Thank you, NetGalley, Publishers, and the author, for giving me the opportunity to read this arc. 

Overall, I thought "Played", was a fairly straight forward hockey romance. I liked Adina. However, I personally did not like Solomon's personality and attitude throughout the book. While I don't expect all the MMC to be perfect, Sometimes his pov/interaction towards Adina wasn't it, imo.  My favourite moments were when Khalil was mentioned <3

This was an amazing book. I enjoy Naima Simone and her books. I found this book to be an easy read that was a nice afternoon read. I would recommend to others.

Naima Simone crafts a tale that intertwines the worlds of firefighting and professional hockey. Here, Adina, a resilient firefighter, and Solomon, a widowed NHL player and devoted single father, find themselves drawn together by fate and fueled by unexpected attraction. While the sports aspect may take a backseat at times, the characters' journey from loss to love is heartfelt and engaging. Simone's storytelling prowess shines as she navigates the complexities of grief, healing, and romance

Could not get on with this book at all. The writing was very sloppy and most of the wording and phrases didn’t make sense. It was like a young teenager had written it.
Had to DNF.

Thank you to NetGalley and Montlake for a copy of this book.

This was a 3.5 star book for me. I honestly couldn’t connect with the characters. I could feel their heartache but everything else seemed to forced. The MMC didn’t really have any good qualities. He was rude and very childlike for someone who has gone through grief. And the FMC felt like she was nothing but a doormat.

I wanted to like this book because I love sports romances but this one fell short to me. Maybe someone else would connect better to the characters.

3.5 Stars
I first want to say thank you to Naima Simone, NetGalley, and Montlake Publishing for allowing me to read and review an early copy of Played!! I am truly thankful for the opportunity.

Played had such a fun premise, I mean a badass firewoman and a famous hockey player/single dad? SIGN ME UP!!! I absolutely loved the beginning of the book where our main characters first meet, it was so fun to see them navigate miscommunications and unexpected feelings. I am truly a sucker for any sort of letter writing/emailing/and/or journaling so that was just an added bonus. I could feel the absolute devastation that both Adina and Soloman faced after losing people they loved, and I was excited to see that emotional connection play out through the book.

Unfortunately, after their first meeting, I felt like that emotional connection took a hard backseat. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate and understand their physical connection, but it felt overwhelming at times. I would have loved to see more of that soul-deep connection, that understanding that only they shared, especially as their relationship progressed into more. I felt as though they were extremely focused on the sexual aspect through most of the book, which again, I understand those moments, but I missed that initial aspect that I fell for.

This book flowed super well, and I found myself feeling so much for the characters as they dealt with things in their lives. I rooted for Dina as she fought to put herself first, to earn the respect she deserved, and to find her footing after a devastating loss. I was so angry at her situation, but I'm happy with how everything played out.

Speaking of making my blood boil...Soloman's in-laws...oooo that man had more patience than I would have lol! Soloman took a while for me to warm up to, but again, I'm happy with how it turned out, but still. I WAS SO ANGRY.

I freaking loved seeing Khalil, Noni, and Dina's family in scenes!! They were such a bright spot in the book and made me laugh so much. Noni is such a great support for Dina, and I loved that Adina came to realize the true love and unwavering support from those in her life.

I really wish this book was a bit longer to really flesh out some things, but overall, I thought this book was really good! I recommend picking it up on September 2, 2024! :)

Two grief stricken souls find one another through a journal found at a fire scene. There is attraction from the start between the two. The push and pull eventually leads to them giving in and falling for one another. This was an enjoyable read and it was nice seeing a Black hockey player for once in a story. Also, the issues faced by Dina at the firehouse was accurate for a lot of women in this field and I loved seeing someone write about it.

Have you ever started a book and as soon as you get into Chapter 1, you know that you are going to have to pace yourself because you know how good the book is about to be?!?!? That's exactly what happened here.

THIS BOOK WAS EVERYTHING! LOVED IT!!!!

The dynamic between Adina and Solomon was steamy & intriguing from their first interaction. This masterpiece had several story points that will keep you engaged. What Adina had to deal with being a firefighter, the be seen for who she really was. How Solomon had to navigate being a single father and deal with family challenges.

Watching Adina and Solomon fall for each other was a wonderful ride.

I enjoyed this book so much. Highly recommend.

Single Daddy with a dash of Fake Dating? My favourite tropes.

I’m a sucker for sports romance books and whilst I don’t want to read a book full of sports, sometimes it is needed to help the book make sense on the characters behalf and break up scenes. So it’s definitely lacking more sport scenes.

The topics brought up are very deep and it deal with situations well. They had me feeling for the MC’s hard. However, some of the reactions from Solomon had me disliking him for a small portion of the book with him redeeming himself towards the end … kinda?? I like a man who treats his girl right and boy did he TREASURE Dina. I loved my strong independent Adina (except when it came to Solomon obviously because I would be the exact same). Together, they would open up with each other and the fact that they spoke about the trauma they’ve both been through makes realise that they trust each other and that they are so strong both individually and together.

