The Games Lovers Play

By: Stephanie Laurens

Narrated by: Matthew Brenher

Length: 13 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's summary

Number-one New York Times best-selling author Stephanie Laurens returns to the Cynsters’ next generation with an evocative tale of two people striving to overcome unusual hurdles in order to claim true love.

A nobleman wedded to the lady he loves strives to overwrite five years of masterful pretense and open his wife’s eyes to the fact that he loves her as much as she loves him.

Lord Devlin Cader, Earl of Alverton, married Therese Cynster five years ago. What he didn’t tell her then and has assiduously hidden ever since - for what seemed excellent reasons at the time - is that he loves her every bit as much as she loves him.

For her own misguided reasons, Therese had decided that the adage that Cynsters always marry for love did not necessarily mean said Cynsters were loved in return. She accepted that was usually so, but she believed she would never be loved for herself. Consequently, after falling irrevocably in love with Devlin, when he made it plain he didn’t love her yet wanted her to wife, she accepted the half love-match he offered, and once they were wed, set about organizing to make their marriage the very best it could be.

Now, five years later, they are an established couple within the haut ton, have three young children, and Devlin is making a name for himself in business and political circles. There’s only one problem: Devlin is no longer content with the half love-match he himself engineered. No fool, he sees and comprehends what the craven act of denying his love is costing both him and Therese and feels compelled to rectify his fault. He wants for them what all Therese’s married cousins enjoy - the rich and myriad benefits of marriages based on acknowledged mutual love.

Love, he’s discovered, is too powerful a force to deny, leaving him wrestling with the conundrum of finding a way to convincingly reveal to Therese that he loves her without wrecking everything - especially the mutual trust - they’ve built over the past five years.

©2021 Savdek Management Pty. Ltd. (P)2021 Blackstone Publishing

A wee bit different from her norm but good

I absolutely love to listen to Simon Prebble and Matthew Brenher as the narrators of Stephanie Laurens books... As long as they remain constant the stories connect in this series flawlessly...These narrators project the characters in a way that makes you feel as if you know them... This story was different from the norm because Cynsters marry for love & typically don't get to the altar until they do.... So this book takes us on an adventure of how the love has always been there... just hidden.... I love how strong all of the women are in her books & this read is no different. I would love it if the children's characters were brought into the other books more often so that they don't go from babies to adults... Possibly more of a YA series solving mysteries that are a little more involved than her Christmas stories....

A disappointing Read

I LOVE Stephanie Lauren's book and own every one of them. However this was not up to her usual standard. I couldn't find the point of the whole book. I did finish the book, but won't re-read it as I have all of her others.

This low rating is on the production company

When it comes to the book, I enjoyed reading about married life, and, while it did make the pace a little slower, I also enjoyed the fact that nothing too crazy happened. It was just a nice little love story where two people push past individual perceptions and beliefs that were holding them back, allowing them to live a life with openly acknowledged mutual love.

As for the audio of the book, the editing on it KILLED me. Its very clear that the production company cut corners by patching in different and poorly matched audio clips of the narrator saying “Therese” (because he evidently pronounced the name of the main female character incorrectly for a large portion of the performance and they had to correct it) instead of just having the narrator re-preform it.

Great Story

Awesome story. Ms Lauren's is a great writer. I have enjoyed her stories since the beginning. Thank you for all the great stories.
Mr Brenher is always exceptional, love his work.

Excellent reading

A bit too descriptive for me. I prefer more left to the imagination, less repetition.

Silly Premise

13 hours of a grown-ass man afraid to say “I love you” to his wife is the most epic stretch of a premise into a full book ever undertaken in the history of the earth. Plots that could unravel with 1 conversation are not great plots.

tedious

I'm so glad that I got this for free as I didn't have to go to the trouble of trying to get my money back. Ms Laurens really dropped the ball on this one, which surprised me as she is usually a great storyteller. I got #9 and #10 at the same time and #10 takes us back to her usual expertise. My advise is to skip this one unless you need some background noise.

Another ruined by MB as narrator

I am a big fan of the Cynster Series by Stefanie Laurens - but since Simon Prebble is not the narrator any more - who could save some of the not so enjoyable ones - it grows worse by every book. This one I think I can´t finish. The repeating of some phrases over and over again makes it not more exciting and the boring tone of Matthew Brenher makes me nuts - it seems he is bored too with the content. I try to increase the reading speed to 1.10 - it helped a little but not much. Please find another narrator .....

Yawn

This was so boring. There was literally no point to it. I liked the very beginning but then the H and h sent no time together except sex. The whole book was them spending time with other people and the social scene. And so incredibly boring. They only got together when there was drawn out sexy scene. DNFd at 40% and that’s time I can’t get back.