Legally Yours

by Melissa Morgan

Jason Wright has always known what he wants to be; a family law solicitor, working in London, and helping children grow up in an environment far better than the one he did. He has one final placement before his training contract with DDW solicitors is complete and he can work at the company as a fully qualified solicitor.

Marco Donati doesn’t have time to make friends. He goes to work, does his job extremely well, and then comes home. The solicitor job with DDW has his name stamped across it, but there is a slight problem: the annoying, preppy, blonde boy who is after the same position. Marco wouldn’t normally be worried but Jason is frustratingly good at his job. And then there’s also the minor issue that he’s attractive and single, which is throwing Marco’s concentration off course.

*Extremely* attractive and single.

But Marco isn’t about to let a little crush stop him.

When the pair of them are forced on a four-week trip of the UK to advertise DDW’s training course to hundreds of law students, they end up having to work as a team. Forced side-by-side, the pair of them end up bickering and letting their competitiveness get the best of them. Jason tries to figure out exactly why Marco hates him so much whilst Marco attempts to hide the fact his feelings for his work colleague are starting to grow into something he can’t control.

Feelings were never part of their career plans and they aren’t about to start playing a part now. Even after what happened in Edinburgh…

Genres: Romance, LGBT, Queer, Contemporary, Enemies To Lovers, M M Romance, Contemporary Romance

400 pages, Paperback

First published February 28, 2023

About the author

Melissa Morgan released her debut Forget Me Not in May 2020. An active reader her whole life, she can often be found with her head in a book or trying her hardest to see everything that has ever been put on stage.
Melissa used to work in television production before following her passion for swimming and scuba diving to become a safety diver on film sets, as well as a marine biologist with the Ocean Conservation Trust. She spends a lot of daylight hours under water.

Reviews

[~Nicole~ · Rating 4 out of 5]

⛔️ Mild spoilers

What a good book!!! I had such a great time with this enemies to lovers story ! (Even though I was kind of tricked into loving it) . Let me explain:
We have Marco and Jason. They’re interns at a law firm , competing for the only free permanent position in the firm. Now , Jason is a straight-laced nerdy guy. He’s kind and sweet and a bit anxious. Marco is a tall dark and gorgeous Italian and at first he’s a total mystery. He seemed to hate Jason with the power of a thousand suns. He comes across as self-assured aloof, too serious, competitive and apparently attracted to Jason and hating every second of it. And here is my confusion. Why is Marco like this ? Why is he fighting the attraction? So much that he’s even mean to Jason..Why? Why? Why? I started to suspect he had a bad experience with a bf in the past. Something happened there because he was absolutely charming with his loving family, he had a girl BF and he was great with her . So why this image at work and with Jason? He was dismissive of him, let him believe he was straight and he was sometimes downright mean. Even so I enjoyed their fights so much. I loved the animosity , I loved his meaniness because it was paired with a growly protective attitude towards Jason. And I loved it because I thought he had a reason for acting like that , a reason that will be discovered as the story unfolds. And Jason was such a darling, he indeed had an awful past. He and his gay brother and sister disowned their parents and stopped seeing them because of course…gay. Now their parents are back in Jason’s life insisting to be part of it. I hated that Jason still hoped they changed (Jason was such a ppl pleaser- sometimes it annoyed me) . His mother was awful and yet I hated his father more because even though he knew better, even though he didn’t agree with his wife and he loved his kids he still loved his wife more. What a waste of a father..
As for the MCs, I loved them. I loved their fights-they were epic-I loved their chemistry and their tender moments (Marco was giving me whiplash with his hot and cold attitude) , I just enjoyed their dynamics. When I found out that Marco had absolutely no reason to act that way, to hate Jason , to resist the attraction (the “we compete for the same job” reason was pretty weak”) it was already too late , I had already loved the book and them. Marco had a wonderful family, he had no significant bf in the past nor a bad experience so his attitude was weird and inexplicable. Had I known from the beginning it would have pissed me off and regarded the whole book differently.
Another issue that annoyed me a bit is that this book was an ABSOLUTE TEASE !!! There is absolutely no smut here- well there is a vague, on page BJ but that’s about it. And it’s such a shame because the guys had so much chemistry. I noticed this author wrote MF before this, can anyone confirm that the MF books she wrote before are equally fade to black? Because if they’re smutty I will take away one star for this one. I don’t mind that a MF author expands to writing MM but if you commit to MM romance do it 100% like you do with the MF books.
Anyway, I really enjoyed this book. It’s light and entertaining and at the same time Jason’s past breaks your heart . and it’s written pretty well. (I think it suffers just a tiny little bit from telling instead of showing but it might be me because I wanted more of them ). Totally recommendable!

