Reviewed by Sadonna

TITLE:  Flip Job

SERIES:  Fixer Brothers Construction Company

AUTHOR:  Raleigh Ruebins

PUBLISHER:  Self-published

LENGTH:  254 pages

RELEASE DATE:  March 23, 2023

BLURB:

My house needs a flip job…
And my best friend’s brother has all the right equipment.

I swore I’d never be back in this little mountain town where I grew up. But Dad left me his old fixer-upper house and a brewery full of employees who seem to hate me, and both are in need of some elbow grease and charm.

Lucky me: my best friend co-owns a construction company, Fixer Brothers Construction Co, ready to hire for renovations. Luckier me: his formerly scrawny little brother Shawn has grown into a tall, built, knuckle-bitingly hot construction worker.

He looks damn good in flannel… and better with it off.

I can have a little fun, right?

I want him in my bed, and I’m good at getting what I want. Turns out all those years of construction work have done him good, body and soul. He’s the whole package.

Shawn’s sweet, sensitive, and has been through hell. For a heartbreaker like me, he should be off-limits. And his brother knows way too much about my bad habits from the past: get in, get out, never commit.

But he’s flipping my whole world, and I know I don’t want him to stop.

REVIEW:

Shawn Wood has been on a self-imposed dating hiatus for six months.  His last boyfriend – who he was thinking of proposing too – cheated on him and he seems to have had a string of bad luck.  He did not come out until later in life and he really wants a steady boyfriend – someone to build a life with.  His older brother Nathan is determined to help him over his “dry spell” which Shawn resents just a bit.  But Nathan is father to a 15 year old so he tends to be in “dad” mode most of the time.

As luck would have it, the person that Nathan wants to enlist to help Shawn is his best friend Rush who has just returned to town to take over his father’s brewery and flip his house after his father passed.  They were somewhat estranged and so Rush has not been back to town for years.  Unfortunately he was also the subject Shawn’s high school crush.  He always called Shawn “little Wood” and barely paid him any attention back in the days before he left for San Francisco.  But he’s quite surprised by the man who is definitely no longer “little” Wood 😉 in any way shape or form.

Shawn cannot believe how good Rush looks after all these years and his little crush comes back to life.  But Rush is not a relationship guy.  He’s more of a one night stand kind of a guy.  But pretty soon they end up with a hookup that has both wanting more – but unsure what that means.  Shawn suggests they be “cuddle buddies” which is so far out of the realm of Rush’s experience, but he really hasn’t gotten enough of Shawn so they agree.

Rush and Shawn see each other all the time because Shawn and Nathan’s company, Fixer Brothers Construction, is doing the reno work on Rush’s dad’s house.  So they need to get that work done and not let Nathan know that things have changed between them 🙂  It’s easy at first, but then it seems like much to his surprise Rush is catching feelings for Shawn, who is the kindest, must genuine and loving person he’s ever been with.  Soon he is considering changing his plans to fix up the house and sell the Brewery as fast as he can and get back to California.

Once Nathan finds out, he’s not too happy about it.  He thinks Rush will break Shawn’s heart and he’s tired of seeing Shawn hurt.  Shawn is also pretty unhappy with Nathan that he is not supportive and thinks that Shawn can’t take care of himself.  Truthfully others are shocked too, but not in the same way.  But will Rush really give up his plans?  Does he really want to move back to the small town that is full of many not so happy memories for him?

Well this was very sweet.  Shawn is just so adorable and earnest and kind and just all the good things.  Rush has been sort of running from himself for a long time.  I really felt for him as he obviously had a lot he was dealing with from his adolescence.  It was sad because he probably missed out on a lot of good things along the way.  But he’s been really successful and now he’s got a real shot at a solid relationship if only he can get past the things in his past that are making him thing he’s “not cut out for” anything long term.  He learns some things though that change his perspective on how he views the past and his relationship with his father that help him move on.  There is also a wonderful side character about Charlie, one of Nathan and Shawn’s employees who is in a toxic relationship with a man he just can’t seem to quit.  Then there is Harlan, one of Rush’s employees at the brewery that Rush is convinced hates him.  Maybe not so much?  Anyway, there are plenty of great characters here with lots of possibilities for other stories in the series.  Shawn and Nathan’s family alone could provide the backdrop for many a romance I’m sure.  I’m looking forward to what comes next in this small town of Jade River.

RATING: 

BUY LINKS:

Amazon