Wallbanger Review

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.

I am going to say outright that Wallbanger is one of my favourite adult contemporary stories of 2012 and I am so glad that I found out about it.  NEVER have I had a smile plastered on my face throughout an entire book before. It was fun AND funny with plenty of laugh out loud moments but it was also touching and uplifting at times too.  I loved every minute of it.

I probably don’t need to say much about the plot because I think the synopsis tells you everything you need to know. Simon is all kinds of hot although he is part of a *coughs* different sort of arrangement with three women at the start of the book. Obviously we come to learn more about him as the chemistry between him and Caroline ignites and he has second thoughts about his lifestyle choices.   

Speaking of which, Caroline was fantastic and the kind of girl we all need as a best friend.  She’s direct without being in your face, loyal to her girlfriends and she has a crazy cat called Clive who by the way provides some of the more hilarious moments in the book.  The book isn’t just about Simon and Caroline though as we’re introduced to his friends and Caroline’s girlfriends (cue a bit of match making) and all the while, Caroline and Simon are trying their hardest to convince everyone that they’re just good friends and neighbours.  Yeaaaaaah right.  

Wallbanger is pure fun and escapism, I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book and I’m actually a little sad now that I’ve finished it as it definitely put me in a happy place for a while.  I’m guessing this is a standalone but I have since bought all of Alice’s other books as she’s definitely made a fan out of me.  I can’t recommend this book highly enough.

Wallbanger was published on 27^th November, 2012.  To find out more about Alice Clayton and her books, please click here to visit her website.