Before the Sunset by Laura Pavlov is live!

An epic friends-to-lovers romance with a celebrity hero, a fake relationship, banter, steam, and all the swoon!

 

Amazon

 

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Blurb

Reese Murphy has been my best friend since before we took our first steps.
She’s the yin to my yang.
The peanut butter to my jelly.
It’s all platonic, of course, as we made a pact years ago that we’d never cross the line.
But then she took a job abroad and moved away for a year.
To say I’ve been lost without her would be a massive understatement.
She’s finally coming home, and I couldn’t be happier about it.
And then she presents me with a proposition…
Pretend to be her boyfriend.
I am an actor, after all, so it should be a piece of cake.
It’s all part of her grand plan to show her ex-fiancé that she’s moved on.
My agent wants me to clean up my image, so it would be a win-win for both of us.
But then she moves into my house and prances around in those tiny pajama shorts.
There’s also the night she catches me alone in the bathroom in a compromising position.
And she isn’t in any hurry to leave.
We get lost in the moment and now I can’t think of anything else.
We are way past a gray area at this point.
We’ve entered a smoking-hot-I-think-I-might-be-in-love-with-my-best-friend area.
The problem is, she still thinks we’re fake dating.
And I stopped faking it a long time ago.

 

 

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Review

“You were always my forever. It just took us a little bit to figure it out.”

5 stars

Oh wow, the fourth book in the Cottonwood Cove series, Laura Pavlov has delivered an epic friends-to-lovers romance! Finn and Reese owned my heart, and I loved watching these two soulmates come together.

Finn is one of the five Reynolds siblings to have a book in this series. He’s an actor who has gotten his big break and is suddenly famous, but he’s a small-town boy at heart, and he’s just returned home to Cottonwood Cove during a break in filming his TV show. He is happy to be with his family again, but is most excited to see his best friend Reese, who is returning from a year working away in London.

Finn and Reese have been best friends since childhood. Their mothers are best friends, and the two of them have been each other’s ‘person’ for their entire lives. They made a pact long ago never to cross the line into anything romantic, but they have been by each other’s sides for everything, so when Reese needs help, there’s no doubt that Finn will step in to help. So when she proposes a fake relationship to help her stick it to her ex-fiance, he agrees, figuring it will help him with his public image, and a problem he’s having with a clingy and publicity-hungry co-star.

“You sure you can handle me, Miney?” (note – he calls her ‘Miney’, short for ‘Herminoe’ following her childhood Harry Potter obsession… adorable!)
“I’ve never had a problem handling you, have I? … I think you might be the one who has a problem handling me.”
“Never. You’ve always been my girl. A little fake dating isn’t going to change that.”

It’s seamless. They are already so close, so irrevocably entwined, that pretending to be together is nothing for them. The time spent together, Reese moving into Finn’s house, even the PDA comes so naturally. Everybody in town accepts the lie, because they have all just been waiting for them to get together, and the subtle shifts are so much fun.

“Why are you sitting on the same side of the booth as me?” I said under my breath.
“Because we’re lovers, Miney.” He chuckled as his lips grazed my ear again.
“Carl and I never sat on the same side of a booth.”
“Exactly. I’m a much better boyfriend than he is. I don’t like any distance between me and my woman.”
“He’s not even here. Tone it down,” I said over my laughter.
“This is a small town. Everyone talks. I can’t have people thinking I’m a selfish lover.”

I love a best-friends-to-lovers story, waiting for the big ‘aha’ moment where everything changes. With these two though, they already love each other fiercely, they’ve just never allowed themselves to think about each other romantically. But as soon as they start to consider the idea and they cross that line – even pretend – it’s like a switch is flipped. Suddenly there’s all kinds of lusty feelings, and when they act on it, their passion for each other is out of control (seriously… so steamy). Their feelings for each other are bursting all over the place. It’s awesome to watch.

I loved this girl in a way I couldn’t wrap my head around.
More than a friend.
More than a lover.
Reese Murphy was…everything.
And she was going to be mine in every way.

Because they know each other so well and they’ve always talked about their hopes and dreams, there is some drama and angst because they know they both want different things. Reese also has some past relationship drama that she needs to get over. It seems more complicated than it needed to be at times, but watching these two come together is such a beautiful journey. They are so completely devoted to each other, and watching them come to the realisation of the depth of everything between them is so, so beautiful.

She was my girl.
Always had been.
Always would be.

The rest of the family are all a part of the story – full of “I told you so”, but at the same time supporting and encouraging Finn through his journey, and the text messages, bro-talk, and secret closet conversations had me laughing out loud.

It’s a gorgeous read, with a beautifully happy ending, and I finished this book with a huge grin on my face.

I loved it – 5 stars.

An Advanced Review Copy was generously provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.

 

Cottonwood Cove

 

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About Laura

Laura Pavlov writes sweet and sexy contemporary romance that will make you both laugh and cry. She is happily married to her college sweetheart, mom to two awesome almost-grown kids, and dog-whisperer to one temperamental yorkie and one wild bernedoodle. Laura resides in Las Vegas where she is living her own happily ever after. Be sure to sign up for updates on new releases. Laura loves to hear from readers!

 

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