The pretend Husband/Wife trope is one of my fav's.

And its not as if this one was pretend per say, it was more like secretzzzzz.

(view spoiler)

I wont spoil anymore, I will say the book was ok. Passed my Saturday. The sex scenes were on point but the chemistry was not. Le Sigh.

Mare~Slitsread

I had the uncanny feeling the moment I got into the first few pages of ‘Life of Bliss’ that I was reading about a protagonist who’d been a secondary character in another previous story that I’d missed out. It wasn’t a feeling I could shake off so easily, though that might have also accounted for why I couldn’t exactly quite get a grasp on both the main characters until I was solidly halfway through it.

Todd and Victor’s backstory come to light in bits and pieces, where they find themselves as frenemies (a pretend-hate kind of situation) where snark and snippy comebacks not only form the basis for their prelude to sex but also serve as a defence mechanism to keep each other from coming too close. But somehow weddings and the aftermath drive people crazy, or at least, as far as Todd and Victor are concerned, throw them off the cliff and into the deep end where they move, in the space of a few drunken hours into uncharted territory.

Inner monologues both prove that Todd and Victor have mistaken ideas about how they see each other, but it was frustrating to read about how these mistaken perceptions weren’t corrected because both seemed contented instead to mull over them than talk it out like adults. The result is a rather prolonged period of the status quo that both try to keep (it obviously works as well as as one can expect) in a cycle that strains their relationship as their their own doubts and insecurities are left to fester. Still, I liked Victor for his own way of showing the kind of courage that it takes to keep a relationship that he slid into somewhat accidentally, though thought much less of Todd for being the way who simply couldn’t stay a course to commit to.

‘Life of Bliss’ didn’t present any big surprises for me; I expected and got what I thought would really come out of Todd/Victor’s relationship, from the conflict, the blow-up to the resolution. There were parts though, where I was bored and skimmed and couldn't quite get myself very interested in the numerous sex scenes. In all, this was a middling read which I’d wished could have been a better one.

Erin McLellan is a new to me author. I read Life of Bliss in one sitting and found it to be an easy flowing story with likeable, but flawed characters. Life of Bliss is a story of love that begins in an unconventional way and progresses rapidly, leaving the character's lives and hearts a little in limbo. I enjoy a good M/M romance and enjoy reading new authors. The book was funny, sweet, and a little nerve wracking, but ended with a HEA. Overall an enjoyable read.