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4.0 AVERAGE
4.0 AVERAGE
emotional
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Beautiful, sweet, fun, sexy, hot, intense, heartbreaking, gut wrenching, amazing. These are what come to mind after finishing this beautiful story. I loved every second. I am also positive that this is the first time an acknowledgements section has made me cry. I highly recommend this book and the rest of the series.
I’ve been trying to write this review for about few days now, trying to put into words how heartfelt, how incredibly steamy, how absolutely heartbreaking, how genuinely funny this book really is. I am almost positive my words fall short of the beautiful array of emotions evoked, but the time has come and here I go…
From the beginning of the prologue tugs your heart-strings for this wounded huge beast of a Scottish Rugby player. The connection with Lachlan just gets stronger from there. He is a mountain of a man, a man of few words, a loyal friend/family member, a protector, defender, savior to lost, stray, or abandoned dogs, and a beautiful man who brings single-minded intensity to everything he does, says and feels. Just under the surface of this incredible man is a wounded man with a past that he has worked to overcome and make himself a better person.
We met Kayla in The Pact and Offer, she is now the 5th wheel in her group of paired off friends and she can’t help but feel a little jealous and want what they have. She always comes off as crass, a man-eater, and free-spirited, but it was always hinted that there was more than meets the eye. I glimpsed it in the way that she helped Nicola when she needed it and is always there for her friends.
From the moment big beautiful rugby playing Lachlan walks in to the pub, all things change and the electricity felt in the air from here on out between Kayla and Lachlan is palpable through the pages.
It is not only a love story of a broken beast of a man and a beautiful spitfire willing to take a risk, but also has another story within. The story of the stray dogs and doing anything to keep them alive and adoptable. It was so beautiful how he cared for and selflessly helped the dogs.
There are so many beautiful stories contained in these pages, it makes for one hell of a fantastic book. There is a story of wanting something just out of reach, and believing you aren’t worth it. A story of pain because of a past that won’t stay in the past. A story of loves so deep they are bound by blood. A story of family. A story of friendship, love and laughter.
It was also a story full of risks. Risks they took to be with each other and the risks they took for themselves. They got found happiness and got lost in each other, but in their happiness, they found their pain. Through their pain they found themselves as individuals, and as individuals they figured out how to be together.
Ultimately it is a beautiful story of two damaged souls, who find something incredible together, and fight like hell to keep it.
Review orignially posted at: https://amandajbailey.wordpress.com/2015/11/06/the-play-by-karina-halle-review/
I’ve been trying to write this review for about few days now, trying to put into words how heartfelt, how incredibly steamy, how absolutely heartbreaking, how genuinely funny this book really is. I am almost positive my words fall short of the beautiful array of emotions evoked, but the time has come and here I go…
From the beginning of the prologue tugs your heart-strings for this wounded huge beast of a Scottish Rugby player. The connection with Lachlan just gets stronger from there. He is a mountain of a man, a man of few words, a loyal friend/family member, a protector, defender, savior to lost, stray, or abandoned dogs, and a beautiful man who brings single-minded intensity to everything he does, says and feels. Just under the surface of this incredible man is a wounded man with a past that he has worked to overcome and make himself a better person.
We met Kayla in The Pact and Offer, she is now the 5th wheel in her group of paired off friends and she can’t help but feel a little jealous and want what they have. She always comes off as crass, a man-eater, and free-spirited, but it was always hinted that there was more than meets the eye. I glimpsed it in the way that she helped Nicola when she needed it and is always there for her friends.
From the moment big beautiful rugby playing Lachlan walks in to the pub, all things change and the electricity felt in the air from here on out between Kayla and Lachlan is palpable through the pages.
It is not only a love story of a broken beast of a man and a beautiful spitfire willing to take a risk, but also has another story within. The story of the stray dogs and doing anything to keep them alive and adoptable. It was so beautiful how he cared for and selflessly helped the dogs.
