It's a Set Up

Grand Marquee Manticores

De: Stef C.R.

Narrado por: Casey Montgomery

Malia Kahale is ready to start her career as a professional volleyball player. She knew her team, the Thunderbirds, would have to share the arena with the Manticores hockey team, but she didn’t expect their outright hostility over it. Especially not from their captain—Alex Dionis.

To defuse tensions, the two are asked to give an interview together, hoping to boost ticket sales and temporarily put aside their rivalry for the sake of their teams. Malia plans to ignore the grumpy hockey captain and focus on the upcoming season opener… that is until their interview goes viral. Manticore fans start shipping #Malex, so the two captains lean into the ruse.

Can Malia and Alex put aside their differences and pretend to date to fill seats for the upcoming season?

One arena. Two teams.
Game. Set. Match.

It’s a Set Up is a prequel novella in the Grand Marquee Manticores series of interconnected standalones.

©2025 Stef C.R. (P)2025 Stef C.R.

Cute quick story

This story is all from Malia's POV so just one narrator. It’s been awhile since I've listened to a solo narrator. Casey Montgomery is a new to me narrator. I thought she did a good job of reading Alex's dialogue.

Alex is a hockey player and Malia a volleyball player who have to share the same facility. Things start out rough and then they are asked to fake date for publicity. Feelings develop of course.

it's short but good. A great spicy scene. A really nice big gesture from Alex, who starts off as kind of a grump. Overall, I enjoyed these two! And would love to hear more from Ms Montgomery.

Love this story

✨✨Arc Review✨✨
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🌶️🌶️
Spice in chps: 10&11

‼️‼️TW|CW‼️‼️
- Mentions death of sibling (off page)
- Manipulation by a role model
💕💕Tropes💕💕
- Fake dating
- Miscommunication
✨✨Onto the Review✨✨
Have I ever told yall how much I love Stef’s writing? She is one of my favorite sports romance authors who I found through another one of my favorite sports romance authors (her bestie A.K Isaacs). This is a novella in the Grand Marquee Manticore series and although this book is 129 pages it still took me through a feels trip. This isn’t that surprising though, Stef had another novella, “Tented Feelings” that put me through a similar journey because her writing is just that fantastic!
Malia our FMC is a volleyball captain on a professional team and one day while on the way to practice (cutting it close to being late) she stops at a coffee shop to get an Americano, some jerk steaks her drinks assuming it’s his even though there are several people who ordered before him in the shop. That jerk just so happens to be our MMC Alex (he turns out to be a sweetheart but for a chapter or two you dont favor him) the captain of the manticore hockey team! The two end up faking dating as a PR stunt which makes fans go wild, but what if it isn’t fake for one of them… or both of them?
This was such a sweet story that had me kicking my feet and squealing at times! I really loved watching the relationship between the two MCs unfold! If you want a fantastic sports romance series to read you need to go pick up the first book in this series “The Love Penalty” and then check out all of Stef’s other books, I promise they will take you on the best emotional roller coaster! “It’s a Set Up” is going to release on Amazon and Kindle