How far would you go to keep a promise? 

Reed Bradford never should have made that promise. 

He’d barely survived the first time around, but now she was back, his best friend’s little sister, his one-time neighbor, and the woman that he never should have promised to protect. He never should have done a lot of things, like cross that line, but once he did… 

There was no turning back. 

Joey Lawson always had a plan, but unfortunately, mostly for her, sometimes those plans backfired. On her. This time would be no different. After the unfortunate incident that she felt was better not to think about, she found herself doing the one thing that she’d never survive. 

Falling in love with a Bradford.

@LoveBooks1986 (Alvia), @rlmathewson, #Contemporary, #Romance, #Humour, 5 out of 5 (exceptional)

My review contains spoilers and they're mostly my thoughts as I went with the book...

Sooo, Neighbor from Hell series by R.L. Mathewson used to be one of my favorite series. However, as the years passed, the books became rather difficult to get through, the main family The Bradford’s showcasing the same type of obnoxious males in each. I mean each one of them talked, acted and ate (yes ate, if you’ve read the series you know what I mean) the same way. After a while, honestly, it just got old.

I loved book 1, Playing for Keeps, to bits. It’s where we’re introduced to the male population of the Bradford clan and their legendary eating habits. Oh don’t worry, they have great metabolism so no matter how much they eat, they always keep fit. LOL It also may have something to do with their profession, as they’re construction workers by trade (or so I remember). Playing for Keeps featured Hailey and Jason and was just so adorable and funny that I couldn’t help myself sighing over it. Book 2, Perfection, features Jason’s cousin Trevor and Zoey. I wasn’t as sold in it because Trevor hit a few really sensitive nerve in me with his words and activities. I’d probably show him my middle finger and move on, but he did come around in time and saved the book for me. Zoey was great, though she was too caught up in Trevor’s goodlooks, even when he was being an a$$ of colossal proportions. Book 3, Checkmate, was the story of.................... *cricket* It’s been a while and I didn’t care for the main characters much so I largely have forgotten about this one. The last one I read was book 5, The Game Plan. It was SO BAD that I had an epiphany; that I need to stay away from this series. At least for a while because this book was wayyyy over the top, so ridiculous and repetitive that it wasn’t even funny. It was absolutely irritating, and when it wasn’t, it was boring me to sleep. Needless to say, I didn’t bother doing a review. I think it featured one of Jason’s cousins, again, another Bradford clone who offered me basically nothing.

I enjoyed the previous books in this series; they were funny, light and quick reads. This one however…No. Just. Fucking. No. It pushed all the wrong buttons. I just skimmed the last couple of chapters, there was so much fucking drama, and I just didn’t care enough about the characters to give a damn. So disappointed in this book.

The story is about Jodi and Danny, like the previous books, they’re neighbors and don’t start out liking each other much. Unlike the other books, this one made no sense to me. Not only did I not see any chemistry between the two, but their relationship was fucking messed up. But because the book says that they had chemistry and a healthy romance this automatically makes it so. Just kidding. He actually breaks into her apartment and steals her keys in order to have the first two ‘dates’ with her.

This book seriously lacks editing; the writing is awful, there are typos and a lot of awkward sentences like this one:

Today they’d seen him finally react to their father and gave him the beating that even he had to admit that his father had coming, and they’d reacted.

Let me fix that for you: Today they’d seen him finally react to their father and give him the…

Nicknames are another thing. They can be cute or they can be fucking annoying. For me, if I see a reason for it, I’m okay with it…. However I have no idea why Danny calls Jody Tinkerbelle. It started from the beginning on with no explanation. Personally, I think Tinkerbelle is a fucking horrible nickname, but whatever. I would have been fine with it, except that he not only calls her Tinkerbelle when he’s talking to her, but also when he is talking about her to other people.


Some fucked up shit happens in this book that does not portray a healthy, consensual relationship.

“It’s not my fault that your boss said yes,” Danny pointed out as he glanced around the hotel lobby, looking bored.
“Wasn’t your fault?’ she repeated back in disbelief, absolutely stunned. “You accidentally,” she stressed, throwing up her hands to make finger quotes, “locked him in the storage closet when you gave him the tour of the new library, for seven hours until he agreed to give me time off with pay!”

He fucking involves himself in her job, without her knowledge or her consent, threatens her boss and endangers her job in the process. This is a huge violation! But this book portrays it as some quirk Danny has and tries to tell me that it is amusing. And not some controlling, manipulative asshole bent on getting what he wants regardless of the consequences to her.

And then, towards the end of the book he actually quits her job for her!

When Danny had come to get her a month ago, he’d sighed heavily and quit for her.

Not only that, but even though she says that she doesn’t want to get married, he disregards der wishes her and plans on getting what he fucking wants.

