The Inconvenient Love by Briar Prescott

This is the fourth book in Briar Prescott’s wonderful Better With You series, and just like the previous books, it was such a cute and heartwarming story! It had so many things I love, like forbidden love, brother’s best friend, friends to lovers, found families and snarky banter. I read it in one sitting, with a huge smile on my face!

The Better With You series follows a group of friends, starting with Gray meeting Kai in the first book, then Gray’s brother Connor meeting James, followed by James’s friend Anders meeting Wells, and now in this fourth book focus is on Anders’s younger brother Isac as well as Anders’s best friend Max. Each book can be read as a standalone, but I really love seeing my favorite persons from the other books and to get the chance to be pulled back into their sweet romances again, as well as to see all of the friends together with their wonderful group dynamics and humor.

Isac has been in love with his older brother Anders’s friend Max as long as he can remember. Max on the other hand, sees Isac almost like his own brother and cares for him deeply, but without any romantic intent. Until nineteen-year-old Isac kisses Max and tells him how he feels. Surprised and taken aback, Max rejects him and to avoid the humiliation, Isac more or less flees to college to the other side of the country. Now, six years later, he’s back. All grown-up, and that kiss is suddenly haunting Max in a way that makes it hard to act normal around Isac…

I love Briar Prescott’s writing style, the forbidden romance trope and the wonderful chemistry between Max and Isac. I also loved how their relationship was developed with just the perfect pacing and the right amount of angst and heartbreak. And the banter! Just as in the previous books, the dialogues and comments were so witty, snarky and funny that I almost laughed out loud at times.

I rooted so much for both Isac and Max from the start. Their love was so obvious and strong, and I so wanted them to get the happiness they deserved that at times I almost wanted to scream at them both to just be brave and take a chance on each other, and not let the respect for Anders, the age difference nor the geographical distance stop them.

Some parts of the book were perhaps a little too explicit for my personal taste, and compared to the other books in this series, this one was a little lighter without the same kind of gripping depths. And there’s always a fine balance with the ‘friend’s younger sibling’-trope and ‘almost-brothers’-aspect, especially when there’s quite a substantial age gap, but Briar Prescott made an absolutely wonderful job keeping this balance. I’m very happy that Isac was nineteen when he first revealed his feelings to Max, so that there were never any uncomfortable underage issues.

All in all, this was such an enjoyable, charming and heartwarming story with a wonderful and important message about finding out what you really need and want in your life and being brave enough to chase it. It was one of those binge-worthy, happily-ever-after stories that we all need once in a while to brighten up the day! Highly recommended!

Thank you to the author Briar Prescott for the opportunity to read an ARC of this cute little gem! All opinions are my own and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Rating:
4 stars

Get your own copy:
Amazon

​Author info:
Briar Prescott