Title: Lube Job
Author: K.M. Neuhold
Series: Big Bull Mechanics #5
Pages: 278
When Riggs finds himself needing a place to stay he doesn’t expect his emotionally stunted coworker Shep to step up and offer him a room. But rooming with Shep works out well and as the days pass Riggs finds that their friendship is growing stronger and after a drunk blowjob, it moves to friends with benefits. But what are they going to do when they both start feeling something, especially Riggs who thought he couldn’t feel anything romantic.
Riggs has been a character that I have wanted to know more about since he was introduced. He is a feisty guy with a bad attitude who has stayed on the fringes of the group mostly. Riggs is aromatic, which he didn’t realize until it was pointed out to him by Journey, so he has never felt the need for romance. His relationship with Shep starts as a friend with benefits with no emotions attached for both of them but as it progresses they both start feeling things, which for Riggs, is a revelation. I really enjoyed Riggs journey to realizing he was aromantic and that he could still have a relationship and fall in love.
Shep is a flirty and lusty guy who is always picking up men. He unfortunately picks badly and frequently doesn’t even know their names, which really bothers me. Shep was an ok character. He reminded me of Auggie and Red a little bit. He was 40 years old and his whole personality seemed to be on sex and drinking, then on Riggs once they got together. It was just disappointing that his character was pretty flat.
One big issue I had with both of these characters is that they keep doing things behind each other’s backs to keep the other person close. Riggs chases away Sheps’ dates multiple times and then Shep answers Riggs phone and lies causes him to lose a chance to look at an apartment. Shep confronts Riggs about his dates and they talk about it but Shep never owns up about the phone call, I just think both of these situations were very shitty and felt like something a high school/20 year old would do. These men are in their 40s and they can’t talk about what they feel or own up to their actions, especially after they called out someone else’s actions.
Overall, this was another ok romance for this series. I will probably give future books a chance and hope that we have more mature 40 year olds in the future.
TW: mentions of house break ins and cars damaged due to angry hookups; unexpected death of a family member mentioned
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Previous books and reviews for the series:
Red-Haired Ash Reads 