Book Review: Play Your Part by Kathryn Kincaid

Rating: ★★★★
Audience: Contemporary Sports Romance
Length: 312 pages
Author: Kathryn Kincaid
Publisher: Self Published
Release Date: August 3rd, 2023
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Three months. Two enemies. One goal. Zero time for distractions.

Kennedy Cole’s life stalled one year ago after she tragically lost her mom. She abandoned her plans to finish college and quit working for her family’s professional hockey team, the Palmer City Wolves. She’s finally ready to move forward with Wolves star player Justin Ward at her side, but when he’s traded to another team, he hightails it out of town, leaving Kennedy behind.

Alexei Volkov is known for his hotheaded reputation, on-ice antics, and rivalry with Justin. After being fired by his last team, the Wolves offer Alexei a one-year contract to prove he can stay out of trouble. When a misleading photo of Kennedy and Alexei in a compromising position goes viral, his career is in jeopardy, along with the team’s public image.

Alexei wants nothing to do with the sassy brunette who got him into this mess. Kennedy would rather avoid the arrogant hockey player. But pretending to date each other can fix the negative press. The agreement was simple: three months together, with clearly outlined rules. But the more time Kennedy and Alexei spend together, the harder it becomes to fight the sizzling chemistry between them, making it difficult to know where pretense ends and reality begins.

Fans of Elle Kennedy, Mariana Zapata, and C.W. Farnsworth will enjoy this dual-POV steamy contemporary romance featuring enemies-to-lovers and fake-dating tropes.

AWESOME DEBUT.

I admit, I am easily influenced by one well created reel that shows up when I’m mindlessly scrolling. This one was an absolute winner.

The fake dating was a lot of fun and I liked the enemies to lovers vibes banter that happened between Alexei and Kennedy. I continually smirked at my screen because I just KNEW THEY WERE FALLING IN LOVE. And that’s the best feeling.

I looooved that this was a slow burn. Really getting to see that build before the spice came into play. Better yet, it happened to be in my spice comfort level and worked well into the story. I loved both of these characters. Battling pasts, finding common ground, and realizing that they may have met their match.

The only thing I didn’t love was that Kennedy’s ex came back into the picture when I didn’t think he was needed to bring in any more conflict. He can get gone.

Fantastic writing and story telling. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this. Highly recommend for my hockey romance lovers.

Overall audience notes:

Sports Romance
Language: some strong
Romance: two brief open; low explicit
Violence: low
Trigger/Content Warnings: brief hockey fights, loss of a mother (recounted)