It Takes Two To Play

I recently finished reading Two Can Play by Ali Hazelwood.

POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT

  Rating: 3.5/5 stars

"Viola Bowen has the chance of a lifetime: to design a video game based on her all-time favorite book series. The only problem? Her co-lead is Jesse F-ing Andrews, a.k.a. her arch-nemesis. Jesse has made it abundantly clear over the years that he wants nothing to do with her–and Viola has no idea why.

When their bosses insist a wintery retreat is the perfect team-building exercise, Viola can’t think of anything worse. Being freezing cold in a remote mountain lodge knowing Jesse is right next door? No, thank you.

But as the snow piles on, Viola discovers there’s more to Jesse than she knew, and heat builds in more ways than one."

This is a novella which I didn’t realize so it’s quite short - only about 4 hours on audio. You get to know the characters less and the romantic arc feels like it’s on 2X speed as a result. We also just rely on the “he’s been obsessed with her this whole time” instead of watching the characters really get to know each other. Which I’m not a fan of generally. So when they get together and the story ends, I was like wait WHAT? Where is the rest of this? 

I don't really like audiobooks, especially fiction ones. I have a generalized fear of listening to romance books on audio because of the ick risk. I don’t know why I thought reading a cheesy AH romance would be the exception to this rule. Jokes were cringy (I finally see why some might not always jive with AH’s sense of humor) and romantic moments I struggled to take seriously. 

I’m sorry if this is rude… but the audiobook narrator sounded like an evil mean girl to me. I would think for an audio-exclusive launch we would pick a narrator who doesn’t sound like she just seduced my boyfriend and put a dead skunk in my locker. 

But I still had fun with this. There were giggles to be had.

Check out Two Can Play, and discover what happens when two video game designer rivals decide to play nicely.

Happy Reading :)