Playing for Keeps by R.L. Mathewson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Done with being the world’s biggest pushover, Haley decides that things are going to change starting with the aggravating neighbor who has too much charm and not enough restraint. What she didn’t expect was to be sucked into his world, but Haley has a game plan and she won’t let herself forget just what the bad boy next door is capable of.
Playing for Keeps
The last thing Jason expected was for his little shy neighbor to go Rambo on him over some ruined flowers. After he decides to take her under his wing he can’t help but notice that she fits very nicely in his life. Now the only thing left is to convince her that this is anything but a game.
“Jason was a big baby, but a big baby that can be bought with food!”
The following ratings are out of 5:
Romance: 💚🖤💙❤️
Heat/Steam: 🔥🔥🔥
Story/Plot: 📕📗📙📘
World building: 🌏🌍🌎🌏
Character development: ☹️🙃☺️🥰😍
Narrator(s): 🎙🎙🎙🎙🎙
Narration Type: Dual Narration
The heroine: Haley – she is a teacher, a lover of flowers and she knows that her future husband is Derek Jeter and she doesn’t ever miss a Yankee’s game on her big screen TV (note: This book was published in 2013). She also hated her neighbor Jason with a passion.
The Hero: Jason Bradford – he is also a teacher, and loves to interrupt Haley’s classes to borrow supplies. He throws big parties and makes a ton of noise. He also does some very inappropriate things every time Haley has tried to sell her house whenever she has prospective buyers looking at it.
The Story: Haley hates Jason and tries to ignore him whenever possible. Jason thinks Haley is shy and boring. However, when they get into a fight over some tulips that are over the property lines and disturb a bees nest, Jason has to have the exterminator over and stays at Haley’s house while that is done. He finds that he likes her, she isn’t as shy as he thought, she was a huge baseball fan, and she was actually very pretty.
I read a few books in this series a few years back, and just love the Bradfords and their passion for all kinds of food. They are crazy for it and whenever they see food, it is like they haven’t eaten in days. So when Jason finally invites Haley to one of his parties and she brings brownies, he is officially enamored.
This book was narrated by Fran Jules, who did a great job. She has a soft feminine voice, but was able to do a few different other voices, including male voices very well. Though I have to admit, I do like dual narration much more than solo. I rated this one a 5 before, and I didn’t like it quite as much as I did the first time I read it, but it is still quite a good story.
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