From pro rugby player to…Manny?
Australian rugby pro Cole Hauser has had enough of speculations about his future post-injury. So when a football buddy puts his house in America at Cole’s disposal, he jumps at the chance for some peace and anonymity. The plan is perfect—until he discovers he’s roomies with a woman who knows how to wield a nail gun and her kid. Awesome. Not.
Single mom Jane Spencer is supposed to be spending four weeks alone in the wilds of Colorado rehabbing a house that’ll put her business on the map. Instead, her time is overrun by her four-year-old and a grumpy, too-sexy rugby dude whose only goals are to watch ESPN and brood. Awesome. Not.
When, surprisingly, McHottie offers to get his ass off the couch and help Jane out with Finn, she’s hesitant. But before she knows it, Cole is knee-deep in kid activities during the day and they’re both fighting their simmering attraction at night.
Anything between them can only be temporary – their time together is short and Cole lives on the other side of the planet. It should be easy to say goodbye, right? Wrong. It doesn’t take long for them to realize they’ve borrowed a whole lot of trouble.
But trouble never felt this good.
| Title: | Playing with Trouble |
| Author: | Amy Andrews |
| Series: | Credence, Colorado / Sydney Smoke Crossover |
| Pages: | 245 |
| Genre(s): | Contemporary |
| Trope(s): | Small Town Romance Sports Romance (Rugby) Temporary Relationship |
| Point of View: | Third Person, Past Tense, Dual Viewpoint (H & h) |
| Location: | Credence, Colorado, US |
| HEA: | ✔️ |
| Release Date: | 30th November, 2020 |
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No trouble at all
I adore Amy Andrews’ writing. She manages to bring such depth and detail to her stories, characters and worlds, all while keeping a light airiness that makes her words so easy to devour. Added to that, she’s hella funny. She makes me laugh so often in her novels – which I absolutely love.
This particular book brings together two of her popular series’ – Sydney Smoke and Credence, Colorado. I’ve never read any of the Smoke books but have read each and every Credence stories. This story still stands alone even if characters from both series do pop up on occasion – especially the men of Credence, there to delight us with some bromantic banter, teasing and mocking.
With this love story we have big, brawny rugby player, Cole, recuperating in Colorado after a career ending accident back in Australia. He finds himself sharing his holiday home with Prickly Pants Jane and her 4 year old son, Finn.
I loved Cole. He was all laid-back Aussie while also dealing with the uncertainty of his future and his unexpected feelings towards Jane and her son. He had enough layers to keep me happy – just enough sweet and just enough dirty.
“I adore Amy Andrews’ writing. She manages to bring such depth and detail to her stories, characters and worlds…”
Jane was something more of a grower for me. At first she was cold and standoffish towards Cole and I wasn’t really sure that I liked her. As she softened towards Cole, I softened towards her. I could understand why she had her walls up around Cole, but boy could I identify with her once she threw caution to the wind and acted on her instincts to make a move on Cole.
It took a while to get there, but that just built up anticipation before our couple finally do the deed. I got that delicious feeling in my tummy every time our pair kissed or had sex. It was a delight. I adored their chemistry.
Since this is a single parent story, Finn does have a very large role in it. He was a cutie and although it’s not my favourite trope, in this case, it worked well. Kudos also to Ms Andrews for not making Tad into a pantomime villain. I wouldn’t have minded, to be honest, but making him something of a good guy really did add dimension to burgeoning love story.
I really grappled between giving this 4 or 5 stars. As much as I enjoyed the story and our couple, I plumped for 4 as, because of the single parent trope, the ending had to be slightly slower to make it believable. It was still a super cute, romantic and funny read that I would definitely recommend. I’ll also be heading to find more of the Sydney Smoke books to pick up more hunky Australian rugby boys.
Amy is an Aussie author of hot contemporary romance who believes in multiple orgasms, mighty wangs and happily ever afters. She’s been penning them for over twenty years and has 70+ books to her name.
As well as unforgettable characters and great sex you’ll also be treated to some laughs and a dollop of quirk because Amy doesn’t seem to know how to write a book without a bit of both. You might also cry a little because there’s nothing she loves more than a laughy-criey book!
She also loves sunsets and rainbows, unicorns and mermaids, booze and travel. And her home that overlooks the ocean. She may also happen to believe she was a Roman goddess in her past life because it’s the only thing that explains her adoration for all things Italy.
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