Neighbors or Roomates?

Title: Rusty Nailed

Author: Alice Clayton

Genre: Romance, New Adult

General Thoughts: Not as good as it could be.

Rating: 3/5 stars.

First Lines:

"Oh, God."Thump."OH, God".Thump thump."Caroline, don't say those things to me when I'm so far away." Simon chuckled, his voice loew. And still as thrilling as it ever was."Silly Simon, I'm simply reacting to the banging on the other side of the wall."

Rusty Nailed is the delicious sequel to Romance novel, Wallbanger. In here, Caroline and Simon's relationships reaches the stage of settling down in to normal life, which seems to have Caroline a little busy. And with all the overload of work she's getting, her life is soon to be a mess. She now has to find a way of balancing life or everything will come crumbling down.

My initial thoughts of this book where that it was better than the first book and that it was filled with much more character development and funnier scenes. But the more I thought about it the more I realized that it wasn't better than the first book, that it had way more flaws and holes than Wallbanger. And then I thought, wait, it is better in some ways than others. And then I thought, no it isn't and...

In resume, I'm not sure what to think about it, but this is what I've managed to gather down of my feelings.

I think that this book had a way better plot than the last one, because it wasn't only about Caroline and Simon's relationship, it was about: Caroline and Simon's relationship, how she felt, her work and how it was all too much and the friends and Simon's past and feeling good and traveling. And I think it's great that the author tried to add more to this novel, but I think somewhere in the way, she lost control of it. As in, she built up situations and resentment towards things that at the end of the book were never resolved or confronted. It's like she tried to create this big thing and then realized how massive it actually was and how out of control it got and then just forgot about a few things and focused on the other.

In my opinion, I think she should have found a better way to wrap things up, not to rush it as much and to pay attention to more details in the novel. I've come to the conclusion that she wrote things that she didn't know where going to have a consequences on how the novel was taken.

Or maybe I expected to much of this novel.
But I do appreciate her trying to change things down a bit, just not the final execution she gave it.

Something that really bothered me was the ridiculousness of some parts of the book. The whole Sophia-Neil business was plain ridiculous and not funny at all. It was annoying to read and it was obvious to were it lead. But the premise of the things that started it all (view spoiler) got me interested, but ended plain disappointed. And the fights that this would have caused gave foot to another yet great plot to add but she didn't see it and just wouldn't take the opportunity.

It was very interesting in some parts, others where boring. You'll forgive me, but I thought that Simon's High-school reunion scene was boring and she could have done better.

Also, in this book the predictive-ness was all over the place and unlike the first book it didn't really work, for me. I think that it all just went monotonically to were it was supposed to go and no real twist happened.

Writing this review has done wanders for me, I now have a clearer understatement of my thoughts.

In conclusion, I didn't have high expectations but expected better anyway. It was flawed and not very good and I didn't enjoy it as much as the first one. I do like the way it ended thought, even if she didn't quite wrap it as she should. And I recommend to read this if you have an urge of knowing what's next, but don't get high hopes on it.

Watch Out for Your Neighbors.

Name: Wallbanger (Cocktail #1)

Author: Alice Clayton

Genre: Romance, Contemporary, New Adult

General Thoughts: Good book for reading slumps.

Rating: 3.5/5 stars.

First Lines 

"OH, GOD."Thump."Oh, God."Thump thump.What the..."Oh, God, that's so goof!"I scranbled up out of sleep, confused as I looked around the strange room. Boxes on the floor. Pictures propped agaisnt the wall.My new bedroom, in my new apartment, I reminded myself, placing both hands on the duvet, grounding myself with the luxurious thread count. Even half asleep, I was aware of my thread count."Mmmm... Yeah, baby. Right there. Just like that... Don't stop, don't stop!"

Wallbanger is the story of Caroline, professional designer who just moved in to a new apartment, and has just declared herself in a dating-hiatus. She finds that the guy behind her bedroom walls might be getting some more than unusual sex, and then starts and unusual relationship with what she calls her "Wallbanger".

OK, I admit it, this was thoroughly and completely a guilty pleasure. I admit it, no shame in it.

This is a contemporary, romance, maybe New-Adult novel. This is exactly the type of books that I try to avoid reading, because it normally leads to disappointment and reading slumps, for me. But this novel in particular was filled with humor, which is something I highly appreciate. And this was definitely not a bad one.

It was cheesy, and really predictable, but I didn't care. It was obvious and we all knew it and the author didn't try to hide it, she just worked with it. That's something I'm impressed about and very happy to read.

The characters weren't the best ones or the most deep and full of layers type. I did find myself loving the main characters, Caroline and Simon. I thought they were very real and funny, and I was rooting for them. The other characters gave me mixed feelings. Some were annoying to me, some were really great, some I had to think twice until I remembered who they were. But they weren't stupid or unrealistic and I'm very grateful for that.

The story is cheesy and predictable, but original in it's own way. I think that she added some elements to it that made it not so one-sided. I laughed out loud in several scenes and gripped my hands in anticipation of what was coming. It made me feel, which is always good.

The style of writing was very particular. It wasn't poetic or memorable or majestic. She chose ways to phrase things so that it was 21st century-ish but not overly spoiled-OMG-girl that we all hate. And she added things like phone conversations, that at first I found confusing but then I found myself loving.

Lastly, the romance in the novel wasn't all over the place or overly dramatic. This is very typical of romance, chick-lit novels and it's the main reason of why I run away of them. But I didn't feel that in this novel. Maybe I'm growing into it or this was really a good novel or I just really wasn't paying attention.

I read this because a friend lent it to me and I just said, whatever, why the fuck not? And I went with very low expectations and I ignored a lot of mistakes and pet-peeves of mine. But I really think this novel was a good one. Not just me.

I definitely recommend this to most readers. Maybe if you read more adult, drama books this won't be for you, but I think it appeals to anyone. I gave it 3.5 for the small mistakes (really, I can't never really ignore them) like the cliches in the speeches of the characters, etc and because it was just a passing novel. But a really good one.