Play Your Heart Out

Sinful Serenade, Book 4

By: Crystal Kaswell

Narrated by: Tatiana Sokolov

Length: 8 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

Jess James has her eye on the prize. She is finding the money to pay for law school. Period. It doesn't matter how lonely she feels 3,000 miles from home, how exhausted she is from working overtime as a cocktail waitress, or how deep the knife wound in her back cuts. She is going to be a lawyer, whatever it takes.

Only she doesn't have what it takes. She can barely afford to pay her rent.

Sinful Serenade bassist Pete Steele has enough to pay Jess' rent and buy her a small island in the Caribbean. The famous, talented rock star has everything - except the one thing his manager wants. Pete rose to fame as a devoted boyfriend. Doesn't matter that his ex slept with his best friend. He needs to stop screwing his way through Los Angeles to keep the record company happy. The sweet blond waitress is exactly the girl he needs on his arm if he wants to clean up his dirty reputation.

Their arrangement is simple: He pays her tuition; she plays his girlfriend. They'll lie to the world but not to each other. Especially not when they're alone, in his bed, him figuring out exactly which buttons to push to get her moaning his name.

©2016 Crystal Kaswell (P)2016 Tantor

wonderful!

I absolutely love Crystal Kaswell! This whole series was amazing! Looking forward to future books

Mixed feelings.

I like the book but Pete is made out in other books like a sweet heart and it this book he is kinda of a tool more than half the book and his girl is supposed to be a strong independent girl and she is super whiny and insecure though most of the book.. the end was great.

Spoilers in Review

This entire review is a spoiler.
As I listen to the audiobook:
Chapter 8: So far, not much about this story is appealing to me. The FMC interrupts the MMC having sex in a bathroom and then has no issues pursuing a hookup with him right after? Have some self respect! Why would the MMC treat her any differently than any other girl he's had sex with over the past few months? I'm confused about why he asked her to be his fake girlfriend. Why her? Nothing stands out about her at this point.
Chapter 13: Unfortunately, the FMC is unlikable. Considering the whole book is told from her point of view, it is really affecting my enjoyment of this story. Her inner monologues are tedious and immature. In addition to that, this whole fake girlfriend premise is confusing. Most of the time, the fake aspect of the arrangement means all physical touch/kissing happens where others can see and nothing physical happens when the main characters are alone. This aspect is what builds the sexual tension between the characters. In this book, they talk about having sex right away and DO engage in sexual activity right away. So, they are friends with benefits while pretending to be dating? I'm just not connecting with this story or the characters.
Chapter 16: I would DNF this book right now if I didn't like previous titles by this author. FMC is mad because the MMC "locked her out" by going to his room even though they have been clear about the terms of their agreement. In this chapter, she called him an asshole in her inner monologue for "keeping affection" from her. She is the one completely in the wrong, but yet, when he calls, she has an attitude with him. And this is right after she learns he transferred more money than she needs into her account. He's keeping up his part of the arrangement and then some and she's mad because he isn't acting like a real boyfriend?
Chapter 20: I'm not rooting for this couple. Not rooting against them either, but this FMC is terrible. She agrees to a fake relationship but gives the MMC a hard time about feeling bad she's lying to his family, telling him that he should let them in. She's getting compensated well and she agreed to the arrangement. She is overstepping. They aren't close enough yet for her to broach this subject with him. If the MMC has feelings for her, I have no idea why.
Chapter 25: I can't root for this couple right now. The FMC is so disrespectful of the MMC's feelings, I can't. The MMC admits he has feelings, but tells her it won't turn into anything. He asked her if she's okay with that. She says yes. And her inner monologue IMMEDIATELY contradicts that and she says she will make him see he's wrong. She wants to convince them they are forever. Where's the thoughts about WHY he doesn't want a relationship even though he has feelings? Where are the thoughts about WHY he would make that choice? Only her thoughts and motivations matter? She's so damn selfish, all she can think about is what she wants. She is in love with him but she can't even be bothered to think about what he wants and try to figure out why he is the way he is? She just doesn't care.
Chapter 28: the FMC gets pissed because the MMC keeps calling her "baby" when they are about to have sex. Even tells him to stop unless she can be his for real. The MMC stops, of course. What the actual heck is this story? Is this high school? The immaturity of this FMC is too much. This FMC needs to pick her freaking battles. She thinks the MMC is sending mixed signals and leading her on but he absolutely is NOT. His signals have all pointed to the same thing: He has feelings but he isn't willing to act on them. There is nothing mixed about it.
Chapter 39: By the end of the book, I still have no idea why the MMC loves the FMC and the FMC did not apologize for being awful the entire book, nor did she realize how unreasonable she was being. It's like the FMC didn't get the memo that she was in a fake relationship/friends with benefits arrangement. No matter how clear it was made to her, she insisted on seeing it as real, which brought down the entire story. Overall, I cannot give this story more than one star because, at the end, I couldn't help but think this book needs a book two where the FMC leaves the MMC for a fellow law student and the MMC is even MORE distrustful of relationships than ever. He then meets a sweet, understanding FMC, with a side of sass, who also wants nothing to do with relationships. Together, they hopelessly fall in love and live happily ever after.

Female lead is a pushover.

The women in both Pete & Tom's stories were so whiney, never put their foot down & Jess specifically is way too clingy/smothering even after only knowing Pete 3 days! that part put a big damper on these last 2 books for me - especially after loving Myles & Drew's stories so much. Also, this narrator uses such a fake baby voice sometimes- she's not unbearable but it gets annoying. The way she says 'soul' KILLS ME! ha. I dont regret listening tho.

All sex no real plot

I purchased this book because of one of my favorite narrators, Tatiana Sokolov. Her performance was the bright spot of this purchase.

To tell the truth I had trouble with this story line from the beginning. Personally if I walked in on ANYONE having sex in a public bathroom, famous or not, I can honestly say he would never show up on my radar

However, if you like explicit sex scenes with an after an implausible plot with a great narrator this is the book for you! I would suggest waiting for a sale.

anti-climatic

I've now read almost all of these books and every time you think oh the ex-boyfriend may cause big trouble or he needs to jump through more Hoops to get her back nothing all of these books anti-climatic.