Review: Nailed by K.M. Neuhold
SYNOPSIS:
My new neighbor is a total tool.
He hated me from the second he laid eyes on me, and I don’t have the first clue why… But, if he wants to hate me, I’m happy to give him a few reasons: mowing the lawn at dawn on the weekend, leaving garbage cans in front of his driveway, renting a petting zoo for my backyard…making a list of ways to drive him crazy is half the fun.
He deserves it with the way he’s driving me crazy right back without even trying— walking around without a shirt on, sweaty rippling muscles on full display, well-worn denim jeans perfectly molded to his…well, you get the idea.
My point is, if he wants a war, I’ll give him one.
REVIEW:
This book suffered from the second book slump. When the first book was such a top-tier read; there is no way the sequel is going to live up to its standards, and that is exactly what happened here. While Stone and Dare were chaotic and fun, they just didn’t click and have the chemistry of Cole and Ren.
So Dare and Stone’s relationship starts off instantly as mortal enemies. Dare hates Stone for unknown reasons and Stone decides to give Dare an actual reason by being the absolute worst neighbor ever. When Dare’s reasons for his hatred are revealed, well it was kind of anti-climatic. Their neighborly tension morphs into sexual tension but let me tell you I will never get over how cringe-worthy the sex scenes were. First, they used butter as lube *barfs*. This is by far the most disgusting thing I have heard of as a lube alternative when in the kitchen. Then there is the classic oh we were so overcome with lust that we forgot the condom….NNNNOOOOOOO. I find this frequently in stories where the characters are in the 20s and they can be written off as foolish. But both Dare and Stone are in their 40s, there was absolutely no excuse for no protection.
But even after that first time, every single sex scene after that had no condoms?! I couldn’t make it make sense. The banter between them was enticing, I liked how Stone constantly antagonized Dare, I loved their dog(s). The comradery amongst the owns of Four Bears Construction had me grinning from ear to ear. Yet I found myself far more interested in secondary characters. When would Ollie get his happily-ever-after? What about West? Sawyer? The ending was sticky sweet, but the journey to get there…meh.
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