Thank you so much Spotify and Ali Hazelwood for this ALC in exchange for my honest feedback.

I don’t know how Ali does it but friends, she has absolutely smashed it yet again! She’s brought us a fresh new batch of characters that somehow seem to hold a piece of you inside them in a new unputdownable rom com adventure. Two Can Play was such an incredibly fun, heartwarming and endearing read as per usual for Ali Hazelwood! Some might be worried that with the short format that it might be hard to connect with our characters, but as always Ali knows how to make her characters feel like you or your best friend in a mere chapter. Her success in this short format is just as clear as it was in Loathe to Love you! I would take a whole series like this format like LTLU so very happily! I mean is there anything Ali can’t write?

Our FMC Viola is absolutely fantastic in her relatability as a gamer bookworm. I myself am both and felt instantly connected to her passion for her work in video game development, and to her equal love for reading. I think readers will really love this being an integral part of her and the story itself, because far too often women in real life and in media are portrayed as being only into gaming because of the male gaze. As usual Ali is here to correct that entirely incorrect assumption, and to do it with clearly well understood references, lingo, terminology and a finely tuned plot to back it up.

Set in a gaming work retreat composed of rival gaming companies who are forced to work together and you’ve got the ultimate setting for hijinx, enemies to lovers and all the incredible banter we know and love from Ali’s workplace romances. She also as per usual served us some seriously amazing side characters that you’ll be not so secretly wishing for them to get a novella or two romance book for as well. I don’t know how she managed to make a 4 hour book feel so fully fleshed out, and with such a rich world, but she absolutely nailed it here without making it feel overly insta-love-esque or rushed in any way.

Our MMC Jesse is deliciously awkward, talented, and mysterious. The unfolding of him was absolutely delightful and gave me all the secret cinnamon roll vibes. His story alone makes an immediate reread absolutely undeniable!

For fans of Love on The Brain, and Stuck with You (my personal favorites!) this is right up your alley my friends! I always keep it spoiler free here but I will say with confidence that this man will need you to make room in your heart for another book boyfriend and no it’s not optional. He’s giving Henry Cavill cinnamon roll vibes and I am here for it!

What can I say, I absolutely loved every minute! This enemies to lovers, workplace romance is absolutely filled with all the pining and lovable awkwardness you could possibly ask for. All narrated by an incredibly talented narrator Kelsey Navarro who brings so much emotional gravity and fun to an already fun filled plot you won’t want to put down. This is also in my opinion a great starter title for anyone new to audiobooks who would love to get their toes wet and see why audiobooks are so much fun while bringing a lot of emotional value to the story as well. I think it will truly turn a lot of readers on to the audiobook space with how well narrated and polished it is. I know this will be a lovingly reread and heavily recommended title for me!

Thank you @netgalley and @spotify for this ALC! It’s out as of 10/1 ◡̈

𝑩𝑶𝑶𝑲 𝑰𝑵 𝑬𝑴𝑶𝑱𝑰𝑺:
👾🎮🤝🏻👩🏻‍❤️‍💋‍👨🏻🌶️❤️‍🔥

👍🏻𝑳𝑰𝑲𝑬𝑫 / 💗𝑳𝑶𝑽𝑬𝑫: 💗

𝑹𝑬𝑨𝑫 𝑰𝑭 𝒀𝑶𝑼 𝑳𝑰𝑲𝑬:
♡ gamers
♡ quick read
♡ he falls first
♡ a man obsessed
♡ workplace tension

𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑻𝑯𝑶𝑼𝑮𝑯𝑻𝑺:
Dude, I love Ali Hazelwood books. She does workplace / rivals to lovers SO WELL!!!

This felt like a gaming/miniature version of Love, Theoretically (which again, I loved). We have a bit of a clueless FMC who thinks the MMC hates her but it’s quiteeeee the opposite 😋 whatever she puts in her MMCs makes me obsessed with every single one lol

I also really loved the story behind the game they were creating, it worked in bringing out MCs together but was just a sweet sentiment too 🥹

Long story short, if Ali Hazelwood books call to you, answer this one!! ☎️

Ali Hazelwood has done it again! I ate up all of her previous short stories and this one was no exception. So cute, so fun, and absolutely worth the 4.5 hour listen. The narrator @kelseynavfoster KILLED it!

Definitely recommend for a short, spicy, gaming reference-filled audiobook.

I don’t care what it is, if Ali Hazelwood writes it, I will read it. I will read it, rate it five stars, and I will be up all night thinking about reading it again.

Two Can Play - Ali Hazelwood

💜 Viola Bowen has the opportunity of a lifetime: to design a video game based on her all-time favorite book series. The only problem? Her co-lead is none other than Jesse F-ing Andrews, her arch-nemesis. Jesse has made it very clear over the years that he wants nothing to do with her–and Viola has no idea why.

