Bending the Rules

The Dating Playbook, Book 1

By: Mariah Dietz

Narrated by: Lyssa Browne

It started with a crush. The best stories always do.

Our story sounds predictable, short-lived, and destined for failure.

Lincoln Beckett is the star wide receiver at Brighton University—

smart, funny, and, like many would guess, heartbreak shines in his dark eyes and is etched across his jaw.

He's popular, a guaranteed draft pick, and, worst of all, my brother's best friend.

I tried not to like him. I have an entire list of reasons. Reasons that have become my rules for dating. Rules that Lincoln continues bending.

From USA Today bestselling author Mariah Dietz comes a delicious, angsty, and addictive sports romance about falling for your brother's best friend.

©2023 Mariah Dietz (P)2023 Podium Audio

Cute College romance

This is a brothers bff/forbidden/football romance. Very cute I enjoyed it. There are definitely some unanswered questions so I’m excited to listen to the next one in the series to find out what happens next.

Anything but the norm

You think the is going to be a steamy smut read, but it’s that and so much more, so much more. I love all the characters in this story as well. I couldn’t stop reading it, read this in a day and a half and currently reading book 2.

I’m craving to know about all the twist & turns and the small lingering storyline that is at the waistline.

Very hard to keep going

Very slow book, so much back and forth between Lincoln and Regan. Does he like me? Oh I think he does, oh he doesn’t so I’m going to move on, oh yes he likes me. Also a lot of moving parts (for lack of a better description) in this book. You’ve got the mysterious Kranes left on her car and porch. Then her dad is very suspicious, I feel like something is going on there. Derek is a walking red flag. Regan is quite immature, I get she is 18 but still very immature. If i hadn’t already purchased the second book (and it’s too late to get a refund) I’d probably just be done with this duet.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/🌶️

So my girl Kayla had been saying this series was underrated!!!
I listened to the audio and I can see why!!!
It’s like watching a tv show on cw - giving one tree hill, dawson creek vibes!!!

Rae and Lincoln are the cutest and also the most frustrating! The way they were so stubborn in obvious mutual pining?!?! Has me wanting to pull my hair out!

The freaking cliff hanger!!! Not expected!!!!!
Book 1 and 2 are a duet

Took a minute to get use to it being one narrator, but she did an amazing job at emoting both sides!!!!!

Cliffhanger after extremely slow story

I hate it when it's not clear that a book is not a standalone and it's not clear how many parts there are to the story. It has this blurry description. You don't know who the main characters are, based on the description. You can't see how many books there are about these characters. You end up, like me, wasting time on a book that ends before it really starts. So, if you are not into telenovela-style storytelling, you may want to skip this one.
It's weird how many people seem to be attracted to the heroine. In the beginning, we think that she is virtually invisible and not that popular. Then, every new guy she meets seems to fall for her.
There are probably some details that most everybody knows but the author will reveal slowly, over who-knows-how-many books, to provide unexpected twists in the story. To me, this means that this story can go on forever, slow burning and frustrating. The first book wasn't boring but there wasn't much going on either. The themes are interesting and writing is not bad. However, as I mentioned, it ends right when it seems to get interesting. I am, for sure, not buying any of the other books in the series.