This is a voluntary review of an advanced copy.

This was an engaging story line from when Ty finds out hisi wife left him for one of the players that Ty coaches at Wolcott. Millie comes to his rescue to keep him from making a worse mess after making some negative comments.

While they are both attracted to each other, they don't want to get involved while Ty is getting his divorce in Reno. I was a little disappointed when Millie changed her stance on no sex until his divorce is complete to ready to take him up to her hotel room.

I liked Millie at first but then she got so weird with these games that she was trying to get Ty to play that I really started to dislike her. I loved when Avery really let her have it and made Millie look at what she was really like ad it was not good!

I have not read any previous book so maybe this is answered in that but there really was not a good description of what Ty looked like, there were mentions of his getting a little gray in his hair, he was in good physical shape, and had amber colored eyes but I don't remember any mention of the color of his hair! There is a confusing comment about how he was tan under his beard and then Millie made a comment about how she never thought to wonder if an African American would tan. What is confusing is that the cover of the book looks like a Caucasian man so was that just an idle comment out of the blue or was it about Ty?

There is also two times that Millie mentions her ex-husband, and the first time she talks about John and the second time, she mentions David.

I really liked Millie at the end when she would not let Ty go when he thought with all the problems he was going through in his life. I hope that in future books we will know more about this situation as it really is a potential disaster with Mari expecting Ty's baby. It is not your perfect HEA but more realistic situation.

Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Mary Jo – ☆☆☆☆
Millie has had a thing for Ty Ransom since he became the head basketball coach at Wolcott. She just couldn't act on it with him being a married man. When rumors of his wife's extramarital affairs began to surface, she quietly cataloged. As the PR person for the athletic department, her job is to manage flow of information coming from the University about its coaches and players and to turn any bad press into good press.

As Ty slowly gets his feet back under him after his painful and public breakup, he realizes that he's not all that devastated about the end of his marriage. He'd known for a while that his marriage was on life support, had a feeling that Mari was seeing other guys, he just didn't realize it was one of his players and that she was documenting it on social media.

Millie wants Ty, and Ty wants Millie. The problem is that Millie has set an end date on their relationship without consulting him. Ty doesn't understand why Millie is dead set on keeping this casual, especially since this is anything but casual to him.

I enjoyed this story, the way that the characters knew each other, had established a friendship before the romance began. I also enjoyed reading about older characters, people who have experienced the good and bad that life has thrown at them and are still willing to give love a chance.


Sarah – ☆☆☆
I loved the first book in this series but this one doesn’t work quite as well for me. I think the difference is Millie and Kate. I loved the fiercely competitive coach and I struggled to like the character whose fashion and beauty obsession makes her blur into every other chick-lit heroine. Millie is tough and she is a survivor, but she is too girly for me and she’d be more convincing as a 25 year old than she is as a 45 year old.

Ty is wonderful but I struggled with parts of his story. I hate the way his ex-wife is villainised as a gold-digger while he gets sympathy for choosing a much younger trophy wife and not a life partner. After the uplifting feminist messages in the first book, I was dismayed by the slut-shaming undertones in this second story.

Ty and Millie are fun together and there are some sweet moments here. For me, there were too many mind games and too much miscommunication for two middle aged adult professionals. I also missed the sport and the competition that I loved in the first book.

Finally, why is there a white guy on the cover? Ty was black when he was first introduced in Love Game – and I’m pretty sure he stays that way.


Ruthie – ☆☆☆☆☆
This is the second book in the series – and is an excellent follow on to Love Games, but would be good as a standalone too. We did find out quite a lot about the two leads in the first book, but there is enough here to give us a fantastic romance.

Millie is a mystery wrapped up in an animal-print enigma, but Ty is a man who is prepared to go the distance. There has been chemistry since the first time they met, but with him being married, neither would act upon it. However, now that divorce is in his future, there is a chance that they may just explore what makes each other tick. Millie's past has made her wary (understatement of the year!) but it is very difficult not to love her along with Ty. I love it when she, Kate, and Avery get together – they are just really great fun friends.

Ty has a lot to deal with in this installment, from betrayal to hope. There is such great attention to detail in the book, and of things that both matter and will stick with me for a long time. For example, him counting down how many times he can rely on his knees in a jump... little sob from me at that point. He is such a totally caring, reliable, and centred man, that he has to win the day (and the lady).

