The Worst Best Man

Sosa (the Love on Cue series) imbues a soap operatic premise with weight and heart in this fantastically fun contemporary rom-com. Three years ago, Afro-Latina wedding planner Carolina Santos was left at the altar. Lina’s white fiancé, Andrew Hartley, sent his brother and best man, Max, to deliver the awful news, and Lina has blamed him ever since. Now, Lina’s up for a potentially life-altering job—but to get it, she’ll have to work closely with Max. Sosa’s characterization of Lina is masterfully nuanced, depicting her experiences as a woman of color, her struggle to balance her parents’ expectations with her own happiness, and the double bind of being accused of being overly stoic when she controls her feelings and overly emotional when she expresses them. As Max and Lina work together, sweet, deeply apologetic Max wrestles with his attraction to his brother’s ex-fiancée while learning to understand Lina in a way that Andrew never did. Romance fans are sure to be swept away by Sosa’s empathetic characters as they make the most of a ridiculous situation. Agent: Sarah Younger, Nancy Yost Literary. (Feb)