Audiobook Review: Most Valuable Playboy by Lauren Blakely
- KA
- Nov 17, 2017
- 5 min read
Zachary Webber and Lauren Blakely? Gah! A match made in listener heaven. I was so excited to finally have the time to sit and listen to this beauty.
Hands down, my favorite thing in the world is to score. Touchdowns. Don't let the fact that I'm the leading pick in the Most Valuable Playboy charity auction fool you. These days, I'm only a player on the field. I've kept my pants zipped all season long -- and it has been long -- because nothing's more important than leading my team to victory every week. Except maybe escaping from the team owner's recently-widowed and handsy-as-hell sister who's dead set on winning more than a date with me. Enter Violet and a well-placed Hail Mary. She's my best friend's sister with a smile as sweet as cherry pie and a mind that runs quicker than the 40-yard-dash. After Violet saves the day with the highest bid, I don't even give her a two-minute warning before I kiss her in front of the whole crowd and then announce that she's my girlfriend. Which would be fine except my agent tells me we've got to keep up the act while he's negotiating my contract. Violet takes one for the team and pretends to be mine, but our boyfriend-girlfriend scrimmage quickly turns into a full contact sport, and I want it to go into overtime. The problem is -- I've been riding the bench for years. How can a guy like me, who finally has a chance to prove his worth on the field, convince the girl she’s most valuable to his heart? MOST VALUABLE PLAYBOY is a brand new standalone sports romance written in the guy’s POV!
PURCHASE LINKS
By: Lauren Blakely
Narrated by: Zachary Webber
Length: 6 hrs and 22 mins
Unabridged
Release date: 09-05-17
Language: English
Publisher: Lauren Blakely Books
Whispersynced at $7.49/ £3.49 or it's included in Audible's Romance Package.
REVIEW
Rating:
Story - 5 stars
Performance - 5 stars
Overall - 5 stars
Cooper Armstrong, quarterback for the Renegades participates in an auction to raise money for a local hospital every year, this year though, he isn’t the back-up riding the bench, he’s the star and as such, has made a pact with his team that involves no sex. Only problem, Maxine, the owner’s sister is determined to win a date with him. Cooper enlists the help of his long-time friend and the little sister of his best friend, Violet to help. Due to a misunderstanding, everyone thinks they’re a couple, they both have something to gain by playing along, so they pretend to date, but it isn’t long before they both start to realise it’s not as make-believe as they originally thought. But what happens when the reasons for the pretend relationship no longer exist?
Just when I think Lauren Blakely can’t write anything more entertaining than the book before, she comes out with another amazing book. Her writing is so easy to get lost in, she builds a world for you to dive into and that you never want to leave. I wanted to go hang out with Cooper and Violet. Lauren’s writing always hits me with all the feels, I laughed, man, so many laughs in this book. I also shed a few tears… I couldn’t help it. It had sweet moments too. I just can’t believe it took me so long to finally get my ears on this one. Note to self: Don’t make LB’s characters wait.
This book is fantastic! It’s a fake romance but it’s also a sports romance. The combination of the two is genius. It works so well. As a football (yes, I do mean American Football) fan I loved the sports aspect of the story, I really enjoyed the fact that the sport wasn’t an afterthought, it played a part in the story, it’s not just a sports romance because the character happens to be a football player. I loved that it's all told from Cooper's POV.
I loved these characters. All of them. I’m looking forward to stories from a few of Cooper’s teammates in the future… I hope. Pretty please! Violet was awesome! I just loved her so much. She was smart and funny. Independent and feisty. She was also sweet and able to hold her own in a room full of football players. Vi had such a big heart. I wanna be her friend.
Cooper… swoon! Ok, so I am completely in love with Cooper. He was a sweetheart. His heart was nearly always in the right place and he had so much love to give, whether it be to Vi, or his time at the hospital, he was such a good guy. He was also funny and charming, and a damn fine football player. Sure, I wanted to slap him upside the head a time or two, but mainly I just wanted to hug him… among other erm, fun activities lol.
I just adored the progression of Cooper and Violet’s relationship. Watching them go from friends that may have had an inappropriate thought or two, to realising they were in love. It was beautiful. The sexual tension between the characters was palpable and gave the story an edge. I really enjoy that Lauren never fills her books with unnecessary sex scenes, they always make sense to the story and the same happens with this book, it’s about half-way, maybe more before anything sexual happens and then the way it was done was utter perfection and I loved it, and of course, once the sexy times start your earphones are at risk of melting.
This book is performed superbly by Zachary Webber. He’s always so entertaining and this book was no different. Zachary’s performance was wonderful, he hits the comedic moments so perfectly, I can’t help but laugh out loud and his delivery of the emotional parts of the story are so heartfelt, I even got a little emotional myself. I really don’t think there is an emotion he cannot deliver on. Let’s not forget the sexy times, sheesh, talk about panty-melting. The production was smooth, with no issues at all, I really enjoyed the cheering sound effects at the beginning and end of the book.
Side-note: The audiobook also contains a sample chapter from Joy Ride, narrated by Sebastian York. If you haven’t met Max Summers yet (WTF? Where have you been?) this is the perfect opportunity to hear SebYo’s awesomeness and get a taste of the story.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
A #1 New York Times Bestselling author, Lauren Blakely is known for her contemporary romance style that's hot, sweet and sexy. She lives in California with her family and has plotted entire novels while walking her dogs. With fourteen New York Times bestsellers, her titles have appeared on the New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal Bestseller Lists more than eighty times, and she's sold more than 2 million books.
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