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3.95 AVERAGE
3.95 AVERAGE
funny
lighthearted
Loveable characters:
Yes
Funny banter and enjoyable characters.
Lucy Parker is very good at building chemistry between her characters and the actual bit of romance in here was sweet! But, man, I personally did not care for the tiring secondary characters and sad rich people problems that made the latter 5 hours of this audiobook more of a slog than a enjoyable reading experience.
lighthearted
medium-paced
This was a light, fun read with just the right dose of humor and romance. Plus, HARRY POTTER REFERENCES. The best part: a slytherin hero who looks like a Malfoy (insert emoji for moony heart eyes). However while I’ve nothing totally bad to say about it, I just felt that I was never really loving it, or any of the characters. It’s like a really nice, pleasant acquaintance of a book which will be at best a nice, pleasant friend, but whom you know is never really going to become your best friend or anything more than a friend. Is it weird that I just pretended this book was a person?
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC! I am a huge Lucy Parker fan and this title did not disappoint. It was as enjoyable as the first book in the West End series. I am an Austen fan so the wide variety of Austen references and characters were a delightful treat, and I absolutely loved this heroine. She's lovely and quirky and leapt off the page. I was a little less enamored by her love interest, but never thought I'd be rooting for a Slytherin. In fact, this might be the book which has finally convinced me of the value of all those Slytherins in the world.
Five stars. Not the steamiest for me, but one of the most fun. Even the predictability of some of the plot points couldn't take away my enjoyment in the moment.
Five stars. Not the steamiest for me, but one of the most fun. Even the predictability of some of the plot points couldn't take away my enjoyment in the moment.
3.5 stars.
I actually liked the dynamic of Freddy Carlton and James "Griff" Griffin-Ford here, and they had lots of chemistry and they made a cute couple. I loved Freddy as a character, being of a sunny disposition with a people-pleasing strain especially when it comes to her relationship with her stage manager father, and her feeling the pressure to live up to her show business family's legacy. Griff being the stern Slytherin competent fixer of messes businessman was also good, seeing how he's always had to be the responsible one picking up after his cartoonishly incompetent but artistically talented parents- who I thought were just infuriatingly terrible and would be neglectful in real life. Their contrast in personality made for a good opposites attract dynamic.
I liked the premise of the story, the aspect of being in close proximity over a period of time at a stately old English rather run-down mansion in rural Surrey, rehearsing a whodunnit Jane Austen Avengers-style audience interactive play, while Freddy and Griff are also hunting down secrets of their family history. And there's still that bantery writing style present here that makes it a fun chicklit romcom type of breezy read, full of insider-feel atmosphere of West End theater/London celebrity/posh arts people society.
However, I had the same problems as with the past books in this series- which is that there are really dramatic events that occur and really cartoonishly villainous antagonists (mainly, Sadie Foster, previously featured, why is she like this?) that do things for the sake of creating drama for the plot seemingly without much sense. Catastrophe when it happens here unfolds all at once one after the other, and then it's straightened out in a typical romance novel-style put a bow on it ending. For one, I thought that the consequences of the truth revealed about Freddy's grandmother's plagiarism would in real life be much more devastating than portrayed and swept over here, and would the love life of a theater critic really be of THAT much news interest as written here...
Also another major sticking point is that Freddy and Griff went from zero to sixty from my perspective. Over the course of not that many weeks, they went from theater critic and theater actress subject to past critique, to getting to know each other and investigating together their families' rather awkward history, to acting on their attraction, to full-on boyfriend girlfriend status and declaring their love. I enjoyed their banter and chemistry, but the time between sleeping together to I love yous was way too quick for believability, IMO.
OTHER:
This book seemed more explicit in the details for sex scenes than the previous in the series where it was more just fade to black, though this is by no means erotica or anything. Was just an interesting direction.
Not sure how Nick Davenport would be convincingly forgiven for his egregious moral failing done in this book and how I'd root for him and Sabrina in the next book. I will see.
Accidentally skipped the third in the series right into the fourth, would go back and read the one about Leo the makeup artist and Lily's friend. They have a baby now here, aww.
Seemed story potential, Dylan the man ho and Maya the inadvertent other woman costars here.
I actually liked the dynamic of Freddy Carlton and James "Griff" Griffin-Ford here, and they had lots of chemistry and they made a cute couple. I loved Freddy as a character, being of a sunny disposition with a people-pleasing strain especially when it comes to her relationship with her stage manager father, and her feeling the pressure to live up to her show business family's legacy. Griff being the stern Slytherin competent fixer of messes businessman was also good, seeing how he's always had to be the responsible one picking up after his cartoonishly incompetent but artistically talented parents- who I thought were just infuriatingly terrible and would be neglectful in real life. Their contrast in personality made for a good opposites attract dynamic.
I liked the premise of the story, the aspect of being in close proximity over a period of time at a stately old English rather run-down mansion in rural Surrey, rehearsing a whodunnit Jane Austen Avengers-style audience interactive play, while Freddy and Griff are also hunting down secrets of their family history. And there's still that bantery writing style present here that makes it a fun chicklit romcom type of breezy read, full of insider-feel atmosphere of West End theater/London celebrity/posh arts people society.
However, I had the same problems as with the past books in this series- which is that there are really dramatic events that occur and really cartoonishly villainous antagonists (mainly, Sadie Foster, previously featured, why is she like this?) that do things for the sake of creating drama for the plot seemingly without much sense. Catastrophe when it happens here unfolds all at once one after the other, and then it's straightened out in a typical romance novel-style put a bow on it ending. For one, I thought that the consequences of the truth revealed about Freddy's grandmother's plagiarism would in real life be much more devastating than portrayed and swept over here, and would the love life of a theater critic really be of THAT much news interest as written here...
Also another major sticking point is that Freddy and Griff went from zero to sixty from my perspective. Over the course of not that many weeks, they went from theater critic and theater actress subject to past critique, to getting to know each other and investigating together their families' rather awkward history, to acting on their attraction, to full-on boyfriend girlfriend status and declaring their love. I enjoyed their banter and chemistry, but the time between sleeping together to I love yous was way too quick for believability, IMO.
OTHER:
This book seemed more explicit in the details for sex scenes than the previous in the series where it was more just fade to black, though this is by no means erotica or anything. Was just an interesting direction.
Not sure how Nick Davenport would be convincingly forgiven for his egregious moral failing done in this book and how I'd root for him and Sabrina in the next book. I will see.
Accidentally skipped the third in the series right into the fourth, would go back and read the one about Leo the makeup artist and Lily's friend. They have a baby now here, aww.
Seemed story potential, Dylan the man ho and Maya the inadvertent other woman costars here.
emotional
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I love this series and the Playbook is no exception. The added mystery and Slytherin/Hufflepuff romance are delightful!
4,5*
Lucy Parker has never let me down. The plot of this one is more dramatic and action-filled than her previous works. The dialogs remained witty, insightful, the character development was spectacular.
Lucy Parker has never let me down. The plot of this one is more dramatic and action-filled than her previous works. The dialogs remained witty, insightful, the character development was spectacular.