There are so many beautiful stories contained in these pages, it makes for one hell of a fantastic book. There is a story of wanting something just out of reach, and believing you aren’t worth it. A story of pain because of a past that won’t stay in the past. A story of loves so deep they are bound by blood. A story of family. A story of friendship, love and laughter.
It was also a story full of risks. Risks they took to be with each other and the risks they took for themselves. They got found happiness and got lost in each other, but in their happiness, they found their pain. Through their pain they found themselves as individuals, and as individuals they figured out how to be together.
Ultimately it is a beautiful story of two damaged souls, who find something incredible together, and fight like hell to keep it.
Review orignially posted at: https://amandajbailey.wordpress.com/2015/11/06/the-play-by-karina-halle-review/
I really liked the first part of this. Kayla as a character was really interesting and I think she had a compelling voice as a narrator. Lachlan was a catch too considering I love the strong and silent romantic heroes. He also wasn’t an over the top playboy which I was super pleased to see. I found the side couples annoying, Steph and Linden in particular so I know I won’t be reading their books. The second part kind of fell off to me. I kind of felt like this was way too long and I get myself skim reading until the end. However, the strong beginning and fun characters was what bumped this up to a 4 star to me. Karina Halle’s writing is amazing as usual though!
This is a story about finding other people who don’t really belong, about finding ourselves in them 🖤
It should be forbidden to write a prologue like that. It gutted me, shattered my heart and broke my soul 😭
I wasn’t prepared AT ALL for the devastation this book brought me. Neither was I prepared for the hope and faith I had for this love story 🥹✨
Kayla and Lachlan are my favorite couple so far in the McGregor series and they deserved their HEA! I was rooting for them so hard 🌱
All this to say: this book was amazing ✨ but it deals with heavy topics so be sure to check the TW ⚠️
“In the light of day, I can see all your cracks and your darkness and your flaws and I fall in love with it all. And I hope you can fall in love with everything that I am, all that lurks in my dark, all that shines in my light. I want you to love every little piece of me, because it all belong to you.”
Originally posted on Three Little Birds Book Blog
Enter to win 1 of 5 ebook copies of The Play, just answer the question at the bottom of this post:
4.5 Stars
A love story that can rival any fairy tale. The Play is a gorgeously moving, sexy, and heartrending love story of two lonely souls who find love when they need it most.
The Play took me across the world to one of my most fantasized about locations, and I fell in love with one of my favorite kinds of men, a sensitive beast, and rooted for my favorite kind of heroine, a risk taker.
I love reading Karina Halle books because I know that I’ll be taken on a journey. Not only a journey to different locales, as her wandering soul loves to write about, but an emotional journey through the growth of dimensional characters. The Play lived up to those expectations and it it had something special as well, an all-encompassing love story that made me truly believe that I was a part of something destined to be. She’s written love stories before, and I’ve believed the connection between all her couples that I’ve read, but Lachlan and Kayla’s was a bar above the rest. They were incomplete pieces of one whole and only with that other person were they fully realized. Is that over the top? Maybe, but this love story was a level of epic that deserves grand statements, because their pull was almost a providence.
I’m sitting here, trying to write a good review but I can’t really get anything cohesive on paper because I wasn’t really wearing my ‘blogger’ hat while I was reading. I was just enjoying the story, and not paying attention to any pros or cons. This is a book that I lived while I was reading it. So here’s a list of everything that I loved:
Lachlan – boy, did I love him. I felt like this was really his story. From the opening scene that broke my heart to pieces, to the last when my heart was battered and bruised, but still beating, Lachlan stole the show. In fact, my heart was beating in his hands, because I’d given it to him. This bent (because he was too strong to be fully broken), romantic, earnest, brute with a heart of gold was everything I want in a romantic hero, and because of Karina Halle’s perfect character development, he was so honest and real that I kept hoping that I’d look up from the page and see him standing in front of me.
