A review by katiedermody
The Proposal Play by Lauren Blakely

I enjoyed this one, it was exactly what I expected the reading experience to be like. A mostly fluffy and smutty (with a side of more serious) sports romance. My instinct is to call it a quick read but it's over 500 pages and I was called out for that last time, so what I mean is it was an easy read that felt like it went by quickly. I've been waiting for this story since book one in this series, possibly longer since many of her books overlap. Maeve and Asher have been best friends for almost ten years and end up in a marriage of convenience after making a marriage pact and later being in Vegas. She's an artist who just got a big job doing a mural for his hockey team's rink, and he's starting a new charity with her brother, so both decide to stay married for the optics. But he's been into her (and in denial) for a couple years, and she's more recently felt attracted to him too. Smut, falling in love, etc. etc. etc. The serious I mentioned earlier is that he deals with some mental health stuff (anxiety leading to obsessive tendencies) and I thought it was handled well. This book also set up the next one really well and we met the MMC for the last book. There was a hot second at the start that I confused which series I was reading because Helena Hunting's current hockey series has similar storylines, a group of girl friends, etc. and I enjoy both series, but I got there.