The Play by Elle Kennedy

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Title: The Play
Author: Elle Kennedy
Series: Briar U #3
Published by: Audible Studios
Release Date: December 24, 2019
Format: Audiobook
Narrator: Ana Osorio, Teddy Hamilton
Length: 12 hours and 11 minutes
Genres: Sports Romance, Romance, Contemporary
Potential Triggers: View Spoiler »attempted suicide « Hide Spoiler
Source: Audible
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2020 Audiobook Challenge, Lenoreo's 2020 Beat the Backlist Challenge, Lenoreo's 2020 Diversity Reading Challenge
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ iTunes
My rating:

Blurb:

A brand-new standalone novel in the New York Times bestselling Briar U series!

What I learned after last year’s distractions cost my hockey team our entire season? No more screwing up. No more screwing, period. As the new team captain, I need a new philosophy: hockey and school now, women later. Which means that I, Hunter Davenport, am officially going celibate…no matter how hard that makes things.

But there’s nothing in the rulebook that says I can’t be friends with a woman. And I won’t lie—my new classmate Demi Davis is one cool chick. Her smart mouth is hot as hell, and so is the rest of her, but the fact that she’s got a boyfriend eliminates the temptation to touch her.

Except three months into our friendship, Demi is single and looking for a rebound.

And she’s making a play for me.

Avoiding her is impossible. We’re paired up on a yearlong school project, but I’m confident I can resist her. We’d never work, anyway. Our backgrounds are too different, our goals aren’t aligned, and her parents hate my guts.

Hooking up is a very bad idea. Now I just have to convince my body—and my heart.

My Review:

3.5 stars — Overall I was definitely entertained, but I wasn’t quite as sucked in as other books in this series.  That might have just been me, and my mental state at the moment, it’s hard to tell these days.  I also left this review as just notes for freaking ever, and now I’m too lazy to make it more articulate, so apologies…

I honestly picked this book from my TBR because I was under the false impression that Demi was of Indian background…probably because of Rupi.  She is not.  She is half cuban half black.  Which is still diversity, so yay, but just doesn’t fit my April theme.

Narrators: Teddy Hamilton was solid as always.  Ana Osorio had increasing problems with correct pronunciation (like saying chast instead of chaste).  I thought she sounded very much like Demi for me, and her emotion and pacing was great.  But I found it super hard to differentiate voices (they weren’t always consistent), and to differentiate thoughts in her head vs dialogue.

Demi was fun.  She was spunky and sassy, and I appreciated how she stood up for herself, especially against Nico and her father.  Now saying all that, I was not sure about the whole TJ thing at the end…it felt…like using something serious just as a plot point.  I was kind of disappointed in that to be honest.  And frankly, Demi really didn’t seem to care or be close to any of her friends.  I never felt like she had a really tight relationship with anyone, which definitely happens…it just felt surface.  I hope she grows from the experience.

Hunter was a bit flatter than I had been expecting, but he was also deeper.  I found the history of his family to be really fascinating, in particular how that affected him and his choices.  He almost had a bit too-good-to-be-true thing going on with him.  He was super supportive of Demi, fairly respectful of women (even if he used to be a playboy), hardworking…which is not to say that there aren’t guys out there like that, but he was just missing some flaws to make him more real I guess.

I really enjoyed their friendship and how easy it was.  I loved the way they teased one another, they made me laugh so much.  I definitely felt the steamy chemistry between them, but it didn’t blow me away.  It felt more telling than showing.

The Tindr thing kinda made me sad for society…this book is very much about beautiful people.  Makes me feel sad for unusual people.

I really enjoyed the team antics, especially surrounding Pablo Eggscobar.  That made me laugh so much.  It was honestly one of my favourite aspects of the story.

And I will admit that the glimpses of Connor in this book has me excited for his book next.  I just hope I’m in a better frame of mine when it releases!