Most Valuable Playboy

Ballers and Babes, Book 1

De: Lauren Blakely

Narrado por: Jason Clarke, Andi Arndt

A brand new production of Lauren blakely's first ever sports romance now in duet performed by Jason Clarke and Andi Arndt!

When I enter the Most Valuable Playboy charity auction, my goal is simple—be the player who goes for the most dough. But when trouble shows up at the auction, I need a whole new play.

Enter Violet—she's my best friend's sister and she's my close friend too. With a smile as sweet as cherry pie and a mind that runs quicker than the 40-yard-dash, Violet saves the day with the highest bid. I don't even give her a two-minute warning before I kiss her in front of the whole crowd and then announce that she's my girlfriend. Which would be fine except my agent tells me we've got to keep up the act while he's negotiating my contract.

Violet takes one for the team and pretends to be mine, and soon our boyfriend-girlfriend scrimmage quickly turns into a full contact sport.

But falling for her wasn't in the playbook…

©2024 Sourcebooks (P)2025 Lauren Blakely Books

Duet Touchdown!!

Cooper and Violet’s story is the reason we all love a Blakely sports romance story!! The first foray into the lane and it’s a touchdown !! I love the refresh the story took on. Andi Arnt never disappoints and she captures Violet’s vulnerability and sass perfectly! Jason Clark can do no wrong in my book and continues to throw the perfect spiral in this role as well. Sexy… Confident… Alluring… He captures Cooper in every word he others!!

Friends to lovers through a necessary rouse is always always a fun trope that I gravitate to and the story does not disappoint! Lauren Blakely is a Mastercraft woman in this arena and she won the Super Bowl with this new twist on an old favorite!!

Phenomenal listen!

Sports romances are so much fun, always the handsome athlete gets the hot, popular girl. This friends to lovers story is a wonderful twist on the story, giving a fresh look at the star quarterback. Lauren Blakely has a way of writing that takes us inside the hero's vulnerability and shows the true heart of the character. Cooper and Trent have been best friends forever. Trent's little sister Violet has been part of their group too, knowing Cooper better than anyone. When a situation arises that pushes them together, the sparks that have been smoldering since childhood ignite. And Lauren Blakely makes those embers HOT! The question is, can their situation result in a happily ever after? Cooper and Violet give you that feel good rom com I love from Blakely, and look forward to the next in this series.

Andi Arndt and Jason Clarke narrate this book in duet and it's perfection! I love this team! Arndt is Violet and she is spot on as this woman! A bit of a flirt, she knows her heart and is ready to give it to Trent. Clarke is Trent, he becomes this player. I love the conflict, the emotions of dealing with his best friend's sister, and their hearts as they fall in love. The comedic timing of this pair could not be better and it was an amazing listen!

Love this the second time around!

I loved the 2025 (from 2017) updated story of a QB, and his best friend's sister.

I absolutely loved this friends to lovers tale. As is her M.O., Lauren gives you the sweet with quite a bit of dirty (wink!). Cooper is an all around good guy, but in addition to leading his team hopefully into the playoffs, he's worried about his impending contract end/renewal. He's got family, friends, and teammates depending on him to keep it cool, but Cooper's working overtime to keep everything balanced.

When Violet (Cooper's best friend's sister) helps him out at a charity auction, she ends up kind of not denying she's Cooper's girlfriend. Violet has known Cooper since she was in elementary school, and they've been good friends ever since. In order to help her brother's buddy out of a sticky situation, Violet agrees to pretend to be his girlfriend. They both do a great job pretending, until they're not, and that's when the fun starts.

With the original narrator of Andi Arndt, Lauren brings in Jason Clarke this time to play our favorite QB. I love his smooth, sexy voice, and the way he brings life to not only Cooper, but Trent, Jones, and the rest of the gang.

No spoilers, but I devoured this story--not surprising w/LB books. The story was happy, funny, so sexy, and there's football! Five stars!!

Weird duet narration- Jason voiced male and some female characters? ☹️

This story starts off with Cooper & Violet fake dating to get Cooper (quarterback for the Renegades) out of an uncomfortable sitch with a media host trying to win him in an auction for a date night.

