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

Title: Play
By: Kylie Scott
Series: Stage Dive #2
My Copy: Netgalley.com
Book Whisperer's Rating: 

Kylie Scott returns with the highly anticipated follow-up to international bestseller Lick. 

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?

I really enjoyed the first book “Lick” and loved the characters together that Scott presented however, Mal and Anne didn’t seem to really mesh well together until the very end for me.  It surprised me because right off the bat I loved Evelyn and David together; they fit.  Mal and Anne seemed almost forced as a couple and if something were to be forced, I rather it be after a passionate night and Anne found herself pregnant and they deal together as a forced couple than a pretend couple. 

Now this doesn’t mean that I didn’t dislike the entire book.  I did like Mal’s exuberant personality.  He was all over the place in a matter of seconds but did it with such coolness that as I reader, I couldn’t judge him and think of him a manic.  Anne was as best as level headed as one could be (which kind of threw me off of why she participated in the made up relationship.)

However, my favorite part is at the very end when these two characters really seem to find each other’s worth in their own eyes.  I don’t want to say too much but it was heartbreaking to see how strong Anne stand beside Mal when she finds out the family secret and how she has to say ‘no’ when I know her heart wanted nothing more than to say ‘yes.’  This scene, to me, made Anne stand as a strong character in my eyes because this whole time she kind of just follows Mal around and does whatever he wants to do.  Living with a rock star is a whole new world to her so of course she participates but when Mal make a huge decision and Anne says ‘no,’ she finally sees the meaning of their relationship and how much he means to her and how right it is to say ‘no.’ This part made this couple real to me and turned them into a solid unit and then the end came.  I wish I could have read more about them.  Hopefully I can catch a glimpse of them in the future books.