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Piper Lawson

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PLAY (Play Series) Kindle Edition

by Piper Lawson (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.3 1,361 ratings

Part of: PLAY (3 books)

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I’ll never fall for Max Donovan. Forget his money, his gaming empire, and his joystick.

The CEO of the world’s hottest gaming company is no nerd. Max Donovan is cocky, commanding, and ruthless... and that’s in public.

I need his business and his money. To win, I have to play by his rules.

I’m ready for anything.

Baggage? He’s already lived more than most people have in a lifetime.

Secrets? The empire he’s built doesn’t come without them.

Broken hearts? Not if I never risk mine to begin with.

The fact that he’s devastatingly attractive, shockingly intelligent and impossibly jaded is irrelevant.

Even if his irresistible mouth, sarcastic comments and eyebrow piercing leave me dying to know who he is behind closed doors...

None of it matters.

Because his game is the only one I can't afford to lose.

PLAY is an addictive standalone romance with slow burn tension, delicious banter and unforgettable characters from USA Today bestselling author Piper Lawson!

Editorial Reviews

Review

★★★★★ Obsessed by Books: "A fast paced, fab, fun story...The characters are complicated but not broken. The chemistry is definitely hot and steamy. This is a hard to put down book that you'll just have to finish in one go."

★★★★★ Once Upon an Alpha: "This book talked nerdy to me... and I loved every second of it."
★★★★★ Rochelle's Reviews: "Piper Lawson delivers another New Adult romance that leaves readers panting ... the perfect meld of geek and sexy."
★★★★★ Twenty Something Pages Book Blog: "I couldn't put this book down, I swear I even fell asleep and woke up with my kindle on my face because I wanted to keep reading until I couldn't keep my eyes open."
★★★★★ Goodreads reviewer Mandee: "Put this on your To Be Read list... at the top!"

★★★★★ Pretty Little Book Reviews: "Both Payton and Max absolutely stole my heart. Their chemistry is undeniable, their interactions and banter are HILARIOUS and SEXY!"

★★★★★ Goodreads reviewer Nancy: "OMG - this was different and great!!! I can't get enough of Piper's books. She writes characters that pull you in and have you turning the pages."
★★★★★ Daydreaming Books: "Piper Lawson has done it once again! PLAY was so much fun! It was a great ride from the very beginning. And I loved every moment of it."

From the Author

"Payton."
"What?" My retort was breathy.

Max crossed the office until he was on top of me. His body blocked the overhead light. His smell, woodsy with a little spice underneath, invaded my senses.

I remembered how good his hands had felt on my neck moments ago. He could be patient, gentle. He wasn't now.

Dark brows drew together in frustration. But that mouth...His mouth parted, revealing the curve of that lip he liked to brush as if he didn't know it killed me.

F**k, I want to bite it.

Max reached out, his fingers sliding into my hair near my scalp. Pleasure coursed through me, electrifying my nerve endings.

My eyelids started to drift shut as his hand moved through the waves hanging loose at my back.

Until he tugged the ends, hard enough to make me gasp.

Max was a lot of things. He wasn't unaffected. I knew it by the way his pupils took over his chocolate eyes, and by the muscle twitching in his jaw. Boldness mixed with the cocktail of need taking over my body.

"What game are we playing now, Max?" I taunted.

The next second, his mouth crushed mine.

Every thought ran out of me. I was empty, like the can of Riley's energy drink I'd spilled earlier. I couldn't think. Only feel Max's mouth, firm and a little desperate. His tongue, insistent against the seam of my lips.

He tasted like mint and something darker as his hands gripped my hips, pulling me hard against him. When my thumb brushed the metal in his brow, his low growl shocked me.
This was wrong.

So wrong.

Max Donovan was the guy who made me tear my hair out, and work my ass off, and put new batteries in my vibe.

He also kissed me like he had a right to do it, to do anything he wanted with me. As if he knew I'd thought about this. Wanted it. Dreamed of it.

I did the only thing I could.

