Duo review by Sadonna & Larissa
TITLE: All Screwed Up
AUTHORS: Beth Bolden & Brittany Cournoyer
PUBLISHER: Self-published
LENGTH: 255 pages
RELEASE DATE: November 6, 2020
BLURB:
Griffin Caldwell can’t wait to make a fresh start: new job, new town, new house. He’s even realized the lifelong dream of owning his own home. Except when he arrives, nothing is what he expected, and Griffin’s celebration turns from triumphant to terrible.
Not only is his “cute bungalow” a derelict heap, it needs major remodeling work to be livable. And it turns out there’s only one person in town who’s even willing to commit to the project.
The first time David Webber talks to Griffin about his disaster zone of a house, he’d like nothing better than to hang up the phone. But he’s stuck. All his grumpy behavior has gotten him is a whole stack of bad reviews online and no clients.
From the moment they collide over a busted toilet, sparks and snark fly. The only thing that might be hotter than their mutual animosity is their intense chemistry.
Neither of them wants to admit it at first but as the project evolves and their lives intertwine, maybe what they’re working on isn’t just a house. It might even be proof that a caring partnership can build a strong, long-lasting foundation–and an even fiercer love.
SADONNA’S REVIEW:
Griffin moves to a new town to start a new job. He’s kind of spent his life flitting from one thing to another without finishing much. This time he vows to follow through. Unfortunately he’s so anxious to get going that he buys a house without ever seeing it in person. Turns out maybe the realtor wasn’t so much on the up and up and also, against advise, doesn’t have the property inspected. :0 So of course when he pulls up to the house, it’s not at all what he expected. He’s dismayed, but a call gets him nowhere because he’s signed the agreement and he can either figure out what to do with the house or abandon the property with all the negative consequences that entails. But he’s vowed he’s going to finish what he has started this time, so he decides to figure out how to make it work. His initial walk through it bad, but he’s really determined 🙂 But when he tries to find a contractor to help him with the house, he’s laughed at, hung up on, and dismissed. One guy give him a name – David Webber. And lo and behold, he answers the call.
David has inherited his father’s contracting business. But he’s slowly lost business since his father retired to Florida. He’s at the point where he’s not sure he’s going to be able to hold on to the business. He’s alienated his customer with his bad attitude – even though he’s done beautiful work. He’s just a bit of a grumpy Gus and he’s stubborn and won’t budge if he’s feeling like the client is making a mistake or a bad decision. Even though the properties aren’t his and it’s not his money, he has irritated people enough that they have left a lot of negative reviews on Yelp – and thus his business is drying up. The opportunity to pull of the reno of the year with Griffin’s property is just too good to pass up – even though he’s pretty much convinced a bulldozer would be a better alternative 😀
Of course Griffin is also stubborn and wants to help with the reno – even though he literally has ZERO clue what he’s doing. His initial attempts indeed result in more work for David to clean up his mess. So at first they are at a bit of stand-off. David knows what it will take and what it will cost. Eventually Griffin reveals that he has seen the Yelp reviews (post hiring David) and that he knows he’s in for working with someone who is a pain in the ass. But he also is sort of attracted to David and so they reach a detente whereby Griffin will allow David to do the work and he’ll give him a review just of the work. There is also a contest on the line that if David can with with his reno of Griffin’s house could really help his business.
Needless to say things go from hostile to hot after they start spending time together. It seems that there are enough things about the other that they enjoy their time together a bit more than expected. Both are stubborn and make mistakes. But they have some help from friends and family that push them to see that they could be really good together if they’d just get out of their own ways!.
This book was a lovely palate cleanser for me 🙂 The book I read just prior to this one was dark, heavy and somewhat sad, so I was totally in the mood for a grumpy gus/sunshiny low-angst coupling. I loved Griffin and David together. I do know people who were not even first time home buyers who have bought without inspection – to save a few bucks – only to find out they had TERMITE infestation 😛 Now I would never do that – but maybe say one too many episodes of Fixer Upper on HGTV 😀 I happen to really enjoy the grumpy/sunshiny trope and I though this one was well done. I love Evie – David’s BFF – and David’s dad too. One character I did find a bit cartoony was Griffin’s mom – but she didn’t have much page time. All in all, this was a sweet, low-angst read with some fun characters, some kittens and a feel good ending. It left me with a smile on my face. Recommended especially for anyone in the mood for a lighter story with a guaranteed HEA.