Kayla – Lachlan’s perfect counterpart, and her own courageous, brash, flawed, independent self. Kayla had all the traits that I love in a Halle heroine, but the one I loved most was her thirst for adventure and her nerve. Her willingness to take a chance on love and to take a chance on herself, her dreams, was inspirational and admirable. There’s a message that seeps through these contemporary romances of Halle’s and I’m getting it; it might just be time to take a leap of faith.
The story – though predictable at times, it’s simplicity conveyed it’s realness and emphasized the characters and their connection to one another. This was about falling in love, accepting your love, fighting for your love, and having faith in your love. With everything that happens in the plot, the focus is always on love, all kinds of love, and what’s better than that?
The balance – The Play was a great balance of tension, humor, sex, hope, and pain and the emotional ride never leveled off. I thought Halle’s writing was emotive but I could’ve done with a smidgen more angst and history to set of the intense bond that Lachlan and Kayla had after a pretty short period of time. Although, I won’t say it was an insta-love. The circumstances were too intense for it to be termed something so shallow, and the way things played out added to the raging quality of their chemistry. Each impetuous decision was so risky, which added to the strength of their connection.
The sex – holy Jesus! That’s all I’m saying.
Overall I just loved this romance. It’s one of my favorites by this author and one of the best ones I’ve read this year. If you love a love story then I know you’ll love this one.
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Enter to win 1 of 5 ebook copies of The Play, just answer the question at the bottom of this post:
4.5 Stars
A love story that can rival any fairy tale. The Play is a gorgeously moving, sexy, and heartrending love story of two lonely souls who find love when they need it most.
The Play took me across the world to one of my most fantasized about locations, and I fell in love with one of my favorite kinds of men, a sensitive beast, and rooted for my favorite kind of heroine, a risk taker.
I love reading Karina Halle books because I know that I’ll be taken on a journey. Not only a journey to different locales, as her wandering soul loves to write about, but an emotional journey through the growth of dimensional characters. The Play lived up to those expectations and it it had something special as well, an all-encompassing love story that made me truly believe that I was a part of something destined to be. She’s written love stories before, and I’ve believed the connection between all her couples that I’ve read, but Lachlan and Kayla’s was a bar above the rest. They were incomplete pieces of one whole and only with that other person were they fully realized. Is that over the top? Maybe, but this love story was a level of epic that deserves grand statements, because their pull was almost a providence.
I’m sitting here, trying to write a good review but I can’t really get anything cohesive on paper because I wasn’t really wearing my ‘blogger’ hat while I was reading. I was just enjoying the story, and not paying attention to any pros or cons. This is a book that I lived while I was reading it. So here’s a list of everything that I loved:
Lachlan – boy, did I love him. I felt like this was really his story. From the opening scene that broke my heart to pieces, to the last when my heart was battered and bruised, but still beating, Lachlan stole the show. In fact, my heart was beating in his hands, because I’d given it to him. This bent (because he was too strong to be fully broken), romantic, earnest, brute with a heart of gold was everything I want in a romantic hero, and because of Karina Halle’s perfect character development, he was so honest and real that I kept hoping that I’d look up from the page and see him standing in front of me.
Kayla – Lachlan’s perfect counterpart, and her own courageous, brash, flawed, independent self. Kayla had all the traits that I love in a Halle heroine, but the one I loved most was her thirst for adventure and her nerve. Her willingness to take a chance on love and to take a chance on herself, her dreams, was inspirational and admirable. There’s a message that seeps through these contemporary romances of Halle’s and I’m getting it; it might just be time to take a leap of faith.
The story – though predictable at times, it’s simplicity conveyed it’s realness and emphasized the characters and their connection to one another. This was about falling in love, accepting your love, fighting for your love, and having faith in your love. With everything that happens in the plot, the focus is always on love, all kinds of love, and what’s better than that?
The balance – The Play was a great balance of tension, humor, sex, hope, and pain and the emotional ride never leveled off. I thought Halle’s writing was emotive but I could’ve done with a smidgen more angst and history to set of the intense bond that Lachlan and Kayla had after a pretty short period of time. Although, I won’t say it was an insta-love. The circumstances were too intense for it to be termed something so shallow, and the way things played out added to the raging quality of their chemistry. Each impetuous decision was so risky, which added to the strength of their connection.