The more they pretend, the more it doesn’t feel fake. Will they risk their hearts & try to score big? If you love spicy, friends to lovers, sports romance, stars aligning swoon-worthy couples, you will love this story.

The story itself is 5⭐️ for me. Normally I love duet audiobooks so much. There was something weird about this one though. Andi Arndt & Jason Clarke were stunning voicing their characters and conveying the wide range of emotions they were feeling. What threw me and consequently put me off quite a bit was hearing Jason Clarke voicing all the male voices PLUS a few of the female characters. Got me confused thinking it was dual narration instead, but nope. It is indeed duet style. I could only hear Andi voicing Violet and Holly, but Jillian, Vera, Maxine, and others were Jason voicing them. So it was odd and pulled me out of the story pretty often. Due to that, I dropped my rating to 3 1/2 ⭐️

Cooper & Violet - long time friends to lovers

Jason Clarke is my favorite, absolute top male narrator. Andi Arndt is my favorite female narrator. 'Nuff said, right? They do a fabulous job in this book, which, while told primarily from Cooper's POV, is still a duet with Andi voicing Violet whenever she has dialog.

Cooper Armstrong is an NFL quarterback, first year as a starter. Football has been his life, long supported by his mom. His best friend since 2nd grade is Trent, and Violet is Trent's sister. Cooper has always considered Violet a friend, but one night at a bachelor auction for charity, Violet has to come to Cooper's rescue to save him from an aggressive, borderline stalker-type local radio host.

Violet kisses Cooper at the auction and it lights up everything in his brain that used to only light up for football. As Cooper's team approaches the last few games of the season, hoping to clinch a playoff spot, they start spending more time together. They don't really have to get to know each other, but they get to a point where they each realize that they've actually been hiding deeper feelings for one another for a very long time - longer for Violet but we know boys are usually slower to catch up on these things ;)

No dramatic 3rd act breakup, just the tiniest little miscommunication that is resolved within just a few pages.

This is a FUN feel-good story with quite a bit going on in the spicy scenes too.

Sweet Scale: 5/5
Spicy Scale: 4/5

5 Play Action Stars!!

As much as I loved reading this book when it was first published, getting to listen to Jason Clarke and Andi Arndt in duet narration brought a whole new appreciation for this book to my life. I loved getting to experience the witty banter, the overwhelming chemistry between Cooper and Violet. And the sexy times….OOO LA LA!! Lauren’s ability to have me laughing out loud while reading her books was amped up 1000% thanks to Jason and Andi bringing these characters to life so fabulously. And because it’s been a few years since I’d read this book, I was really able to sink my teeth into the audiobook so to speak. I highly recommend listening to this book. You won’t be disappointed!

What's better than a hot and sexy romantic comedy? I'll tell you...it's a hot and sexy romantic comedy written by the spectacular Lauren Blakely AND it centers around a NFL team with a star Quarterback that's tall, loves to talk dirty and has his eye on his best friend's little sister...

The minute I started this book I knew it was a book that I wouldn't be able to put down for oh so many reasons, but mostly because I was already smiling broadly and engaged with the characters. Especially when it comes to Cooper Armstrong, his receivers and most especially Violet Pierson. The book starts off with the single guys on the Renegades that get auctioned off with the proceeds going to the Children's Hospital. The only problem is, there's a specific woman Coop WANTS to and NEEDS to stay away from; but when it's his turn to take the stage, how's anyone supposed to resist him....

This year's starting quarterback and the winner of the Most Valuable Playboy auction the last three years in a row...who wouldn't want to take this handsome and talented man out for a night on the town? Everyone loves the quarterback."

Thanks to Violet, he gets to avoid a sticky situation...but they may have jumped into another sticky situation. The world has to buy them as a couple and what's better than a televised kiss? And I learned something new from Ms. Blakely, there's a difference between TV tongue and porno tongue LOL!!!

