Blog Tour Review: Play Smart (Work For It #5) by Aly Stiles

Item: Play Smart
Rating: 5
Author: Lisa Mandina

Posted October 26, 2022 by Lisa Mandina in Blog Tour, Review / 4 Comments

Play Smart, an all-new enemies to lovers rockstar romcom from Aly Stiles, is now available in Kindle Unlimited!

I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Blog Tour Review: Play Smart (Work For It #5) by Aly Stiles

Play Smart by Aly Stiles
Series: Work for It #5
Published by Smartypants Romance on October 13, 2022
Genres: Adult Contemporary Romance, Adult Romantic Comedy
Pages: 409
Source: the publisher
Format: E-galley
My Rating: five-stars

Goodreads

Blurb:

Nash Ellis knows music. Producing, performing, writing—if it involves the creative process he’s there for it. He knows nothing about copy machines. Or financial reports. Or anything related to the stuck-up business world his best friends have been chasing since they were kids. But Nash also needs money, so when his roommate gets him a paid internship at Reedweather Media, he reluctantly agrees. At least his know-it-all intern competitor is kind of cute in a nerdy-librarian sort of way—especially when she’s being tormented by an angsty rocker she can’t stand.

The only thing Paige Andrews hates more than failure? Nash Ellis. She has little patience for incompetence and zero tolerance for indifference. He clearly doesn’t belong in their corporate world, so why does he insist on ruining her dream job? And the worst part—he’s not what he seems. In fact, it’s all the things he’s hiding behind those electric blue eyes that make him straight-up captivating in an ironic-slacker sort of way.

But their smoldering friction bursts into open flames when the feuding interns are forced into a high-stakes mission that requires intimate knowledge of the music industry. Yep, what could go wrong when the least-qualified candidate to ever walk the halls of a major corporation becomes their only hope of success?

‘Play Smart’ is a full-length contemporary romance and can be read as a standalone. Book #5 in the Work For It series, Educated Romance World, Penny Reid Book Universe.

Grab your copy today!

Amazon US: https://amzn.to/3cRh9uI

Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/3PD3DJT

Amazon CA: https://amzn.to/3JdO8Wi

Amazon AU: https://amzn.to/3zJsF4F

Goodreads: https://bit.ly/3PvQQrQ

Excerpt

Turning around, he stops in his tracks when he sees me. His face falls, and I don’t know how to read the mix of emotions that filters over him. He clearly doesn’t know what to do next, so I close the gap and grab his wrist.

“Let’s dance,” I say.

“What?”

“Dancing.” I wave behind me at the sea of bodies demonstrating this ancient ritual.

“You… wait. You want to dance with me? You’ve been turning me down all night.”

I nod. “Yes. Because I don’t dance.”

“But you do now?”

“No.”

“I don’t understand. What’s changed?”

“My internal—and a few external—organs.”

“Huh?”

His brow scrunches, and I notice for the first time how much I like the image of his silver piercing when he does that. I reach up and brush my finger near it, then let my touch drift down the side of his face. My gaze settles on his lips and a sharp wave of desire surges through me.

“I turned you down because you’re extremely attractive tonight,” I explain. “Dangerously so.”

“Wait, you’ve been turning me down because you wantedme too much?”

I nod again, forcing my attention back to his entrancing gaze. “Yes, and since we agreed we can’t have what we want, it felt like a terrible idea to indulge in a sample of the forbidden fruit.”

His confusion morphs into amusement. “Do you always have to say stuff in the weirdest way possible?”

I narrow my eyes at him. “Do you always have to be a jerk when I’m trying to be nice?”

“This is you being nice?”

My Review

At first I couldn’t exactly remember the last story, Street Smart, but once we got in and there was Chad in the internship training, I remembered the hilariousness of the last one by Aly Stiles in this series. It started with Chad’s crazy Mer-Nuts advertising idea. And then it got back into the spy plot that we had in the last one.

Nash and Paige were so explosive together. I loved their banter and sarcastic conversations. But they also had the hot spark between them that caught fire at first in all the wrong places and times. When they finally were able to let that flame consume them, it was hot hot hot for sure! Besides the romance between them and the banter, they had some great moments of emotional triggers and things to overcome. Both of them.

While Nash’s problems seemed so much more easy to see, he definitely clued Paige into how she didn’t really know what she wanted or why she was doing what she did. I loved how all of them were always thinking about those around them. How Nash refused to let another person get used and have their career damaged just to help someone else’s plan. I liked how the “bad guys” or at least people I didn’t like right off got a chance sometimes to redeem themselves.

And of course we had to love the bosses and all the other wacky characters within the story. Including those from Penny Reid’s original universe. I guess should we all be thinking now about WWAD? (What would Abram do?)