I stroked his tongue with mine and pressed myself into him.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B01G0OI1SW
Publisher ‏ : ‎ (September 14, 2016)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 14, 2016
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 4035 KB
Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 328 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #724,768 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #4,167 in General Humorous Fiction
- #7,522 in Humorous Fiction
- #78,818 in Contemporary Romance (Kindle Store)

Customer Reviews:
4.3 1,361 ratings

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Piper Lawson

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Piper Lawson is a WSJ and USA Today bestselling author of emotional, steamy romance. Piper lives in Canada with her tall, dark and brilliant husband. She believes peanut butter is a protein, rose gold is a neutral, and love is ALWAYS the answer.

Join her VIP list now ➜ https://www.piperlawsonbooks.com/subscribe

Hang with Piper in her reader group! ➜ http://www.facebook.com/groups/884510215014212/

Stalk her on:

The Interwebs➜www.piperlawsonbooks.com

Facebook➜www.facebook.com/piperlawsonbooks

Goodreads➜www.goodreads.com/author/show/13680088

Bookbub➜https://www.bookbub.com/authors/piper-lawson

Books by Piper Lawson:

~OFF-LIMITS SERIES~

Crave

Collide

Claim

~ENEMIES SERIES~

Beautiful Enemy

Beautiful Sins

Beautiful Ruin

Beautiful Salvation

~RIVALS SERIES~

Love Notes

A Love Song for Liars

A Love Song for Rebels

A Love Song for Dreamers

A Love Song for Always

~MODERN ROMANCE SERIES~

Easy Love

Bad Love

Twisted Love

~WICKED SERIES~

Good Girl

Bad Girl

Wicked Girl

Forever Wicked

~TRAVESTY SERIES~

Schooled

Stripped

Sealed

Styled

Satisfaction

~PLAY SERIES~

PLAY

NSFW

RISE

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4.3 out of 5

1,361 global ratings

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Deb D

Totally Fun Read

Reviewed in the United States on April 16, 2018

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Play by Piper Lawson is a fantastic contemporary romance. Ms. Lawson has delivered a well-written book and packed it with fun, lovable characters. Payton is working her way up the ladder at a bank. Max is a hot nerd that makes video games. Their story is loaded with drama, sizzle and laugh-out-loud humor. I totally love the humor in this book! I enjoyed reading Play and look forward to reading more from Piper Lawson soon. This is a complete book, not a cliff-hanger.

One person found this helpful

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Shannon

I'll play!

Reviewed in the United States on January 24, 2017

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PLAY is a fun and quirky, quick read with plenty of sweet, nerdy and funny moments. I've never read a story about video games, much less a game creator, so this one was definitely new to me but I really enjoyed it! PLAY has every element that I love in a romance novel: a strong heroine who knows what she deserves, a hot as hell, occasionally arrogant hero with a tough shell and insides sweeter than fresh chocolate chip cookies, a dash of heat, a sprinkle of angst, PLUS witty and charming banter and secondary characters. This book really does have it all.

“So… did you want to talk?” I prompted when I thought I’d won the battle against my nausea.
“About what?”
“I don’t know. The weather? The Fed’s interest rate policy? The Red Sox pitching lineup? Though if you want the last one, you’ll have to take the lead.”

What an unlikely pair Payton and Max were, but sometimes those are the best to read about. From the first interaction between else two, I was hooked. If I could've managed to stay awake, there's a good chance I would've just read through the night, but alas, a kindle to the face doesn't feel too nice. Max was abrupt and prickly, with good reason of course, but I loved watching Payton break down his walls, even when he tried to fight it. Watching these two grow closer was a real treat because it wasn't instant, you never knew what would happen in each situation and how they would react to each other. The reader experiences those small, budding romantic moments that you might see in a real relationship during its developmental stages. It feels real. Then as they grew closer, the tension grew. Have I mentioned that I'm an INSANELY HUGE fan of tension? Just making sure everyone is aware.

