Should’ve Been You (Man Enough Book 3) by Nicole McLaughlin Review

Hey ForeverBookers, 

I’ve just finished “Should’ve Been You” by Nicole McLaughlin, which is book 3 in the “Man Enough” contemporary series. I haven’t read books 1 or 2 but I could still follow and immerse myself into this storyline, okay. I believe that characters in “Should’ve Been You” have been present in the other books. Especially the three main characters, Jase, Hannah and Becca, so if you’re wanting to follow the characters from the beginning, start with book 1.

NetGalley granted me a review e-arc of “Should’ve Been You” so that’s why I haven’t read the other two books, previously. 

There are explicit sex scenes in “Should've Been You” so I wouldn’t recommend this for anyone under age 17. 

Spoilers Below...

Jase is the first character that is seen in “Should’ve Been You”. He’s a 32 year old man who wants to become a cattle herder. The book doesn’t focus on this at all. It’s just contextualises the story. He is single but has been harbouring feelings for Hannah, one of his old, close neighbours. 

“Hannah. The woman in Jase’s life. Sort of. They’d never officially dated. Never had sex. And yet...they were definitely each other’s other”

Even though it says they “never officially dated above”, that doesn’t mean that Jase doesn’t feel attracted to Hannah. Hannah has a twin sister, Becca as well. Jase and Becca haven’t had an easy friendship. 

“It was never...romantic love. I can see that now. I’ve known it for a long time, actually. And she has, too” 

This is when Jase is trying to explain to Becca that he doesn’t want Hannah. Becca has always felt second best to Hannah. She’s always thought that Jace fancied Hannah. Jase realises throughout “Should’ve Been You” that he never truly loved Hannah and that it’s always been Becca. 

Hannah gets engaged to a side character, Jonas in the middle of the story. We don’t really learn anything about him, other than he’s the lead singer of a band. The story don’t really focus on this relationship. This engagement is more of just a side story. The main story follows Becca and Jase’s relationship. 

The title, “Should’ve Been You” plays into the main storyline, which is a love triangle type set up between Jase, Hannah and Becca. I thought it would be annoying but it really wasn’t. Jase thinks he loves one of the girls but is actually interested in the other...

There wasn’t any actual cheating between the three main characters, although there was for others. It was more feelings that were unexplored that became explored, throughout. For example, the first time that Becca and Jase kiss is like a totally new experience for them both.  

“And it was the most divine moment of her life. She was kissing Jase Beckford. The man she’d dreamed of as long as she could remember”, explains what it’s like for Becca, while “I shouldn’t have done that. But I can’t say I really regret it” is what Jase says about the kiss. Becca already has a boyfriend when this kiss happens, Brian, who treats her terribly. 

“He was successful and easy to like” is really all the description we get of who Brian is as a person. He doesn’t come off as friendly though. He’s very overbearing on Becca. He doesn’t want her kissing guys, but he’s allowed to kiss girls, for example. 

“She and I kind of...fooled around last week”

is how Brian explains that he cheated on Becca. He doesn’t think that it’s classed as “cheating” because they didn’t sleep together. However, Becca thinks differently. Becca is of course, angry. She then goes into explain how she kissed Jase. Brian doesn’t accept this kiss, at first. 

“Did you sleep with him?”

“No!”

“But something happened, didn’t it?”

“Yes, he kissed me. But you seem to be unfairly angry after just telling me what you did. Don’t you think” 

is how the exchange between Brian and Becca goes, over Becca’s infidelity. Brian HAD just admitted that he’d also kissed someone else. But that seemed to have been forgotten about by him, here. He’s being very unfair towards Becca. That’s the main reason why I didn’t like Brian. 

Brian and Becca give things a go, after their separate fumbles but realise it’s not going to work between them. This leaves Becca for Jase but will they get together or will something else stop them? You’ll need to read to find out! 

What did I like about “Should’ve Been You”? 

I liked how the story seemed to focus on two romances, rather than three or four. In such a short book I don’t think it would have worked is there had been lots couples to focus on.  

I liked that the emotions seemed real in “Should’ve Been You”. Nothing seemed fake. I could imagine feeling the way that Becca did if I had been her. 

What didn’t I like about “Should’ve Been You”? 

I didn’t like how “Should’ve Been You” was so short. I grew attached to these characters and enjoyed reading about the situations they got into. 

I would have liked more events to happen in this book, which kind of leans into the wanting the novel to be longer but, yeah! 

I would have liked to have seen the main couple of this book either get together a little bit quicker, or for the book to have been slightly longer to accommodate more time to them as a couple. 

I enjoyed “Should’ve Been You”. There were a few things that I would have changed or altered but the story was easy to follow. That’s why I give this book 3.5 Stars!. I’m interested to read the other books in this series 🙂. 

Stand by for my next review, coming soon...