The Player

By: J. R. Ward

Narrated by: Emily Beresford

Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's Summary

Ruthless might as well be Gray Bennett’s middle name. When the renowned Washington, D.C. insider talks, powerful people listen. But Gray hasn’t come home to Saranac Lake to play politics. Or play at all. A tragedy has shaken the unshakable Gray Bennett to his hardened core.

And so has the most unlikely of women.

The mousy redhead who used to run around the Moorehouse B and B - the one he never noticed - is now all fiery hair and lush curves. But sweet Joy Moorehouse is too innocent for a cynic like him. So Gray won’t let himself lay a hand on her…until the night he can no longer resist the woman she has become. That’s when he discovers a secret that leaves him gasping for breath - and wanting more.

©2012 J. R. Ward (P)2012 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Critic Reviews

“[A] sumptuous mix of danger and romance.” ( Booklist on Crave)

Two different stories combined in 2nd part

What would have made The Player better?

Please re-do the 2nd part of The Player. In the middle of the 2nd part, the story abruptly stops and continues with part of Susan Mallory's latest book which was posted on the same date.

2 separate stories/narrators in Pt. 2 - MISTAKE!

I love JR Ward, and was enjoying this story when Chapter 7 on Part Two ended - and Chapter 8 began with a different narrator, different characters, time period, story, etc. The rest of Part Two is obviously been mistakenly combined with another story. I have called, and the call center indicated it will be corrected - I hope soon, and I would like to download the correct part or get my money back. Would really like to see how the story ends, though.
That being said, if you like the Black Dagger Brotherhood series, be warned that this is a comtemporary romance, not at all like the BDB series.

DO NOT ORDER

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

First would need to hear complete book to determine any star ...incomplete it's a zero

How could the performance have been better?

A complete book ... though reader could also be improved

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

W/o a complete book, cannot say

Any additional comments?

Audible has only supplied 2/3 of the book then suddenly switches to another book. You are left hanging after listening to what might be a good book .... why wasn't this found before listing it...why hasn't it been taken off yet. All purchasers should get money back plus book credits

it is quite disconcerting as well as a waste of time to listen, get involved then suddenly hear an entirely different story and wonder what happened .... going back and forth trying to find the original book continuation.

I am extremely disappointed with Audible...very poor quality and customer service!!!!! I called and they were willing to refund purchase but said couldn't do anything else. Don'the t they realize aggravation in listening to part of a book then be left hanging. Finally plus question on how this happened, I was given a small $ credit but IMO anyone who bought this book in good faith and went thru the aggravation plus wasted time searching should get at least a free credit ..actually even two ... Believe me, it was very disturbing listening to a book while sick so as to occupy mind and wham...story disappears and I'm going back and forth trying to find the story with no luck

Well Audible, are you going to take this book off list and give fairer compensation to customers who were so put out?????

Wow, this is a different book for J.R Ward

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

I have read every book this author has written. I must say, I was surprised that this book came from the same author. Joy, the female lead, was not the typical strong character that Ward casts in her stories. Gray, the male character, was strong in some respects, but rather weak in others that didn't seem to quite fit. Honestly, I wanted to reach out and slap them both.

The ending was nice, but I was not truly satisfied with their relationship. It was too wishy washy for my tastes and lacked the in-your-face comments, descriptions and dialog that is typical for J.R Ward.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

Not my type of romance. The characters were weak and seemed to sacrifice core values for the sake of physical gratification.

Did The Player inspire you to do anything?

She made the characters sound too young. I felt as if I were reading about teenagers and not adults.

Story OK, narrator seemed a little inexperienced

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Not the audio version -- the narrator made it a little tough to listen to

Would you ever listen to anything by J. R. Ward again?

YES! I love her Black Dagger Brotherhood series and Jim Frangione is a superb narrator. I also enjoyed Covet and the other 2 books in this series.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

I could tell she was reading and her inflections and male voices were off. It seems that the best narrators are good actors too. I don't like criticizing, but in the name of honesty it was kind of painful and made me want to stop listening at times.

Could you see The Player being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

no

Well I'm ticked!

Yes the book was good, but it was misrepresented. After the book was over I felt there was more to the story, turns out I was right. JR wars wrote a series as Jessica Bird, this is book 2 in The Moorehouse series, none of the others are available on audible which makes me ticked!

Now onto the story. The chemistry was good the build up of sexual tension was great the overall premise was a bit unrealistic and frankly out of character for the characters but it was a good fluff love story kind of like the Sullivan series. It's a light read nothing suspenseful just nice.

Nice story.

What made the experience of listening to The Player the most enjoyable?

J. R. Ward knows how to deliver an emotionally rich story. I really feel something for the characters, whether it be frustration, sadness or happiness; my emotions are touched.

Any additional comments?

About two-thirds of the way through the book, just as some of the main issues were nearing resolution, the narration changed to that of a completely different book! I was so very dissatisfied. I called customer service to make them aware of the problem and they reassured me that it would soon be resolved. To my knowledge, it has not yet been fixed. I am still waiting for someone from customer service to contact me and let me know that the problem has been resolved allowing me to reload it to my library. Until this happens, my advice to you is this: DON'T PURCHASE THIS BOOK, unless you like to hang indefinitely waiting for the ending. Why torture yourself?

Good story

Most of the other reviews seem to have been written over a year ago so maybe that's why I ran into no issues with the audio book switching stories in the middle of the recording.

I enjoyed this story but felt the narrarator was a little inexperienced. Her male voices are pretty good but every sentence seemed to be spoken with an exclamation mark after it. She seemed more relaxed with the 2nd half of the book.
All in all worth the money I spent.

This book HAD a bug!!!!!

This is a great book . This had a bug on. But its fix now and its a geart book.

Complete Book

First of all, eariler reviews had stated problems with the book but those issues have been taken care of.

I got this book because I'm a big fan of JW and my #1 series is her Brotherhood series. So I thought I would try out her romance only writing style. It was OK. It didn't set me on fire and to be honest there was nothing special about it. It was an interesting enough story but it's not something I'm going to listen to again.

My advice would be to pass on this one. I know the price is very good, but I'd rather wait and spend my money toward a great book. There's too many great listens you can get for only a few more dollars.

struggled to finish. <br />storyline weak. <br />listened tw

did not improve with retelling. Characters were not compelling. would like to exchange this one

goood listen

love ,lust, heart break and love again . j r ward is a good writer i love her work

Not the best story from J R Ward

I have read many books by J R Ward and find most of them well written to the point i can't put them down so was excited to start listening to this. But I was disappointed with the story line. Its another tale of playboy who changes for one girl, the one from his youth who always only had eyes for him. There seemed to be no imagination and could have been written by someone. The ending is quite abrupt I would have liked to have known more. All this being said it was an easy listen, great to have when doing the housework.