This is the type of story that you pick up and just want to keep reading. The connection from scene to scene, the dialogue, banter between characters and settings, is all incorporated smoothly and flows with precision. I don't know if I would market this as a RomCom, but it's definitely cheeky and has its funny moments. I'll even admit to a small snort or two while reading. Only a small one since I'm a lady, of course. ;)

“It’s hard to play a video game when you’re imagining your face under a skirt.”

*See what I mean? Max is a bit of a cheeky bugger!*

Something that was great about PLAY is that not only was this book revolving around gaming and how Payton and Max's careers intercepted, but how they both additionally had background stuff going on in their life as well. It gave the characters more dimension and really aided in their likability, growth, and shows the reader why they have the thought processes they do and made the decisions that they did. I loved getting an inside glimpse into what else they both have going on - no one likes one dimensional stories.

“ [...] you’re my escape, Payton. You’re the good place I get to go when I need to forget about work, and all the shit that goes along with it. And, maybe I wanted to keep you out of the darker bits of my world.”
His words touched me. “Max?”
“Yeah?”
“I kind of want to be in all the bits of your world.”

For some readers, myself included, angst is like bacon. When you crave bacon, you eat bacon. But sometimes when you aren't craving bacon, but still find bacon bits, your extremely happy. You're all like "Hey! There's bacon bits in my salad. AWESOME!" Because who would be be happy with surprise bacon? This is how I feel about angst. I was not at all in the mood for an angsty read, even though I love them to pieces. Sometimes you just need something a little easier in the heart. But then there were small delicious bacon bit morsels of angsty goodness and I feel a little more in love with this book. These moments were well written, throughout and expertly placed within the storyline. I agreed with every single one, all the while they were never over the top.

“Maybe you were right, Max. Maybe this thing with us wasn’t ever meant to last.”
“I don’t want to be right. Not about this.” Desperation edged into his voice. It made me miss him horribly—how was it possible to miss someone when they were sitting right next to you?”

*insert my heart cracking here*

Piper is a new to me author but I definitely want to look into her other stuff! Sometimes when I see new releases, sure they'll look good but I can be hesitant towards new to me authors. But then I remember that some of my favourite authors started out either lesser known or relatively new, and I like to take a chance on people - sometimes it works, sometimes you might find something that isn't your cup of tea. In relation to PLAY, this decision definitely paid off! I'm so glad I was given a copy of this book, I can't tell you enjoy how cute and enjoyable it was. I really do love stuff like this.

“Did you sleep with him?”
I shot her a look. “Definitely not. And I’m not going to,” I felt the need to add as a flush crept up my neck.
“We’ll see. But in the meantime, what are you going to do about him?” she asked as we carried our finds back down the hall.
I juggled my sandwich and chips so I could take a long sip of my watermelon slushy. Today, I’d gone straight for the large. No [messing] around.
“I’m going to go find him,” I decided. “And then I’m going to kill him.”
“Hot. There are few things that get a guy going more than the threat of impending death.

There were two relatively minor things I found that could've been changed and these were why I didn't rate this book as five stars. One, is that some of the sentences were worded slightly funny or should've been written in a different order. Same words, just slightly shifted placings, if that makes sense. This definitely wasn't an all the time thing, just something small that my neurotic little brain picked up on. The other was that some concepts might have needed to be explained a teeny tiny bit more in laymen's terms, and expanded upon a little. For the most part I could keep up, but then there were times when either gaming or financing or loans would be discussed, and there was a lot going on at once. Between these unfamiliar concepts (to me, since you know, adulting isn't really my thing), the scenes being breezed over and the fact that there is a lot of information at once, it was a little confusing at times. I get that the author tried to keep the pacing smooth and not bore anyone, but I think a bit more explanation in a few key areas could've helped out tremendously.

If you're looking for a new book to read, something catchy and out of the norm, check this one out. I'm not a video game person but this book was a lot of fun with loveable characters and an intriguing story line. A sassy heroine, crusty turned sweet hero and ComicCon convention round out the package quite nicely and gives a unique reading experience. Give this one a shot, or better yet, take a chance and PLAY.

