Mangled

by Argentina Ryder

Man + Mingle = MANGLE, a new AI-powered dating app guaranteed to find your perfect match!

For Ben, a talented software engineer and openly gay man, love has always been a challenging puzzle, even more complicated than the intricate codes he works with. When his latest relationship ends, he turns to his best friend, Leo, for support. Their friendship takes an unexpected turn when, on a lark, they sign up for Mangle, an AI-powered dating service. To their astonishment, the algorithm pairs them together, forcing Ben to question the boundaries of friendship and love, and explore the depths of his feelings for Leo.

Leo is a jovial, larger-than-life character, both in personality and physique, and has always been a beacon of strength to his friends with his infectious laughter and unwavering loyalty. A straight man, he's surprised when Mangle's algorithm matches him with Ben, his best friend. This revelation sparks a whirlwind of confusion, unexpected feelings, and a potential love story that challenges everything he thought he knew about love and relationships.

Mangled is a captivating tale of unexpected love, friendship, and the courage to follow one's heart. As Ben and Leo navigate the complexities of their feelings, will they risk it all for a love that defies all odds and expectations? Embark on this journey with them in Mangled, a love story by Argentina Ryder that transcends labels, reminding us that the heart's truth is stronger than any algorithm.

Genres: Friends To Lovers, Romance, M M Romance, LGBT, Contemporary, Queer, Amazon

209 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 1, 2023

Reviews

[SJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don’t want to start out with a neg comment and I was hoping another reviewer might pick up on the writing in this one, but there are no reviews yet that mention it.
The writing was somewhat formulaic. The physical and emotional scenes felt constrained and a bit lifeless.
Ben and especially Leo were good characters.

[Audi♡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

2 besties sign up for a dating app, and it turns out they're a perfect match. 99%! This was a cute story. I loved their friendship, their lil dates were sweet. OMG and the camping trip 🥵 so hot.

4 stars bc of their break up. I wasn't a fan of the reasoning. Y'all can't fake/make up feelings.

No epilogue, but it was a sweet ending.
No cheating, sharing /om.

[Maureen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A truly sweet 'gay for you' tale. Long time friends, one gay, one straight, when fooling around on a dating app that's a work in progress they get a bit of a surprise, but knowing and fully trusting each other they decide to go along with it. That gives us a sweet and humorous story, Ben and Leo are total sweethearts giving a gorgeous tale, that is until a spanner gets thrown in the works.

[Elise H · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5⭐️

Cute story, two best friends discovering they might have more than friendship between them.

[isthisakink · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a book I found via a social media ad, screenshotted, and promptly lost in the camera roll shuffle. Clearing out old photos I came across it and several others, and decided to see if I could mine some hidden gems.

This could’ve really been something. It had fantastic characters, a plausible and realistic storyline, and the first few pages had my hopes all the way up on the top shelf. For an agonizing moment, I celebrated that I’d found another author that hit like Finn Dixon and could give me the same vibes and concisely-paced realism that I readily devour from his library of work.

I was unceremoniously Sparta-kicked off that shelf, hit the floor with a sad plop, and never could scrape my remains off the hardwood. My shame will live forever for even thinking that good things might happen to me here.

The repetition and inconsistencies absolutely—because ima go all the way if I’m going—mangled the whole thing. It was a disaster—extremely painful to read, formulaic and uninspired the longer it went on, details completely dropped and dismissed, important characters and information abandoned… just a metric ton of bad energy and missed opportunities. There was no finesse or heart in it at all.

1/5. Much like AI, this one lacked. It had all the components and possibilities, but it just never produced results. Hella disappointing and I hate that for me.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was super sweet and swoony about two best friends who were unexpectedly matched on a dating site. Leo and Ben are newly single and even though Leo has only dated women he’s intrigued by the idea of being matched with his best friend. They start out going on dates and slowly their relationship becomes more serious. This wasn’t heavy on the description which is something I love and it moved at a really good pace. They were really swoony with each other and my chest had serious butterflies. The spice was good but there wasn’t a lot of it, I felt like there was a good balance & the story was more about them figuring out a new life as a couple rather than crazy amounts of spice. They do get a happy ending & this was the perfect read if you’re looking for something quick and sweet without a 3rd act breakup.

[Tricia Ledford · Rating 4 out of 5]

Best friends to lovers.

HEA
🌶🌶 2.5/5 smut.
Bi-awakening.
Best friends to lovers trope.
Smaller top. Larger bottom.
Duel first person point of view.

Ben and Leo have been Best friends for eight years. Ben is openly gay but can't hold down a relationship, and Leo is a big golden retriever of a dude who is a little insecure about his weight. With there friends all testing out a dating app they decided to as well, and what a turn of events that happens to be because they get a 99.9% love match.
Ben starts looking at Leo in a new light, and Leo starts to find himself increasingly attracted to Ben. Leo was straight-ish, but he is very, very open to dating his best friend. These two actually decided to communicate as well. That's unheard of in these best friend trope type of novels. An added plus is there was also no near end break up and make up.
It's a lot of fluff.

