Play with Me by Piper Shelly

Title: Play with Me
Author: Piper Shelly
Release Date: December 9, 2012

Ryan Hunter's parties are legend. And tonight she's going to be there.

Liza Matthews anticipates the return of her best friend and only love since kindergarten from soccer camp. But when Tony finally shows up, his mind is more focused on another girl. And worse, she's a soccer player. Fighting for the attention Liza craves, she's just a hairbreadth away from making a very stupid decision. But when extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures, she's prepared to play ball to get her man.

The tryouts are hell, the first match ends bloody, and the morning after the selection party she wakes up in the worst place possible—in the arms of the captain of the soccer team. The hottest guy in school. Ryan Hunter.

THOUGHTS:

Damn it, I can't stop smiling. It's been four days since I finished reading this story and I still can't stop smiling!  I know that Play with Me is rather short, but wow, it sure did hit the mark with only 30,000 words. I finished this novella in one sitting (I did have to pause sometimes to shut my eyes and squeal silently - don't judge!) and I had this huge cheshire cat grin on my face almost all throughout! This book is such an amazing fun read. Read it after you read those heavy Mature YA/ New Adult novels; heck, read it if you want a permanent grin tatooed on your face. Play with Me is the perfect feel-good book! If that's not enough to coax you into giving this one a shot, hey, I don't know what's wrong with you.

As I said before, the plotline's a little overused, but that's somehow part of this novella's charm. I knew from the get go that I would be reading a fun, light (sorry, I just can't use these adjectives enough) story, and that was indeed what I got. Despite this book's length, I found out that I was able to know everything that I needed to know about the characters - I love that Shelly was still able to provide a sufficient background to make everything about this novella enjoyable, and I truly enjoyed Play with Me from start to finish. Moreover, I was pleasantly surprised at how tightly edited the book was. I don't remember finding any grammatical errors; every word in the book contributed to the story - Shelly definitely didn't dilly-dally, and I loved that!

I adored the characters - I liked Liza from the very first page, and I'm pretty sure a lot of girls who have been largely ignored by their guy friends in a romantic sense would have no problem relating to her. And of course, we have Ryan Hunter. Good god how perfect is that name? As much as I liked Liza, what made this book such an amazing read would have to be this guy. He has such a way with words, and I love how he treated Liza. He never took her for granted, and he was always there to make her smile. The chemistry between these two was off-the-charts - their playful banter had me biting my lip while trying my hardest not to smile. (I still ended up grinning though!)

The lemon surprise. Man I've tried making this review as coherent as possible but I think I'm going to give that notion up. This part? Sizzling hot! My breath hitched, my heart started pounding quicker, and I ended up letting out this high-pitched squeal. Just writing about it right now has already caused my heart rate to increase! Also, I loved how Shelly hinted at Hunter's feelings for Liza through some choice words and little but obvious actions and reactions.

I did like Tony and Liza's friendship. How can you not like M&M even just a tiny bit? They've been friends since they were in kindergarten and they were so ridiculously comfortable with each other. I'm actually a bit envious of their friendship! However, while it was blatantly obvious that they adored and cherish each other, it was also apparent that Tony took Liza for granted, and I did kind of hate him for that. Though a part of me is satisfied by how this novella ended, I really wish it could have been just a little longer because I would have loved to see how Tony and Liza's friendship mature.

If it's still not obvious enough, I simply LOVED this book. I loved it so much that I'm actually seriously considering buying a paperback even though I've never bought one from Amazon and even though I already have an ebook copy. Also, I think that my blind adoration for this book is properly represented by all the 'grin', 'fun', 'perfect' and 'love' in this review. Initially, I rated this novella at 3.5 stars but because I've already reread it (after only four days of finishing it!) and because I can't stop thinking about it, I'm bumping up my rating to a well-deserved 5 stars. Seriously - this is the perfect fun, light read that you will love and make you grin non-stop! (Ha, see what I did there?)

Rating: 5 Stars

(Oh, and here's a little extra for those who want to know more about Ryan!)