"The first night after Caroline moves into her fantastic new San Francisco apartment, she realizes she's gaining an intimate knowledge of her new neighbor's nocturnal adventures. Thanks to paper-thin walls and the guy's athletic prowess, she can hear not just his bed banging against the wall but the ecstatic response of what seems (as loud night after loud night goes by) like an endless parade of women. And since Caroline is currently on a self-imposed dating hiatus, and her neighbor is clearly lethally attractive to women, she finds her fantasies keep her awake even longer than the noise. So when the wallbanging threatens to literally bounce her out of bed, Caroline, clad in sexual frustration and a pink baby-doll nightie, confronts Simon Parker, her heard-but-never-seen neighbor. The tension between them is as thick as the walls are thin, and the results just as mixed. Suddenly, Caroline is finding she may have discovered a whole new definition of neighborly...
In a delicious mix of silly and steamy, Alice Clayton dishes out a hot and hilarious tale of exasperation at first sight..." (Description from Goodreads.com)
As it seems to be, when a new book goes through cataloging and processing at the library and the ladies notice that it might be a "sexy" book, they tend to place a hold on it for me or suggest I place a hold on it myself. The former happened with Wallbanger. I was in work and checked my box to discover I had a hold on it. The cover seemed interesting enough along with a concept. Who hasn't had noisy neighbors in the past? I lived in a building from the 1920's. We could hear everything. So, this book had some appeal to pick it up and read.
And sticking with my "No bad book reviews" because honestly there's too many books to read to spend my time on bad books...so bear with me for a few sentences. When I first started reading it, I couldn't get into Caroline's voice. She was talking to her cat and her O (you'll know what I mean when you read). While interesting and kinda funny, I couldn't get it to it. The cat Clive is what kept me reading. At about chapter 4 I started to understand and like Caroline's voice and really enjoyed the book. So much so, I might have sneaked off to read while my husband and daughter practiced violin. Shhh, don't tell. Ha. Ha.
Now, saying that there was a ton of things I liked about this book. I liked the normal, healthy relationships Caroline had with her friends. But I also liked how she was confident in herself and being alone. How many books have we read that is all, "Why me? Why am I so alone." It was enjoyable reading a character who was her own person and then watching her relationship develop with the Wallbanger. It was also nice seeing a woman who doesn't want the picket fence and being OK with that. Oh, and her descriptions of Wallbanger's activities? Laugh out loud funny.
What I also liked about the book was how Simon (Wallbanger) and Caroline's relationship developed naturally. They didn't meet and fall in love right away. We got to see them develop a friendship to relationship. It was great seeing character's in a book "take things slow" and discover each other. So, some sexy times at the end of the book but really, nothing like the cover would imply.
Finally, the last page and half where from Clive's POV. LOVED that and how it ended. The Feeder and Tall One. Just great descriptions from how a cat might think. I also discovered that this book is going to be a series with book two following Simon and Caroline. I'm excited to see what happens next!
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