mix of swoon, spice, and more serious moments in Honeymoon Phase, and felt like a fast-paced and engaging read. The forced proximity tension when Addison moves into Luke’s cabin on Fletcher Mountain was excellent, especially when they get snowed in! The smalltown mountain setting was super cosy and would highly recommend lighting a candle or sipping a hot beverage while reading any of the Mountain Men Matchmaker books. Lastly, even though she was abroad at college for the majority of the book, I really enjoyed Luke’s spunky niece Everly and all of her matchmaking attempts and I am very excited that Everly is the main character in the next Mountain Men Matchmaker book!
One potential downside of this book was that it was unexpectedly emotional at times, mainly due to all of the talk of grief and loss. There was also a super cringy moment involving an ex-partner that I personally could have done without and didn’t really feel was necessary to the story.
Overall, I really enjoyed Honeymoon Phase and will definitely be going back to read the first two Mountain Men Matchmaker books! I would highly recommend this book to fans of cinnamon roll heroes, rugged lumberjacks, spicy smalltown romances, forced proximity, and matchmaking family members.
Honeymoon Phase is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore.
Will you be picking up Honeymoon Phase? Tell us in the comments below!
Synopsis
Fact or fiction: proposing to your best friend so she can inherit her family business is a great idea.
When Addison “Roe” Monroe tells me she’s going on a husband hunt at the local lumberjack competition so she can inherit her father’s lumberyard, desperate times call for desperate measures.
She’s sworn off romance. Says she’s been through enough tragedy. So I offer myself as an alternative, ’cause that’s what best friends are for.
But my stubborn friend, who would rather drive a forklift than get her nails done, refuses to accept my help, and now I find myself training to become a lumberjack.
I refuse to let Roe hitch her wagon to some hulking ax wielder who might be a serial killer. She means too much to me.
And I swear there are moments where she looks at me like I mean something more to her, too.
On the surface, I’m offering a marriage of convenience to protect her. But the truth is…I’m hopelessly in love with my best friend.
So if I have to marry her and move her up to Fletcher Mountain just to see if she could love me back, so be it.
Because my only regret would be losing her forever, and that’s a fact.