There is a lot going on in the book. It is funny, sad, moving, and sexy, along with a good dose of college sports issues and politics thrown in. I definitely recommend this book to you as a fabulous read. Thank you, Ms. Wells, and I look forward to the next installment!

Talk about your emotional roller-coaster rides... this was a thrilling, sexy, entertaining and engaging romantic journey of finding love in when you least expect it.

Tyrell Ransom is sexy, strong, charming and the new men's basketball coach in need of some quick PR damage control thanks to his soon to be ex-wife. Millie Jenkins is just the sassy, sexy, fast talking PR guru to save the day. However she puts his heart at risk all at the same time.. their chemistry is explosive and hard to contain. Enjoyed this crazy wild emotional journey.

Play for Keeps is my first Maggie Wells book. Within the story of Ty and Millie’s relationship there were numerous sub stories.

The story of Millie’s history with men and how it causes her to put a “time limit” on each relationship so she doesn’t get hurt and knows when to walk away was odd. I had a hard time connecting with Millie. She was in charge, all the time, and didn’t bend to fit into Ty’s life. She pushed and pushed and pushed at him and I felt her lucky that he didn’t just give up on her to move on with her life. I will say that I liked that when she was in your corner there was nothing she wouldn’t do to help you out.

Ty’s story of his ex-wife was typical. Marries a young, cute college girl…he gets older… she finds a younger guy. This time the younger guy was one of her husband’s basketball players. There are a couple other twists to their story but it was the typical story. I was not surprised by much with Ty. Other than his willingness to put up with Millie’s attitude he was the normal ex-husband.

I wanted to get into this story, I wanted to connect to the characters but I just couldn’t do it. This story was also pretty erotic, which is okay, but it wasn’t what I was looking for.

As with every book there are people who will love this book, I just wasn’t that person.

Play For Keeps leaves me in an odd place. While there were parts of the story that I enjoyed, there were also parts that kept me from being fully engaged with this couple. Mainly Millie kept this story from falling into the loved it slot for me. Ty is a strong man, he’s been handed a crappy situation that he’s trying to fight his way out of. He has an attraction that is strong and could be very good for both himself and Millie once all the dust falls and settles from his divorce. I liked Ty. I could understand where he was coming from. Unfortunately, Millie did not do that same thing for me. Frankly, Millie is her own worst enemy. And while she does come to her senses eventually, I’ve been bombarded by her rules and attitude for too long to believe in her changes by the end of the story.

For me, Play For Keeps falls into the “it’s a good book” category. I think there are readers who will love Ty and Millie’s romance. I didn’t love it or hate it, I simply got tired of Millie’s attitude and stopped caring one way or the other. In order for me to care what happens to characters I’ve got to have something to hold on to that I like about them… I couldn’t find that with Millie. I wish I could have but sometimes it simply doesn’t happen.

*I received an e-ARC of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley. That does not change what I think of this story. It is my choice to leave a review giving my personal opinion about this book.*

This book started out promising, but soon became bogged down in lots of unnecessary dialogue and scenes. I loved that the two main characters were older, and their banter was really amusing. But after a while it just seemed as if things were being drawn out too much. And the twist the author threw in didn’t thrill me, nor did the abrupt ending. It felt like something was missing, a short epilogue at least. All in all, it was a good premise that fell flat.

What I’m Talking About:
Play for Keeps, the second book in the Love Games series by Maggie Wells is good, but I did not like it as much as the first book, Love Game, because the relationship between public relations genius Millie Jenkins and basketball coach Ty Ransom is very messy. Their love story takes a much longer, and possibly unnecessary arc before we reach a happily ever after. Some readers will think it’s perfect, others will be disappointed where it went. If you life is already pretty messy, you don’t necessarily want your fantasy life to be messy too. Wells had an option; she took her characters down the harder—some might argue more interesting—path.

I liked Ty. With heroic patience, he commits himself to a course and doesn’t waver. We like a steady guy, no matter what other characters throw at him. He was always trying to do the right thing and Millie puts him, and herself, through the ringer. With such a large personality, she seems to need a large obstacle to overcome before there can be a conclusion. There is one, but it’s not the obvious one. As is the case with stubborn personalities, she is her own worst enemy.