PD. The cover is really cute 😍
PD2. It’s not KU.

[M · Rating 4 out of 5]

So here we have an enemies-to-lovers, grumpy/sunshine, forced proximity thing going on - and I really enjoyed it, despite the length, which at 400 pages for a straightforward contemporary romance, felt a bit long. The plot is basically that work rivals (interns at a law firm) are sent on a several-week-long speaking tour to UK universities to recruit students. They each have their reasons (dumb as they may be) for disliking each other, but there's a simmering tension the whole time with lots of bantery back-and-forth, which I liked. It's not a perfect book, there were some like stupid typos and syntax issues, and sometimes the characters did some inexplicably stupid things, it was also only mildly steamy. But overall it was an enjoyable read, with likeable characters and cool UK settings.

[Aki | nose buried in books | ❤️ | · Rating 3 out of 5]

in theory this book has everything I like: coworkers, enemies-to-lovers, forced proximity.... but in reality... I dunno, it didn't work for me. the slow burning is nice, the mcs are likeable, but the plot dragged a little bit imo, the slow burning is nice (a little too slow) but then... ? once the mcs kissed, the plot became a little inconsistent and the ending was wrapped up quickly. I was bored near the 70%.
an ok read.

[Larissa]

This is MY joker ❤️

[S B · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a super cute and veeeeeery low steam (practically no steam) romance. One of the kind that makes you yearn and giggle your feet! ☺️

[Crisana · Rating 4 out of 5]

So this was actually pretty good. Ok, the sex was fade to black but most authors bore me to tears with their sex scenes anyway and I end up skipping most of it, so it did not bother me. I was slightly disappointed that there was no reason for Marco to act the way he acted. He was always hot and cold and so fearful of catching feelings. It did not make sense, considering where he came from and his upbringing. I thought maybe there was something in his past that made him like this but nothing came of it. Jason was just too soft but it suited him and his parents were just horrible. Glad he managed to finally break free from them. His dad? Meh, too little too late. And poor Tyler. My heart broke for what he went through and he still was the same gentle soul. Animals really are the greatest gift.

[Kristina · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was just the exact enemy to lovers romance with a good portion of drama and fluff, that I needed rn

[Shelba · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF @ 1%.

Maybe don’t say in the front matter that I should read your list of 35 recommended queer books before buying yours (do you or do you not want me to read this book?). Especially since I didn’t like some of those queer books on your recommended reading list. But also don’t recommend me a list of books that you haven’t read but that other people highly recommend. And “the LGBTQIA+ universe”? We’re a universe, are we?

If you didn’t want me to read your book, you could have just said so.

[Akansha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did not expect this story to be this heavy. The themes it explores cannot be taken lightly. And the author did justice to it. 

I loved both Jason and Marco and their chemistry even with the whole workplace rivalry was so good. The story takes place all over UK as the two tour different universities and I enjoyed it thoroughly. Makes me want to pack my bag and go on a tour but single life means you can only get to experience it through books. 

The pacing of the book was a little too slow. I think this book could have been 50 pages shorter. It's slowest of the slow burn with multiple will they won't they moments. 

Read this if you like:

🧑‍⚖️Workplace rivalry 
🧑‍⚖️Rivals/hate to love
🧑‍⚖️Long time one sided crush
🧑‍⚖️Forced Proximity 
🧑‍⚖️Cutest/happiest dog
🧑‍⚖️"Be each other's safe place

[frannilys · Rating 5 out of 5]

The beginning was a little bit bumpy because for your enemies-to-lovers or from-hate-to-love story to work for me, you need to give them some kind of redeeming qualities even at the beginning or make them both a-holes.
But making just one of them nasty and mean and not giving him any good sides at the beginning, it just doesn’t work for me because I just hated Marco and I didn’t want him to end up with Jason.

