Play for Keeps is Sassy, Smart and So Much Fun.
ARC provided by Sourcebooks Casablanca via NetGalley
I probably should have reviewed Maggie Wells’ Love Game and Play for Keeps together, but I couldn’t wait. Both reads in the Love Games series are incredibly satisfying in different ways. Set in and around Wolcott University, they feature heroines over the age of 40 who have put career first and are totally happy with that decision. Their first tries at marriage didn’t work out, but they’re not looking to net new husbands.
In Play for Keeps, Millie Jensen is the publicist and spokesperson for Wolcott University Athletics. Like many PR people (I speak from experience), she likes to anticipate every possible outcome and control the variables as much as possible. She’s logical, practical, and certainly not a romantic. It’s what’s helped her build a successful career.
Wolcott men’s basketball coach Ty Ransom just handed her another potential media debacle to manage. His wife just left him for one of the NBA-bound players on his team and she’s spreading it all over social media. Millie goes to Ty’s place to intervene before he can talk to any reporters while he drowns his sorrows in a bottle. And that’s when something scotch-fueled sparks between them. Ty’s separation is so new even in these early pages I was yelling, “Girl, don’t be the rebound!” Either way, Millie certainly isn’t going to get involved with someone who’s still married, even if it’s a technicality.
While you recognize the men in her stories, Wells excels at developing fully realized women. Divorced herself, Millie is a no-nonsense, call-the-shots kind of gal. She [says she] doesn’t do romance and she certainly doesn’t believe in the happily ever after. It’s such delicious foreshadowing that it’s extra fun to watch these two dance around and eventually come together. Ty is a man who loves to love (it’s the one strike I have against him), and he’s all too ready to fall into something new. You might even see it as insta-love. Millie keeps him at arms length, even after they’ve gotten involved.
In Love Game, the first book in the series, Kate’s first priority was her career. Love life was secondary. Play for Keeps is more traditional, but layered with role reversals. Millie is six years older than Ty. She’s the one who doesn’t want an official relationship. She’s totally fine with just sex. Conveniently, it’s an easy way to keep Ty from getting too close.
The usual progression in romance is the two main characters meet, hook up, fall in love, get married and have (or adopt) kids. While Play for Keeps hits on some of these elements, the how it gets there is part of what makes it so fun.
It is a joy to read a truly adult heroine with an established career, who isn’t afraid to be herself and says so. Millie isn’t afraid to articulate what she wants. She’s surrounded by a couple of like-minded friends who call her on her BS. It actually feels refreshing to read a heroine who’s lived a little, who’s taken what life threw at her, and come out on the other side wiser for it.
Play for Keeps is sassy, smart and so much fun. While part of me will always be my 16- and 26-year-old selves, the rest of me says, thank you, Maggie Wells for writing romance heroines over 40, especially ones who don’t have children. We aren’t ingenues, but we aren’t dead yet.
Play for Keeps is out now. Get it on Amazon | iBooks | The Ripped Bodice
