REVIEW: Rusty Nailed (Cocktail #2) by Alice Clayton

Title/Series: Rusty Nailed | Cocktail #2
Author: Alice Clayton
Publisher: Gallery Books
Published: June 24th 2014
Format: eBook | Pages: 320
Genre: Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Source: Gifted
★★★✩ (3.5/5) Stars!

Alice Clayton | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

In this sequel to Wallbanger, the second book in the Cocktail series, fan favorites Caroline and Simon negotiate the rollercoaster of their new relationship while house-sitting in San Francisco.

Playing house was never so much fun—or so confusing. With her boss on her honeymoon, Caroline’s working crazy long hours to keep the interior design company running—especially since she’s also the lead designer for the renovation of a gorgeous old hotel on Sausalito. So with her hotshot photographer boyfriend gallivanting all over the world for his job, she and Simon are heavy-duty into “absence makes the heart grow fonder” mode. Neither has any complaints about the great reunion sex, though! 

Then Simon decides he’s tired of so much travelling, and he’s suddenly home more. A lot more. And wanting Caroline home more, too. Though their friends’ romantic lives provide plenty of welcome distraction, eventually Caroline and Simon have to sort their relationship out. Neither wants “out of sight, out of mind,” but can they create their own happy mid-ground cliché?

USA TODAY bestselling author Alice Clayton delivers another delicious, frothy cocktail of a book, shaking up her characters, stirring in laugh-out-loud humor, and serving sizzling romance straight up! 

I was pretty nervous to start this book. I fell completely in love with Wallbanger, it's funny, hot and steamy and a really fun read. The thing is though it ended, I felt, pretty perfectly. I didn't feel like anything was unresolved and had no doubts that Caroline and Simon were going to ride off into the sunset together. Maybe not in the sense of a traditional happily ever after...but happy for the type of people they were. Which was still pretty frickin' happy! But another book centered around them again had me worried that the happiness bubble I was in from the end of Wallbanger was bound to burst because you can't exactly have 320 pages worth of rainbows and lollipops, there was bound to be some sort of blowout, and I wasn't sure if I was ready to deal with that.

"We can't keep arguing over this. This ins't our fight."

While picking up this series again was a lot of fun and just the right humorous read that I needed at the time, and in a lot of ways it was such a fun book, I did end up finding myself aggravated by every one of the characters at one point or another. I hated how much everyone within the group of friends of this series allowed the drama between two of them, Sophia and Neil, affect all the rest of their relationships. And by drama, I mean drama. I felt like I was reading about a bunch of high schoolers not a group of nearly thirty something adults. It just felt very messy and left me feeling more frustrated than anything else.

Being half of a "we" is sometimes hard.

Still being able to be in Simon and Caroline's world again was just as I remembered it being before. Filled to the brim with equal parts laugh out loud funny and hot, steamy passion. Simon Parker, oh how I've missed you. I actually did like how Alice Clayton handled their relationship and the problems that arose within it. I mean there were a few times especially heading up to the end that I wanted to grab Caroline by the shoulders and just shake her senseless because even though I felt that all of their tension could have been avoidable with some good old fashioned communication, it all felt like a very real and natural place for their relationship to end up by this point. It wouldn't have been very realistic if there weren't any issues to deal with. I'm just so glad it wasn't something that was going to shred my heart to pieces.

"Come on, sweet girl, let's get you changed into something warm," he said.

Both of Caroline's boys, Simon and Clive, are what really kept me sane and not wanting to toss my Kindle during all of the frustrating moments. Every time Simon would refer to Caroline as his sweet girl, I melted into a puddle of goo. Still hopelessly smitten. And Clive? I want that freaking cat so bad! It always cracks me up how the things he's described doing at times bounce back and forth between being so...human, and others just a typical crazy cat. And his epilogues are absolutely priceless.

Clive attacked a roll of bubble wrap and made it his bitch.

To sum things up, yeah, sure, there were times when the characters left me feeling frustrated but those moments in the end were overshadowed by all of the humor and steaminess that make up the rest of the book. It was a great addition to the Cocktail series. I'm excited to pick up the next book in the series, Screwdrivered, as soon as possible. We briefly get to meet the female from that book in this one, Viv, and I feel like she is going to be a whole lot of fun. Plus I love a good love triangle and the boys in this book are referenced as pitting Superman against Clark Kent...the Superman fangirl in me squealed a little bit seeing that one, my weakness! I look forward to seeing what hilarity is in store for me with the next book!