Title and Link: Everyone Loves a Wedding
Author: Chris Owen
Cover Artist N/A
Publisher URL: Torquere
Amazon Buy Link: Everyone Loves a Wedding
Publisher Buy Link Everyone Loves a Wedding
Genre: Contemporary M/M
Length: Novella/20K words
Rating: 5 stars out of 5
Review Summary: This book is a delight and I ate it up because of Spencer and Dean. In addition to being incredibly funny, Everyone Loves A Wedding is all about romance, family, and how a gay man threw a great wedding for his twin.
The Blurb
Spencer is more than happy to stand up with his twin sister when she gets married, and accepts the role of maid of honor without hesitation. He’s determined to plan the best wedding shower ever, mostly because his other sisters assume he won’t be able to, and he’s focused on giving his twin the party of her dreams. Mostly focused.
When he’s not thinking about cakes, tea sets, flowers, and tulle, he’s entirely caught up by thinking about Dean, the best man. Lucky for him, Dean is equally caught. But in the face of siblings, parents, small children, miles of ribbon, and enough booze for four bachelor parties, do the two of them have what it takes to make it all the way to the alter?
The Review
I can’t remember when I’ve enjoyed a book recently as much as this one, except for Shock & Awe by Abi Roux. This book had everything except major angst, which suited me just fine as it was perfect the way it was: lots of love and romance, a delightful extended family, great female characters, and two MCs who made me chuckle whenever they were on-page, which was a lot of the time as the story is told from Spencer’s third person POV.
Spenser and Dean were at a family dinner to celebrate his and his twin Mary’s 30th birthday. Every one of Spenser’s siblings and their husbands were jockeying to see who would win the pool about whether Brian, Mary’s boyfriend, would get up the nerve to ask her father for her hand in marriage. The party became a free-for-all but underneath all the noise Dean made it clear that although this was only the second time they had met he definitely knew what he wanted: Spenser. This was part of the conversation on the way to Mary’s apartment to give her her birthday present -
“I can give you a present” Dean murmured.
“Oh, I bet you can”. Spenser didn’t look at him as he approached a traffic light. “But as we’re about to drive along a major road for five minutes and then spend the evening with my sister and your best friend, I don’t know when we’ll have time to fit it in.”
Dean laughed, his voice once more rumbling through Spenser and making him tingle. “I’m pretty sure I can fit it in.”
“Oh, nice. Very classy.” Spenser grinned at him and shook his head. “Keep talking like that and I’ll change my mind about taking you home with me later.”
“Seriously?”
“No. I’m fairly sure I’m not going to change my mind.”
Dean made a smug noise. “Awesome”.
“Now the only problem is how to keep our hands off each other while we’re in company”.
This was just the start of their wild romance.
Spenser had a terrific sense of humour and loved introducing some spice into the family get togethers. He once terrified his brothers-in-law by commenting about the football players’ butts while they were watching a game. He was forthwith banished from watching any future sporting events with them as they were traumatised by his lecherous comments. 
I love Chris Owen’s writing. She was the first author to introduce me to this new generation of male/male romance 10 years ago when I read Bareback and she didn’t miss a beat with this story. All of the characters were three dimensional, even the minor ones, the MCs were well drawn and nuanced, and this book showed what fun sex could be in a gay romance. There was lots of sex but it was done in such a hilarious way that I broke up laughing every time Dean and Spenser had to find public places to get together because they couldn’t wait.
Spenser, planning all the elements that make up a wedding. was to die for: the engagement party, the bachelorette event, the wedding invitations, and the big day. Spenser’s sisters, mother and the groom’s mother all offered to help because they were afraid he would screw up, but he was determined to do it on his own for his twin even if it meant he had to wear the maid of honor (attendant) sash and crown, 
although Dean did say that if he wore a dress he wouldn’t go near him. Only Mary had confidence that he would be up to the challenge, and In between all the event planning Dean was there to show him that planning a wedding was nothing compared finding the best spots to have sex, especially if there was any danger of being discovered. 
Can I say how much I love this little story? The MCs were incredibly hot together both in and out of bed and it was a real “feel good” story without any schmaltz. For Spenser, Dean was the man of his dreams and Dean couldn’t get enough of his man even when the next door neighbour banged on the walls after an especially lusty bout.
I haven’t had so much fun giving a book 5 stars in a while.
This story was previously published in the Torquere anthology Family Matters