The sex – holy Jesus! That’s all I’m saying.
Overall I just loved this romance. It’s one of my favorites by this author and one of the best ones I’ve read this year. If you love a love story then I know you’ll love this one.
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DNF 40%
I don't enjoy bioks where theheroine is basiacally a slut- I know it's in right now and fair dos to anyone that is into it but just not my thing. Reason being, I am not built that way and hardly are any women I know. It's usually a case of some underlying problem-but her I am sure that view is not universal.
Secondly Insta-sex is another pet hate. I am not sure these characters knew anything about eachother prior to getting it on and yet it was this earth shattering experience ...again forgive the cynism but really? Sure for a one night stand maybe but as a prelude to love....hmmmm
I don't enjoy bioks where theheroine is basiacally a slut- I know it's in right now and fair dos to anyone that is into it but just not my thing. Reason being, I am not built that way and hardly are any women I know. It's usually a case of some underlying problem-but her I am sure that view is not universal.
Secondly Insta-sex is another pet hate. I am not sure these characters knew anything about eachother prior to getting it on and yet it was this earth shattering experience ...again forgive the cynism but really? Sure for a one night stand maybe but as a prelude to love....hmmmm
Absolutely stunning, emotional and with steamy scenes! I adore Karina's writting and I demand more please!
Another hit
I love me a broken, strong man that finds his true self through the love of a good woman. This story wasn't always easy, but it was always true to itself. The strength and live these two had for each other made weathering the rough patches that much more. I loved Lachlan, Kayla and the dogs. Felt every emotion and heart ache that was placed in front of these two. Addiction and depression are such dark subjects, but are prevalent in so many people's lives. To put a hero in this place and find you still love and want the, to succeed is powerful. Loved it.
I love me a broken, strong man that finds his true self through the love of a good woman. This story wasn't always easy, but it was always true to itself. The strength and live these two had for each other made weathering the rough patches that much more. I loved Lachlan, Kayla and the dogs. Felt every emotion and heart ache that was placed in front of these two. Addiction and depression are such dark subjects, but are prevalent in so many people's lives. To put a hero in this place and find you still love and want the, to succeed is powerful. Loved it.
6 STARS
This is going on my 2015 Best Reads list!
I just bawled my bloody eyes out! GAWD! I'm a terrible mess now. Easily the best contemporary romance KH has delivered since Love in English ... in fact, I think this may have even topped it (hard call since I loved them both so fucking much).
I was expecting sexy. I was expecting playful. I was not expecting gut wrenching, earth shattering and painfully tortured. I was not expecting to be so blown away. I should have been prepared. I really should know to always expect the unexpected from Karina's books. I should just fucking KNOW.
This book was absolute magic.
Lesson learned. I am still recuperating ...
It may take me some time to fully come to my senses & realize that this review isn’t much of a review at all ... But, if you’ve never read a Karina Halle book … THIS IS THE ONE! don’t waste another moment … just get on it!
Order: http://amzn.to/1KEDIZv
*Thank you to the author for an advance copy of this book.
This is going on my 2015 Best Reads list!
I just bawled my bloody eyes out! GAWD! I'm a terrible mess now. Easily the best contemporary romance KH has delivered since Love in English ... in fact, I think this may have even topped it (hard call since I loved them both so fucking much).
I was expecting sexy. I was expecting playful. I was not expecting gut wrenching, earth shattering and painfully tortured. I was not expecting to be so blown away. I should have been prepared. I really should know to always expect the unexpected from Karina's books. I should just fucking KNOW.
This book was absolute magic.
Lesson learned. I am still recuperating ...
It may take me some time to fully come to my senses & realize that this review isn’t much of a review at all ... But, if you’ve never read a Karina Halle book … THIS IS THE ONE! don’t waste another moment … just get on it!
Order: http://amzn.to/1KEDIZv
*Thank you to the author for an advance copy of this book.