Fearless (Pier 70 #2)

Title: Fearless (Pier 70 #2)
Author: Nicole Edwards
Publisher: Self Published
Release Date: April 9, 2016
Genre(s): Contemporary
Page Count: 355
Reviewed by: Gigi
Heat Level: 4 flames out of 5
Rating: 2.7 stars out of 5
Blurb:

He’s the one who walked away…
Dare Davis, one of the four owners of Pier 70 Marina, has been living the past fifteen years of his life not taking risks. He considers himself fearless because he refuses to let anyone close enough to hurt him. He’s had his heart broken before, he’s not looking for it to happen again.

He’s the one who let love slip through his fingers…
Noah Pearson, thirteen-year veteran of the Austin Fire Department, finds himself being roped into a favor by his mischievous stepsister. When Milly invites him to come along on a cruise to the Caribbean, he finds himself giving in. What he doesn’t know is that Milly’s playing matchmaker. However, Milly’s surprise backfires when Noah finds himself front and center with the man who slipped through his fingers fifteen years ago.

Some people believe in second chances.
Things heat up when the mischievous, fun-loving bad boy comes face to face with this smoking hot firefighter.

Now that Dare and Noah find themselves sharing a room on a week-long cruise, can they find a way to keep the peace and ignore their past? Or – thanks to the decisions they made long ago – will they come full circle, picking right back up where they left off?

The second story in the Pier 70 series, a series centered around 4 best friends who own a marina together, concentrates on Dare. Funny, silly, happy-go-luck Dare. He uses his humor as a shied to keep men away because he does not do relationships. He learned his lesson after breaking it off with the man of his dreams, Noah Person 15, years ago after Noah wouldn’t take their relationship to the next level after 2 years of dating. He walked out on Noah in the middle of the night with no note, no goodbye. He just left. And, get this. The 2 men didn’t see each other for 15 years. No emails, no phone calls, no snail mail, no texts. Nothing. And they only live 30 minutes apart!

So, allow me to take off my suspend-disbelief glasses™ (thanks Renee!) for a moment. You are in a serious, committed relationship with a person, break it off without saying goodbye and never talk again until you bump into each other on a cruise ship 15 years later? Really?

That was a tough pill to swallow. I mean, I dated a guy for 3 years back in collage, have been happily married to the father of my child for 23 years and I still manage to stalk his Facebook every few years. Come on!

OK, let’s get past that. So Noah and Dare meet up again on a cruise to celebrate Cam and Gannon’s wedding (yay!) and, thanks to their mutual meddling friend Milly, wind up in the same cabin. I have to say, some matchmaking is fun, but Milly took it to levels of incredible annoyance. Geez, I just wanted her to leave the boys alone!

There is hurt and a whole lot of anger between Noah and Dare, so you’d think they’d be running out to find new sleeping arrangements for the 7 day cruise but, nope! Instead they torture each other with sexual innuendos while angsting and lusting after each other in their inner monologues. It was exhausting! And the sexual tension was off-the-charts, but the bad kind of off-the-chart. It felt so uncomfortable and suffocating. And I hate to say this, but once the sex started? It did nothing for me. There was dominance and dirty talk and I couldn’t have cared less. I had no emotional connection to these two men. I eventually stopped caring.

Once they were off the ship and back to their respective homes (30 miles from each other!) I had lost all interest. I started skimming until the relationship resolution, much was the opposite of romantic, and them the rest of the book was 90% sex. Oh, and I skimmed that too. When have I ever skimmed the sex? Like, almost never! But without an emotional connection, it’s all just porn to me. I’d rather watch my porn then read it.