Blog Tour: Play With Me by Piper Shelly. Giveaway and Review.

Title: Play With Me 

Author: Piper Shelly 

Series: (Grover Beach Team #1) 

Publication date: December 9th 2012 

Genres: Romance, Young Adult

Synopsis:

A short, sweet novella.

Ryan Hunter's parties are legend. And tonight she's going to be there.

Liza Matthews anticipates the return of her best friend and only love since kindergarten from soccer camp. But when Tony finally shows up, his mind is more focused on another girl. And worse, she's a soccer player. Fighting for the attention Liza craves, she's just a hairbreadth away from making a very stupid decision. But when extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures, she's prepared to play ball to get her man.

The tryouts are hell, the first match ends bloody, and the morning after the selection party she wakes up in the worst place possible—in the arms of the captain of the soccer team. The hottest guy in school. Ryan Hunter.

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AUTHOR BIO

The quick-and-dirty:

I’m a cool girl with a passion for writing. 

The genres you’ll find me hanging out at are contemporary and paranormal YA, but I’m also snooping into some adult paranormal right now. All of them romances…of course.

The nitty-gritty:

I’m an Austrian lass—totally uncomplicated and up to anything fun. 

I grew up in Vienna, not by free will but because my parents decided to move there when I was only 4 years old. I. Hated. The. City. Everything about it. So right after graduation I moved back to Upper Austria, where I settled down with a nice husband and an awesome laptop. 

I’ve been a storyteller all my life. Already in kindergarten, I came up with the most exotic fantasies and tales. My teacher would call me a liar. I call it the cornerstone of my writing career. 

People always told me you can’t make a living with being an author. So when my first novella PLAY WITH ME came out and shot straight to the stars within the first week, I was totally dumbstruck. Took me a while to realize what was happening, LOL. 

And the personal stuff:

At the (awesome) age of seventeen, I met the love of my life. But he was a playboy, and I was so not going to be his next trophy. It took him another four years of fighting for me until I finally decided to give that “couple-thing” with him a shot. I’m now married to this man. ;-) 

We have an eleven-year-old son, and together we travel a lot…although I sometimes wish the trips were shorter because I can’t wait to get back to my laptop and my many stories. Unless we’re in Disneyland. No stress to go home then…

If you still want to know more about me, my FAQ page is the right address for you. ;-)

Author Links:

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Giveaway!!! (International)

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My Review

3.5/5

From reading the blurb I thought this book would be really interesting or funny because Liza does not seem to have the best luck ie. her crush doesn't seem to feel the same way and worse he's her best friend, she has to compete in a sport she doesn't like just to win his interest and after all this she still wakes up to the wrong guy. This has disaster written all over it yet has the potential to be humorous at the same time.

Usually I wouldn't go for a book like this because it seems like it is most definitely going to be cringe-worthy but luckily it was not. I don't know how but the author managed to spare readers of the amount of awkward and embarrassing moments that one would expect from this kind of situation. I, for one, am glad of this. :)

My only issue was Liza. She seemed to be very wrapped up in her own world. I can't understand why she would think that pursuing her best friend would be a good idea when he clearly didn't feel the same. That is the one part I couldn't get past. She was not a character I liked.

Tony is not a great friend either as it turns out so again I questioned her taste throughout the book. First, it was because he liked someone else and she couldn't get over that then later he turned out to be this not so nice guy.

Ryan (Hunter) seemed to be the only nice person in the story which is lucky because he's the one you're supposed to be rooting for the whole time. 

Putting aside my dislike for the characters and/or their decisions this was a good story. The plotline was good and for a novella it held a lot. Between the front and back covers there was plenty of time to get to know the characters, get enveloped in the storyline and anticipate the ending which is very unusual for such a short story. Because of this I like this author and intend to read more of her work.

The only thing I wish is that the book was longer. I would love to read more even though it held everything a full length novel would contain without the overly-long descriptions and long gaps between character interactions. So, in a way, it was perfect. 

I look forward to reading Ryan's story instead.

-Tia