“You don’t want to get married?” he asked casually, waiting for her answer and the confirmation that he needed as he quickly formatted a new game plan, one that would end with him getting exactly what he wanted.

Because who cares what she wants anyway?

The woman didn’t seem to know what was good for her.

The fuck! Even if she didn’t, he should fucking respect her decision! Again, in the book it is portrayed as funny. But they have not known each other for long, and he plans to abduct her to Vegas to marry her even though she told him that she didn’t want to! It is not romantic or cute; it is the start of a very controlling, manipulative relationship focused on him and his wishes!

“No, I’m sorry. I’m just not interested in getting married,” she said softly as if that would somehow make it easier for him to accept.
It didn’t, but it did make his decision to follow through with his new game plan easier. There was a real possibility that she would never speak to him again after this…
What the hell, it would be worth it. She’d be his forever

There are so many inconsistencies in this book, it does not make any sense.
For instance, she tells him that she loves him, to which he answers that he doesn’t love her but wants to marry her. Then he’s surprised that she doesn’t want to marry him, even though he told her that he didn’t love her. When he figures out that he’s in love with her, he laments over the fact that she doesn’t love him back – even though she just told him that she loved him some pages ago!

This book is a serious fucked up mess.

the bastard snatched her bikini off and ditched her naked ass in the pool as he’d sauntered away

In a fucking hotel!

I think this is the first book in the Neighbor From Hell series that I just kind of meh over. RL's books usually fall into that guilty pleasure category for me.  They are ridiculously over the top and can definitely be eye roll worthy, but I find most of her books hilarious because of that.  The Bradford food obsessions, over the top vanity, constant fighting and highly questionable relationship skills are all absolute campy entertainment.  

However, after 5 books in the series, we have just hit the point of redundancy.  I can see some aspects where RL made the attempt to change up the male lead a tad, but with so many of the other Bradfords continuing to play major roles in the story line, it just doesn't do enough to separate itself from every other book in the series much less stand out among them.  I think this is going to be a problem with any future book in this series though unless something drastically different happens.  

I won't say that this book wasn't good, but really I could have just reread either Jason or Trevor's books instead and been more entertained even despite having read them multiple times already..

I’ll admit that while I love the NFH series, I haven’t always had the best of luck with all the books. I had a hard time connecting with the third book but the series was redeemed with the trip to the past with book 4. I’ll also admit that I tend to forget about this series with all the other books that are out there. So this was one I wasn’t highly anticipating like other people. The release sort of snuck up on me. The advantage of this is I didn’t have the built up excitement and high expectations. That worked in my favor because while I haven’t read through the reviews yet, I have seen the ratings and this one wasn’t as well loved as some of the previous books.

But it worked for me. Granted, Danny royally pissed me off when he messed with Jodi’s food. Anyone that remembers my review of the second book in this series knows, you don’t mess with a girl’s food! Bradford or no Bradford! They don’t like it when their food is stolen so they shouldn’t steal a woman’s food! (Especially pizza but seeing as that was book two, I’ll move on…*muttering to self…Stupid Trevor*) Getting back to Danny pissing me off…the stunt he pulled with her car…not cool dude. So not cool.

One of the things I loved most was Danny’s nickname for Jodi…Tinkerbell aka Tink. Lol, I’m not typically one for nicknames, but I loved that name and it suited her perfectly! It got to the point that I couldn’t even remember her name and just thought of her as Tink.

My one issue actually came with the Bradford family. Don’t get me wrong, I love that family. My biggest complaint for book 3 was that I didn’t get the connection and there wasn’t much of the characters we’d already come to know and love. But in this case, there was almost too much togetherness. I really didn’t mind Trevor and Jason. Trevor especially since he and his wife own the apartment building Danny and Jodi live in. And Jason just because I love him. I didn’t even mind the occasional visit from Danny’s brother Adrian. Especially since he’s a doctor and lord knows poor Jodi was in constant need of a doctor. But the family trip was too much for me. Add in the fact that apparently Jodi witnessed not one, but two buffet sessions with the whole Bradford family and it was just too much. Mostly because they tend to blur together since all of them say bastard every other word. (for the record, I don’t have a problem with that but when you have 20 guys all sounding the same, it become too much to keep straight).

Speaking of those buffet sessions…they were hinted at in book two, but Zoe was in the bathroom when it happened so she missed it all. Jodi saw everything and it left her in the fetal position under a table. So…I would really like to know exactly what went down to leave her so traumatized. 5 books in and we’ve never seen it. I want to see the horror. Because it has to be bad to make people cry and curl up under a table.

Other than that, I did enjoy this edition of the Bradford family and can’t wait to read more. :)