Play (Stage Dive #2) by Kylie Scott- Review

Synopsis

Mal Ericson, drummer for the world famous rock band Stage Dive, needs to clean up his image fast—at least for a little while. Having a good girl on his arm should do the job just fine. Mal doesn’t plan on this temporary fix becoming permanent, but he didn’t count on finding the one right girl. 

Anne Rollins never thought she’d ever meet the rock god who plastered her teenage bedroom walls—especially not under these circumstances. Anne has money problems. Big ones. But being paid to play the pretend girlfriend to a wild life-of-the-party drummer couldn’t end well. No matter how hot he is. Or could it?

My Review:

Play by Kylie Scott
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Anne has had a tough life and a recent run of horrible luck. She raised her younger sister after her dad left and her mom checked out. Anne then comes home from work one night to find that her friend and roommate who owed her several months rent cleared out all the furniture and left. She agrees to go to a party with her neighbor and ends up meeting Mal Ericson, drummer of Stage Dive, someone she has had a crush on since her teenage years. Mal has some heavy stuff going on in his life and needs to find himself a respectable girl and settle down for a bit. When he meets Anne at a party at his band mate's house, he decides she is just the person to play his girlfriend. It becomes clear pretty quickly that this fake thing isn't going to work out for them for very long as their attraction to one another is very real.

Reading the synopsis of this book I was ready for something a little preposterous that I wouldn't like as much as I liked Lick, the first book in this series. Much to my delight, I loved this even more than Lick. Mal is a total character in every sense of the word. He is wacky and hilarious, and it is obvious that he uses humor and outlandish behavior to keep people from seeing the pain he is in and also to help keep the peace in a band with a lot of members with issues. Also, he's super sexy and very endearing. Anne is an easy character to relate to. She's been through a lot and always puts the needs of others before her own. Watching her start setting boundaries and standing up for herself was wonderful, and seeing her find the kind of love she deserves felt great. And did I mention the chemistry between the two of them is smokin' hot?  Well, it is.  Seriously hot.  We also get to see how Evelyn and Dave are doing, and what their life looks like now. I loved this and I can't wait to read the next in the series.