Review - Playing the Player by Lisa Brown Roberts

Image and blurb from Goodreads

Title: Playing the Player

Author: Lisa Brown Roberts

Publication Date: September 14th, 2015
Category/Genre: Young Adult Contemporary Romance

Publisher: Entangled Crush

The Good Girl Vs. The Player
Round one begins...

Trina Clemons needed the money. Why else would she - the most organized, prepared student in school - spend the summer as a nanny and partner with the biggest slacker ever? Now she's ready to tackle nannyhood with her big binder of research and schedules. Just don't ask her about the secret job of "fixing" the bad habits of a certain high school player...

Slade Edmunds prefers easy hook-ups, and Trina is definitely not his type. She's all structure and rules, while Slade wants to just have fun. Fortunately, Trina has no idea about the bet Slade made with his best friend that he can totally get her to unwind by the end of summer...

Then the weirdest thing happens. There's chemistry. A lot of it. 
But nothing gets between a boy and a girl like a big, fat secret...

Goodreads

Buy Link: Amazon 

3.5 “Nannying can be fun” Stars

ARC via NetGalley

Thank you, Entangled Crush!!

This is my third Lisa Brown Roberts’ book. While I didn’t connect with Playing the Player as much as Resisting the Rebel or The Replacement Crush, I still could count on this author to write a cute teen love story that made me swoon and smile.

Playing the Player is the story of Slade and Trina, two high school kids who kind of hated each other (more her than him) but were forced to spend the summer together.

Trina and Slade’s main problem was that they were opposites—while Trina was all “my-life-is –organized-to-the-last-minute”, Slade was one to go with the flow. Both Slade and Trina saw their differences as each other’s flaws, with Trina calling Slade a slacker, and Slade thinking Trina couldn’t recognize fun if it hit her in the face. So, when they both got a summer job nannying two BFFs five-year-olds, Trina and Slade had the opportunity to learn from each other.

I really enjoyed the message here---I especially liked how it wasn’t a in-your-face kind of message, but it was still there. Trina and Slade learned from each other and let go of their preconceptions as they became nannying partners, then friends, then something more.

The nannying job was a plus not only because of how it forced Slade and Trina to interact with each other, but also because of the kids. Max and Gillian were funny and energetic, and they provided some great scenes. I loved how Max was the one fearful and insecure, while Gillian was the most energetic person I’ve read about in a while. I can’t imagine being that girl’s nanny. It sounded exhausting! The friendship between the two kids was also adorable. The only thing I thought needed a bit of improvement in this area was the kids’ voices. Sometimes they sounded a lot older than five-year-olds.

The romance, when it finally came in, was just as adorable and steamy as I’ve come to expect from this author. Too bad it took a way to come into play. I thought the book could’ve benefited from the romance developing a little bit earlier. We got to see a lot of Trina and Slade developing their friendship, but we didn’t get too see to much of Trina and Slade together. When they finally gave in to their attraction, things moved too fast and the big conflict came in, spliting them up. It was a shame, because the little we got to see of them as a couple was pretty adorable.

Overall, Playing the Player was a solid YA Contemporary Romance with an extra entertaining factor in the two kids Slade and Trina were nannying. 

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