Connor Ellison is a prankster and one of the better hockey players when he has his mind on the game. He is also a PR nightmare with all of the things he does and he needs to stay out of the press. Well, that would be good and all but when he wakes up one morning in Vegas after a game and a News Years Party, he not only discovers Lily Jones in his bed but that they are also married.
Connor has a meeting with team management who express their frustration with him and all of his off the ice issues. He will need to stay married until after the season is over and hopefully they have won the cup, if not he will be gone. Now he must go talk things over with Lily to get her to agree to stay married.
He does this because he offers to help her and her father with the bills that have piled up since the accident her mother was in five years ago. She agrees. Really though the story turns when he goes to the rink that she owns with her father and he finds out that she played women’s hockey in college and was on her way to maybe the Olympic team when she left to help with her mother. When he watches her play goaltender he is amazed by her athletic ability, strength, flexibility, and size. The story begins to take off from here.
Yes, they have issues that they end up working through which is different than other fake marriage books. They also help each other deal with both being from hockey dads so they know what the other one is going through. Here in this book, you see a change in both characters and that is nice and made for a very good book

When Lily wakes up in Vegas after a New Years party, she not only finds a man in her bed but a ring on her finger. Conner is known as a prankster on the Atlanta Edge team but this is a prank he didn't see coming!
After returning to Atlanta, the team management sees this quick marriage as the perfect opportunity to improve Conner's reputation. Lily isn't convinced it's a good idea but when she realizes this partnership can help save her father's ice rink, she agrees.
We soon realize that Conner isn't such a bad boy, just a little lost and with Lily he starts to see his own worth off the ice. The chemistry between these two is hot from the beginning, but the friendship they build is even sweeter.

I absolutely love hockey romances. It is one of the few things that can get me interested in a book without reading the synopsis. It's even better if once I start reading the book, the author uses actually hockey terms, and goes into great hockey details about the game. This book does exactly that. There was legitimate hockey play (with correct verbiage) and an actual plot with steamy scenes. However, I was hoping for more steamy scenes than there actually was. But for it just being a romance and not anything more, it was a pretty good amount.

For the main male character, we meet Conner. He is the stereotypical team prankster and overall partier. His team, and the entire coaching staff are tired of his games and shenanigans. One more mess-up and Conner is practically off the team.

Lily, the female lead, is one of the two variants we normally see in a hockey romance novel. They are normally, the female who knows nothing about hockey and is just in love, or the female who plays hockey but is never considered an equal to her male counterpart. Lily falls under the latter, however, this isn't know to Conner at the beginning of their "relationship". She is a fantastic hockey player that even had the chance to go and play for the Olympics but the males in her life didn't support her dream and due to some spoiler circumstances, she can't continue playing.

This book is a classic case of going to Las Vegas, getting drunk and waking up married to someone you didn't arrive with. This unforeseen situation is very confusing for Lily as she doesn't drink much but somehow get's "plastered" and wakes up in Conner's bed. For Conner, the known partier, this is a normal day in his life. He is used to waking up next to girls he picked up the night before. The only thing that makes this time different is the marriage license. The plan was for them to get a quiet annulment but the team manager and PR rep won't let Conner off the hook that easily. Now, Conner must convince Lily to stay married to him until the end of the season, in order for him to stay on the team.

What happens when a night neither one can remember, turns out to be the start to an undeniable attraction? If you like sports romances, especially hockey ones, and don't want a ton of sex scenes, this is the book for you.

I gave this book 4 stars, because while the plot and sex scenes were good, it was very predictable and very stereotypical of sports romances.

I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

What a fabulous author in. Area Swafford.
I truly Loved it!!
This book only took me a day to read which was disappointing because I never wanted it to end.
It’s a great winters day book to read on a lazy afternoon.

I love hockey romance and I enjoy the “fake marriage” trope so I was pumped to read this book. It was a fun book with more serious moments.

Lily and Connor wake up in Vegas after not remembering getting married. This part was a bit cliche, but I liked how they played it with Connor being kind of a jerk, but then being sweet. It showed what kind of guy he was.

