Review: The Unlikely Pair by Jax Calder (Unlikely Dilemmas #2)

Dare I say that I actually liked The Unlikely Pair just a smidgen more than I did The Unlikely Heir? Don't get me wrong; I loved the Unlikely Dilemmas series starter, and I was thrilled that the main characters from there made their presence felt in this second book. But I'm a sucker for the enemies-to-lovers romance trope, and Jax Calder took that trope and ran with it. Harry Matheson, the leader of the Conservative Party, married fifteen years, and I'm guessing in either his late thirties or early forties, and Tobias Webley, a thirty-nine-year-old Labour Party MP, pansexual, and chief of staff of former prime minister Oliver Hartwell, were notable supporting characters in the first novel, and it was clear even back then that there wasn't any love lost between them. Being stuck on a plane together to attend a climate change conference was bad enough; having the plane crash on purpose, leading to Harry and Toby needing to hide out in a cabin until they're rescued. The two are forced to set their differences aside if they hope to survive, but neither one was quite prepared for how the ordeal would make them strange bedfellows.

Harry and Toby certainly lived up to the title of their book! The glimpses readers get of them in the series starter made me seriously wonder what it would take for these two to go from enemies to lovers. Welp, a plane crash in the middle of the Finnish wilderness with no choice but to join forces definitely did the trick. There was no secret pining for years going on, which is something I appreciated, because then it makes things far more interesting. The situation was complicated, given the fact that Harry was married to a woman and had been for a decade and a half. Add to that Harry being the leader of the Conservative Party and Toby being one of the more prominent members of the Labour Party. Let's not forget that Oliver was not a fan of Harry's and had some serious reservations about him and Toby becoming involved. I lived for the tension between the two men, and I was on tenterhooks when it came to them being in Finland and how they would resolve the issues of their relationship. I was gone for The Unlikely Pair. Five stars!

Date Read: 09 August 2024

Learn more about Jax Calder.

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