Marco was straight up disrespectful and unprofessional. That is not hot. And I really didn’t like him.

But Jason stood his ground (I was a bit proud because that is not often the case because most of the time the MC only thinks with his d).

And it got better. Marco redeemed himself. And I was rooting for them.

I also just have weak spot for any story involving lawyers.

[Sarah Emeraldreader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Melissa Morgan has given us a deeper insight into the story of Marco and Jason, who we first met in Forced To Forget. The book has it all, an enemies to lovers trope with romance, steam, humour and some darker parts (plasee read the trigger warnings.)

I absolutely adored the book from start to finish. Melissa did a great job at portraying the rivalry between Jason and Marco. The friction between the pair was very entertaining and often provided a laugh. This romance novel showed the highs and lows that people in the queer community face. Jason and Marco's families both showed how people have the choice to accept homosexuality or turn against it.

From the very start, I was moved . The book is dedicated to Melissa's dog. As a dog and cat mum, I immediately was touched by this. This meant that the addition of Tyler (Marco's Rottweiler) was perfect and I often found myself smiling when he was mentioned

Another part or, rather, recurring theme, that I think deserves a menion is how attracted to each other the men are...thee are several steamy moments.

I might have rambled on, but it's only because I really loved this book. It can be read as a stand-alone, if you haven't read Melissa's other books, which I also recommend.

[Charlotte Francis · Rating 5 out of 5]

fantastic as always

I really love this book. Such a wonderful side story to a absolutely fantastic trilogy. Would recommend all of Melissa’s books to anyone

[Pauline · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, that was a delicious slow-burn enemies to lovers story. And when I say enemies to lovers I mean ENEMIES, not like in other books with this trope where there is a little rivalry, a little dislike in the beginning but the MCs overcome it in the first 5% of the book and then start pining. I mean it in the way that Marco was such a massive asshole in the beginning that I contemplated putting the book down because he made me so ANGRY! Thankfully the story was written so beautifully and engaging, that I trusted the author would find a way to redeem his character and boy, she did.

This book was such an intense rollercoaster of emotions, I couldn’t put it down. Marco and Jason and their histories were multidimensional and complex and I loved getting to know them in such a deeply intimate way. Their chemistry was off the charts, and I adored them together: The epic fights and endless snark but more so the quiet, understanding, deeply caring moments. I’m pretty sure the scene how Marco just CARED for Jason when he burned himself in Edinburgh will stay with me for a long time, it was just so wholesome and intense and protective and respectful (is there anything hotter than being respectful of set boundaries?!). It made me feel all mushy inside when I read it 🥹
I loved the whole setting of the milkrun-tour in general (and the close proximity aspect that came with it!), getting to see all of these UK cities again through the eyes of our MCs.

I think the author handled Jason’s complex relationship with his parents (fuck these guys btw, I don’t even know which of them is worse) really well and showed that homophobia can show itself in a lot of different ways. I appreciated the contrast of Marco’s parents who show us all how it should be instead…

There were quite a few annoying typos throughout and yeah, Marco could have had a bit more of a relationship background story to understand his hot-and-cold act better but I enjoyed this book immensely nonetheless. I’m sure it will stick with me and I’m really looking forward to hopefully more beautifully written MM-romance from Melissa Morgan in the future. Couldn’t recommend this enough! 4,75⭐️

[bear · Rating 2 out of 5]

2/5 stars — im going to be harsh here, but it’s deserved because i had to force myself through the last 40ish%

✅ i love golden retriever x black cat (rottweiler?) dynamics so much, give me 14 of them right now
✅ when you can tell the author has an appreciation for the non-london parts of the uk? chefs kiss
✅ every book needs a lovable pet character it increases my likelihood of finishing it by at least 50%

