I've said it before, I'll say it again - I'll suspend a lot of disbelief when there's a skilled writer driving the bus. I'm not sure where Sophie Pembroke has been all my category reading life, but if Slow Dance with the Best Man is any indication I need to go diving into my Kindle to see what else I have languishing there.

Eloise Miller has spent a lifetime fading into the background thanks to an actress mother (big fish, small pond of local theater) who had a habit of falling in love with her leading men, humiliating Eloise's father (who always took her back, natch) and made Eloise the target of local mean girl, Melissa Sommers. Well, Melissa Sommers is now an "actress" - or at least another Hollywood pretty face ("actress" might be overstating things) and she's engaged to "actor" Riley Black and has a giant ring to prove it. Now Melissa is back in her small English hometown, at Morwen Hall, the Gothic manor estate that is now a world-class hotel to get married and run everyone ragged. Eloise worked there as a teen and once she finished university she went back to her hometown and is vying for the manager role. Pulling off Melissa's wedding will be a serious feather in her cap, assuming she can keep from strangling the bride.

Noah Cross got his start in traveling Shakespearean theater troupes, but these days he's the personification of superficial leading man - shallow action movies where lots of stuff blows up and parts that play heavily on his charm. He feeds into this with superficial relationships and being seen about town with an impressive variety of pretty faces. But he's getting restless and his agent has sent him a script for a part he would kill to land. The problem? It's a serious movie, a serious part, and Noah has been placed in his typecast box. So when his agent somehow manages to get a video call set up with the script's writer and director, she makes Noah promise to keep a low profile and behave himself. The problem being he keeps getting distracted by a certain pretty hotel manager....

This is a light, fluffy concoction set around The Wedding Of The Moment that ticks all the boxes. You've got Melissa, a villain you can't help but hate, and a main couple both hiding behind past baggage neither has begun to unpack. Given Melissa's childhood she thinks of actors in much the same way as cockroaches in a kitchen, and Noah has been playing Mr. Superficial Good Time in response to a past tragedy he's refused to deal with. However once these two lock eyes, they both recognize that there's something between them - something that frankly scares the heck out of both of them.

How well a reader enjoys this story depends entirely on how much they can suspend their disbelief. Noah and Eloise fall for each other right away and the flirting kicks in immediately. They fight the attraction until they can't any longer, tumble into bed, and then do a disaster job of trying to keep the fling (which isn't really a fling but they're both deluding themselves at this point) on the down low. Until, of course, it all comes tumbling out into the open. We're talking a matter of days here. So the reader has to buy into the idea of a Hollywood star falling in love with A Nobody in a matter of days when they both have baggage that have kept them from "serious relationships" for some time.

I could do that, mostly because I was utterly charmed by the story, the couple and the sparks shooting off between them. The Romance line is an on-the-page low heat line but that doesn't mean the books can't sizzle - and this one does, thanks to Noah's roguish charm and Eloise's push back to his flirting. The sex scenes may be closed door but believe you me, I had no doubt these two were hot for each other in the all the right ways. It also doesn't hurt matters that Pembroke can write.

A new-to-me-author, an enjoyable romance, a pure fun escapist delight. Now I'm off to scour my TBR for more Sophie Pembroke....

Final Grade = B+

An enchanting contemporary romance that’s got keeper written all over it, Slow Dance with the Best Man is a charming, uplifting and spellbinding tale from the talented pen of Sophie Pembroke.

Eloise Miller’s life revolves around Morwen Hall, the majestic hotel she’s worked in ever since she was a schoolgirl. Meticulous, hard-working and wholly dedicated to her job, Eloise has put her heart and soul into her career – which probably explains why she doesn’t have much of a life outside of work – and that’s exactly the way Eloise likes it. Whilst her mother had got herself a reputation due to her penchant for drama, histrionics and chasing anything in trousers, Eloise had vowed not to repeat her mother’s mistakes and to build a wall around herself, keep her heart under lock and key and give the opposite sex as wide a berth as possible. Eloise has got plans for the future; plans that do not involve her letting her guard down. But when her arch-nemesis Melissa Sommers announces that she wants to marry her Hollywood boyfriend at Morwen Hall, Eloise finds herself not only coming face to face with her childhood enemy, but also having to contend with the arrival of A-List heartthrob Noah Cross, who seems intent on getting up close and personal with Eloise…