Lily agrees to stay married until the hockey season is over, but has so many stresses in her life that she struggles with her feelings.

Considering the events at the beginning, the book was low angst. Connor and Lily had rough childhoods with some bad parenting. They may have avoided emotions at times, but they talked things out. The family dynamics in this book were great, those little moments really helped define the two MCs.

I will definitely read more from this author!

Fake play is a sports romance mixed with Vegas wedding that shouldn’t have happened. A News Years party brings Lily to a party in Vegas with her friends that is filled with Atlanta Edge hockey players. A little letting loose never hurts anyone right ? Well that is until you wake up in the morning to sharing a bed with a naked hockey player, a large rock on your finger, and a nasty hangover with no memory.

Connor is the bad boy of his team. He’s wild, pulls pranks, and well the media portrays his as a playboy. Management and PR are about done with his current image and have set the line. Turning up married is the last thing he needs but when they say stay married through the end of the season or else what are you suppose to do?

Lily has her own issues. Her family is a little dysfunctional, her family rink isn’t doing as well as she thought, and she was a born a girl instead of a boy. So this hockey loving girl is offered the chance to stay married to help Connor what could she possibly do?

Their journey is filled with discovering each other, themselves, battling family demons, and just have a lot of fun together. Could it be a match made in heaven?

I really enjoyed this book. It was very good and had I not had to work I could have finished it in one sitting. I enjoyed a lot.

Loved it! Conner and Lily’s story has secrets up until the end. Their dynamic is wonderful. Definitely recommend this one!

The girl with no confidence lets loose one night and marries a hot, party boy, hockey player. Very little time is spent denying their attraction to each other and some steamy scenes made this one enjoyable for me, and dare I say it, believable.

Connor and Lily wake up on New year's Day in Vegas and realize that they have gotten married overnight. Connor is a professional hockey player with a history of off ice shenanigans. His team tells him that he's staying married until the finals or be eligible for trade. Lily wants nothing to do with this arrangement. He finds an incentive to get her to stay. If she stays married to him, he will save her family's business from bankruptcy.

This is a fast-paced read that is a great escape for a couple of hours. I love the way that dynamics between the leads grows and their relationship develops through the book. This is a stand-alone novel without a cliffhanger. I received an advanced copy of the book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you netgalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Unfortunately I couldn't get into this romance that was more sexual conquest than a love story. Both characters are much more interested in the physical aspect of their relationship than getting know one another. Connor acts arrogant and his actions show that he's not in tune with what the heroine truly wants which puts into question if there is consent with some these sexual scenes. She doesn't really appear to respect the guy and only agrees to prolong the marriage to save her family rink. it isn't really clear if she truly falls for Connor or just manipulated.

This was a fun but quick read; I finished it in a day. There were some slow periods but nothing too bad or anything that made me stop reading. The sex scenes are pretty graphic and yummy! Lily Jones's dad owns a failing rink that the Atlanta Edge Hockey team practices on. She never lets her hair down and the first time she finally does she wakes up in vegas hitched. But not hitched to just anyone; hitched to Atlanta Edge player, Connor Ellison, hes known for his pranks and girls he takes home. PR has had enough and threaten to bench him; which as a healthy player, benched is career suicide. So Connor and Lily are stuck together for about 6 months. They quickly warm up to each other and are soon in puppy love, as noticed by everyone but them. They have some minor troubles to work though to have their happily ever after. I really enjoyed this book but the last chapter had me questioning it. Due to that chapter alone I had to deduct 2 stars.
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SPOILER TO FOLLOW: (about last chapter)
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Her best friend's friend (who she tolerates but isn't close with) reveals that she gave Lily a roughie! YES A DATE RAPE DRUG! She even goes a step further and says that since Connor was drinking out of Lily's drink; it was a bonus! 2 for 1 special. I kidd you not. this was hard to look past.

