ARC Review. Play (Stage Dive #2) by Kylie Scott

Play by Kylie Scott

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Expected publication: April 1st 2014 by St. Martin's Griffin

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Kylie Scott returns with the highly anticipated follow-up to international bestseller LICK 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?

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Sadly I was disappointed by this book in the Stage dive series. I've read Lick so many times. It's one of my favourite books to read when I get in a funk and don't know what to read next.I loved the characters and I loved Mal.
In Play, I didn't love Mal so much. Aside from his uber-flamboyant attitude and his playful chatter he didn't come across as likable at all. What I mean by that is he just wasn't real enough. The book makes him look and sound like an idiot by the end, nor capable of having a normal conversation with anyone.
I also didn't like Anne much either. Her placcid, "okay, just think about the sex" quirk worked for a while but then I got frustrated with her for not sticking up for herself more. Two times that spring to mind are when Mal is feeling up the music exec (I would have stormed out, and yes, I know they were still 'faking' but even so.... The second time was when Reece and Mal were fighting out front. Instead of leaving them to it she gets involved and then gets a thump in the eye. And THEN she acts like 'oh, its okay, just stop fighting and be nice'. It didn't sit well with me.
The inclusion of the other characters IS great. Dave and Ev are still super happy (yay) and while we still don't know too much about Jimmy, Ben or even Sam, we know things are stirring underfoot.

-CBx