Playing for Keeps (Neighbor from Hell #1) by R.L. Mathewson

This is the first installment in the Neighbors from Hell series. Its a romance/comedy and while some of the content maybe a little NC-17 its still a good read.

The story follows the hate to love relationship of Jason and Haley, two neighbors and co-workers. Haley is very shy and an extreme pushover, she avoid confrontation like the plague. Jason is a charismatic, good looking guy, who happens to be a natural asshole but somehow manages to still be likeable as a character. 

The story begins with Haley noticing that Jason is tearing out all her tulips from a flowerbed that is between their two houses. Haley loves those flower, they were a gift from her grandmother, so for the first time in her life she storms out and in brash moment grabs the hose and sprays Jason, Jason is of course pissed and as the battle for the flowers ensues they realize they have agrevated the underground bee nest. They flee into Haleys house which happens to be the closest. As the house becomes covered by bees they contact the exterminator and Haley gives Jason a change of clothe and directs him to the bathroom so he can grab a shower. They proceed to hangout while the exterminator is able to come and deal with the bees and Haley finds that Jason isn't as big of an ass as she thought him to be. From this point on they form a friendship, where Jason belives himself Haley's Mr. Miyagi as he helps her become more extroverted. 

As time goes by, both Haley and Jason develop feeling for each other that go beyond friendship and they eventually become boyfriend and girlfriend. As with any love story there is always some spiteful bitch that just has to come and mess things up. 

Thankfully, they fix their problems and the book ends with a 10 years later and the happy story just goes on. The characters are good and the story is good, the only thing the author should have explained is how Jason got banned from restaurants, that just seems like such a good story.

Rating 5 out of 5
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