Trying It All

Summer is a carefree spirit. She lives life as if each day were her last. She's willing to try anything once, except love. It's not that she doesn't believe in love. Summer had wonderful examples of love in her parents. Her best friend even found the love of her life--one of the "Naked Men". It took one life changing moment to make her believe that she may not have a tomorrow, so she's built a wall around her heart believing that a future isn't in the cards.

Riley is your typical nerdy, geeky, hard-working man. Although he hopes to win his parent's approval, it's not his main goal. He works hours on end to make sure nobody has to go through what he and his friends did as teens. Riley's ultimate goal is to educate people on preventable accidents, while teaching survival skills in case the worst does occur. He does not and will not place himself in situations where someone can get hurt, until Summer.

While these two have clearly experienced life altering incidents early in life, they have extremely different approaches on how to live their lives. Summer lives in the moment, doesn't plan, and has fun. But she isn't really "living" her life if she shuts out the possibility of love, a future. Riley is the extreme opposite. He follows the rules and plans ahead for every possible outcome. He is so tied to "planning" and expecting the worst, he too doesn't truly live his life. Riley doesn't realize that it is impossible to plan for EVERYTHING.

This novel was the fourth in The Naked Men series. I haven't read the other three, but definitely need to. There was enough back story so that you didn't get lost, but I wanted to know more about each of the other Naked Men! This novel was a perfect blend of sadness, happiness and witty banter. The sexual tension between Riley and Summer was also amazing. While they wanted to kill each other, they also couldn't keep their hands off each other! I highly recommend this novel! I read a gifted copy and all opinions stated are my own.

Riley is one sexy complicated level headed man. Except for the fear he has carried around most of his life. Summer is a carefree fun loving woman. Except for the fear of what the future holds or doesn't hold. They are so wrong for each other they are each other's total opposite. They make for one amazingly fun loving hard headed couple. A must read.

I always enjoy my visits with The Naked Men! :) With the fourth book in this series, we get Riley Ness' story. He's super serious and rigid, but we get the story behind why he is the way he is, and we also get to see him lighten up a bit as love comes into his life. The characters are always great and we get to enjoy the guys and couples from the previous books. This one drifted away from the blog/podcast a lot though, so that was a little bit of a different aspect from this series. I wanted more time to enjoy them as a couple once they got together, but overall, a fun addition to the series!

Riley Ness is the serious one of the bunch! He plans his life rigidly and always watches out for everyone else. He lets down his guard with his buddies, but he doesn't live dangerously. That's why Summer Sheridan and her fly by night attitude drives him up the wall!

Summer's best friend Chloe is all but engaged to be married to Riley's best friend Griff, so they are thrown together a lot in social situations. The gang has gotten used to hearing them banter and complain about each other. When they decide they need to try getting along better for Chloe and Griff's sake, they realize they actually have a hot attraction for each other! Will hearing about each other's life stories and knowing the reasoning behind their different ways of life help them understand the other or will it just be one more thing they fight about?