❌this whole book felt like an excuse for the author to write a specific trauma story for the mc, which in turn had me rolling my eyes at least twice a chapter. it was beaten beyond death and i just stopped caring
❌random POV changes mid chapter are just clunky pls dont do this.
^tagging on to this point, what’s the point in dual POVs if the entire main emotional arc is based around only one of the characters?
❌the plot was cute, but had little depth and felt monotonous even at the tenser moments. things were mentioned in passing that should’ve been fleshed out scenes.
❌ this book needed another round of edits/checks, the (small and understandable) mistakes were plentiful, which imo shouldnt be the case in published work. a few, sure, but not that many. this meant a lot of scenes further into the book felt VERY forced or unnatural.
❌ the prose was overly flowery, but didn’t have the poetic pull to make it pretty.
❌ making a character RUN AWAY after a misunderstanding that THEY caused? criminally cliche, i may have strained something with my groaning. grow up.
❌ the author couldn’t seem to decide which guy was bigger? but made a point to always talk about it? in one POV it’s the mc, in the other POV it’s the li. somehow the guy who never works out is broader/stronger/[insert descriptors here] but only sometimes? if you feel a need to include this again and again (which you dont need to, they dont all need to be rippling with muscle omfg) at least make up your mind.

TLDR: a tasty premise with lacklustre flavour. it needed more round of edits, both grammar-wise and plot-wise. sorry 🤷

[Sazzy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read it on my Kindle, loved it so much I paid an obscene amount for the Paperback so it can be displayed proudly on my shelf :)

As much as I looove the smuttiest MM books I can find, every now and then I float over to the sweeter reads like this one and I am so glad I found this book! Don't get me wrong, there's enough spice in here to keep me happy but it isn't the point of the book. This is plot driven and, if you loved Red, White & Royal Blue and/or The Unlikely Heir then you will LOVE this!

It has your classic rivalry between 2 unbelievably good looking colleagues that has a slow burn towards them realizing their attraction for each other (no spoilers in this review, the blurb says more) and I was a little put out by the number of pages (I'm a 250 max girl usually) but I flew through this, couldn't put it down and read it in just over a day.

The MCs are adorable, the backstory for Jason was believable (screw his mother!!) and you can see it being true for so many queer people out there. His insecurity at pretty much everything in his life is a slow burn explanation throughout and is handled beautifully by the author. Marco is just.... yum! Moody, brooding, Italian. I mean, come on! What's not to like!!!

4.5 stars but rounded down to a 4 (I'm a glass half empty girl after all :)) and Melissa Morgan, you have yourself a BIG new fan :)

*chefs kiss*

[Kay Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars

I received this book as a digital ARC from the author. I have not read any of her other work before. And how gorgeous is this cover?? I was SO excited when I got the ARC!

Content Warnings: homophobia, parental abuse, mild burn (hot water), animal abuse (off-page), past self harm

This was SO good! I really loved every moment of it -- though I knew I loved it right around the time they do their first presentation together. Jason being all proud and happy with how his presentation went and the IMMEDIATE humiliation he felt after when Marco made a joke about him? OH MY GOD, I got that chest pain/nausea feeling I get when I've read some good angst, and I felt soooo bad for Jason and so angry at Marco in that moment

I just REALLY loved this book. The characters, the concept of them travelling around the UK, the angst. Tyler the Rottweiler! I LOVED Jason - I felt a real connection to him, and adored his golden retriever energy. And Marco was a bit of an asshole - but a loveable one. He's like a mean cat that you still really want to have sit in your lap.

There's only one mild sex scenes (frottage), and I was maybe expecting another sex scene after that? But honestly it wasn't necessary. Also please bare the CW at the top of my review in mind because the story can get heavy at times.

[Emma Lambe · Rating 4 out of 5]

This had all the cosy romance book feels that I expected from a Melissa Morgan book. You can expect a mixture of humour, heart flutters, and heavy topics, all done in a respectful and open way. I read the first half of the book in one morning, which considering romance isn't my normal go-to genre, is saying something. They were all written well, right down to the side characters, to the adorable rottweiller Tyler. Jason and Marco were both adorable and super hot 😍 The spicy scenes were swoon worthy and had me rooting for them to work out as a couple. I loved the lgbtq book recommndations, Il definitely have to check some out. You can get either pick up this stunning book in paperback or it is on Kindle Unlimited too, so go go go! Well done @melissawritesthings you did it again, you superstar!

