Man Card by Sarina Bowen & Tanya Eby
Man Hands #2
Publication Date: January 15, 2018
Romantic Comedy
Self Published

Reviewed by Kini

Favorite Quote: “Ash,” he whispers, kissing me softly but still holding my wrists. He gives a little nudge with his hips and I can feel him under the fabric, just bursting to get free. I want him. God, how I want him. Inside me. Now. I groan a little because words are too hard to use. He shakes his head. “I need to say this. I want you, you understand. All of you. Right now. But you need to know this. Outside of here, I will hold your purse. I’ll get mani-pedis with you. I’ll cry while watching Lifetime movies with you. I will hand over my man card and be your minion everywhere you want, except in the bedroom. In here, I want you to surrender, just a little bit, and let me take the lead.”

I read Man Hands late last year and didn’t really enjoy it. It had a little too much crude humor and made a few too many fat jokes for my liking. I was going to pass on this but Tori told me that early reviews were positive. I enjoyed Braht and Ash’s story way more than the first book. This one even made me giggle a few times. I found it sexier as well.

Ash and Braht are competing real estate agents working for the same company for several years. In Man Hands, her best friend, Brynn, and his best friend, Tom, meet and become a couple. We see Ash and Braht in book one and see their enemyship begin. They are work rivals yet Braht has been into Ash for a long time. She snipes at him in response. He loves it, she secretly does as well. Braht is kind of smarmy and described as such.

He’s like the reincarnation of James Spader in the eighties, complete with his collar up. He manscapes, gets manicures, and I’m pretty sure he mansplains with the best of them, but when we’re in the same room, the hairs on my arms rise.

I kind of loved him though. Imagine a thinner, super slick version Blake from Good Boy by Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy. Braht has loved Ash from afar for several years. They start working together to sell their friend Tom’s house. Through those interactions, they get to know each other better and their relationship develops from hate, to like, to love. Although we all know Ash never really hated Braht.

Ash is recovering from a bad relationship and she doesn’t trust men that appear to be perfect, like Braht. Her ex-husband coming back into the picture served as an annoying plot that I could have done without. I suppose it’s supposed to add to the comedy but really it felt unnecessary.

I feel like I missed out on some of their backstory. At one point Braht talks about when he first saw Ash and how much he liked her, but we never get to see him tell Ash about that. Ash and Braht have a thing in the first book and I felt like we didn’t get much explanation in this book. I would have liked a little more about the origination of their attraction to fully believe in their love. Overall, I enjoyed this book a lot more than book one. I really liked Braht’s brother Bramley. We get some glimpses of Tom and Brynn that I didn’t hate. There is set-up for Sadie’s book and I will probably read that.

Grade: C+

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