Millie’s friends, prominent in the first book, are a little cliche’d in this installment. There is a true Gilmore Girls moment that made me chuckle as much as roll my eyes. Wells substitutes wine for cookie dough, although I don’t know why you couldn’t have both, and does go on to justify the nod very respectably with some significant growth on Millie’s part.

There is hot, steamy sex in this book. A lot of it. If it weren’t for the plot at the beginning, end, and tie into the first book, it might—probably would—fall over the line into erotica. Ty goes along with all of it because even though it’s a sexist thing to say, he’s a guy with a pulse. Ty wants Millie though, and he’ll take her any way he can get her. My favorite quote in the book, and there were several, appeared fairly early on. Ty says to Millie, “The first time I saw you, I recognized you. Not your face, but you. All I could think was, ‘Yes, there you are.’” *swoon* Millie is messed up emotionally and rather than dealing with it, she keeps it all pushed down with ludicrous rules. It made me not like her after I adored her in the first book. Thankfully, Millie doesn’t like it about herself either and must deal before she can have her guy. Hopefully, before he gives up on her. She can be annoying, I certainly almost put the book down, but Wells does get us there with an ending we can embrace.

I assume the next book, which should hopefully come as quickly as Play for Keeps did after Love Games, will focus on Women’s Studies professor Avery, the third woman in this trio of BFF’s that all work at imaginary Wolcott University.

My Rating: B, Liked It

Part of me will always be my 16- and 26-year-old selves, the rest of me says, Hallelujah! Thank you, Maggie Wells for breaking the mold with strong, successful romance heroines over 40, especially ones without children. We aren’t dead yet. Like Millie herself, Play for Keeps is sassy, smart and so much fun. It reminds you that friends who will call you on your….baloney….are so crucial at every age. It's a solid follow-on to book 1 in the series, Love Game. Highly recommend.

Excellent read! It's very well written with some pretty amazing characters. There is an easy flow to the story that keeps you turning the pages.

Ty Ransom is a quiet hardworking basketball head coach that is suddenly thrown big time into the public eye. His wife, well ex-wife now, has some racy photos go viral throwing Ty's world into a spin. Public relations specialist Millie Jenkins is charged with cleaning up Ty's image. A little hard to do when the white hot chemistry between them is threatening to consume them.

Definitely a book I recommend.

I received a free ARC copy of this book via NetGalley. I did not enjoy this book. The plot was flat and I didn't feel the chemistry between Millie and Tyrell.

I liked Millie as a secondary character in the first novel but hated the way she jerked Ty around in this one. I never could get invested in her prickliness.

Interesting friends to lovers sports romance

I enjoyed Maggie Wells' Play for Keep the 2nd book in the A Love Games series.
Millie and Ty were a great couple with some serious chemistry. I thought the plot line's twist and turns leading up to their HEA kept the story interesting.

I received an advance reader copy from Netgalley.

This was a very good read. Not having read the previous book in the series, some of the references were not familiar but did not take away from the storyline. The characters just matched. Listed as a multi-cultural romance it wasnt until well in the storyline that I realized one of the principals was African American. I will be going back to read the first book in the series and wait for future boks.

I liked Ty and I liked the fact that before he acted on his attraction to Millie he waited until he was divorced. And, his wife was a character, boy...Millie is the pr person who is working on fixing the image that Ty's wife left showing her with another player. Again, I liked Ty but I was really not crazy about Millie, I found her to be annoying. I do not think that I will continue with the series.

What I liked:
The writing style
Part of a series: Love Games
Standalone
HEA

I had a hard time staying interested in this book.

Wells is a gifted storyteller. She writes smart and sometimes laugh out loud dialogue. Her characters are believable with real life situations that aren't out of reach for the normal person to relate too. I loved this story...absolutely loved it. Millie...I want to be her..hang ups and all. Ty...geez he's perfectly flawed too. There wasn't a moment that I didn't love their story. From start to finish it was perfect. They fell in love and it was messy and sweet and then hot and frustrating. I want to read more from this author and I'm dying to see what happens with Avery. She's going to run some poor man ragged.