12 people found this helpful

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Peggy M

Why would you choose for an alpha man when you can have Max Donovan, the hot nerd!

Reviewed in the United States on October 5, 2016

Verified Purchase

Wow! I totally, totally loved this story! After reading and enjoying ‘Shooled’, the debut novel from this writer I was looking forward to reading more books from her. So when I discovered this book ‘Play’ and saw that it was about a nerd. I immediately bought it and read it. Where her debut book ‘Shooled’ had some slow bits in it, Play didn’t have them. The reading pace in this book was just great.

Payton Blake has just made promotion, she’s now the youngest associate of Alliance Financial. She’s very excited about it! After working very hard for the last few years, this is her reward. But every situation also has a down side to it and here, it’s the fact that she is now the ‘new’ opponent of Avery. A very arrogant guy who works there too. But Payton knows that she can handle him. Her best friend Charlie doesn’t call her the ‘Dick Whisperer’ for nothing! Payton can handle even the most difficult client with ease. And Payton is very confident about this too, until she meets Max Donovan, a future new client. Max isn’t what Payton expects when they meet for the first time but after hearing some shocking news from her mother, Payton does her best to convince Max Donovan that her company can give him what he needs for his business. (They both need this deal for very different reasons.)

Max Donovan is a legend in the gaming world. He’s also a contradiction. Sometimes he’s acting like the nerd that he is by totally coming absorb in his work and forgetting everything else but he’s also hot, arrogant, cold and he has a piercing in his eyebrow! Max Donovan isn’t only her biggest client but also her most stubborn and paranoid one. But Payton must confess that he’s also getting to her. And when through circumstances they have to spend more time together, there’s no denying the attraction between them but can a woman who likes control and guy who find it difficult to trust really have a future together?

This story really had everything for me. You had the hot nerd guy (Piper Lawson really let me fall in love with Max Donovan!), you had Payton, the girl who works really hard and likes control but still manages to get herself in funny situations. There were the steamy love scenes and the hilarious moments. This story is told from Payton POV. I really loved the fact that there was an epilogue in it.

Play is definitely a book that you should try!

7 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Cliente Kindle

Couldn't put down

Reviewed in Brazil on March 23, 2020

Verified Purchase

Really entertaining story. I liked all characters here and the story flowed easily. I really liked that it was straightforward and no fillers to make the book longer. Five starts for sure!

Andir28

Loved Payton and Max

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 16, 2018

Verified Purchase

I really loved their story and how it wasn't rushed but nicely played out to suit what was going on in their lives. The tension between them was obvious and I couldn't wait for when they finally realised what was right in front of them. I also loved how secondary characters were so well developed and not just completely glazed over. I really enjoy Piper's style of writing and the humour present in her stories. I can't wait for Riley's story after reading this and NSFW!!

One person found this helpful

WB

Awesome Reading

Reviewed in Australia on April 19, 2018

Verified Purchase

Play by Piper Lawson my first book by this very talented auther. Play is a at times quirky very hot story that manages to make a straight laced banker & a previously hurt almost single minded gamer work together towards a HEA.
Enjoy Today!

MAC

Enjoyed it.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 9, 2017

Verified Purchase

I got this as a freebie. I really enjoyed it. I was a little worried while reading that the book was going to be strung out as the percentage read wasn't increasing much but the book finishes around the halfway mark and there is another novel included. I really loved the main characters and the secondary characters. A feelgood romance.

Heather

I highly recommend this book.

Reviewed in Canada on September 11, 2019

Verified Purchase

This is the first book I have read by this author. I loved it and would like to read more. It is a fun, quirky, sexy, and steamy story that captivates you from the beginning. The chemistry between Max and Payton is amazing and I love that they did cosplay for Comic Con. This author knows how to write a story that makes you want to know the people involved and get to be their friends.

I cannot wait to read more by Piper Lawson.
I read and reviewed a copy of this book with no obligation.

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PLAY (Play Series) Kindle Edition

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