Playing for Keeps

'Fantasy' Football - Season 1

By: Liz Matis

Narrated by: Christine Padovan

Length: 5 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's Summary

Journalist Samantha Jameson always wanted to be one of the boys, but Ryan Terell won't let her join the club. Fresh from the battlegrounds of Iraq, reporting on a bunch of overgrown boys playing pro football is just the change of scenery she needs. If trying to be taken seriously in the world of sports writing wasn't hard enough, Ryan, her college crush, is only making it harder. As a tight-end for the team she's covering, he is strictly off limits.

Ryan Terell is a playmaker on and off the field, but when Samantha uncovers his moves, he throws out the playbook. Just as he claims his sweetest victory, Samantha's investigation into a steroid scandal involving his team forces him to call a time-out to their off the record trysts. But then a life threatening injury on the field will force them both to decide just how far they'll go to win the game.

Winner of the NECRWA First Kiss Contest. A Kindle Bestseller.

©2011 Liz Matis (P)2012 Liz Matis

Critic Reviews

" Playing For Keeps is entertaining...readers will enjoy the unfolding relationship and anticipate the sequel featuring the secondary characters." ( Romantic Times Book Reviews)

In Liz Matis' latest from Little Hondo Press, Playing For Keeps you will get a wildly sexy romance with depth and laughs. A really fun read, the personalities of each of the main characters really shine bright in this romance making you fall in love with them, flaws and all. After all I think that is what makes a story so great, is seeing that your beloved characters seem so real and human as you do. With a strong supporting cast and a promised sequel this is a warm hearting and sexy romance that will surely heat up your cold winter nights. A page turner, bring on the sequel.( Book Junkie)

A Nice short listen.

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

I was an OK book, it had all the makes of a great book but just fell a little flat.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

The most Interesting was the back story, but we did not get to see much of that.

Any additional comments?

This was a good book, and if it was on sale it would be a winner for sure.

A winner of a story!

A lovely story. Loved the elements of family blended in with the romance. More could have been developed on Samantha's emotions from being kidnapped while overseas, but it still was a great story :-)

Light, Fun, Naughty Romance-Not a Difficult Listen

Would you listen to Playing for Keeps again? Why?

-

This story revolves around a sports reporter and a football player. Prior to becoming a sports reporter the heroine was embedded in our unit in the Middle East reporting on the war there. She's not a shrinking violet and can handle anyone or anything, but...

Ryan Terell is Samantha Jameson's childhood friend & neighbor. Ryan had a rough childhood.

Sam is supposed to cover Ryan Terell's team for her local paper. They are attracted to one another. She resists because of her career, she can't be seen as dating one of the players. However that does not stop them from hooking up at every chance.

Except for the very beginning this is pretty much par for the course in adult romance.

The narration was great and only a few times was I confused as to which was Samantha and which was Hannah. That was probably my fault for not paying attention.

It is set up to have another a continuation of the series. I will not continue* as the books are three hours or less each, it is too expensive to use my credit and/or money. *HOWEVER, IF the author put the short stories on one download, I'd use a credit without hesitation. For now, they will going to my wish list in case of a sale.

Note: a few mature scenes, a bit of strong language

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Hot football player + sexy news reporter = !!!!!!

I can see why this story won a romance contest - I've never read or heard a story combining pro football, journalism, fashion modeling, Irish-American families and more - in one story. And seamlessly too :-).

Great humor and great sex too! (My vibrator almost burnt out from overuse ;-)) All the characters were fleshed out nicely - great interplay between Ryan and his friend, Jake; Samantha and supermodel friend, Hannah. This could easily have been made into a longer story but it still worked out nicely just as it is.

The narrator must be taking continuous audiobook lessons or is just getting better as she does more audio stories.

Loved it from start to finish! :-)

Terrible narration just a start

I can’t decide if it’s the narration that makes this tough to listen to or if the dialog is just poorly written. Returned after 2 chapters.

Horrid narrator, didn't make it past chapter 2

This may or may not be a good book. I can't tell because the narrator was awful. Flat and slow, as well as making the characters sound like a ditzy and an old man.

Author and Nice-arrator!

Where does Playing for Keeps rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Right up there....

Who was your favorite character and why?

Samantha. Main Character lived

Have you listened to any of Christine Padovan’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

The Best

Any additional comments?

Perfect blend of story and performer. Always a sexy sense of hoping to hear whats next!

Untrained Narrator

Narration took the enthusiasm out of enjoying the book. Didn't realize how important a good narrator can benefit the story.

Bad narration

I didn't think I would struggle through this so much. First, the narrator was not good. Her regular voice was alright, but when she tried to do the men, it was so bad. The plot also was slow at times and kind of boring. The chemistry wasn't great between Ryan and Samantha and I wanted more action in the story. Probably would have been better if I read it, but it just wasn't a hit with me.

Painful to listen to.

Could not get into the story due to the flat and monotone narration. No idea if it was a good story or not.