I don't even know where to start with this one. I loved this book. It's a roller coaster ride of emotions that had me all over the place, which is pretty hard to do.
Ty Ransom is head basketball coach for a college, quiet and gentle man who is now thrust into the press because his wife has left him very publicly for one of his star players and went pro, leaving the college as well. Millie's job is to run interference and keep the public face of the sports department at the college. She's bright, charming, thinks quick on her feet and the ultimate problem solver. She takes Ty's hand through the fall out of his public nightmare, quickly decides to divorce and moves to Nevada for the required 6 weeks to get his divorce. She got what she wanted, he got the walk away.
There are some interesting insights from Ty you get when you read the story and you'll want to read this one. Ty has always had a thing for Millie. Obviously unable to act on it while married, and Millie won't allow anything until his divorce is final, the two grow closer until he's got those papers in his hand. The tables turn and the bed sheets burn as soon as he does. Millie is a tremendous tease and the banter between the two of them is great, but Millie also sends some gad awful mixed messages to Ty, always in some preemptive mode. I got a little frustrated with her at times with that, so did Ty.
Their relationship continues, one step forward ten back as Millie tosses out rules she makes up as she's going. She's so obvious but I really felt bad for Ty. The poor guy really cared about her and after what he'd just been through here he is getting his chain yanked but yet another woman. Ty is at loss ends but then makes up a few rules on his own. I have to say I felt like at times she treated him like a dog on a leash! Frustrating as all get out.
When a tremendous bomb gets dropped and man I didn't see that coming, it makes Ty take a step back and reevaluate things, Millie ever the problem solver guides Ty through what he needs to do first off and then Ty decides he needs so time away from Millie. Tables turned. Millie's all sixes and sevens finally admitting she loves Ty and will do what she needs to do and leans on her friends for support. I can't say much more because I can't spoil this part of the book. But it'll blindside you the way it did me.
My only beef with the book was the end. Since I can't come out with the deets, I'm only going to say it was too quick, tidy, I would have liked an epilogue and left some loose ends. Too many for this girl.
All in all a great read though.

***arc from NetGalley and publisher for an honest review**

I received a complimentary arc from NG for review purposes.

This is book 2 in the series and I mostly enjoyed it. The writing is very well done. However I almost stopped reading several times. My two issues were Millie, I HATED her character and my 2nd issue was the plot twist at the end of the book. The ending of the book was a happy for now ending. I didn't feel like everything was nicely tied up.

To start there were several things in romance books I don't like and despite those things they are not what I did not like about the story:
1. Ty is Tyrell Ransom, our hero and he is african american. The cover definitely does not have him look african american. Only at one point does it discuss his skin color beyond that it is never mentioned.

2. The female lead is Millie and she is 6 years older than Ty. Ty is 42 and Millie is 48. I liked that everyone was older, you don't see a 40's romance very often. But I tend to go for stories where the man is older and so this was a surprise.

3. At the start of this book Ty is married, nothing but a kiss happens after he separates from his wife and the first half o the book is from the period where he is obtaining a divorce.

Despite all these issues I still really enjoyed the story. What really made me not like Millie is that she seems to be playing games with Ty. She wants sex and no relationship. She refuses dates all the time but then ends up at his house night after night. I wanted romance and fun, and instead I hated her jerking Ty around.

Then there is the big plot twist and frankly I HATED it I saw it coming a million miles away and I was not a afan.

What a strong woman we have here. She knows how to handle situations and get what she wants. Even the age difference didn't bothered me much. This was my first Maggie Wells book and that was good. I'll definitely checked out her other selections.
This ARC was provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review that is all my own.

This book has got a very determined lead heroine in Millie. She knows what she wants and even when Ty threatens to break down the barriers that she's lived by, she forges on, seeking to be in control of love and her situation.
It's got a great start and here, unlike most romance novels, Millie swoops in to save Ty from making a mess of his life after his young beautiful wife leaves him for an upcoming young athlete.
It's got the drama and the talk that the two have to get a rise out of each other. If you're into a steamy romance where the characters make no apologies for what they want to do, then this is up your radar. Thanks NetGalley for the eARC.