There’s character development with the other co-owners, Ollie and Ev, setting them up for the next two books. But let’s just call out the big draw to this book: the smoking hot, (at least initially) angry, sex.

Dare’s absolutely adorable dog, Rudy, makes himself a resident of Dare and Stone’s households, and becomes a “matchmaker” of sorts. Credit to the author in developing the character to this degree. Notwithstanding his abrasiveness, he is actually very likeable. Dare is developed well with a good level of complexity. Stone is the subject of this book and it tracks his enemies-to-lovers relationship with his next door neighbor, Dare. In terms of the story, Nailed is the second installment in the Four Bears Construction series, which follows two brothers and their two best friends, all co-owners of the titular construction company, as they each try to find their HEA. Overall, this narrative pair is still good and enjoyable to listen to, and much better than other narrators out there, but be forewarned of the above if you are a sensitive listener. It’s disconcerting at first but does fade away after a few chapters. The result is that you may find yourself forced into “unhearing” and “unlearning” Stone first, and then readjusting to his new voice. He is given a very deep “dumb as rocks” voice in Caulky, but in Nailed, his voice is completely different - much more upbeat, similar to Cole’s voice in Caulky. If you’ve read Caulky and then you immediately read Nailed, you may encounter an additional issue: a character “schism” in Stone due to two very different voices from one book to the other.

It happens too often to be chalked up to inadvertent mistakes. Also noted in this book with the “weaker” narrator, a number of inexplicable mispronunciations. Nailed has the same two narrators as Caulky and while they are both more than competent - good diction, intonation, pacing - one narrator is definitely stronger than the other - richer tone, better emotional representation of the words on the page - which is something noted in Caulky but amplified in Nailed.

Screwed by K.M. Neuhold