SADONNA’S RATING: 
LARISSA’S REVIEW:
In All Screwed Up, a standalone offering by Beth Bolden and Brittany Cournoyer, we are given a low-angst, light, enemies-to-lovers romance between two stubborn men at crossroads in their respective lives. Griffin moves to a new place for a new job where he knows no one, and arrives only to discover that the house he bought, sight unseen, is a dump. Completely inhabitable. So decayed and dilapidated that none of the contractors in town will take on the whole house remodel project. As a last resort, Griffin is put in touch with David, a very talented contractor with a very bad attitude. David’s my-way-or-the-highway approach that constantly overrides a client’s wishes has garnered him terrible reviews on Yelp and now, within 6 months of taking over his father’s construction business, he has no clients, no work and no prospects. Yet David still hesitates to accept the daunting proposal to remodel Griffin’s dump of a house, that is until Griffin agrees to give David a positive review that focuses only on David’s work, and not his attitude – something David desperately needs to save his business.
Griffin and David are both stubborn, persistent and short-tempered which makes for a very volatile start to their relationship. There’s a mutual attraction though, despite how frustrating they find it is to communicate and work with each other. (There’s also a mutual love of some very adorable kittens, which may be the highlight of the book.) As they get to know each other and spend more and more time together, though, they start to develop a partnership that then morphs into love.
This book had a lot of potential and given the description and the authors, perhaps my expectations were (unfairly) set too high. But this story just didn’t work for me. There were a number of issues I couldn’t get past and it dampened my enjoyment of the book.
There was a disjointedness to the story that possibly was a result of the way the authors chose to divvy up the writing. The writing wasn’t smooth and the transitions from one character to the other didn’t always line up in a sensible way. The angel/devil plot device was annoying rather than endearing, particularly because it wasn’t utilized in the way I expected it to be. Typically, the angel/devil dichotomy is used to show internal conflict, with the character stuck in the middle between the angel on one side acting as his conscience, and the devil on the other side offering temptation. In this story, the angel and devil didn’t consistently follow that mold or represent resolution of a conflict; rather, it was like two extra, unnecessary voices cluttering up our MC’s thoughts and detracting from our emotional engagement with them. I don’t think the angel/devil device was needed either, so to my mind, it did more harm than good. There were also squandered opportunities, which was disappointing. For example, I think more could have been made out of the remodeling competition. I almost felt like the authors may have initially intended to do so, but then it got left by the wayside in a rush to complete the story.
All of the things I just mentioned are admittedly minor and while they bothered me, they may not bother you. For me, it was the cumulative effect of them coupled with what I saw as a significant issue: the untenable premise that Griffin, a bright, resourceful, successful guy, would buy a house sight unseen. Griffin was starting a new job as an Assistant Manager of a Pet Store. There was no urgency or extenuating circumstances that explains why Griffin rushed into buying a house without seeing it first. He didn’t even ask for current pictures, just assuming what he saw online was accurate (it wasn’t). I can suspend disbelief to some degree, but this was so implausible, it undermined my view of Griffin and my sympathy for his plight. It also frustrated me because this could have easily been solved simply by creating a different set of more believable facts. For example, maybe Griffin lived too far away or was traveling, so he relied on a friend/real estate agent, someone he thought he could trust, to find suitable housing for him, and was screwed over by that person. That scenario would fit the title and, at least for me, be more believable. So while overall, Griffin and David are likeable, they are cute together, and the transformation from enemies to lovers is fun to see, I just couldn’t connect with either of them, and while I was glad for the HEA, I just didn’t feel invested in them or this story.
LARISSA’S RATING: 
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