Park Avenue Player

By: Penelope Ward, Vi Keeland

Narrated by: Sebastian York, Andi Arndt

Length: 9 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's Summary

From New York Times best-selling authors, Penelope Ward and Vi Keeland, comes a new standalone novel. 

It started out like any normal day. 

Then the fender bender happened. 

The guy I collided with drove an expensive car and was drop-dead gorgeous. 

Too bad he was also a total jerk. We argued over whose fault it was and any other thing that came out of his condescending mouth. 

Eventually, the police came and we went our separate ways. The insurance companies would have to figure things out. I had a job interview to get to anyway - one I was excited about. 

Though that excitement changed to disappointment the moment the person interviewing me walked in. The guy from the accident. 

Whoops! 

Yeah, so I didn’t get the position. 

The problem was, I really wanted it. No, I needed it. Anything to get me out of my current career and back into working with kids. 

So, even though Hollis LaCroix was as intimidating as he was devastatingly handsome, I went back to see him and begged for a chance. 

To my surprise, he gave me a shot taking care of his troubled niece. At least my attraction to him wouldn’t be able to go anywhere. I wasn’t about to jeopardize my job or the strong bond Hailey and I formed. But resisting the magnetic pull between us wasn’t that simple. (Then there was our little underwear game - don’t ask.) 

We continued to flirt without crossing the line - until it finally happened. 

This is the part of the story where we fall in love and live happily ever after, right? 

Well, life has a way of throwing some major curveballs. 

Ours was one I didn’t see coming.  

©2019 Vi Keeland & Penelope Ward (P)2019 Vi Keeland & Penelope Ward

LOVE!

You can't go wrong with a book narrated by Sebastian York and Andi Arndt then add Vi Keeland and Penelope Ward as the authors what's not to like.

Penelope Ward and Vi Keeland are the queens of the slow-burn. They do an excellent job creating characters and situations in a realistically believable way then weaves in a little twist or an event that puts unexpected pressure on them. Park Avenue Players has characters that touches my heart and won’t let go.

The story begins with Elodie working off her anger toward her ex by setting up cheaters for a PI to improve the spouses’ divorce settlements. It is a good job with good pay, but Elodie is ready to find a position using her childhood education degree.

On her way to an interview for a nanny, she has a fender bender with—you guessed it—her potential new boss. From the moment Hollis walks into the conference room, it is clear Elodie does not have a chance in hell to get the position.

Hollis is a troubled man. Six years later Hollis still struggles with his ex-girlfriend’s betrayal. The walls around his heart are sky-high. He refuses to be trapped in a relationship again, but there is something about Elodie. It is more than her beauty; he can see her soul. Elodie is a positive influence on his niece, Hailey. Every day around Elodie, another piece of the wall comes down.

Elodie and Hollis' story has a little of everything. The story unfolds perfectly for two people who have a lot to balance, not the least of which is Hailey, Hollis' niece who recently came into his life. Elodie is the perfect nanny for Hailey. She can relate to having parents that don't measure up.

There is a twist that throws a wrench in everything. It is not what I expected at all. My first reaction after the twist is that Hollis is unreasonable, but when I thought about it, I understand. It isn't easy on anyone when everything you believe turns out to be wrong.

Park Avenue Player is a beautiful enemies-to-lovers novel. The supporting characters enhance the plot immensely. Hailey is a pre-teen learning to deal with family issues while adjusting to her new home, school, and her changing expectations. The narrative unfolds at precisely the right pace to keep the reader engaged and turning the page.

I am never disappointed with this writing duo. Individually, Vi and Penelope's writing style is excellent—as a duo, they are beyond A+++. For me, each new release is better than the last, and that isn't easy to do. Park Avenue Player is bumpy road of fun, disappointment, and love brought to life by wonderful narrators.

Loved it!! Ending hit close to home

I have always love both authors books, this one hit close to home. I’m battling cancer and just last week wrote my 4 children letters, leaving them is so scary not because I’m afraid one dying but because of the pain they will be in after. Thank you for ending the book the way you just sounds like one of you have experienced this or maybe not but anyway loved this book!

The Best I’ve Read in a Long Time!

