Review: Wallbanger by Alice Clayton

Title: Wallbanger
Author: Alice Clayton
Published: November 27th 2012
Source: Purchased
Genre: New Adult
Buy: Amazon ~*~ Barnes & Noble
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Caution: May contain spoilers

Caroline Reynolds has a fantastic new apartment in San Francisco, a KitchenAid mixer, 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, since her move, she has an oversexed neighbor with the loudest late-night wallbanging she’s ever heard. Each 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. (No, really, Simon, please enter.) 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. Ahem. With walls this thin, the tension’s gonna be thick…

In her third novel, Alice Clayton returns to dish her trademark mix of silly and steamy. Banter, barbs, and strutting pussycats, plus the sexiest apple pie ever made, are dunked in a hot tub and set against the gorgeous San Francisco skyline in this hot and hilarious tale of exasperation at first sight.

My Thoughts:

I admit it, the title made me chuckle, which was subsequently followed by a reading of the synopsis and a quick purchase due to curiosity. The New Adult genre is one of those intriguing things for me. It can walk a fine line between being saturated with poor storytelling or a right balance of romance and realistic situations. Wallbanger was a surprisingly great story.

Being there in Caroline's head for the story adds to the richness of the details. She's got a lot on her mind, and Simon just creates this tension--good and bad. The way the two of them speak to and act around each other is pure hilariousness and awesomeness. They have these moments of total frustration and then getting along like the best of friends. It was very cute and created a nice intensity between the characters.

Unlike most N.A. titles I've come across, this one is actually very well played. The tension fills the air more than the drama, and this is carried through to the end. It isn't just some pathetic and cheap romance developed just to tell a love story. There was a lot to Caroline and Simon's relationship, from the friendship to when it becomes something more. And the something more, while oh so very steamy at times, wasn't ALWAYS just steamy. It was put together in a way that wasn't trashy or tasteless.

In my honest opinion, Wallbanger is exactly what the New Adult genre should be. The just right mix of main and secondary characters, a desire that is built from friendship and not just centered on sex, and an actual storyline that isn't ridiculous or has some lame twist. Alice Clayton is one to take a look at, she knows what she's doing.

My Rating: