Entertaining romance story with a dash of mystery, and I liked the whole forced proximity scenario. Neve and Duke are working together to renovate a cabin in the woods; there’s a bit of a surprise there when the chemistry between them leans towards the romantic side of things. Neve is okay; I like her sass, but it boarders on too much at times, so she can be annoying. Duke is okay as well; not a fan that Duke let Neve believe things that weren’t true, but he does have some sweet moments. Good banter between the two. I’m going with a 3 rating for this one; I liked it.

To the studs wasn't my cup of tea. If I want to read a book where the hero pretends to be gay I would go for Clam Jam. The heroine is the kind of person who chews and spits people. In my opinion, she is the kind of character whom you will either love or hate. It's a hit or miss. For me, it was a miss. I can't say that I liked her or at least relate to her on some level. The hero wasn't able to make me like him despite his deception. I didn't feel sympathetic towards him. After a while, I stopped trying to understand the characters and the plot and I just read the book in order to be able to write a review for it. I must have missed something because close to the end a crazy person appeared and tried to prevent the revelation of a long-kept secret. It felt out of place for me. The book sounded promising but in the end, it didn't work for me. I will not be recommending it, but if you decide to read, I hope you will enjoy it.

For me the fun, mystery, excitement all began at the cabin. Cool, interesting, and intriguing characters. Neve was the “I got this.” Kind of woman. She was working in a world that she was for the most part looked down on. She had to work harder and smarter to get ahead and work just that much hard to stay ahead. She was strong and bitch. She had a bite that was not pleasant but understandable. She had very little give. She stood her ground.

Duke was the hot guy next door. I cannot pinpoint just a few specifics about him. He was headstrong to be sure but he knew who he was and his purpose. He did however have issues with figuring out Neve. This was the intrigue for him.

I found supporting characters that I would just love to know more about and will be following this series. To see where it all goes from here.

I want to say Neve is my kind of girl. I liked her personality except that she didn't seem...nice. She seemed bitter at times which made me wonder if she had a backstory to explain that. I get that she was dealing with "being a woman in a man's world" and misogyny and such...
She was definitely comfortable in her own skin, which I liked. You get to a certain age when you begin to think, "take me as I am". You don't care nearly as much about what people think of you. That's Neve. Plus, she is opinionated and will tell you what she thinks even if you didn't ask for her opinion. She is the kind of woman I would have sympathy for but would have a hard time being friends with. Congeniality doesn't seem to be one of her many traits.
Although this was romance I appreciated that there was a story-line aside from romance. And, the author did pull me into this story so I will be following this series :)

Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Ruthie – ☆☆☆
This is a solid 3 – 3.5 star read for me. I plan on following the series, as it held my interest, but I did take some time to get engaged with the story.

I love do-it-yourself, design, etc., romance and a good mystery, so on the whole, this was a good fit. I just had a real problem connecting with Neve in any way whatsoever. I get being short, living in a male dominated world, etc., but she was truly nasty, and by all accounts even Duke, who was attracted to her, found her to be shrew-like – I think this was due to her attitude more than looks, but it did not endear her to me at all. And so I did struggle to care about her snagging Duke, who sounded pretty perfect. I read on though, prepared to understand the background to her snarkiness. And to see how she could be redeemed enough in my eyes to deserve Duke!

I can't spoil the story for you, but it didn't pan out how I expected, but I enjoyed the read. There was some humour there, and definitely some questionable judgement calls which were entertaining. Curiously mixed feelings, but glad I read it.


Rachael – ☆☆☆☆
This book had a lot of potential, but it just fell short in the end for me. I really liked Neve even though she drove me crazy at the same time. I like that she isn't willing to allow people to walk over her and will stand her ground, but I also felt like this was her protection because the more we get to know her, the more we see she isn't really that prickly.

There were some twists and turns that I didn't see coming and at one point, I was simply disappointed in the behavior of one of the main characters, but that character tried to redeem themself a bit.

At times, the renovation work was a bit tedious since there were quite a few details (down to some very small ones), but I have to give props for the author getting so deep into the background story even if it did take away from the actual plot at times.

I have to say the surprises were what made the book to me. The writing was fairly well done and I would be willing to read more from this author.

I’m going to ease my way into this one by starting with the cover. I have issue with a cover that looks NOTHING like the characters are described. Where is the long flowing hair and braided beard on Duke? This is not the case of the reader’s vision being different from the authors. Duke’s hair and beard are mentioned often throughout the book. Or course, this is most likely a publisher issue and not the author’s fault.

