Denise Williams never misses! Her characters always bring such depth to romance novels, and the story grows beyond the romance (while keeping the HEA the focus, of course).

Leave it to Denise Williams to craft emotionally intelligent, spicy, diverse characters. I don't usually love the "my past baggage is keeping me from loving you" trope but I'm a sucker for an independent woman who refuses to put her heart before her head (until the right guy comes along, of course).

I have read several of Denise Williams books. This one was just an alright one for me. I thought the characters were interesting and enjoyed the romance but felt it was also a little too textbook romance formula for my taste.

This is a great hard-earned love story. I really loved all the backstories and how it just goes to show that anyone can love again.

An enemies to lovers between an officiant and the wedding planner is a fun premise. They def have fun banter and took awhile to warm up to each other. But are a good team since they have to work on multiple weddings together. This is in dual pov which I love in romance it helps to understand their feelings and fears better.

I really enjoy the way Denise Williams weaves a rom com. There’s something refreshing about her characters and storytelling. It was kind of quirky and fun that one of the main characters is a divorce lawyer and a wedding officiant on the side. The other main character works at his cousin’s wedding planning business.

Overall, there was lots of spice in this one; a little more than I typically read, but if Denise Williams writes it, sign me up. Highly recommend this author and hope she has more stories on the way.

I received a gifted copy.

I think this is just a case of this author isn't for me. If you like romance and this sounds good, I'd give it a try. For some reason it just wasn't clicking for me.

This book gave me every bit of banter that I wanted and then some. I loved watching Lear and RJ evolve and how their relationship evolved with them. I loved that the characters flaws played a major role in this book. I felt like I really did get to know these two MCs and I was rooting for them the whole way. would recommend to my rom-com/enemies to lovers loving friends

3.5 stars.

I just want to start out by saying I absolutely love Denise Williams. If she writes it, I will read it.

Do You Take This Man is about a divorce attorney who (accidentally) starts officiating weddings and a wedding planner who hate each other. Being forced to work together seems like a walking nightmare... but can it turn into a dream come true?

I felt like this was a great example of enemies to lovers. There was truly a lot they did not see eye to eye about. There were a lot of challenges to over come. There were also many, many sweet moments and cute quotes. But I will say I had a hard time believing the characters compatibility. At times I thought it was great and at times I thought it was really lacking.

Overall I thought this book was sweet and I would recommend but my favorite Denise book is still How to Fail at Flirting!

I was really excited to read this book because I love Denise Williams, but this one was more boring than anything. RJ meets Lear because they're both working weddings, her as an officiant and him as a planner. They don't get off on the right foot, so RJ decides she hates him. But she finds she's super attractive to him, so they start a friends with benefits deal. I don't know what is up with traditionally published romances lately, but the story was just bland and I had a hard time really caring about the story. I didn't really feel too much of a connection beyond a physical one between these two characters.

4 stars — I liked this one more than I was expecting to, especially after having read a few of the lower reviews and assuming I would feel similarly…but maybe because I lowered my expectations, it reverse psychology’d me? I don’t know, but I’ll take it.

Honestly, breaking this book down, I really shouldn’t have liked it. Lear starts off as a bit of a jerk, though we do immediately get the sense that he is in the midst of heartbreak and anger, and trying to act opposite of his normal self. And then we have RJ, whom I have NOTHING in common with and kind of makes me uncomfortable at times with her cold demeanor. To top it all off, it’s enemies to lovers (essentially), which we all know I struggle with.

But I think where this one ended up working despite my expectations is that BOTH Lear and RJ have an equal amount of flaws, and BOTH have a LOT of growth ahead of them in this story. And while I’m not a personal fan of the weird meanness sexual tension thingie that pervades enemies to lovers, for some reason it worked better in this one. Maybe because you could see the moments where it was wonderful banter, and you could see the moments where they hit their marks and they regretted it, but then those walls would come up. Like, I could honestly see them meeting each other equally on the banter playing field, so it wasn’t necessarily one more than the other.

I saw a quote from an author for this book that labeled the love as “hard-earned”, and that is an understatement. It was a hard, sometimes frustrating road to watch these two continually resort to their defense mechanisms whenever they made a step forward…but those steps forward were really delightful. They were like little sweet amuse-bouches sprinkled through the story.

I have a feeling if I hadn’t lowered my expectations, this one would have been a 3 or 3.5 stars. But somehow knowing what I was getting into gave me more patience. *shrugs* Don’t question it Lenore, just be thankful.

Do You Take This Man thrives on the hilarity of a cynical divorce attorney moonlighting as an earnest, heartfelt wedding officiant. She might not believe that love can last for most people, but a small part of RJ still hopes that it can. When circumstances conspire to throw her together with an annoying dude-bro wedding planner, RJ is not pleased, to say the least. And she's the kind of lady to let him know exactly what she thinks of him. At their first meeting, he tells her to smile more, so I was really strong "Team RJ" as the feud develops. Lear is running from a collapsed life in LA, and he desperately needs to get his life together and keep his cousin's business afloat while she is on maternity leave. Frustrated when his usual people-pleasing charm fails to smooth things over with RJ, he can't help but rise to meet her combativeness.