💙 When their bosses suggest a winter retreat as the perfect team-building exercise, Viola can't think of anything worse. Being stuck in a remote mountain lodge, freezing cold, with Jesse right next door? No, thanks.
But as the snow piles up, Viola realizes there’s more to Jesse than she ever thought, and things start heating up in more ways than one.

🧡 I'm not the biggest fan of audiobooks, but I was really excited to dive into this one. Give me anything Hazelwood, and I'm in! Throughout the story, Viola and Jesse reminded me a lot of Olive/Adam and Elsie/Jack with that classic male lead pretending to hate the heroine. Oh, Jesse, we know what you're up to...I also love that it's set in the world of video games, which is a refreshing change from the usual STEM settings, though I'm a fan of those too.
Viola and Jesse make such a great duo. Their chemistry is undeniable, even if it takes them some time to realize it. I won’t say more to avoid spoiling anything for you !

❤️ The narration is well done, although I would have preferred a dual perspective. I'd definitely get this book in paperback or eBook format.

💛 This short novella spans 17 chapters, approximately 4 hours of listening, and will be available starting October 1st on Spotify.

THANK YOU NETGALLEY AND SPOTIFY AUDIOBOOKS FOR THIS ABSOLUTE DELIGHT. This is pure, delightfully delicious Ali Hazelwood and I LOVED IT.

Large boy meet small girl. Small girl think large boy is woowoo cute, but also think large boy hate her. Many years of woowoo eyes, and tension and then they kiss. Also video games.

Seriously, my husband has the access to spotify audiobooks and I would have been devastated to miss out on this one. Y'all GO READ THIS ONE WHEN IT COMES OUT PLEASE.

It remains true that Hazelwood is incapable of writing a bad book, and that I am incapable of not falling in love with her MMC. Thank you the Negalley and the publisher for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

This was so cute! I love this little novella for a snowed-in and fun romance. The characters were fun, and I loved the video game from book conversion.

I very rarely read audiobooks but I've been doing a lot of art recently and decided to give this medium another try so that I was still keeping up with my reading - basically trying to balance both hobbies. I love Ali Hazelwood so I was happy that the timing worked out for me to give this a listen while working on some art pieces. If you've liked other things by Hazelwood, particularly her "steminist" romance novels, you'll like this. This follows a very similar pattern to several of her other novels - female main character is fascinated by a male main character who seems to hate her for no clear reason. Or does he?? I did like that the setting here was a bit different - both main characters were video game designers, working for rival firms, who are thrown together for a retreat to see if they can work collaboratively on a new game in a series based on a cult favorite fantasy saga. For Viola, this is her big chance to adapt characters she has loved since her childhood (and shared with her now deceased father), so she decides to confront her arch-nemesis Jesse to figure out exactly where things went wrong. I also appreciated the use of some fun tropes here (beyond enemies to lovers) - forced proximity and snowed in are some of my favorite ridiculous (but super satisfying) romance tropes, and those are in play here. Nothing that blew my mind, but a quick, fun read that feels like quintessential Ali Hazelwood.

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not the biggest Ali Hazelwood fan. Most of her books don’t appeal to me and I’m okay with that. But with her being such a popular romance author, I did want to give her a good go. I’d read Check & Mate which I thought was okay, but seeing that she had an audiobook coming out about two videogame developers? I decided it was time to give some of her adult work a go.

Viola is a video game designer who has just had the opportunity to work on a game based on her favourite book series ever. The only problem is, her company isn’t the only one expected to work on it. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if the two companies didn’t hate each other so strongly and if Jesse Andrews, her archnemesis would be expected to work directly with her. To see if the project is even feasible, the two companies wind up attending a ski retreat together where they see whether they can work together or not, and Viola finds herself growing closer to Jesse than she’d expected.

I’m well aware that Hazelwood is a very tropey author and that’s why people love her. Her characters tend to be very similar, which is why I’ve not shown much interest in any of her books. But I can now say that they weren’t bad. They just didn’t particularly interest me.

Actually. That’s not true. I actively disliked Jesse at times. Just probably not for the reasons you think.

Honestly, the moment it was obvious that he was avoiding her on purpose, I was rolling my eyes. Yes, his reason made sense and, at least he was trying to be respectful. But the fact he decided the answer was just outright avoiding her in dumb and rude ways rather than, y’know, just trying to be her friend? Even with his reasoning that would have made more sense.

Plus there was the fact he hated Persona. I can’t respect that. Persona 4 is one of my favourite games and I’m enjoying playing both 2 and 3 sniff.

Also, there is the fact that there wasn’t much relationship building nor did nothing much happen. So it felt very much like Insta-love. I know this is more a novella than anything, and yeah, it was a fast read at least. But I didn’t care enough to root for the relationship so everything that happened was just very meh for me.

There really isn’t much I can say about this book as there really wasn’t very much to it. Which is a shame.

