PLAY by Kylie Scott

PLAY

(Stage Dive #2)

by Kylie Scott

Released: March 25th, 2014, St. Martin's Griffin

My rating: 4.5 of 5 ⭐️

"Mal Ericson, drummer for the world famous rock band Stage Dive, needs to clean up his image fast—at least for a little while. Having a good girl on his arm should do the job just fine. Mal doesn’t plan on this temporary fix becoming permanent, but he didn’t count on finding the one right girl. Anne Rollins never thought she’d ever meet the rock god who plastered her teenage bedroom walls—especially not under these circumstances. Anne has money problems. Big ones. But being paid to play the pretend girlfriend to a wild life-of-the-party drummer couldn’t end well. No matter how hot he is. Or could it?"

******

Wow! I so didn't expect this. In a very good way. 

PLAY has everything you would expect; a bad boy rocker with piles of charm and hordes of groupies draped over his body, and a rather unassuming and rather timid fan girl, who catches his eye. But not for the reasons she would like. Nope. She represents the girl to please the parents..... Not really a label you'd want printed on your T-shirt. 

As it is Anne doesn't have a whole lot of say in the matter. She finds herself in a shitty situation where she is about to lose her apartment, when Mal invades her space and her life, with his loud and almost frenetic personality. And really? Part of her is thrilled - having her teenage crush living under her roof, but the other part is just waiting for reality to come crashing down. Because it will; after all, they are just pretending.

You see, Mal wants her to be his pretend girlfriend, but is not willing to share why. He is very close-mouthed about that part. Never in a relationship of any kind before, not even a pretend one, this is a steep learning curve for the party-all-night rocker. But, surprising even himself, he kinda likes it - kinda likes Anne.... even though she sees far to clearly what he is trying very hard to hide.

Kylie Scott writes in a way that is ripe with humor of a rather ascerbic variety, which I love. It is the kind of humor that doesn't take away or make light of the simmering drama underneath. It has a bitter-sweet taste to it. Highly appropriate for this storyline. This isn't your regular run of the mill rocker story by any stretch of the imagination, but the music industry as such, or rather the life style it represents, does play a large role in the subject matter. The big lesson to be learned is that no matter how successful, rich, famous you are - when it comes down to it, you are just as unable to change the course of certain things as any other mortal.

Really, really enjoyed this read and I highly recommend it, EVEN if rocker bad boys are not usually your cup of tea. This book is about so much more than that.

✨A clever, vibrant, sexy and very touching deception.✨

**Copy provided in return for an honest review**