I personally love all of the little random references to media. Mention Lord of the Rings? I’m hooked! I loved the little Lord of the Rings metaphors used.

The nicknames, going from LIL MAMA and promoting to sweetheart had my own heart fluttering 🩷

Overall, I really enjoyed how easy it was to read this book and there is a nice mixture of romance and spice that has me falling in love with the pairing. I would recommend to others for sure.

Strong, engrossing romance - if you love Kristen Ashley's occasionally-monosyllabic, alpha-but-devoted heroes, then you'll absolutely adore Solomon; and if you want the same kind of high-emotion, high-drama plots, then you'll love this book. Adina is a fantastic heroine, strong and independent but struggling to deal with the aftermath of the loss of her fiance and the ways in which her own independence and strength make it difficult for her to diagnose when she needs to reach out for help (particularly as she faces a harassing colleague) and when she should handle things on her own. Solomon is a wonderful hero, hemmed in by the massive grief he experienced when he lost his wife (and his son's mother). When the two of them meet, they recognize loss in each other, as well as a powerful attraction they both find frightening. If they move on, are they forgetting the people they promised to love forever? Are they even capable of it?

Both Solomon and Adina have complex, realistic support networks of friends and family, whose love can both help and hamper them in various ways; the plot moves swiftly and takes a realistic look at the pros and cons of Solomon's celebrity. The sexual attraction is well done. There is, for those who care about such things, very little hockey; but the depiction of Providence is great.

I don’t know how, but this story which could have been sad and depressing, was full of hope and healing, as both our characters get a second chance at love! The path to their healing isn’t the same, their reactions to feelings aren’t the same, but the understanding of some things, and the absolute fear of others, they do have that in common. Their lives didn’t stop for them as they worked this all out, and they still had all the things to deal with, adding all that extra pressure. But together, these two have chemistry, heat, and they get lost in each other; They are truly a thing of beauty when they just let go and be. Miscommunications happen, fear creeps in, and mistakes are made, but with the pull these two have, you know they can’t possibly stay apart <3

thankyou netgalley for the arc.

this book and the plot had so much potential but it definitely fell flat for me.
i didn’t particularly enjoy the writing - it was very fast paced but felt rushed and certain things and plot points felt unfinished. there were small mistakes - words missing from sentences, the wrong words used, etc. and it just kept taking me out of the story which ruined my enjoyment. the constant lord of the rings references felt so unnecessary and they added literally nothing to the story.
there was a slight mention of the fake dating trope but it went nowhere and honestly felt like a cop out and a quick way to add in a well liked trope just to have it go nowhere.

I also didn’t particularly like the characters. the only one i actually kinda liked was khalil and he was five. adina was fine but i didnt love her and solomon just seemed to keep fucking up and then not having to grovel at all.
i didn’t feel the connection between solomon and adina. were they in love? or did they just want to fuck? there was obviously a sexual connection but that was pretty much all you see - you see them hating each other, lusting after each other and then giving into their lust in detail but only have mentions of the fact that they’re spending time together. i did not feel their connection like at all. i don’t even know if they actually like each other as people.

each subplot felt like it was added just to cause tension but did not feel fleshed out whatsoever. out of three, only one is resolved and even then you don’t see it resolved in detail you’re just told it happens. and the other two are very predictable, including what i think is supposed to be a plot twist at the end.

overall, this book is okay but i didn’t enjoy it or particularly like it but i can see why others might enjoy it.

Thanks Netgalley for the ARC:

I wanted to LOVE this book. I loved the diversity of the characters, Adina feeling like she had to keep quiet about things and not rely on people because she is a black woman in the firehouse. Her character development and struggles were beautifully written, I was so proud of her come the end of the book. Solomon and her were steamy. You could feel the tension and I loved how he called her ‘Ma’ and ‘lil mama’ but I melted when he called her sweetheart. He had a lot of healing to do throughout the book. I personally think Khalil is my favorite though, he is so cute and the epitome of “kids have no filter”. I felt angry with Solomon at points but he grew and redeemed himself, however I would’ve liked to see more than the ending, the ending felt a little rushed and left a lot unanswered for me. Would’ve loved an epilogue with answers as to how Adina dealt with the Minnie situation, and a steamy scene of Adina and Solomon sleeping in HIS bed instead of the guest room would’ve been healing too.

dnf @ 36%. this was such a disaster i can't even motivate myself to write an actual review 😐

sports romance where? couldn't find it. plus the characters were insufferable, i felt no chemistry between them, nothing. the dialogue was inconsistent and just uncomfortable to read. certain topics were talked about a lot and it was kinda random? idk i just would not recommend this at ALL.

I devoured this book pretty quickly. The writing was done well and I loved the diversity. I don't really see how it's considered a hockey romance. Some of the book started to drag a bit for me but it was still a pretty quick read. Overall I'll give it a 3.5 star rating.