With Lear constantly challenging RJ's patience/sanity and RJ giving as good as she gets, no one's more irritated than RJ that she's attracted to him. When Lear suggests a friends-with-benefits arrangement, RJ reminds him that they're not friends, so the term doesn't apply *applause.* They go with the term enemies-with-benefits, instead, by the way. It's not my favorite trope, but I still ate it up. Does it make me weird that I found the banter about who's more type A the cutest? Lear finds RJ's label makers sexy, people. Red alert.

The book tricked me into being at least a bit on Team Lear, so excellent news on that front. Both leads have tricky romantic pasts to tackle, circumstances that lead them to keep each other at an emotional distance. The specific details of their histories are revealed slowly, giving the reader plenty of space for speculation. The author does a great job helping us understand the hows and whys of their decisions.

For romance readers seeking a mashup of friends-with-benefits and enemies-to-lovers, you need to pick this one up. Also, if you want to see our protagonists grace all kinds of weddings with their presence (many of them queer), you'll love the ambiance.

Thanks to Berkley for my copy to read and review!

When divorce attorney and accidental wedding officiant RJ ends up working with wedding planner Lear, the two initially butt heads. However, their physical attraction pulls them together. Will they be able to get over their pasts in order to get together?

I enjoyed this - the audiobook was great. I feel like the premise was a little weird (like RJ’s job didn’t approve of her being a wedding officiant), but Denise Williams made it work. This was a slow burn that paid off!

Thank you so so much @berkleyromance for sending me a physical copy and @prhaudio for the complimentary audiobook in exchange for an honest review!

This was my first Denise Williams book and I am in love! RJ and Lear felt so real. I really appreciate that this was a genuine slow-burn. Both Lear and RJ had their terrible past relationships and it actually affected them, it didn't take two or three chapters for them to move on and fall in love with each other. I always love a true slow-burn because it feels not only more realistic, but you also get more time to fall in love with the characters and their relationship.

I love the wedding planning aspect of this. I loved their banter and enemies-with-benefits they had going on. Of course, I have to talk about steam: there were so many great steamy moments! I felt they were really well timed and spread out.

RJ was such a powerhouse, the fact she was a divorce attorney as well as a wedding officiant was so amazing and I was all here for it. Lear was such a sweetheart, I loved his humor, protectiveness, and playfulness.

Overall, this was a very fun and smexy read! I highly recommend it!

----> Recommended if you like
• Slow-Burn Romance
• Enemies-with-Benefits
• Wedding Planning/Wedding Officiant
• Divorce Attourney
• Lots of Steammmm

What a fun read! I love a strong female lead who is confident in herself and isn't pining after a man to complete her life. RJ is exactly that character. Despite the assumption that realistically a divorce attorney moonlighting as a wedding officiant would probably be a conflict of interest in some way, I liked the environment set up.
I didn't love Lear in the beginning and totally related to RJ's defensiveness of feeling like he was taking over and disregarding her expertise. But again, loved that she stood up for herself. After learning more of his backstory and seeing him acknowledge more with RJ and then become more of a team, I grew to really like him.
I've enjoyed all of William's novels and look forward to more!

I loved Denise's past books, but I could not get into this book. I didn't like the chemistry... it felt like they were too polarizing and it didn't feel natural. For example... not wanting to get in the car with him to then wanting to invite him up to her apartment?! It was like enemies with benefits to all of a sudden tons of work sex...

There were also some bothersome details that I know from being around weddings a lot, and that's officiants don't plan, they just show up and leave. For some reason, that was extra bothersome to me.

Overall, I thought it lacked the plot to go with the romance and I was just bored and disappointed.

This was my first Denise Williams book and I quite enjoyed it! I liked the premise, liked the main characters. She was a very strong and smart woman, and it was refreshing to see a man accept her and love her for exactly who she is instead of trying to change her. It was fun and sexy, and I will definitely be reading more of Williams’s books.

As a big Williams fan, I knew I'd love this and I did! Witty, charming, sexy, and smart, everything I've come to expect from Denise!

⭐️⭐️⭐️

This one was cool! RJ is a badass and she knows it. I appreciated the depth of her character and she delivered on entertainment. Ultimately I’m not sure this one had a wow factor for me, her and Lear were cute but I’m not sure I buy a happy ever after here ultimately, but I still enjoyed the journey and appreciated the story for what it was.

Denise Williams does it again! Do You Take This Man was the perfect blend of two characters who don't want to fall in love due to past bad experiences mixed with forced proximity. I love a strong female lead who is self sufficient and doesn't need a man to come in and fix anything in her life, but instead can come in to support her like a good partner should. The chemistry of the main characters in this book was great and I loved that the characters were real enough that you got to experience their flaws in addition to their strengths. Something else Denise Williams does in this book is give us some good healthy arguments, in addition with some good healthy angry spicy scenes. (Which are surprisingly hard to come by) Overall I definitely recommend this for readers who are a fan of Denise Williams' other works and of romances with the trope of enemies to lovers, anti-romance, and force proximity.