Saturday, September 17, 2016

Playing It Cool (Sydney Smoke Rugby, #2) by Amy Andrews ~ Review


From Entangled Publishing
Now Available


Val received an eBook ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review. 


Harper Nugent might have a little extra junk in her trunk, but her stepbrother calling her out on it is the last straw… When rugby hottie, Dexter Blake, witnesses the insult, he surprises Harper by asking her out. In front of her dumbass brother. Score! Of course, she knows it’s not for reals, but Dex won’t take no for an answer.

Dexter Blake’s life revolves around rugby with one hard and fast rule: no women. Sure, his left hand is getting a workout, but he's focused on his career for now. Then he overhears an asshat reporter belittle the curvy chick he'd been secretly ogling. What's a guy to do but ask her out? It’s just a little revenge against a poser, and then he'll get his head back in the game.

But the date is better than either expected. So is the next one. And the next. And the heat between them…sizzles their clothes right off.

Suddenly, this fake relationship is feeling all too real…






Review...



One of my favorite tropes is fake relationships.  So I was excited to read this one.  But this one was just a little off for a fake anything.

There was instant attraction between these two and Dex does ask Harper out to annoy her step brother.   But they never really pretend anything.  Their relationship develops because they say they are pretending and so keep seeing each other.  Behind closes doors, it's no holding back.  They are all over each other.  In front of other people, there is no holding back.  The only fake is that Harper is convinced it's not genuine and Dex is in denial.   But the things I love about fake relationships aren't there.  There's no resisting, or the shock of contact in front of others.  It's just the normal development of a relationship where the barrier to them trying is removing because of a fake label.  That made me sad and left me disappointed.

Mostly, I enjoyed their story.  I struggled with some of the Austie words; thankfully there is a glossary in the back.  I liked that Harper wasn't a typical skinny thing.  I enjoyed when Dex found her sexy because of her tall curvy frame.  I liked the sports aspect of it, though rugby is pretty much an unknown to this football lover.  The athlete piece was still effective.  And these two are definitely hot together.

A couple things bugged me.  The lack of the fake relationship mojo really put me off, but I was disappointed that Harper's step brother and step mother didn't get their just due.  There was one small scene kinda early on but it was just a huge thread in the plot (at least to begin with) that I really wanted that scene near the end.  An "in your face" kinda thing.  It didn't happen, though.

The story was typical and went as you might expect.  I just missed the fake relationship things I was expecting.  Thinking I'll pass on the rest of this series.




            




1 comment:

  1. Sorry this one didn't work for you. I read a couple of Amy Andrews' other books and didn't care for them so I decided not to request this one. The blurb sounds like something I would really like tho. Hope your next read is better

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