Review: The Play – Karina Halle

Posted 1 May, 2017 by Linda @ (un)Conventional Bookworms in Reviews / 8 Comments


Warning: This book includes mature content such as: sexual content, and/or drug and/or alcohol use, and/or violence.
Review: The Play – Karina HalleThe Play on 3 November 2015
Pages: 568
4.5 Stars

A troubled Scottish rugby player who doesn't play by the rules.
A vivacious man-eater who's given up on love.
When it comes to Lachlan and Kayla, opposites don't just attract - they explode.
From the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today Bestselling author of The Pact and The Offer, comes The Play, a standalone spinoff and contemporary romance about taking chances and rescuing hearts.
Kayla Moore has always been comfortable with her feisty, maneating reputation. At least it was fine until she hit her thirties and saw her best friends Stephanie and Nicola settle down with Linden and Bram McGregor, leaving Kayla to be the odd one out. Tired of being the third wheel with nothing but one-night stands and dead-end dates in San Francisco, Kayla decides to take a vow of celibacy and put men on the backburner.
That is until she lays her eyes on Linden and Bram’s cousin, hot Scot Lachlan McGregor. Lachlan is her sexual fantasy come to life – tall, tatted, and built like a Mack truck. With a steely gaze and successful rugby career back in Edinburgh, he’s the kind of man that makes her want to throw her vow right out the window. But Lachlan’s quiet and intense demeanor makes him a hard man to get to know, let alone get close to.
It isn’t until the two of them are thrown together one long, unforgettable night that Kayla realizes there is so much more to this brooding macho man than what meets the eye. But even with sparks flying between the two, Lachlan can’t stay in America forever. Now, Kayla has to decide whether to uproot her whole life and chance it all on someone she barely knows or risk getting burned once again.
Sometimes love is a game that just needs to be played.

The Play was way hot, and I fell head over heels for the damaged Lachlan and for Kayla as well.

Review - (un)Conventional Bookviews

My feels were in overdrive during The Play, I’m not kidding. Lachlan has so many demons he literally lives in his own private hell; even if he’s able to keep said demons at bay most of the time. It’s funny to me that I didn’t really like Kayla much before I started reading this, but here, I got to understand her better, and now I love her.

Between the sexy, Scottish rugby player who started out very stand-offish, and the man-eater who has sworn off men, the sparks flew. Even if Kayla and Lachlan both did their best to resist. The Play delved pretty deep into the characters’ feelings, thoughts and lives, and I think that’s why I fell so hard. I really got to know them both, and what I saw made me feel so much.

Set partly in San Francisco, and with the cast from both The Offer and The Pact as part of the story, The Play also took me all the way to Edinburgh – which is a city I truly want to visit now. With chapters from both Lachlan’s and Kayla’s perspective, I got to know them very well, and especially seeing how Lachlan did his best to fight his inner demons made him seem so very human and real.

Finding themselves and becoming more confident in what they can achieve was something Kayla and Lachlan had in common. Between the character growth, the beautiful setting, the strong feelings, my tears, laughter, anger, and fear, The Play wowed me from start to finish, and entertained me as well.

Fave Quotes - (un)Conventional Bookviews

“How long do you have to be absent of dick before you’re considered re-virginized?” Steph and Nicola look at me sharply, as if I’ve asked something that’s just blown their minds.

I’m jealous, that’s really what it comes down to. And when I get jealous, even of my friends, I can turn into a mean little ninja.

All right. So maybe there was some truth to it. But I had no idea that she actually wanted to play with me. She took of her fancy shoes and work jacket, and got down and dirty in the mud with me, without any hesitation.

Linda @ (un)Conventional Bookworms

About Linda @ (un)Conventional Bookworms

Linda is an English as foreign language teacher and has a Master's degree in English Language and Literature. She's an avid reader, blogger, compulsive one-clicker and a genre omnivore. Ever since she learnt how to read she has been seen with a book or two in her hands everywhere she goes.

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 9,077 other subscribers

8 responses to “Review: The Play – Karina Halle

  1. Totally agree with what you said. I enjoyed this book so much. I haven’t reviewed it since i’d read it way before blogging. Anyway, awesome review, Lexxie. ???❤️

Thanks for commenting - chat soon!

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.