As an audiobook, it was pretty decent. It was an easy listen and the quality was decent as you’d hope from Spotify. If you don’t mind listening to smut and love Ali Hazelwood, this could be a pretty good pick. Especially as I imagine it’ll be a book you can easily listen to on Spotify Premium. I hope so anyway.

I think after this, I can safely confirm that Ali Hazelwood is very much not the author for me. Can I see where others might enjoy her books? Sure. I wouldn’t say they’re written badly. They just don’t do anything for me and that’s okay.

Listening on 3x speed, this book took no time at all to fly through. The narration was solid and there were no issues with sound quality or my ability to listen.

A classic enemies-to-lovers story, Viola & Jesse have a bumpy past and now find themselves on the same retreat because their competing companies are considering a merger. I'm not a video game fan myself, but I appreciated the discussions in the book to establish various characters as Subject Matter Experts and felt that their passion was contagious. The secondary characters were likeable and added more levity to the story.

Overall: 4 stars (I really liked it)

**Thank you to NetGalley & Spotify Audiobooks for the free ALC. All opinions expressed are my own.**

Viola and Jesse are part of two video game designing teams who are now required to work together. The problem is Jesse hates Viola, or so Viola thinks. I loved this story and only wish it was longer- I need more Viola and Jesse for sure!!

This was a fantastic novella (and a marked improvement on the STEMinist novella series). The video game designer rivals still gave us that classic Ali Hazelwood nerdy-vibe, while letting us move out of the science lab.
I also really enjoyed the voice performance.

Two Can Play delivers the classic Ali Hazelwood STEM involved MCs while still being fresh and unexpected. I really loved that Viola and Jesse were video game developers; when we think of the array of opportunities in the STEM field, we don’t hear a lot about this side of creativity and science, and I really loved how Ali gave us a glimpse of that here. As for the romance, WHEW!!!! The pining, the angst, the limerence of it all!!!! I was hooked from the minute I hit play. This was such a fun, steamy novella and I ate every. single. second of it up. I hope we see more of this cast of characters in the future, because I LOVED what we got to see of them.

As someone who typically defers to physical/digital over audio, I genuinely enjoyed this narrator, which was a huge draw in finishing all in one sitting the minute I was approved 🫶🏽

Thank you NetGalley for an ALC of Two Can Play in exchange of my honest opinion.

Ali Hazelwood do it again in this cute novella about two game developers. Viola gets the chance of being one of the co-lead of a project that is dear to her heart but she will need to share the stage with another big name in the industry, Andrews. Although the synopsis of this novella says he is her arch nemesis, it's honestly not true. She admires him and feels attraction to the guy but is confused about his behavior towards her.

I really enjoyed this story where Ali did a great job maintaining tension between the two main characters and not falling into the trap of her previous novel to include too many explicit sex scenes.

Kelsey Navarro Foster is the narrator of this book and she did a phenomenal job interpreting Viola's thoughts, quick jokes and dialog lines! The story flow was perfect and I couldn't stop the audio!
Overall an adorable and super fun romcom!!

I am normally not a big novella girly but I had to check this one out, and I’m glad I did. I kinda wish we got more because I could’ve listened for longer. I have 0 criticism for the narrator and audio.

Be warned this novella follows Ali’s normal blueprint, tall broody stem mmc meets not so broody short colorful stem fmc. So if you’re not a fan of her other books or think all her books are the same, don’t bother because it is very Ali coded.

I'm not a huge novella fan, but I have always enjoyed hers. Two can play was about video game creators and an enemies to lovers storyline between Viola and Jesse. I don't want to say too much because I don't want to give it away, but it was a really fun and quick listen.

For being a shorter story, Viola experienced great character growth throughout the novela. She started to ask questions and speak her mind. Most romance novellas are insta-love, but this was not. The romance was not rushed and felt like it took its time. I would have really loved to have had Jesse's POV in the story to see what was going through his mind, too!

I loved the narrator, and look forward to listening to more books with her narration!

This audiobook was sooo good. I didn’t think Ali’s story could get any better but it being read by Kelsey Navarro Foster? Amazing. It gave it an extra dimension and I felt like I was there with the characters. She did a great job with the MMC voice and brought Jesse to life. Viola was such a cool badass FMC video game designer. She actually wasn’t damsely as we typically see in Ali Hazelwood’s stories. She felt well rounded and easy to like. I was rooting for her and Jesse the entire time and the plot was a great pace.
This was a big miscommunication trope and I honestly didn’t hate it. It was well written and the resolution felt genuine and realistic. I would’ve read this if it was full length too. Highly recommend if you’re an Ali fan.

An adorable enemies-to-lovers with cozy vibes and fantastic spice. Perfect listening for a road trip or a weekend in!

I genuinely love this audiobook. It was so well written and kept me hooked the entire time. This is exactly what I love about Ali Hazelwood books. The only change I would have made is a male and female narrator.