This book has it all, love story, importance of family, value of friendship, humor, tears, and faith. It’s unusual to find a romance that has that “hot and heavy” aspect” but also imparts very powerful messages about faith, love, relationships, faithfulness, & more. If that weren’t enough, there’s also laugh-out-loud scenes (we’re talking laugh until you cry!!), and a bird with personality.

The performance made this 4 stars

I would have given this an overall score of 4 stars if it weren’t for the performance from Sebastian and Andi who are always excellent. The story left a lot to be desired for me. I just didn’t buy that Elody and Hollis were in love with each other for most of the book. They seemed to be more sexually attracted to each other more than anything. Hollis was annoying to me because (spoiler alert) he was just way too cautious. I get that he was hurt in the past but literally, Elody is the perfect woman and has zero negative traits. They try to make it seem like she’s abrasive but she just knows how to stand up for herself. I liked Elody but yea she had no defects, she has a great personality, gorgeous with blond hair and blue eyes. I like some vulnerabilities. She didn’t seem to have any because she easily wanted to commit to Hollis even though she was hurt in the past. IDK I felt that the conflicts between them were contrived and very uninteresting. I only gave the story 3 stars because of the steamy parts that honestly gave me butterflies because they were so hot. Save your credit for something else mainly Hate Notes by Vi if you haven’t heard it yet. Similar setups but the reasons for conflicts are much more realistic and understandable.

Excellent story

This story contained it all - humor, tears, twists, and love that all made sense. The story slowly rolls out and isn't totally revealed until the end... I did guess the main part of what was revealed in the letters at the initial hospital scene.
Loved Haley's (sp?) part in this as she added another realistic dimension to the story. Addison also played a key role as Hollis' partner/friend that I enjoyed. Hewie/Hugh'y added another layer of humor and reality. All the many layers added up to a great story.
Totally recommend listening or reading this story.
Airways love Sebastian York and Andi Arndt as narrators and they did a terrific narration again. Thanks!

It’s fine

I am glad this was in the audible escape package, as this was a DNF for me at about 80 percent. It took me a long time to get that far. It wasn’t poorly written, per se. it was just...boring with unlikable characters.

There was so much potential in the characters and set up. Former Private Investigator employee becomes nanny to troubled eleven year old niece of billionaire hedge fund manager. What was going to happen? Kidnapping? Criminal father of niece sets up something nefarious? Kickass Nanny saves the day while finding love? .... Uh, no. After one very brief food court discussion regarding a one time shoplifting occurrence, said niece becomes more emotionally stable, untroubled and angelic than 90 percent of kids raised in healthy households since birth. The central plot conflict is simply the H and h playing hot and cold with each other due to ridiculous, immature “commitment issues”.

Speaking of immature, they both are exceptionally immature. Their relationship is incredibly unhealthy...and not in a way that can be fixed with conflict resolution, but in a way that means when the curtain closes at the end of the book, these two will be utterly miserable in the long term. Her “sense of humor” really seriously lacks empathy- joking about being with other men, joking about dying. Generally just a bitch who pushes his triggers because it makes her laugh. As readers, I think we are supposed to be amused by her antics. I just think she is absurd. Her friend, Bree, is dying, and she chooses to shack up with him six days a week and not go home to care for her at night. Makes me think the authors have never gone through a hospice type situation. It makes her seem disgustingly callous.

Then there is the fact that these two are frankly doing an awful job raising the niece. It makes me wonder how much the authors know about or understand kids. If their methods were actually used in real life, they would have a kid mixed up with drugs, sex and who knows what else by the time she was finishing middle school. Anytime the niece questions them about sex, the uncle responds by essentially yelling at her that they are inappropriate questions and not something she should be talking about instead of addressing the questions openly and helping her to understand the world around her. When she is bullied by a classmate sexually, the advice given to her to “ignore him” is one of the worst things I can imagine telling my daughters. When the niece (eleven years old) says she has to take a whiz, he yells at her for language instead of gently reminding her to use different words. He tells her to “be a lady” instead of giving her legitimate reasons for when and where it is appropriate to say certain things. And she is permitted to go on long weekends away with a classmate with people that the uncle doesn’t really know...and often- having regular sleepovers with people the adults don’t know well. This is a plot device to allow the H and h to have “alone” time, but, statistically, they just set that kid up to be sexually abused, at the very least. It was tedious. I was reading about people who shouldn’t have kids planning to have more kids and just had to turn off the book.

