Honeymoon Phase

Best friends enter a marriage of convenience in Daws’s dreamy third Mountain Men Matchmaker rom-com (after Seven Year Itch). Addison “Roe” Monroe dreams of taking over her “old-fashioned” father’s Colorado lumber company, but he won’t hand over the reins until she’s been married for one year. Roe’s best friend, Luke Fletcher, has loved her since the day they met and proposes a fake marriage, but Roe turns him down, worried about ruining their friendship. Instead, she’ll try to find a suitable hunk of a husband at the local Man of the Mountain lumberjack competition. So Luke, at the urging of his adorable matchmaking nine-year-old niece, Everly, throws his axe into the ring. When he’s injured in the competition, a stricken Roe caves and agrees to marry him. But a marriage license won’t be enough to convince her father of their union—they’ll need to have a full-blown wedding at which they appear legitimately in love. Faking it inevitably gives way to real feelings, but Daws keeps the tension high and the pages flying even as the plot plays out predictably. Along the way, she takes the time to delve into serious themes including grief and regret. The result is a sexy, funny, and ultimately feel-good romp. (Nov.)