Noah Cross has made a name for himself playing tough guy action heroes in high grossing Hollywood movies – and for his womanizing ways! Playing up to his tough guy image and his casual relationships with an interchangeable array of vacuous bimbos used to suit him down to the ground, but Noah has grown weary of his reputation. He wants to prove to the world – and to himself – that there is more to him than shooting bad guys in action blockbusters and to his reputation as a lothario. Although being best man to someone he barely knows is the last thing he wants to do, Noah is looking forward to taking some time out to recharge his batteries at the picturesque and exclusive Morwen Hall hotel. Noah cannot afford distractions of any kind and he certainly cannot afford to get photographed with another starlet. But that resolution looks set to crumble when he claps eyes on Eloise Miller, whom he just cannot stop himself from kissing…

Relationships have been off the agenda for Eloise for more years than she cares to remember, but then again she has never met anyone like Noah Cross. As mutual attraction gives way to something deeper, will Eloise find the courage to face up to her feelings for Noah and take a chance on love? Or will her fears and insecurities cost her this chance of happiness?

A poignant, feel-good and irresistible romantic treat that I struggled to put down, Slow Dance with the Best Man is a fantastic tale about second chances, healing from old wounds and finding the courage to fall in love that will touch the hearts of romance readers everywhere. Zesty-paced, emotional and magical, Slow Dance with the Best Man features a wonderfully relatable and believable heroine, a gorgeous movie star hero and plenty of drama, pathos and heart to keep readers engrossed and entertained from beginning to end.

A first rate contemporary romance from a gifted writer, Slow Dance with the Best Man delivers on all counts!

I really liked this book – with one exception. In fact – and despite the speed the relationship moves at – it was one of the best books in this category romance line I have ever read.

And yet it was so painfully misogynistic in so many places, that if the writing had been even just a little bit worse, I would not have finished it.

So, this is one of the best-written and most sexist books I have read.

This Mills and Boon/Harlequin line puts out books that are short and sweet. That means simple storylines and no sex. However, Slow Dance with the Best Man is definitely the steamiest one I’ve ever read from Harlequin Romance. No, there are no actual sex scenes, but there’s the before and after, and lots of naked conversations, and I am actually surprised one of the publisher’s most conservative lines let this one get through!

I was also very surprised that there was so much substance to the story. I’ve read a lot of these books set in castles and stately homes in Britain, but this is by far the most memorable.

Both movie star hero and reluctant to be in the spotlight heroine had strong character arcs, and complex careers they were hoping to move ahead in. Their romance was convincing. They had issues outside their growing relationship, and backstories with some substance to them. It made for a much stronger book.

Yes, the relationship moves at such a fast pace, and yet somehow the author convinced me it was realistic. That takes some talent.

I also liked that she made sure to use British/US English correctly for her characters from different countries – but WITHOUT going over the top with “cute cultural differences” conversations like most people do.

However, is it really too much to ask for authors to stop making awful, misogynistic stereotype “blonde bitch” characters? I am so tired of it – and am especially tired of the word “blonde” being used like we’re immediately supposed to know it means the character is bad.

The villainess in this book is beyond evil. She does not have a single redeeming feature. And that is unrealistic.

On page two we are told that she’s a blonde, and that therefore she’s a typical “mean girl” (this is such a sexist term that women should eliminate from their speech). Also, women Do Not stamp their dainty foot when they’re angry!

A little while later, we’re told about all those nasty “Hollywood blondes” and how they’re all the same. And then we get the usual reference to all the pretty blondes probably having breast implants…

On and on – and on – it goes, for the whole book.

If I read one more author who describes excited “bimbo” women as “squealing”, I might…

A blur of blonde.

Cruel. Evil. Nightmarish. A total witch in a blonde wig.

Why would the best man refer to the bride like this? He knows her!:

Because some blonde asked you to wear a pretty dress.

Nobody would ever say: some brunette!

It is so crazily unrealistic that a woman would be 100% evil just because of her hair colour that it ruined what would otherwise possibly have been a five-star read. I am really interested in the secondary romance, which I assume is the feature of another book. However, I know it will be more of the same when it comes to the “other woman”…

It was a disappointing aspect of an otherwise highly readable book, and one that is full of substance in a category line that usually has simple storylines and fairly bland characters.

I will highly recommend this, on the condition you don’t become a woman-hater because of it.