I can’t recommend it, but the narration was fine and the grammar and editing were decent, so there is that.

A real story!

What a fabulous story! Of course a funny build to a steamy romance, but also some tears shed listening to my two favorite narrators! A plot twist brought some surprise too! Have some tissues handy. One of the best romances with humor and heart!

Too bad to finish

This book isn’t Penelope and Vi’s finest. I am a loyal listener of their books and this one was so bad I had to stop listening. What’s bad about it? Well, it’s mostly about masturbating (which I’m not opposed to hearing about but it got old in this book). And as much as I love Sebastian York as a narrator he drove me crazy saying the name Ellodie as L-O-D. Save yourself time and avoid this book.

Worth a read

Great narration was great as always by these two awesome performers. The main characters were relatable and the story was good overall. However, it felt like the authors were doing a lot in the story. It felt a little piecemeal. Some aspects felt a bit forced/ unrealistic (even for this genre) and took me out of the story a bit. For instance, “the game” between the two main characters did not really fit in with the story and was kind of off-putting. Still, I enjoyed the book and would recommend these authors.

Fun Read that will keep you laughing

Andi and Sebastian - yea you don't have to say more, you KNOW the narration is excellent.

Fun story, these characters have some growing to do and to navigate and maybe even a plot twist.

The panties.... OMG the panties... I'm not saying any more but that was a new one I hadn't read before. I did laugh - out loud, in public.

Get it, enjoy it!

BRILLIANT!

Park Avenue Player by Penelope Ward and Vi Keeland was yet another read by these two authors I could not get enough of! I adore these two authors writing who seem to know just what I want and need from my romance read.

PARK AVENUE PLAYER is fun, flirty, had a female character with sass and backbone which I love and a bossy Alpha who is a bit on the arrogant side.

Hollis & Elodie have their first encounter when they have a little car accident on a car park, Elodie is late for an interview and Hollis claims he has an appointment. Hollis meets Elodie again when he discovers she is the person he is supposed to be interviewing for the nanny position to his niece, who he has custody of, this scenario isn't new for me, I have read books before with this sort of start to a relationship but it's the after, the sass and determination of Elodie who obviously didn't get the job at first and the events that followed that made this different, and I book I couldn't get enough of.

Elodie and Hollis had chemistry, passion, I enjoyed the push and pull and there was even a surprising twist in this story that I didn't see coming, it was a twist that had me all kinds of confused and I actually felt hurt for Elodie, it was actually a heartbreaking moment.

PARK AVENUE PLAYER is told in first person dual pov and leads to a hea. I listened to this in audio and as always the narrators Sebastian York and Andi Arndt who normally narrate for Vi and Penelope's books really made this story more believable, more real. more enjoyable than actually reading the book.

Another amazing story by this amazing writing duo!

great storyline

great romance with very funny thong incident. The readers made it really come to life.

Tissues required

I have found myself laughing and crying with this one. Really loved it and worth the wait.
Andi Arndt and Sebastian York are fantastic as usual.

absolutely loved this book

this was such a great book, a bit of a tear jerker at times but full of emotion, love and laughter that all make for all the feels.
10 🌟

I absolutely loved, loved every word!

This story was so awesome. I truly loved it. It was beautifully written and I absolutely loved the twists, turns and magic. Another great read from these authors ❤️

Another great one

I always love the books with these 2 authors. Seb and Andi are the best narrators also. Win win!

Beautiful story

Yet another one from these authors about love and loss that kept me gripped and laughing and crying.
Can't wait to read the next one.

A lovely romance

Highly recommended as it has a wonderful romantic story. Has some good laughs and banter with the right HEA.

Beautiful and intricate storyline

This story hit every emotion for me and the plot not clichéd. I loved it.

recommend a read

great story with an unexpected twist, great plot twist loved it. a mixture of love and heart ache