The Mayor and the Mystery Man: An MM Fake Relationship, Friends to Lovers Romance (Single Dads Club Book 2)

I honestly didn't think this series could get better after the first one, but it did. Reading this book about Leo campaigning for re-election as mayor while presidential elections were going on gave me a much needed escape into something funny, intense, spicy, and so completely beautiful I could cry. I LOVE a best friends to lovers trope, and Truman came in clutch with this book. Leo and Dusty have been friends for over twenty years and how they became friends was pretty endearing honestly lol in all that time it seems there was some unresolved feelings from back in the day that were put away and ignored for the sake of friendship. But when Leo is caught in the middle of a scandal and is being challenged for mayor by another opponent he knows he has to do something to make himself more likable and get out from under the negative press. Except to do that, it seems he has to seem more stable and in a relationship. So who better to ask than his straight best friend who knows him better than anyone else? Dusty is going through one of the worst times of his life. He just became newly single, homeless and jobless so when Leo calls him up to ask him for a huge favor he doesn't hesitate to jump on a plane and help out a friend since the timing couldn't be better. I absolutely LOVED every single interaction between Leo and Dusty. They are the definition of trust and best friends who know each other inside and out but now that they're in the same place after a few years instead of the…

Leo’s run for mayor goes up in flames with a slippery opponent and a scandalous newspaper article. Desperate to control the narrative, he enlists his straight best friend to be his fake boyfriend. Except they don’t stop kissing when the cameras stop rolling… I love friends-to-lovers so much (there’s something wholesome and special about seeing your best bud in a whole new light while being afraid to act and mess up the friendship) and coupled with a bi-awakening, this is gorgeous. These two and their shenanigans made jogging more appealing (IYKYK).

The Mayor and the Mystery Man What do you do when your mayoral campaign is in jeopardy? Why you call your best friend for pretend to be your fake boyfriend of course. Leo has lived in Sourwood his whole life, he loved and breathed for his hometown. He has been married, had a set of beautiful twins, divorced, and come out. Changing from “your honor” as a layer to “my constituents” as mayor for the last 8 years. It’s now re-election time and he’s being rivaled by someone who’s wanting to change his hometown and not for the better. How could we have a re-election without a little bit of scandal? When Leo’s extracurricular personal activities are brought into the limelight, what better to do than fake a relationship? But he can’t just fake it with anyone it has to be believable, someone who knows Mayor Leo better than her knows himself. Dusty Michaelson he’s college crush, I mean college best friend. Dusty is a revolving door or jobs, relationships, and places to live. Being a hopeless romantic isn’t always a great thing, especially when it’s typically one sided. His family moved around a lot, leading him to never be able to truly set down roots and make real friends. The only thing he’s found that he’s truly good at besides failing is woodworking, which is how he’s been making a living working on the set a of hot tv show. When Dusty’s morning starts with him telling his disgustingly, lazy, 20something year old roommates he’s moving out, he gets into an altercation at his job…

A book about life's struggle and who we turn to when we are in need. I enjoyed the friendship and the banter

I will admit up front that friends to lovers is my favorite trope and fake dating is one of my least favorite. So, the friends to lovers made this work for me personally, because it felt less like fake dating. Dusty and Leo are fun. I enjoyed seeing Dusty realize that he wasn't straight and had feelings for Leo, while Leo let his crush re-emerge, as well as Dusty find ways to make Leo more authentic. Leo's kids are good secondary characters. One of my tests for a good friends to lovers is the catalyst for the change. In this case, the need for a fake relationship makes sense as a trigger for both Dusty and Leo to take a new look at their friendship. I will say that the mayoral race is much more dramatic than I expected, to great effect.