In the blurb about this book, the heroine Neve is described as fiery and hot-tempered. I guess it could be said she’s hot-tempered, but not fiery. She’s just a bitch, plain and simple. Neve constantly tells herself and others that she is just truthful and tells it like it is, yet she mocks people and enjoys the reactions she gets when they take offense. It’s very briefly mentioned that she had to fight tooth and nail to overcome the misogyny and stereotyping she ran into as she worked her way up in her profession. Not enough information was given to warrant the way she treated people. Instead of tearing into her assistant, she could have mentored her to help her achieve that boldness she claimed she would admire. I waited and waited for the author to give Neve some trait that would endear her to me, but it never happened. I’m all for a strong female lead. To me strong does not equal mean.

Duke is a likable hero in many ways, but the fact that he told Neve he was gay in order to keep some sort of distance between them struck me as icky. It really didn’t make a lot of sense to me in this day and age. The blurb describes Duke as headstrong. Again, I have to disagree with that description. Although he stood up to Neve more than most people, he still let her walk all over him and talk over him so he couldn’t get a word in edgewise. Plus, at the beginning when they’re still home he thinks about how easily he’d give into Neve if she came onto him. All of the sudden, once they’re in the Ozarks, he’s thinking about how she’s not even attractive and her “little boobs” are referenced a LOT. I don’t feel he was really a well fleshed out character.

I was more than halfway through the story before Neve was no longer hated by me. I didn’t necessarily like her, but I no longer despised her. I honestly can’t say if that was because I got used to her being so mean or if she had calmed down a bit. Because of my feelings about Neve, it was hard for this story to hold my interest. Once I got to this point where I no longer hated her I was able to get into the story a bit more.

There is a bit of a mystery story within this story. A strange box found on the work site, somewhat creepy neighbors, no cell phone reception, woods. Honestly, that held my interest more than anything else.

I’m not sure if I’ll read any more of this author’s work. If this had been her first book I would have chalked it up to her getting her feet wet. Maybe that’s still what it is since she doesn’t have but a handful of books published. I love a faux romance story so her book Men Like This sounds interesting so I may give her another try.

Review by Leah for Love Romance Books Blog

I was given this book by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

4 Stars!

Neve Harper is an extremely sought after, bad ass, interior designer. She's also what some would refer to as...headstrong or a heinous witch. But she has a soft spot for her dog, Darcy The Pit and is addicted to HGTV, so she can't be all bad, right? When her most recent job turns out to be a bust, she teams up with her sexy neighbor Duke to renovate his boss' remote cabin in the Ozarks. And now that they're...alone...things really heat up. There's also the mystery surrounding an odd box found on the property, and some oddly helpful neighbors...

I rather enjoyed this book. Roxanne did a good job of incorporating the mystery in a subtle and realistic way. Neve's character really made me want to punch her a few times as she doesn't believe in sugar coating her words and that tact is a waste of time and energy, but I could see her growing throughout the book and came to like her towards the end. I would almost say that Duke's character wasn't as complete or complex. It felt like Roxanne didn't put quite as much time into his part of the story, well, his backstory part of the story. But, I still give this book 4 stars, as it didn't detract from the story in a glaringly way.

She's head strong and high maintenance. He's talented and moody. Mixing business with pleasure never ends well. So why does Neve find herself in a danger of losing more than her heart to the one man that makes her blood boil in a totally inappropriate way? Roxanne Smith packed To the Studs full of unbelievable twists that added drama to the plot line but took away from the romance. I love a bit of mystery but not when it detracts from the story instead of enhancing it. The antics of the main characters were hilarious and made for some fun moments, but I could have done with out the suspense angle.

"If a granite wall were a person, that'd be Neve. Hard, unyielding, bossy, angry"

Neve is a maneater. A woman who pulls no punches, is honest to a fault and despises liars. She may be a bit harsh in her delivery of the truth and has little patience for any BS.

Duke is her neighbor, who was told when he moved in next to her he should stay far away from Neve and her snarky personality and relationship issues. So he told her he was gay.

Neve and Duke have a tentative friendship, that turns to a working relationship, that has them spending a lot of time together... and soon the truth comes out.

I enjoyed this book, Neve is a tough character who doesn't apologize for who she is. Duke is a nice guy who has been hurt in the past so he is blinded by what he really feels for Neve. Add in a cabin renovation, some fun supporting characters and a mystery, this was a fun read. I received a complimentary copy of this book book for my fair and unbiased review.