The Player Next Door

A Novel

By: K.A. Tucker

Narrated by: Luci Christian Bell

Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's Summary

From the international best-selling author of The Simple Wild and Ten Tiny Breaths comes a new second-chance hate-to-love romance.

Scarlet Reed has returned to Polson Falls, convinced that 12 years away is long enough to shed her humiliating childhood identity as the town harlot’s daughter. With a teaching job secured and an adorable fixer-upper to call home, things in her life are finally looking up.

That is, until she finds out that Shane Beckett lives next door.

Shane Beckett, the handsome and charismatic high-school star quarterback who smashed her heart. The lying, cheating player who was supposed to be long gone, living the pro football dream and fooling women into thinking he’s Prince Charming. Shane Beckett, who is as attractive as ever and flashing his dimples at her as if he has done no wrong.

Scarlet makes it abundantly clear that old wounds have not been forgotten. Neighbors they may be, but friends they most certainly are not. She won’t allow herself to fall for the single father and firefighter again, no matter how many apologies he offers, how many times he rushes to her aid, or how hard he makes her heart pound.

But as she spends more time with him, she begins to fear that maybe she’s wrong. Maybe Shane has changed.

And maybe this time she’s the one playing herself - out of a chance at true happiness.

©2020 Kathleen Tucker (P)2020 Audible, Inc.

dnf

awful, just awful...
childish h, constant ranting, insecure babbling and i felt that if she continued to rant the H full name in every sentence through out the book I would drop kick my kindle into a dark corner.
so disappointed

Delightful is the only way to describe it!

Fun & flirty with serious storylines. Well done by all who are responsible. Loved it! Will search for more of her books & those read by Luci Bell!

4.25 stars

Loved listening to this story - excellent writing and story. Main characters and secondary characters well-developed and interesting. I’m not always a fan of second chance romances, but this one really worked for me. Narration was great! Looking forward to the next book in the series.

Good job by Luci

Have you ever wanted to love a book so much but you just couldn’t. I heard many good things about this which made me want to read it but I just couldn’t get behind the hero and was kind of annoyed with the heroine for giving him another chance.

Scarlett and Shane were together throughout the summer before senior year until he broke up with her. It clearly meant more to Scarlett than it did to Shane because while she was left heartbroken, he quickly moved on with Penelope, someone who bullied Scarlett. Fast forward 10+ years and they are reunited back in their hometown. I wanted Shane to grovel much more than he did, Scarlett let him off way too easy for what he did. He ended up having a baby with Penelope which made it even harder for me to like him. I am fine with single dads or a guy with a past but this was too much. This girl was awful to Scarlett and Shane breaks her heart, immediately starts dating her, and then has a baby with her?! And all Shane had to say was that it was in the past and kept telling her to let it go. Heartbreak is not something anyone just lets go! And he basically tells her it was all her fault because she was too complicated.

I really just wanted Shane to grovel, to apologize, do something to make things right. Scarlett should have made him work harder. But aside from me not liking the hero, it was actually a good book. I haven’t read a single POV book in a long time but I enjoyed it. Luci did a great job narrating for being the only POV.

Shane & Scarlet

*****Spoiler Alert*****

Audible review. Single POV (Scarlet's). Standalone. Second chance romance with a single father and his teacher. PG-13 rating, some sex but not graphic. Narration was good at speeds 1.5 & 1.65. Justine's brother's name changes from Joe to Jeff. Trigger warnings: 15 year old pregnant w/an older man's baby disowned by her family and abandoned by the baby's father; 19 year old pregnant but baby's father stayed in the child's life but not with the mother; lots of cheating men; child hit by a car when he ran into the road breaking his arm and leg; apartment fire.

Shane & Scarlet had a summer romance when they were 17, before their senior year of high school but Shane dumped Scarlet because she was too complicated. Scarlet had had a hard life since her mom made poor choices and struggled as a mother. 13 years later Scarlet returns to her hometown to buy and repair the house she always admired and teach 6th grade at the elementary school. Shane is Scarlet's neighbor, is now a fireman, has an 11 year old son with the girl he dated after Scarlet and who made Scarlet's life miserable. Shane pursues Scarlet and in the end they're dating but not married or even engaged just still neighbors. JP

1st listen 24OCT21

engaging

Kept me engaged and I loved the plot and how it followed through with an ending that was believable. If there is a a book series attached to this I'll give it a chance.

Got better the more you read.

A sweet, love story with lots of angst. It has comedy, sad parts, and mean girls, but an interesting read.

Good Listen

I read the pervious reviews & hoped they weren't correct.
I found Scarlet to be as previously reviewed.
I did enjoy the story anyway. Was unhappy a few times. LOL for other parts.
Overall, this was a good listen.
You might dislike it or enjoy it like I did. Listen & decide for yourself everyone has different tastes about they like.
Just decide & write your review for the next to choose.

Not a stand out.

I found it hard to like Scarlet. Most of the time she was caddy , shallow and immature which made it hard to pull for her. She never tried to see or find the good in anyone and acted like a selfish schoolgirl. She was dumped in high school and the mean kids were.....well, mean. I wish she would've come back to town and shown Shane how he dumped / lost something precious and sweet but she seemed as conceited , selfish, and caddy as the ex wife. The hero was good but he could've done better than Scar. So.... not really liking the h made me rush through the entire story to the expected ending. Definitely not one to read or listen to more than once.

Love it!

I have the paper back, the e book , n now the audio! It's a book that I will be either listening to or reading over n over! Love the story plot n the characters!