A New Adult romance about a professional football player and a woman in her last year of university on a track scholarship, Play was an odd read. As happens sometimes with this genre, it felt like the version of romance conjured up by an awkward teen who has never been kissed other than that one time at a 13th birthday party, “but that was on a dare, so it doesn’t count.”
I have some notes, but the first one is the showstopper:
Opening with an attempted sexual assault when a professional football player forces the heroine to her knees, “The scunt owes me a sblowjob”, she is rescued by the hero who offers to go to the police with her. The assailant’s friends dismiss the behaviour as a product of drunkenness. At the end of the book, the assailant, having apologised for his violent attack, is one of the groomsmen at the hero and heroine’s wedding.
[insert mic drop here]
Other items of note in Killian and Rebecca’s book are below. Direct quotes are in italics:
Scant minutes after a sexual assault and still shaken, Rebecca is overwhelmingly aroused in Killian’s presence and very concerned about how she looks.
There’s a lot of slutshaming both by Rebecca of her sister and by Rebecca of Rebecca. Something needs to be done about the “but those other women who are having sex and aren’t the main character are whores” situation in these books.
Killian and Rebecca find each other physically attractive. No other reasons, rationalizations, explanations, or elucidations for their emotional connection are provided.
Every time they go somewhere, Killian fastens Rebecca’s seat belt for her.
Killian hadn’t mentioned anything about the hair on my lady bits, but I wanted to do this for him anyway. She gets her privates waxed as a gift for him to make herself more attractive. Is that really a thing?
“I’m changing one rule and letting you have a hair tie while you run.” He said to the ELITE ATHLETE! Sidebar: Who says “hair tie”?
In addition to requiring she wear her hair down at all times, Killian has other rules; for example, Rebecca is also supposed to walk around naked whenever they are at home because he finds her so amazingly beautiful.
“Killian, please, I don’t feel comfortable.” Mortification caused tears in my eyes. Many times, the hero makes Rebecca feel this way and she is just supposed to accept that he knows best because he loves her so much and she comes around to agreeing with him.
Killian gets injured and pushes Rebecca away by vilely requesting a sex act. When he comes to his senses, he stalks her – with the help of his severely disabled brother – until she gives in.
The temporary break up is so painful for Rebecca that it improves her running, so she gets the boy and wins races.
Rebecca wants to get married and have babies which is, of course, totally up to her, but she’s only 21.
The next time I read a romance in which a heroine complains about being thin, my head ass is going to explode.
Play has a rating of 4.4 out of 5 stars on Amazon.
If you want to read a good New Adult romance featuring athletes, I suggest one of the following:
- The Off Campus Series by Elle Kennedy: The Deal and The Mistake
- Him by Elle Kennedy and Sarina Bowen
- The Ivy Years Series by Sarina Bowen
- The Game on Series by Kristen Callihan, especially The Game Plan
Links to my other reviews can be found on my complete reading list of books sorted by author or Author Commentary & The Tallies Shameful.
I’m always – ALWAYS – amazed that these things get published.
And I wonder if these New Adult nonsense books bother me cause I’m old and all get off my lawn about it. Is this how it is for kids these days? Surely this can’t be how it really is.
Barf.
“Every time they go somewhere, Killian fastens Rebecca’s seat belt for her.”
What? Is that a thing? A thing that people find romantic and not weird?
Ha. That made me cringe when I read that [along with everything else]. Can she not put on her own seat belt? Is it supposed to be some kind of sign of protectiveness? The thought of some guy doing that to me makes me laugh.
I haven’t read Fifty Shades of Grey, but I’m getting a sense of the same kind of tone–where there are a bunch of supposedly “romantic” scenes that are really just weird/abusive.
I’m so glad I’m not going to read this book.
Was this self published? I like to think that this is the work of a single person without any filter, rather than editors and publicists and a whole team of people allowing this to happen.
I say ‘hair tie’. What does everyone else call it?
I say hair tie too. But, yeah that makes sense :-P And otherwise eff this. Thank you for your service in reading this trash so we don’t have to.
It’s a highly rated FIVE BOOK series.
Two things – 1) absolutely marvellous review of a book that sounds horrible. 2) I’m thinking you mean Elle Kennedy as the author who wrote The Deal and The Mistake, not Kristen Callihan.
Two things – 1) Thanks 2) Whoops! Fixed.
Glad to be of service.
This sounds atrocious.
And yes, this:
“She gets her privates waxed as a gift for him to make herself more attractive. Is that really a thing?”
Is a thing. Kids these days do *not* like body hair of any kind. At least, “kids” bw 18-30. Not sure about *actual* kids . . .
I blame porn for giving men (and women) weird expectations about how women’s bodies should look. (I’m sure it’s a lot more complicated than this.)
I have a lot of feelings about the impact of the mainstreaming of that and what it has meant for our culture.
If it’s a thing, and you’re doing it cause YOU like it, then great. But doing it cause it makes her more attractive to him? Oh honey, no. Listen, I’m all for gussying yourself up now and again – and lord knows I’ve dressed for the occasion more than once in less than comfortable underthings – but that’s for the BOTH of us. If he loves you, he loves you however you are, even if that means you haven’t shaved for days, you have baby puke on your shirt, and your hair is greasy.
I sometimes really really really hate these New Adult, pseudo 50 Shades books. Aren’t romance novels supposed to be about the fantasy? I know of no girl who fantasizes about having her bits waxed.
The worst is that women seem to have internalized it, because other ladies shame you into doing it maybe even more than men do. Or even worse than that, without a dude even telling you to do it, you just assume you au naturel is disgusting. Both of which are also things I have seen happen to people I know with mine own eyes.
No way am I letting hot wax near any part of my body, least of all my lady area. Not that my husband minds in the slightest. He frankly questions why I shave my armpits and occasionally my legs in the summer. I do those for me, not for anyone else. But wax, urgh, no.
I worried about that when I started dating again, because there is no way I’m waxing. But the two guys with whom I progressed to the nudity stage were thrilled I wasn’t waxing. I wasn’t going to start if they had been horrified, but it boosted my confidence in being me.
And I shave my pits for me, too.
This sounds on par with 50 Shades of Blech…are we sure it wasn’t written by EL James using a pen name?
I feel a strange need to defend this book against charges that it is like 50 Shades. It’s not that badly written (though Godtopus knows it’s not well-structured) and the best description I can give for it is misguided. It’s puerile, but not really abusive.
Every New Adult novel I’ve read has been misogynist and rapey. My first was Beautiful Disaster. It follows the basic “special snowflake wooed by sexual dervish hot guy” theme with a heavy dose of alcoholism, controlling behavior, and jealousy in the mix. I was so turned off I haven’t delved into the Sarina Bowen series :P
For a while, I thought all New Adult was horrible and rapey as well, but all the books that Mrs. Julien suggest at the end of this review are really good (I have yet to read the Elle Kennedy ones, but have heard enough great stuff from several people I trust that I believe their quality). There is good stuff out there in the genre, but you need to listen to advice to avoid the bad books.
Sarina Bowen’s series is excellent and I highly recommend it.
Wow. This is. Wow. No thank you.