Enemies make the worst neighbors, but the best lovers in Sara Rider’s MAKE ME FALL, the second book in her standalone Books and Brews series. Eli doesn’t have a lot of sympathy for his uptight neighbor, Nora, until he hears about her “un-datable” status and all it takes is one disastrous date with Nora for Eli to fall hard. Fans of Lauren Layne, Jenny Holiday’s ONE AND ONLY, and THE FINE ART OF FAKING IT by Lucy Score will devour this opposites attract, fun buy sexy romance.
Book Info:
Author: Sara Rider
Series: Books and Brews #2
Genre: Adult contemporary romance
Published: September 24th, 2018
My rating: 4 stars
Synopsis:
After losing her job, her home, and her friends in her
divorce, Nora Pitts is determined not to make the same mistakes when she starts
over in the small town of Shadow Creek, Washington. No more toiling away in the
lab at the expense of her social life, and definitely no more men. Ever. But making friends in her thirties is so much
harder than she anticipated. And when it comes to her gorgeous yet obnoxious
neighbor, it’s a whole lot easier to make enemies.
Eli Hardin doesn’t have a lot of sympathy for his uptight
neighbor, until he overhears her so-called new friends making fun of her
un-datable status. Suddenly he finds himself volunteering for a date with a
woman who’s been leaving angry hate-notes in his mailbox, and in way over his
head. Because all it takes is one disastrous date with Nora for Eli to fall
hard.
But falling for Eli isn’t something Nora’s ready for—not when
he’s her complete opposite, and especially not when he turns out to be the best
friend she’s made in Shadow Creek. But as her attraction and her feelings for
Eli grow hotter, resisting him might just lead to heartbreak anyway.
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MAKE ME FALL Excerpt
Copyright
© 2018 Sara Rider
Eli marked off twenty-six and three-quarter inches as precisely as
he could and lifted the blade of the circular saw.
“Oh my God, I soooo wasn’t kidding,” one of the women next door
said loudly. “Nora really does need to get laid.”
His shoulders tensed. This wasn’t the first time he’d overheard
the women loudly shit-talking his neighbor behind her back. He had no idea why
she hung out with them.
“Maybe you should set her up with someone,” another woman added.
The other two laughed. “Can you imagine Nora on a date? She’s so
uptight and frigid. Who would want to date her? No lay is worth that kind of
torture. Can’t you just picture her busting out her bottle of sanitizer before
the poor sap tries to hold her hand?”
His jaw tensed and he felt the last of his patience snap like an
icicle in his warm hands. He sliced the saw through the wood, threw his
protective glasses onto the ground, and marched over to the waist-high chain
link fence. “I’d do it.”
All three women turned to look at him like he was a space alien
who’d just beamed down to earth. The one who’d been talking the most leaned
forward in her seat. “What did you just say?”
“You heard me. I’d go out with her.”
“You can’t be serious.”
The more this woman pushed, the more he wanted to put her in her
place. No, Nora was not the kind of woman he would normally ask out—mainly
because she was one of the few who didn’t seem to fall for his charm. In fact,
he was pretty sure she didn’t think he had any charm whatsoever, but she was
attractive and smart enough to read a book every month. That alone made her
more dateable than half the population in this town. “Sure as hell am.”
The woman leaned forward, smiling at him like he was freshly
caught prey in her snare. “If you’re looking for a date, I could show you a
much better time.”
He shrugged, keeping his fake smile on his face. “No thanks.
Backstabbing and mean isn’t my type.”
He probably enjoyed the shocked look on the woman’s face a little
too much, but it was seriously fucking rude to trash-talk the hostess while
sitting on her porch and eating her canapés.
The screen door slid open right at that moment. Nora walked out
with a plate of decadent-looking mini-chocolate cakes that made his mouth water
on sight. Her eyes darted from her friends to him and back again. “Um, what’s
going on?”
He rested his hands against the old chain-link fence. “What’s
going on is that your so-called friends are talking trash about your love life
behind your back and don’t seem to think you can get a date. So I volunteered.”
“You what?”
“Volunteered. You and me. Tomorrow night at seven. I’ll drive.”
She slammed the cake tray onto the coffee table and set her hands
on her hips. She looked around, like she couldn’t decide where to focus her
anger. Of course she settled on him. “Who says I’d want to go out with you?”
He raised his eyebrow, liking the way she got flustered around him
a little too much. “Got better plans?”
Even at the distance between them, he could see her suck in a
breath. Her mouth hardened into a flat line, but she didn’t say no.
“Tomorrow. Seven. Dinner. Oh, and consider making new friends who
aren’t so damn mean. These ladies don’t deserve any of those amazing-looking
cakes.” He grabbed his plank of wood and headed into the house, wondering what
the hell he’d just gotten himself into.
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My Review:
I enjoyed this romance with its quirky female lead, and the annoying guy next door. There were a lot of things about Nora that I totally connected with. Not feeling comfortable going to a book group with people she didn't already know. Now, I'm not quite the neat freak she is, but I do have things around my house that bother me. Like, I want the light switches to all be facing the same way if they're all off. Stupid little things like that. I also have probably put up with friends that might not have been that nice to me in the past, just so I'd have someone to do things with. Unfortunately I never had the hot guy to save me from those type of people like Nora did.
There were also great side characters in the book, which makes sense since this is part of a series. Eli's family and friends were the type of friends and family that I like having around. The type I could totally see myself spending time with, and I know the ones I already have like them. The fact that they took Nora into their own book group, where they were reading a more popular book, instead of the more literary books her original book club pretended to read, and even when she and Eli were on the outs, they kept her around, that said a lot for them.
There were the usual bits that annoyed me between the two of them pushing each other away for stupid reasons, or mishearing things, but since that is part of the drama in almost all romances it seems, I feel they fit in fine. This was a fun, sweet little read, and I'll be hoping to go back when I have time and read the first book, to get Clem and Jake's full story.
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