As this book moves along, I laughed out loud innumerable times, I swooned thanks to Cooper and his finally acknowledging his long standing attraction to Violet and found myself using an old magazine to fan myself from the overwhelming heat that is truly combustible when our H/h go horizontal or some other imaginative position! I fell in love with both of them but especially Violet. She's had this lifelong crush on Coop ever since he moved into their neighborhood when he was six and she was five, but for a variety of reasons, and you'll get them all when you read this book, she's never truly acted on it.

But now all bets are off and for these two what starts as somewhat of a game, quickly becomes so much more and I devoured every single syllable, word and phrase that Ms. Blakely has so magnificently given us. This book has edged its way into my Top Five for my favorite books by Lauren Blakely. I mean how can it not be when Cooper is capable of giving Violet "stupendously magnificent orgasms?"

it's what friends do

What's a girl to do when her friend is in trouble?
Why, outbid everyone at the charity auction!
Violet does just that for her brother's best friend Cooper, who happens to be the quarterback.
That winning bid leads to an impromptu interview where Cooper claims her as his gf & kisses her!
All this so Coop can keep the local radio personality off his back since she claims that he is her "husband".
Soon the fake relationship evolves into what neither of them anticipated. Mutual attraction flourishes & Cooper can't keep lying... to take what seemed fake & make it very real!
Marvelous narration by Andi Arndt & Jason Clarke

Even better in duet!

Most Valuable Playboy is book 1 in the Ballers and Bakes series and brings us a football romance that will hit you in all of the feels! Cooper is such a great guy who just happens to be sweet, sexy, fun, and one of the most eligible bachelors on the team. Violet is the perfect spunky, confident, strong, beautiful, sexy woman. Together they are perfection! This story has so many great tropes I knew I would love it: Friends to lovers, fake to forever, forbidden - best friend’s sister…all of the best ones! These are characters I would want to know because they are flawed and learning, vulnerable and strong, and they are beautiful humans who make the world a better place. I love it!

Lauren delivers another beautifully written and perfectly casted audiobook that had me hooked from beginning to end. Cooper + Violet are a wonderful couple with the perfect voices to bring them to life. This re-release narrated by Jason Clarke and Andi Arndt brings new life to a wonderful story I already loved. Their duet performance is absolutely delightful!!

⭐️⭐️ 5 STARS ⭐️⭐️

Duet narration with Jason Clark and Andi Arndt on an audiobook I already loved, YES PLEASE!

This story made my heart smile and my insides a little mushy! It was a very sweet friends to lovers story with NO drama!!! I love how Lauren Blakley can give us a beautiful romance without the need for the unnecessary drama added just for excitement.

Cooper is a great character for me because he is rich and well known but he doesn't act it! He didn't use his money to impress her and the money didn't change who he was. He still hung out with his friends, focused on his love for football and was a complete momma's boy in the best way!
Violet might be my favorite character! She is strong and confident. She stuck to her feelings, never trying to hide behind them or had insecurities! With her business, her family and her love life she always seemed to do what felt right and didn't really play "games". She knew who she was, what she felt and she didn't try to fight it! These too had great chemistry and I think that stems from the years they have known each other. I love friends to lovers because the love is not instantaneous and it is so easy to feel the love between the characters because you know it's not just physical attraction after all those years! Although I will say this book was light on sex but the few scenes it had were very hot!

The narration was spot on as always! You can sure tell the author is an audiobook listener, it shows in her casting choices!

5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I loved the dynamic between these two and liked that they were childhood friends first.
But also, Violet is his best friend's little sister which puts a bit of a wrench into the situation.
What I love about Lauren’s writing is that she doesn’t give us the norm, meaning you would expect drama around her being the sister to his best friend but nope we don’t get that at all. I love this about Lauren’s writing.
Cooper himself is the one with his inner voice reminding him who she is and why they can’t happen. But attraction and lust throughout the years had its toehold and isn’t going anywhere any time soon.

I very much enjoyed that they had their secret signals it made their story unique.
In a lot of sports romance books, I have been listening to lately the author tends to forget about the sport or the teammates and I really liked that we get a glimpse into his team, his coach and even the gameplay itself.

Lauren always surprises me in all the best ways. Very low drama it was a fantastic sports romance with game scenes!!
Jason Clark and Andi Arndt did a lovely job with these two unique characters and I for one want more from both narrators.