Played

      

Title: Played

Author: Naima Simone

Publisher: Montlake, September 3, 2024

Pages: 295

Genre: Hockey Romance

Being a firefighter isn’t easy. Especially for a Black woman. Working with family helps a little. But when somebody from your company doesn’t come back from a call, it’s brutal—as in, “How’m I supposed to go on?” brutal.

And one death took me to a really dark place.

A year later, I’m at the Pirates’ hockey training facility. Just another day on the job. Until I find a charred journal. I look inside for the owner’s name, but the words on the page punch me in the gut. It’s like reading my own thoughts. Reliving my own pain.

The journal belongs to Solomon Young, left-winger for the Pirates—a father and widower. When I return it, I’m racked with guilt for the invasion of privacy. The look Solomon gives me is cold as ice.

But damn if that man isn’t hot as hell.

Now he’s stuck in my brain. And fate seems intent on making us face off.

The meet cute for this one is rough. Definitely read your trigger warnings for this one. In saying that, I listened to the audiobook and don't remember any trigger or content warnings at the beginning, so I'll put them here. But this is a blanket warning for grief / loss of a partner. 

I'll give another big content warning for some exceptional smut. Top notch really. So the warning is just to prepare you for how steamy this book gets. 

I love these two for each other though. And the book is wonderful. The main thing I have to talk about is her troubles at work. I totally related to having an experience that you know you should report to HR but you're scared to because you don't want it to negatively impact you. It's a real shame that this is the norm for working women at this point in the world. But it still is. Men can behave badly, sometimes dangerously, and women won't report them for fear that they will suffer consequences in the name of making things right. It's infuriating actually. But it was handled really well in this book.

Ratings

Stars: 4/5

Spice: 3/5