I loved this story! The writing was so good, and I really liked Sam and Val together. I thought Sam was a good guy, and even though I knew how the story was going to play out it was such a good read getting there. I liked Val for the most part. I can TOTALLY relate with the body issues, I'm a big girl too. I did feel like she should have listened to Sam more on that front though. He wouldn't have said the things he did if he didn't want to. While I know that Sam making a bet on Val was stupid, I did feel like he did it for the right reasons. I also feel like Val wasn't completely honest with herself. She liked him too much to let herself just get "lessons" from him, and she never held their arrangement as a "friends only" thing. When the lie started, there weren't supposed to be feelings involved. I was very happy that they get their HEA though. The secondary characters in this story are awesome! The girls always have Val's back, and her family was great too. I have to say the whole conversation that Sam has with his parents toward the end of the book was awesome. It made me tear up, because that's the exact way I feel about my kids! I would definitely recommend this story, and I can not wait for the next one!
I voluntarliy reviewed an advanced readers copy of this book.

DNF at 3%. Not here for books where two asshole dudes make a bet over a girl. No thank youuuu.

4.5 stars

Val deserved better than Sam. He was an asshole. He believed he was saving her from Ian when Val is an adult woman who can make her own mistakes and choices. Sex scenes were OK. I wish Val had ended up with music teacher Adam instead.

This review was originally posted to Jen in Bookland

Player was such a fun read! I love Staci Hart. She has a way of writing stories that I can't put down and don't want to ever end.

Val was so much fun to read. I loved her so so much. Her pickup lines were amazing! And she just has such a wonderful outlook on life. Yes, she has some confidence issues with men due to the fact that she developed early, but oh, she was so sweet and fun and everything. She is a great musician and plays on a Broadway show and from the very start I wanted nothing but the best for her!

Sam is a player. He is also a musician that works with Val, but he doesn't do relationships. He is always honest and upfront about it as he doesn't want to hurt anyone. Val has a crush on him, but she figures he would never notice someone like her. Only he does. He likes her, is attracted to her, but he can't go there. He will just hurt her because he can't do relationships. He tries so hard to always do the right thing, but sometimes what he thinks is right isn't really what is best. Oh, he was wonderful. He tries to help, he tries to be a good person, and once he commits to something that is it.

These two were so much fun! Oh, I didn't want it to end. Every scene with them together was magical. They have so much chemistry and I loved watching them fall for each other. This was one of those stories where I wanted to read it as fast as I could, but I also wanted to make it last. I wanted to draw it out as much as possible because I didn't want to say goodbye to Sam and Val. This was such a fun read and I loved every minute of it.

*Note: I received a free copy of this book for voluntary review consideration

This book was a great funny sexy read. I wasn’t expecting to love it as much as I did. Can’t wait to read about the other women in the Red Lipstick Coalition!

For a book with the cliché-est of the names, this book had the least amount of clichés. With Sam being nice and owning up to being a player which was not justified by a tragic past and Val being her awesome self and speaking what she thinks and knowing what anyone would from a glance and not being oblivious, this book was a fun ride!

I don't like secret-crush tropes so I was pretty judgy of this book at the beginning. Then it had fake dating, and AMAZING, positive "plus size" rep, so it got really interesting (and honestly kudos for all of that!!), but then... ugh the overused plot devices involving a friend/bet/secret/lie, and look, sometimes authors manage to turn it into something interesting, but here it was tedious. The drama at the end, it felt forced and only for the purpose of the obligatory climax, so it lost me. I mean it's not a bad book, but it definitely has many lows.

Spoiler

Also it's the second book in this series that has a freaking engagement at the end, I mean, really?? is that necessary??? Are all books in this series going to end up in engagements/weddings???
I have nothing against that but honestly it's like so many NA authors feel the need to give standalones endings like this and it gets exhausting and repetitive.

Anyways so I didn't hate it or anything, I actually enjoyed some of it, but I can't really give it more than 2 stars.