⭐️⭐⭐️⭐️

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

A ham-fisted, clunky book that relies on improbable and artificial scenarios to keep the reader interested. The author struggles with basic grammar (2:37 a.m. in the morning), idioms (case and point) and doesn’t seem to know the difference between the subject and object of a sentence (she gets he and him mixed up three times). Add in various typos and this feels very amateurish. The character of Marco is odd - he does the least-expected and unlikeliest things at all times, and, along with his unnecessary Italianness, that grates. Jason’s mental health struggles are more real but the relationship with his siblings seems like an afterthought and doesn’t quite fit into the story. One to avoid.

[Sruthi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jason and Marco are absolutely adorable. This was such a good slow burn romance, with an added enemies to lovers arc. I love how the both of them develop into such dependable characters and how they began to share themselves with each other. I was giggling and kicking my feet at times and the yearning was to die for.

The dual pov was great albeit a little confusing when the pov switched at times due to the third person narrative. But I loved reading it, I will definitely want to reread one day.

[Fox · Rating 3 out of 5]

The idea of the book was good, and the writing competent, albeit leaving a little to he desired, but refreshing in its predictability. These two had very good chemistry, and I liked how they both helped to get each other through their troubles, especially how Marco stood by Jason regarding his parents, who were simply horrifying. It was a good read, and I was appealed most by its incest rather than the actual writing, hence the low rating. I'm sorry, but I did love the story.

[Denise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some lovely moments and scenes in this one, but on the whole a somewhat frustrating read. For all that they have their sweet, caring and tender moments, I found both protagonists infuriating in different ways (particularly Marco, who spends at least half his time being an arrogant, insufferable asshole I wouldn't have blamed Jason for shoving into oncoming traffic) and was all out of patience with them long before the halfway point.

[Vera · Rating 2 out of 5]

A cute slooow burn but it could've used much more editing. Typos and missing words bothered me a lot and at some point one of the main characters was referred to as Justin (instead of Jason). Some things mentioned in dialogues seemed very sudden and inconsequent, which kind of gives you a feeling that you missed something.

[Irene S. Milau · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved it ! 🤍 I just could not put this book down and it messed up my sleep scheduled.

Marco was such an ass and we love him for it. Should we all find our Marco🫶🏻

I loved the plot and the author style. English is not my first langage but my reading was smooth and easy. I would definitely recommend it and read other novels by Melissa Morgan

[Adan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't get over these charactersssssss. I swear to god Neil's book better in the flipping work and for the psychological damage of making me love literally every couple I want a Kenneth and Maria special as well. No, because I can't move on. What do you mean there's no more books for me to latch ontooooooo.

[elle ❀ · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5 rounded down. i literally never rate books this low and i literally feel like an asshole writing this but i hated this…i literally only finished reading it through sheer willpower. the slow burn was way too slow (one of the leads literally thinks the other is straight for 2/3 of the book) and the writing style just wasn’t for me at all. i’m happy other people were able to enjoy this though!

[Jess Milner · Rating 5 out of 5]

A british slowburn mm romance that's actually so good you stay up till 1 am? Alexa play there can be miracles. (Minus star for barely any payoff re: 🍆, bonus star for the dog). Only 34 ratings on here is a crime.

[Sonja ☾ · Rating 4 out of 5]

M/M || Solicitors || Enemies to Lovers || Workplace Rivals || Forced Proximity || Grumpy x Sunshine || D o g g o || Sprinkle of Spice || Homophobia || British

This was such a nice read. Jason and Marco are literally perfect for each other🫡

[Ian · Rating 2 out of 5]

I feel like a total schmuck here, but I feel obligated to say that I found this book not very good.

[Vinay Dhurwe · Rating 4 out of 5]

A cute rivals to lovers story

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

loved every second of it