Enjoyable story

3.5 stars

Open Play was a lot of new for me. New author and two new to me narrators. Overall, I mostly enjoyed this. The story was cute and the love triangle angle didn't bother me so much because almost immediately, we know one guy is all wrong. I thought the story flowed well, if a bit far fetched and wordy (using 10 words when 5 will do). I found all the characters pretty likeable. Things were coasting along great until the third act when Ayanna became a bit insufferable. I liked her a lot but her interactions with her family and how she continued to handle Shane grew massively frustrating. I also think romance authors continue to hurt themselves by continuing to write these uber successful twenty-somethings with little to none emotional maturity. Ayanna is this super successful and famous physio yet she's so closed off and clueless (and condescending and rude and self-sacrificing) about relationships. I really disliked the treatment of her mother and sister and I'd hoped for someone to confront her but no. At least her friend Charlotte gave her a good kick regarding her awful treatment of Shane and his feelings. Even with all that I liked her but GOODNESS she tried me in the third act.

As for the narration, I really enjoyed Lynn Wright here. There was just the right amount of confidence, playfulness and confusion in her Ayanna. Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy Kevin Marron as much. The performance held little nuance and his voice always came through harsh and forceful, even when Shane shouldn't be. I thought both handled the accents well (to my American ear). I will also mention that while I started at normal speed, I raised it to a 1.2x and I think it was perfect for this book.

Ultimately, this was a mainly good listen and I will definitely be on the watch for the next book.

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