Synopsis:
Caroline Reynolds has a fantastic new apartment in San Francisco, a Kitchen Aid mixer to die for, and no O (and we’re not talking Oprah here, folks). She has a flourishing design career, an office overlooking the bay, a killer zucchini bread recipe, and no O. She has Clive (the best cat ever), great friends, a great rack, and no O. Adding insult to O-less, she also has an oversexed neighbor with the loudest late-night wallbanging she’s ever heard. Every moan, spank, and—was that a meow?—punctuates the fact that not only is she losing sleep, she still has—yep, you guessed it—no O. Enter Simon Parker. When the wallbanging threatens to literally bounce her out of bed, Caroline, clad in sexual frustration and a pink baby-doll nightie, confronts her heard-but-never-seen neighbor. Their late-night hallway encounter has…well…mixed results. Because with walls this thin, the tension’s gonna be thick. A delicious mix of silly and steamy, this is an irresistible tale of exasperation at first sight.
My Review:
4 stars — This book was actually both a 3 star and a 5 star read for me — hence the averaging out at 4 stars. It took me a REALLY long time to get into this book. I was just not captured by the initial humour of the book…it just wasn’t…me…. It felt almost forced or something. I was even telling my husband that I was considering DNFing b/c I just wasn’t that into it.
But then I got to about 20% (somewhere around Jillian and Ben’s party) and something changed for me. I’m not sure if I just got a better glimpse of who Caroline was, or maybe Sophia and Mimi helped to temper her a bit? But suddenly I was finding Caroline to be HILARIOUS, and just so freaking sassy, and I even enjoyed her ridiculous temper (though I feel like that should have bothered me). She just let her feelings out and even though it could have come across as childish, I just felt all of her frustrations.
But it wasn’t just Caroline. I began to fall in love with Simon and Caroline together. I fell in love with their relationship that developed after the truce. They just melded together so well, and even though it wasn’t a traditional romance, I fell in love with their burgeoning friendship. It was honestly just so sweet, sassy and genuinely fun. Simon’s love of baked goods was HILARIOUS, he was just so endearing. And they had chemistry out the wazoo. My heart just broke for all the mixed signals they were giving each other, and what happened in Tahoe. I LOVED the brief texting interludes, and I even enjoyed the moments being in all their heads on the ride back after Tahoe.
And can I just say that the Sophia, Mimi, Ryan and Neil situation was hilarious to read about and watch? I enjoyed that bit of side story.
It started to slow down a bit in Spain, but I was still really enjoying their romance as it was developing. But then we got back to the O. Not to mention the Brain, LC, Backbone, Heart and Nerves. OMG, it seriously got so old. I started rapidly losing interest in the story. Which was such a shame b/c it had been turning into a 5 star one for me. But it just went on and on and on. It took away from the heart that could have been in that section (and did appear for brief moments).
And then they got back. And let me tell you, I love me a good erotica…but I grew tired of the sex. There, I said it. It got boring. I could see what the author was trying to do, show the playfulness of their relationship…but I just could not care less. I had been treated to this beautiful sweet romance, and suddenly it was all about the sex. I’m sure I’m in the minority on this opinion, but I just ended up over it.
So that is my tale about reading this story. Low to EPIC HIGH to low again. Shit, the ending plays such a huge part in my enjoyment of a story that I almost want to rate it lower, but that would be seriously doing an injustice to the middle of the book. I can’t decide whether I’m going to go on to the next book. I’ll probably give it a try and see how I feel. I’m just feeling meh right now, trying to hold on to the magic.
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