2.25 ⭐️ Sport Romance? Where?
Thank you so much Net Galley for the eARC!*

The only reason why I'm not giving this book a plain ol' one star is because both MCs are black, and it's a book written by a black woman. Diversity is very important to me both in and out of books, and although the racial diversity is there, every other type of diversity is so lacking it should be laughable. It's not, though.

Also, please note that I would not recommend going into this book expecting a sport romance. You will be extremely disappointed.

I have several issues with the book, and although it has a HFN ending, sometimes the means do not justify the ends. These are some of the reason as to why:

- Christianity everywhere: the shear amount of references to God and Jesus should have tipped me on to the fact that this book was just not going to do it for me, but sometimes I can push through the whole hyper religious thing. And if that was the only issue I would have had with this book, I probably would've pushed through just fine. But alas, it's not the case.

- The MCs: The MMC, Solomon, is just a mean dude with a big ego and an attitude problem. That's it. He is constantly objectifying her and insisting on going through with his bullsh!t. I couldn't stand him half the time Also, his nickname for her is ma, or lil' mama. I cannot begin to describe the cringe. The FMC, too, is supposed to be this bada*s firefighter, but she needs a backbone more than she needs a water hose... and she gets it. With three pages to spare, and immediately looses it right after by forgiving the unforgivable. Also, TW for se*ual harassment in the work place, because f*ck was that triggering as hell.

- The lack of both sport and romance: This guy could have just been a millionaire who traveled for work and liked to go to the gym for how much we see him playing or involved with his sport. Also, this book is about two people broken by grief experiencing real lust for the first time after their spouse dies. That's it. The romance is basically nonexistent until about the 90% mark. And then the MMC ruins it so completely he turns irredeemable imo.

- The writing: I understand that the author made a choice to write as the characters would speak, the expressions and accents. And as important as I'm sure that is, I personally hate it. I love hearing different accents, but reading the misspelled way the words would be said, or the grammatically incoherent sentences... Again, I know what we were going for here. I just can't get behind it, but I know that might just be a me issue.

- The ingrained sexism: there is internalized misogyny, and then there's this book. I cannot begin to describe the absolute rage that fueled me every time the FMC refused to seek help from her coworkers and family members because they were men and 'they need to stop babying her', only for her to allow the men around her to talk to her like she's five years-old. Also, the ending where Solomon explains that he called the men in her family. Big get-away-from-me energy.

- The lack of LGBTQIA+ characters. And I do mean zero.

- Everyone is either rich, or rich-adjacent. So, yeah, the diversity is nowhere to be found there either. The FMC is a single, black 26 year old woman in America and she owns a house. By herself. I mean I know that this is fiction but come on. In this economy? I think that might be the most unrealistic thing in this whole book.

- The lack of consequences in the whole revenge porn plot. And also, TW for that. It literally came out of nowhere and went... you guessed it, nowhere! It just cause a whole lot of issues and then the book was over.

There are also several quotes that I shall refrain from sharing (for now) since this is an ARC, and things could change, but... omg the cringe spicy scenes where so painful.

Overall, this book gets one star for each Black MC, and then .25 for the HFN. But that's it.
And, well, for Khalil. He was cute af.

This review has already been uploaded to Goodreads :)

This story lacked substance. The characters were boring and so was the story. The writing style was bland and dry.

This was a super solid entry for me as a first time reader of this author’s work!

It’s got a lot of really popular tropes. Everyone loves a hockey romance (I know I do), the MMC is a single dad, and I’d classify this as a hurt/comfort situation for sure.

There was a lot that I felt needed a clear content warning at the start. The FMC deals with sexual harassment at work, the MMC is a widower, etc.

3rd act did contain some trouble but, shockingly, I didn’t have an issue with it. These are troubled people and they needed to work for this relationship.

I loved that the FMC was a Black woman, which I don’t know that I’ve ever seen that in a hockey romance. And the spice was fairly decent.

I loved the concept of this, especially as a staunch sports romance girl, but there were elements I really couldn't get behind. As a twin I found the relationship between Noni and Minnie to be very superficial as twins and felt the writing was very repetitive a lot of the time. Loved Adina and Solomon though, I liked how they worked through their issues and tried to make things work. I also hated Nate and Caroline. There was absolutely no reason for their hatred and they literally had my temper flying for no reason.

Another thing I loved about this book was the discussion on what it's like to be a woman in a male dominated career. The representation of a woman's strength when men are messing up was very well done. I liked that it wasn't sugar coated, as most times it's brought up in books it is.

Played by Naima Simone is the first book I’ve read by this author and I thoroughly enjoyed this title!

Adina (FMC) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Firefighter following in the steps of several of her family members. Lost her fiancé in a fire several years ago.

Solomon (MMC) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Hockey player, single father to 5 year old Khalil, after the death of his wife two years ago.

Taking place in Providence, Rhode Island, Adina finds a journal after responding to a fire at the local hockey rink. Reading through the journal she feels an instant connection to Solomon due to their respective losses.

I really enjoyed how the two main characters were able to overcome their trauma and build a stable relationship. That third act almost had me in tears though! 😥

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this title!