Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - Play Along

solid 4 stars!! spicy and sweet giggle-inducing chemistry paired with interesting and well developed characters, along with some great found family and friendship dynamics. i had so much fun with this one, and it was the perfect read to get me out of a slump. took me a while to get into this series but im pretty glad i did. looks like liz tomforde has gained a new fan in me ;)

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kaylahcc's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful relaxing medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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marmelb's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted relaxing fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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mk_meow's review against another edition

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4.25

3🌶️

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meeklovestoread's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

Unforuntately I read this book about three weeks ago at this point so I'm sadly not able to give a full rounded review of it, but there are still things that I can recall that stood out to me that I felt the need to convey.
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This book was unfortunately not a hit for me like it was for other people. Similar to "The Right Move", I saw people RAVING about this book and this series. I read "The Right Move" earlier in 2024, I gave it a 3.75/5. It was fine. But it was as phenomenal as people were making it seem to me. So, therefore, I didn't plan on reading any more books from this series until people really started raving a lot about this book.

I really wanted to love it. I really did. I'm not really big on tropes; I couldn't really care less for them, however, based on the tropes surrounding this book, I felt like it would be more up my speed. It was a marriage of convenience and the guy was said to be a golden retriever man (love those types of men). So, I was all set to give Ms. Liz TomForde another try. But this book was just meh/fine to me.

I didn't hate it by any means, but I also didn't love it. Like for starters, this is supposed to be a romance book, but is the romance in the same room as us? Is it even in our vicinity? Because as I was reading this book, I could not tell you where it was. And I love a boy-obsessed trope as much as anyone else, but he's literally obsessed with her from chapter 1 after they've had their first encounter in a woman's restroom after he had an emotional breakdown over what was going on with him during those times, especially on that day. And it's not like she said some encouraging words to make him feel better and they had like "a moment" or something. I don't recall it too much, but from what I remember I don't recall their first meeting to be all that special to constitute him literally obsessed with her for the next three years.

Also, hated that the marriage of convenience bit literally happened in like ch. 5-6. So early on in the book. Was really excited for that one and it was just lackluster. I will admit, I did enjoy the first half more than the second. They did have some cute moments and banter after ch. 6, but it got tiring once I felt like there was no romantic progression to be had.

You know throughout the book, I sorta felt bad for Issiah, like he was giving 110% and Kennedey was giving like 30% at best. Like girl, give us nothing. She didn't make for a plausible love interest in my opinion. For the first half of this book, she seems majorly uninterested in Isaiah. Which was fine in the beginning cuz I was like "oh this is gonna be a slow burn situation where she just gradually starts to see him in a different light". But no, for the first half of this book, she's 95% uninterested in him and is literally "using" him so she could have practice for when she's with other guys (ouch). And during the parts where she was interested were only the sexual parts. I didn't feel like she was emotionally connected to Isaiah at all.

And when she does admit (in her POV) that she has something for him, it feels like the author knew she had to move the story along so suddenly, out of the blue, Kennedy realizes she might have feelings for Isaiah.😒 What's funny is that she literally admits in her own POV that she doesn't know how she felt this way or something along those lines (i seriously wish i had a direct quote to give). After I read that I was like GIRL!

Like I stated previously, I love a boy-obsessed moment, but you know what I also love: mutual pining and there was none of that in this book. I liked Isaiah, but he was doing the most. At times I found his efforts towards Kennedy to be pathetic, considering she wasn't reciprocating his energy at all. He was ready to give her the sun and the moon and the stars and she couldn't give him a hug (this is not me making fun of her inability to showcase intimacy; i sympathized with her, to be honest).

But I hope you're getting the picture, here, the romance just wasn't doing it for me. As for them as individuals, again, Kennedy gave nothing. Couldn't tell you a single thing about her aside from the fact that she's rich, comes from an unloving family, and has a terrible ex. Classic tropes that went nowhere. I wish her problems with vulnerability were explored more, but alas (you can't always this what you want)! Also, you're telling me out of the three years she worked there, there were no other offers for her to move to or no one she could've reported this stuff too?!

As for Isaiah, he was great at some points, pathetic at others. This insta-love/attraction in this book just put me off. Also, him waiting around until she was not engaged to someone to hardcore flirt with her was pretty tasteless in my opinion since he didn't know how her situation was. His deep parts were also lackluster because the author never seems to expand beyond the base that is given. I will say his sibling relationship with his brother and teammates especially his brother MADE this book. I teared up at "the speech" (if you know, you know). I just felt like Isaiah just deserved so much better than her to the point where I kinda wish this whole book was just told in his POV. I genuinely couldn't care less about Kennedy.

Overall, this book was a letdown. I did enjoy some parts, like the found family. I really enjoyed seeing everyone together (even though I didn't read the 1st or the 3rd book😅). Love Isaiah's dynamic with literally everyone, but Kennedy. Even him and Miller had better moments than them. I'm just not sure Liz TomForde's book are for me. I feel like they lack a lot of emotional depth because everything is dewelled on in a surface-level way which is fine, but then I feel hollow when reading about them because they never go anywhere significant to me. And I also feel like she tries too hard to make a "book boyfriend" that she forgets to make them 3-dimesional characters.

However, I will be reading the final book in this series which is Rio's book, because he literally lives rent-free in my brain after reading "The Right Move". Although, I will say, if Rio's book doesn't hit for me, I think this will be the end of the line for me and Ms. Liz TomForde.

Spice Rating:🌶️🌶️.5 or 🌶️🌶️🌶️/5 (i don't remember)

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