A review by agrippinaes
Playing Hard to Get by Monica Murphy

3.0

I enjoyed reading this. Monica Murphy’s writing felt a little clunky at points and there was some repetitive language, but on the whole it was fun and engaging. The romance was sexy and sweet; it was very low-conflict

Spoiler

with no third act break up

which was a nice change. The chemistry between Knox and Joanna was very good, the sex scenes are steamy and well-written, and there was a good level of honesty and communication between them.

I liked Knox quite a lot - he was a sweetie, especially compared to a lot of Monica Murphy’s other MMCs. His pining and desire for Joanna was so clear, but he was so gentle and careful with her. I thought Joanna had some cute moments but sometimes I found her a little annoying.

If I focused entirely on the romance I enjoyed this quite a bit, but I thought some of the external plot was a bit weak. Knox’s vow of celibacy ultimately had very little relevance to the plot - it just sort of gets forgotten about and I never really felt like the stakes of that situation mattered. By the end of the book I didn’t really get why it was included at all.

But overall I thought this was a fun and easy read if you’re looking for a low-conflict college romance.

Content Notes: Bargains/deals/wagers, popular/nerd, opposites attract, college, sports.

Warnings:

Spoiler

Controlling behaviour (in past), references to blood.

Other:

Spoiler

On-page sex, infidelity / cheating (in past), dyslexia, references to spanking and BDSM, mild OW drama

Spoiler

An ex-hook-up of the MMC’s appears on-page and flirts with him but she’s friendly towards the FMC and it causes no drama between the FMC and MMC.

, OM drama

Spoiler

MMC sees FMC with a male friend and is jealous; FMC’s ex-boyfriend tries to get back with her at the end of the book but she’s not interested and it causes no drama between the FMC and MMC.

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