[Richard · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not enough show, way too much tell. The emotional development is completely unbelievable. "I'm straight, but this brand new dating app AI says we're a 99.9% match, so obviously I'm bi. Oh, and I used to hook up with my room mate in college, so that actually makes sense. The AI knows all and we must follow its instructions." The whole thing feels super rushed; this isn't "bi awakening" this is "bi speedrunning". Conflicts are hinted at in retrospect or glossed over rather than actually experienced.

Disappointing read, but at least it didn't take very long.

[Emi · Rating 2 out of 5]

okay

This was an okay reed. Had some discrepancies or at least what i felt like were so. Those bothered me enough to consider not finishing this but I did finish it in the end. Characters were cute but they didn't really convince me - i felt like some of their feelings and thoughts weren't believable or logical.
I think that a less picky reader, who doesn't read as much couldn't get more out of this. It wasn't bad I'm just picky and needy on books - i like to analyze things to while reading.

[Kathy Seabrease · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my first read of this author and I really enjoyed it. Friends to lovers is great and low angst is even better. I love that their situation wasn't stereotyped that the bigger man had to be the stronger one. These guys meshed in every way and their matching on Mangled was just icing on the cake. No matter how they wound up together, the important thing was that they did. Their love was strong before they were even lovers. Their base foundation was a great way to build a relationship. I for one, am glad they saw past all the negative stuff and went for their HEA.

[Naomi (aplace_inthesun) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I quite enjoyed the premise of this book - with two friends roped in to being on a dating app only to be matched with one another. The foundation for their relationship was there, just neither had considered each other as a possible romantic partner.

Where this fell down was translating this connection to the relationship. It had the bare bones but not the depth that could have been possibly given these two pretty good characters.

[Craig Pinnington · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really loved this story!!! I just wanted more gaps filling!!!

I really loved this story! I loved the idea, I just wish there was more in it… some decisions that were made I would have loved reading those conversations. Especially Leo’s decisions at the beginning and his friendship with his room mate could have been explored more. I felt like there was stuff missing and the jump in time was a bit head spinning at moments.

[Thera · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love best friends to lovers. This was a different spin on it. An app matched Leo and Ben together. But was it a mistake?

They embark on a new facet of their relationship but then everything gets turned on it's head. What I loved most is that they were mostly good about communicating with each other.

Overall I loved this book. Definitely worth reading.

[Tabitha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can’t knock the best-friend camaraderie or the low-stakes plot. One of the MMCs has quite a lot of body issues which could be triggering for some and annoying for others. The plot is very CR, dinner and a movie date, with a bit of spice to keep you entertained. I always feel like I’ve seen it all before when I read a CR… there’s just more stuff going on in PNR and romantasy, y’know?

[W · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was ok, I liked the MCs. I just didn’t buy that neither one of them has any inkling of any kind of attraction. Like in real life I have to believe there is something there for at least one of them.

[Danielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 ⭐️

Super cute friends to lovers story! Ben & Leo have a really beautiful bond. They balance each other in a really lovely way. I like how easy it was for them to go from friends to more. Yes they were nervous and scared but the bond they built was strong for sure!

[Rachel E. · Rating 3 out of 5]

cute story 3.75

The beginning is clunky and a bit repetitive but I hung in because the story and relationship had potential. I’m a sucker for a bestfriends to lovers and this proved a cute low angst cleanser.

[zen_s]

[dnf @ 20%] i feel that one of the hero start to see the other hero in another light just because they got match in an app feels too much of a stretch...

[Gracie Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

very cute!

[laura cabezas · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25 stars 🤍💡

[Tai · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Very low angst.

[Fae · Rating 2 out of 5]

Did not finish. It was flat and I couldn't get into it. I tried, dnf at 25%.

[Shirley (Secret Squirrel) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was ok. They relationship going from friendship to lovers just seemed to easy,

[Kara Flintoff · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was really sweet and heartwarming. The writing wasn't overly emotive but it was a nice, comforting read, with sweet characters.

[Sarah☀️ Somerville · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just not particularly interesting.

[Erin Theriot · Rating 5 out of 5]

I went into this book not knowing what to expect as I got it for free. I absolutely loved the story and the relatability of it. Great writing and storytelling in this one. Warning it is spicy!!

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

cute but clunky

The story is cute but the editing could be better. There were times I got distracted taking it unnecessary words

[Katie Clausen · Rating 5 out of 5]

😍😍😍😍

This was an amazingly love story!! Great storyline!! I look forward to reading more from this author!m on to the next!!

[Vanessa · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5

[Bobbi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mangled by Argentina Ryder. I loved this m/m love story! First book I’ve read by this author and I enjoyed it very much. Would love to read more!