Forgetting the Rules

The Dating Playbook, Book 5

By: Mariah Dietz

Narrated by: Mia Barron, Chris Brinkley

Rose Cartwright has one primary rule when it comes to college: no dating.

She's focused on finding the best mocha in Seattle, completing her senior year at Brighton University, working on the school's newspaper, and starting her own company.

However, her focus begins to stray when lies start impacting the one person who makes her consider forgetting her rule.

Ian Forrest is the starting middle linebacker at Brighton University, known for his grandiose parties and incredible strength and speed on the field. His college career has been focused on one thing: getting drafted into the NFL. His dream has required constant sacrifices, ones he's taken with little regret—until meeting Rose. Has he found the one thing he wants more than a future in football?

Two opposing dreams.

One conflicting rule.

And a website filled with lies that keep threatening to tear them apart.

This is book five in The Dating Playbook series but can be enjoyed as a complete standalone.

©2021 Mariah Dietz (P)2024 Podium Audio

forgetting the rules

lived listening to this book. I had read it before but listening to it was equally exciting. thanks to all who made it possible as well as the moral of the story - probably many different ones but rumors are evil so glad someone stepped up to stop them

Excellent second-chance romance

I love a good sports romance, and this author writes some of my favorites. This one got under my skin, and it took everything I had not to rush ahead to find out what happened next. Her books always do that to me.

Ian, a linebacker at Brighten University has been breathing football since he was just a kid. He loves the game, and when he gets into the university, he knows the promise of his place in the NFL is cinched. Yet, when he meets Rose before summer break, something tells him that she's special. That, however, is not how things appear once he returns to school.

Rose has a list of rules she goes by concerning men. She never dates, and she refuses to be with one more than once. She's an independent woman who has her own hopes and dreams, and dating doesn't fit in that future. When she continuously runs into Ian, who may have been the only man who has a hope of breaking those rules, she has to work to avoid falling into the same situation she nearly did at the end of the summer.

When strange things begin to happen concerning her job as an editor for the school newspaper, and rumors about the team show up on a rumor website that have Ian's team members worried about their own futures, Rose swears to clear them all by counter the website with stories about how amazing the men on the team are. Then the rumors take aim at her and her "Rules", and it becomes a fight to keep the friendship she is developing with the football team members and keep any kind of relationship she might be starting with Ian.

I liked the mystery of the story, not knowing who might be the person who began this rumor mill and how they found out about any of the situations they turned into the rumors spreading through the school. The backbiting and bullying is typical of the cliques in college and among young adults, so it simply adds another layer to the story. The only problem I had with the story was that there was a way to find out who was at the bottom of all of it - which was the direction taken at the end of the story - and I don't understand why it wasn't simply done sooner. I mean, I know it would have been detrimental to the storyline to discover the culprit too early, but with the pull some of the characters had within the story and the fact that it was affecting so many of their futures, it didn't make sense that the people who took the situation in hand didn't do it sooner. I was disappointed that another twist couldn't have been introduced to take us to the end of the story - maybe another villain no one saw coming or something. Otherwise, I loved the way the love story developed and how we got to not only see Rose's heart but had a peek at Ian's too.

Amazing book and series

This book was fun and wonderful to listen to. It touches on so many things that people struggle with in young life and adult life. It had me giggling and laughing and then crying understanding how hard the world is around us on a topic that is heart wrenching if you’ve struggle in the past with words of hate being thrown at you!! It helped my soul just a little.
Voices were amazing! 🥰