Reviewer: Holly Playing the Player by Amy Andrews
Series: Sydney Smoke Rugby #3
Publication Date: January 30th 2017
Pages: 171
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Series Rating:
After a long history with crappy guys, high school teacher Em Newman is going man-vegan. Four months of revirginization has opened her eyes to her doormat imitation but, baby’s got spine now, and some smooth-talking—even if he is sinfully hot—rugby player, won’t be adding her as a notch anytime soon.
Lincoln Quinn loves rugby, women, and poker. And he likes to win at all three. When his team mates bet him he can’t break through Em’s resolve, he’s more than up for the challenge. But this lady has a shoebox of stipulations before she’ll even go on a date with him, much less use that mouth for kissing instead of giving orders.
Something’s gotta give but this time Em’s not settling. And Linc’s questioning everything he ever knew about matters of the heart.
Playing the Player is the third book in Andrews’ Sydney Smoke Rugby Series. I didn’t read the first two and I didn’t feel like I missed anything because of it.
This was a cute contemporary romance. Linc is an unabashed player, on the pitch and off it. He loves women and has no intention of ever settling down with just one. But he wouldn’t mind settling down for the night with Em Newman, the best friend of the soon-to-be wife of one of his teammates. Em is h-o-t, and her refusal to give in to their mutual attraction just makes him want her more.
Em decided she needed a break from men once she realized she was hopping into bed with them in the hopes that they’d fall in love with her. Four months of celibacy has give her a new sense of self, and, okay, maybe the series need for an orgasm. But she knows better than to hook up with Linc. She’s done dating guys who want nothing more than a roll in the hay. If only he wasn’t so attractive..and funny..and sweet.
Linc starts out planning to get Em into bed, but it isn’t long before she’s wormed her way into his heart. Can the confirmed bachelor
Let me just say, I loved how honest Em was with herself. She had daddy issues and ended up falling into bed with any guy who showed her even a bit of affection, because she wanted someone to love her. she recognized what she was doing and took a step back to reevaluate her life and her choices. She didn’t apologize for her past, or beat herself up over it, she just moved on from it. I really liked that.
I expected Linc to be a womanizer, but that wasn’t really the case. He wasn’t picky about who he took to bed, but he wasn’t a jerk about it. He liked woman and sex, and didn’t apologize for it. He was really sweet to Em, and I really enjoyed watching him open up to her.
The final conflict was pretty contrived and didn’t really work for me. They had pretty much hammered out their issues until, bam. I’d have preferred if it hadn’t been included.
Still, the story was sweet and I liked the romance. I’ll plan pick the first two books up soon.
3.75 out of 5