The Player and the Pixie by L.H. Cosway & Penny Reid

This post contains affiliate links you can use to purchase the book. If you buy the book using that link, I will receive a small commission from the sale.

Title: The Player and the Pixie
Author: L.H. Cosway, Penny Reid
Series: Rugby #2
Published by: Indie
Release Date: April 12, 2016
Format: Kindle Book
Pages: 364
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Sports Romance
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2022 Backlist Reader Challenge, Lenoreo's 2022 COYER Winter, Lenoreo's 2022 Diversity Reading Challenge, Lenoreo's 2022 Finishing the Series Challenge
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ B&N ✩ Google ✩ Kobo ✩ iBooks ✩ IndieBound ✩ Book Depository
My rating:

Blurb:

How can someone so smokin’ hot be so bad in bed? I mean, Sean Cassidy is absolute rubbish. RUBBISH. He is the epitome of walking, talking false advertising and I want a refund! Plus he’s an arsehole. So… what is wrong with me that I can’t stop thinking about him?

THE PIXIE
Lucy Fitzpatrick doesn’t like rugby. As the little sister of Ireland’s most infamous rugby player, Lucy can’t seem to escape the championship-sized shadow cast by her big brother, or her mother’s frequent attempts to micromanage her future. Her rainbow hair is as free-spirited as her quest for inner peace, yet overbearing expectations keep bringing her down. And when she’s down, her compulsive little problem lands her in seriously big trouble.

THE PLAYER
Sean Cassidy is a cold-hearted brute… or so he’s been told. Frequently. By everyone.His blonde locks, baby blues, and rock hard bod make ladies the world over drool with desire. As the rugby world’s second most infamous player, he should be basking in his success. But Sean has never been content settling for second place, and his frequent confrontations with Lucy’s big brother leave him cold. And when he’s cold, his compulsive little problem lands him in the lap of Lucy Fitzpatrick.

THE PLAN
Sean has a problem only Lucy can solve. Lucy has a problem only Sean can fix. The solution seems obvious: you scratch my back, and I’ll bail you out of jail. But when their business arrangement unexpectedly leaves Sean scorching hot and Lucy on the precipice of inner peace, can they convince the world—and Lucy’s big brother in particular—that this is the real deal?

Either way, both the Player and the Pixie are about to teach each other some pretty monumental lessons about family, life, but most importantly, love.

4.5 stars — Well, to say this book surprised me would be an understatement.

I did *NOT* like Sean for the first little bit of the book.  I mean, I wasn’t supposed to, but I know some readers enjoy jerks more than others…I tend to have little patience for them.  And Sean was a D I C K.  He was insensitive, out of touch, jealous, petty…like, I could go on.  He even had little minor quirks that are on my list of “meh” (like being materialistic and snobby).  AND YET.  I came to love him.  I don’t even know what to do with myself, I’m so confused.  Because he didn’t magically transform into another person and this was all a misunderstanding or something.  Nope, he was still a lot of those things.  But a) we learned about his past and how he grew up, and how that influenced his behavior; and b) he, albeit reluctantly in most cases, grew throughout the book.  He finally found someone who took the time to see past the surface stuff of him, and demand better from him.  And so, for once in his life, he tried.  And it wasn’t without pitfalls, but it was so fucking endearing I can’t even.  Like, I’m beside myself.  But there it is.  I’m a fan.

Lucy, on the other hand, I adored practically from the first page (possibly the first page, I can’t remember).  She was quirky…but like, quirky like I’m quirky — where you still feel all the judgements and the pressures about who you should be, but you can’t stop being your weird self, and deep down you love your weird self.  And thus, I loved Lucy. (*snort*, that was an accident, I didn’t mean to do that, but I’m keeping it.  ANYWAYS.)  Her heart was so big.  I loved the way she took time with the people she met to not just jump to conclusions.  She wasn’t a doormat about it, but she didn’t allow her preconceived notions to prevent her from changing her opinion.

I felt for what she struggled with with her family.  Her Mam was…*sigh*  Not great.  And having her anxiety manifest in a shoplifting compulsion was really interesting.  And then there was the dilemma with her brother.  I wanted her to say “fuck him!”, but I totally got why it was more complicated than that.  Sometimes she drove me insane with her back and forth with Sean, and her reticence, but I still *got it*.  I just didn’t want to get it.

They were so strange and adorable with one another.  I loved the way they connected, and how they couldn’t resist the pull.  I loved their chemistry, and the ups and downs of their sexual relationship.  I could read a whole book length epilogue of them, because I loved seeing them happy together.

And now that I finished this series in the most unconventional order (1, 4, 3, 2), I kind of want to reread 3 and 4 now.  1 was definitely my least favourite, but I’m kind of intrigued by Eilish and Bryan again, now that I’ve seen them from a different direction.

Also, Broderick was da bomb, and now I want his book…especially after the Songbird novella.

So yeah.  Gotta love when a book turns you on your head and sets you back down and you have to digest.