A review by mudder17
In Broad Strokes by Jordan Riley Swan

4.0

I am not at all familiar with either of these authors, but I found this story (which should be one of many in a series) to be a lot of fun! The story begins with Tyler Wilson as the sole representative in his family at the wedding of a cousin, the ultimate bridezilla. He is seated at a table with a bunch of "castoffs" and they each end up making an Unwedding Vow, although Tyler's is really more by default than anything else since he is so painfully shy and socially anxious that he doesn't say more than he can help when in public. He is a college kid who is wrapped up in his fears and anxieties, especially anything having to do with social situations and as such, he only has one friend, someone who has known him for most of his life and who can be kind of a jerk. Yet, his friend is able to push him into answering an ad for nude modeling, and that ends up making him and Chase Zalinski cross paths. She is a struggling art student and needs a live model to make up a project so that she can keep her grades up and keep her scholarship. The result is an amazing nude painting of him that is accidentally sent to a national competition and exhibition. Can we say road trip? What ends up happening is a fun adventure with some twists and turns where each of these hot messes ends up discovering things about themselves. I really enjoyed this adventure and had fun seeing how it would all work out. Some of the side characters were pretty cool, too, especially Pastor Deacon, but while there was definitely some character development for the two main characters, this was not a story you would read for character development. There is definitely some romance as Tyler ends up being the first to break the Unwedding Vow, and I believe the rest of the books in this series will be written around each of the folks who were at that table. I'm really hoping the authors will complete this series and look forward to reading each of the stories. If you like clean romance and fun adventures, this may be the book for you.

I received an advance review copy from Booksirens for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.