kelly_diaryofabooklover 's review for:

The Games We Play by Berlin Wick

5.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing sad tense 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: Yes

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"𝓘𝓯 𝓻𝓪𝓲𝓷𝓫𝓸𝔀𝓼 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓫𝓾𝓽𝓽𝓮𝓻𝓯𝓵𝓲𝓮𝓼 𝓱𝓪𝓭 𝓪 𝓼𝓬𝓮𝓷𝓽, 𝓼𝓱𝓮 𝔀𝓸𝓾𝓵𝓭 𝓫𝓮 𝓲𝓽. 𝓛𝓲𝓴𝓮 𝓼𝓾𝓷𝓼𝓱𝓲𝓷𝓮 𝓪𝓯𝓽𝓮𝓻 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓻𝓪𝓲𝓷 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓹𝓮𝓻𝓯𝓮𝓬𝓽 𝓼𝓹𝓻𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓭𝓪𝔂."

𝐌𝐲 𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬 💭

Listen... When Seamus Matthews says, "Lose the date," you lose the damn date! No questions asked. This man had me absolutely feral.

This book has everything: a sweet teenage love story that turns into something deeper and more intense, with lost time, trauma, healing, and a beautiful second-chance romance that had me so in my feels the whole time.

Seamus is pure grump perfection - broody, obsessive in the best way, protective, a little stalkerish... yet somehow, still a total green flag. And Mimi, my sunshine girl. Fierce, kind, strong, and just the purest soul. He’s her safe place. She’s his light. I was obsessed with them from the start.

Their chemistry was off the charts, and the banter was so good. But this story isn’t all fluffy romance - it goes deep. There’s pain, misunderstanding, and real-life messiness, but also so much heart. It had all the “it’s always been you” vibes I love, with just the right amount of spice (um, tantric massage anyone? 🥵).

Berlin always delivers, but she really nailed it with this one. It tackles tough topics with the utmost care while still giving us swoon, spice, and emotion. I loved every page. I absolutely recommend this one (as I do the whole series), and I’ll definitely be reading it again.

Thank you, Berlin Wick, for the ARC. I adore you. You are insanely talented, and I can't wait to see what's next from you 🩷