Play

July 14, 2014
Scott’s second Stage Dive contemporary (after Lick) combines rippling abs, power chords, and sheer delightful improbability. Anne Rollins is content with her quiet, stable life until it’s shaken by betrayal and shattered by a chance meeting with drummer Malcolm Ericson. And Malcolm is the life of the party until he undergoes a sudden change in temperament. Then, without explanation or permission, Mal moves into Anne’s apartment and co-opts her life. His turn to playful domesticity hides a secret from everyone, including cautious, suspicious Anne. Scott has created characters both charmingly mundane and larger than life. The stakes are so ridiculous that the intent seems more comic than dramatic. Tumbling through the world of rock-and-roll, Scott delivers on the promise of tenderness and wild times, hardly pausing to construct the hilarious lead-up to a sudden, nonsensical resolution.

July 1, 2014

Rock and roll romance triumphs again in this perky sequel to Lick. Scott has succeeded in creating another fun, relatable protagonist in the form of Anne Rollins, friend of Lauren (Ev's warm-hearted best friend from the "Stage Dive" series debut). Anne finds herself alone, broke, and imminently homeless when her user roommate Skye ditches her and their apartment but not before taking most of her things. Anne attends a party, at Lauren's insistence, hosted by the prominent band Stage Dive, and it's there that she meets Mal Ericson, the eccentric drummer for the band who makes messes more often than he makes sense. The two end up entering a false relationship in order to clean up Mal's image but quickly find out that the hardest part of the deal isn't coping with the lies; it's handling the truth. Though the premise is rocky (Anne comes home one day to find Mal moving into her apartment, with no prior discussion and extremely faulty logic that includes a drunken exchange qualifying as a promise of courtship), the novel is an enjoyable enough ride that it doesn't really matter. Scott has a special skill for crafting humorous, genuine characters, with great rapport and sizzling chemistry in the bedroom. Readers should note that this title veers toward the side of erotic romance, with a handful of sex scenes that might qualify as tame, or "vanilla," in comparison to most erotica. VERDICT Though a bit over the top and less plausible than its predecessor, this is another fun title in a great series. Recommended for fans.

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from August 1, 2014
Anne Rollins has been in love with famous Stage Dive drummer Mal Ericson since she was a teenager, and now he's right in front of her, talking to her, teasing her. Can this be real? When Anne was invited to a party by her neighbors, she didn't expect it to change her life. But with Mal, nothing is predictable or planned. Accordingly, he makes a deal with herif she pretends to be his girlfriend to help clean up his image, he'll help her make rent since her roommate bailed. Anne soon realizes that living with a rock star and pretending he's your boyfriend is anything but normal or healthy, especially when those fake feelings start to feel genuine. Mal is a loving and goofy friend, but she knows that he is hiding something from everyone. Play is the second novel in Scott's Stage Dive NA series, following Lick (2014). Readers who enjoy whirlwind romances with plenty of sex and laugh-out-loud humor will love every installment, and another is due out in the fall.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)