Would You Rather by Allison Ashley _ Blog Tour & Review

Author Bio: Allison Ashley is a science geek who enjoys coffee, craft beer, baking, and love stories. When she’s not working at her day job as a clinical oncology pharmacist, she pens contemporary romances, usually with a medical twist. She lives in Oklahoma with her family and beloved rescue dog.

Book Summary: Would you rather play it safe in the friend zone, or risk it all with a modern marriage of convenience?

Noah and Mia have always been best friends, and their friendship is the most important thing to them. Life is going great for Noah and he’s up for a promotion in a job he loves. But Mia’s life is on hold as she awaits a kidney transplant. She’s stuck in a dead-end job and, never wanting to be a burden, has sworn off all romance. So when the chance of a lifetime comes to go back to school and pursue her dream, it’s especially painful to pass up. She can’t quit her job or she’ll lose the medical insurance she so desperately needs.

To support her, Noah suggests they get married—in name only—so she can study full-time and still keep the insurance. It’s a risk to both of them, with jobs, health and hearts on the line, and they’ll need to convince suspicious coworkers and nosy roommates that they’re the real deal. But if they can let go of all the baggage holding them back, they might realize that they would rather be together forever.

“Pitch-perfect…gives me all the feels, and I love every one of them!”—Ali Hazelwood, New York Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis

“Ashley makes favorite rom-com tropes feel new again with a pitch-perfect friends-to-lovers story.” —Publishers Weekly starred review

[I received a digital arc for an honest review]

Would You Rather is a best friends to lovers romance by author Allison Ashley. A romance with a good balance of light-hearted moments and emotional ones.

“You’re insane.” […]
“You’re my best friends and I love you, but you’re insane.”

Noah and Mia have been best friends since they were little and are the most important people in each others lives. Mia wants to go back to school to pursue her passion, but with her chronic illness she can’t afford to not have the insurance that comes with her job. Noah, who has secretly been in love with Mia forever, comes up with the plan for them to get married, so she’ll be covered under his insurance while she goes back to college. The arrangement ends up putting Noah’s job and both their hearts on the line. When both admit to how they feel, will love be enough to keep them together.

He’d give anything to be able to lay her down on that couch and make her as breathless as he felt just looking at her.

Noah was a sweetheart who let guilt and fear hold him back from living his best life. He loved Mia so much but didn’t think he couldn’t risk anything to ever lose her, even if that ment holding back how much he loved her. He also carries a tremendous amount of guilt surrounding his brother’s death, which broke my heart. Mia, years ago, had taken her non-platonic feelings for Noah and locked them in a box. When they move in together she starts to reconnect with those feelings, but she’s too afraid of being a burden on someone she loves. She’s ridiculously stubborn when it comes to letting anyone take of her when it comes to her chronic illness.

The way her body – and heart- had responded, it was if she was meant to be in his arms with her lips o his, all day and all night and forever.

Together Noah and Mia are fun with their sporadic “would you rather” questions and their innocent office pranks.( They also had a great friend group and I would read a book about Claire and Graham in a heartbeat. ) Noah and Mia’s romance is a slow burn that contains some quality sexual tension and pining. I am disappointed however that all the final acts of intimacy are behind closed doors because the lead up was well written. To have all that great sexual tension and then to not be given the pay-off was simply a let-down. Their relationship outside the intimacy was an emotional one, filled with Mia fighting her feelings and them both having to heal from past hurts and guilt in order to be together.

“Regrets?” he asked.
Her expression turned solemn and she shook her head.
“You?”
“Never.”

In the end , Would You Rather by Allison Ashley is an enjoyable friends to lovers romance with a fake wedding, office pranks, copious chicken wing consumption, love, and healing.