Reviewed by Larissa

 

TITLE: Show Me

SERIES: Extracurricular Activities Book #3

AUTHOR: Neve Wilder

PUBLISHER: Self-published

RELEASE DATE: March 23, 2021

LENGTH: 284 pages

BLURB: 

Two Roommates. One Camera. A whole lot of action.

I get crushes the way some people get seasonal allergies.
And sharing a house with four hot roommates is like being stuck in permanent spring.
Too bad I keep getting friend-zoned.

But it’s senior year now, and I’m done pining for the impossible.
Time to live it up and go out with a bang.
Or a lot of bangs.

That’s why, when Sam asks me for help with a very special, very NSFW project so he can make a little cash, of course I agree. In the name of friendship.

And if it turns out that Sam’s more than just muscles—that he’s sweet, and smart, and a little bit filthy, and a whole lot less straight than I thought—well, that’s neither here nor there, because this time I’m gonna be smart. This time, I’m friend-zoning myself.

We’ve got a list of deliciously hot scenarios, a camera, and Sam’s huge… smile. What could possibly go wrong?

From the author of Want Me comes the third new adult college romance in the Extracurricular Activities series. Expect low angst, high heat, plenty of laughs, a flustered redhead, a gentle giant of a football player, and enough BDE to power a mid-size city.

REVIEW: 

Holy hell.  Read this book with a fire extinguisher at the ready.  Your Kindle’s gonna go up in flames.

The blurb warns us that Neve Wilder’s Show Me contains “enough BDE to power a mid-size city” — and that’s no joke.  BDE, aka “big dick energy”, strictly defined, is the quiet self-confidence a person exudes when they know they’re enormously endowed and know what to do with it.  But BDE is actually more than that and it applies to both Sam and Jesse, our exhibitionist couple in Show Me.

Before I continue further with that thought, let’s level-set.  If that introductory discussion of BDE has you gasping “Oh my, that’s vulgar” like a pearl clutching granny, just move along.  Nothing to see here.

For the rest of us, know that BDE, despite the obvious genitalia reference, is really more about attitude and personality than it is anatomy.  Although it can stem from having a BD, the “dick” part of BDE is just a metaphor.  It’s emotional, not physical.  BDE effortlessly exudes from people, regardless of gender, who don’t give a shit what other people think of them.  They know their value and they don’t need to laud it over others.  It’s respect, with swagger.  Once you meet Sam and Jesse, this will all sound very familiar.

Sam and Jesse have got BDE for days.  We know from the outset in this book that Sam has very prodigious genitalia. He’s got the BD part of BDE, for sure.  But more importantly, he’s got the attitude and personality.  He’s happy-go-lucky, even tempered, unflappable.  Even not having been with a man before doesn’t throw him off his game.  He unabashedly, without hesitation or contemplation, uses what he’s got without bragging about it.  

Sam needs to save up money for the future, to help his large family if they need it, and to give himself a fallback for the future.  He doesn’t hesitate to make sex videos of himself, nor does he think twice about it.  Sam’s easy going, confident, respectful and caring.  Once he gets Jesse in the mix, all he wants is to use his considerable “assets” to pleasure Jesse, to make him happy, physically and emotionally.  

Jesse is less about the BD and more about the E – the BD attitude.  He’s a saucy ginger who may get flustered at times, but not because he doubts himself.  He oozes confidence in an unintentional way.  He knows he’s got sexual prowess and doesn’t doubt his ability to use it successfully with Sam. He’s a nice guy who cares about others and enjoys doting on them.  It’s not something he thinks about, except in confusion when it’s used against him, like by his cheating, SOB of an ex, Reid.  Jesse embraces who he is on all levels.  

Together, Sam and Jesse are #goals.  Their “business” hookups morph into true attraction, then real feels, and ultimately deep and abiding love.  Neve conveys this through crisp, witty, incisive writing and terrific character development.  If you’ve read her books before, you know exactly what I’m talking about.  You know the writing’s great and you’ll get multi-faceted, hot, intriguing, hot, engaging, hot, endearing, hot men with smoking hot chemistry.  If you haven’t read her books before, … well, I don’t know what you’re doing with your life.

Neve consistently delivers creative, erotic, 5-alarm-fire hot sex scenes – and a lot of them.  Few people can accomplish that as deftly as she can.  For example, Book 1 in this Extracurricular Activities series, Want Me, is one of the hottest books I’ve ever read. That library scene alone nearly made me combust.  Show Me is not too far behind on that hot reads list.  So in order to do Show Me justice in this review, I felt the need to review that scene, maybe a few times, … you know, for purely literary research purposes.  But I digress …

Let’s all just admit it: we’re here for it.  This ain’t no Jane Austen.  (If you want that, go read the fabulous Emerett has Never Been in Love by Anyta Sunday).  But if you think this is just smut, you’d be very very wrong.  

Neve takes high heat, tenderness, emotions, humor and swoon (not necessarily in equal parts), and produces a romance that is 100% sexy and 0% smutty, despite the explicit sex scenes throughout.  And let’s talk about those prevalent sex scenes for a minute.  Neve doesn’t just deliver Sam and Jesse having sizzling sex.  She creates inventive, unexpected, super-charged, erotic encounters that still manage to have emotional connection.  You’ll never look at a dryer the same way again.

At heart, Show Me is a romance and a damn good one.  Sam and Jesse are amazing together.  Total opposites that perfectly fit.  This is not a string of hookups.  This well-written story chronicles the development of a real connection and authentic love between two deserving men.  While we get sharp, frankly hysterical, comments like:

“I could knock one out in forty-five seconds if I had to, but it wasn’t pretty.
I had to blow the smoke off my palm afterward, gunslinger-style.”

we also get swoony, love declarations like:

“[Sam’s] like … like all the birthday wishes I made but never got, stored up
and rolled into one big gift I received at a time when I needed it most.”

Show Me really is the whole package.  Makes me wonder if it’s possible for a book to have BDE.  I’m thinking it just might be, because Show Me contains all the BDE characteristics in spades. 

Grab the book and your fire extinguisher and settle in for a sexy, sweet, sizzling, satisfying top-notch romance.  (Oh and if you haven’t read the first two books in the series, I highly recommend you read those too.  With the fire extinguisher.)

RATING: 

BUY LINK: 

Amazon