Despite the fact that I know next to nothing about ice hockey, I do seem to enjoy these 'hockey romances.' I haven't read one by Carla Swafford before, but she seems to know her stuff (as much as someone who hasn't a clue can judge that is).
Fake Play is a fake relationship romance. This genre can be difficult to convincingly set up, but for the most part this one worked. I did wonder why neither of them could remember what had happened, but that was explained towards the end. The idea with this one is that after a drunken night, these two strangers end up married to one another. Connor, our ice hockey star, needs to remain married to help counter all of the stories about his wild lifestyle. Lily needs his help to save her families ice rink, so agrees to play along.
I liked the romance between these two. Connor, in particular, is quite a sweetheart and he soon wants far more than the fake relationship that they're playing at. It takes Lily a little longer, but they still worked really well together.
This isn't a perfect romance. We never find out what inspired them to marry in the first place and unlike many from this genre, there's no sudden crisis that brings everything right. In some ways it was a nice change not to have that.
I enjoyed Fake Play and I'd be more than happy to read more from Carla Swafford.
I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I love a good sports romance and a relationship of convenience, so the two together made for a fun read! I also love when both leads play the sport, so it was great to see Connor and Lily connect over hockey and watch their love for each other grow out of that,

Totally loved this book... Some steamy scenes. Connor and Lily are such great characters! My heart went out to Lily about her mom.... Connor being a man who wants to live his life on his own merits instead of depending on his parents... Though now I'm going to be looking forward to Connor's teammate and Lily's friend...

This was a quick read...good characters, decent storyline. While sometimes it felt a little fluffy without a lot of depth, I enjoyed it and will look for more.

So this one started off strongly for me. I thought the two main characters had good chemistry.... hated how he was used by ‘friends’, but he needed a flaw besides the drinking. And then this story went downhill for me. Even skipping around didn’t recapture my attention. I barely finished this one. After the strong start, I’m so disappointed by this one.
Could just be me though.

Two strangers wake up in Las Vegas on New Year's day to find out they've gotten married overnight. Connor Ellison is a winger on the NHL team in Atlanta called the Edge. Neither his coaches or management have been happy with his off-ice shenanigans. He's already been warned that he needs to clean up his act or he could be put on waivers to be made available for a trade. Lily Jones wants nothing to do with Connor in spite of the insane attraction she feels to him. He finds an incentive for her to stay married until the team finishes the hockey season by offering to save her family’s ice rink from bankruptcy.

This book is a fast-paced read and I liked how the romance between Connor and Lily grows, as the spend time with each other. Both are children of former NHL stars, so they have more in common than they first realize and it works well in the plot. It's a worthy escape for a few hours with the perfect amount of steam!

I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

After a rowdy night in Vegas, Lily wakes up next to a hunk of a hockey player with a rock on her finger and no memory of what happened the night before.

This was just okay. I wanted more intensity, more angst, just more. I felt the pacing was a bit too quick for my liking as I prefer slow burn romances more. The various connections could have been explored more.

The epilogue ruined the book for me as it felt like the author needed to very quickly squeeze in the premise for the next book and it just didn't work.

“Fake Play” by Carla Swafford is a great romance novel that keeps you reading because you want to know what happens. Lily and Connor end up married in Las Vegas after a drunken night that they do not remember. Connor is a professional hockey player and Lily is from a hockey family so they have a lot of similarities. Will they get divorced after the Stanley Cup or fall in love and stay married.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for this review.

2.5 - 3.0 stars

One of my favorite romance tropes is waking up married in vegas! Add in an unfortunate fugue state AND married to a professional Hockey player and I am SO in! I love being able to discover new authors and Fake Play had absolutely so many boxes checked for me.

The basic premise is this Connor Ellison and Lily Jones wake up completely obliteratingly hungover in Vegas after a night they sort of remember but not really with the irrefutable evidence of their marriage. As it so happens, Connor and Lily actually have a lot in common. They are both children of retired Pro hockey players and while Connor plays for the NHL, Lily works at her family's rink and has a fairly prestigious past in the hocket realm herself. Due to some excessive pranking on Connor's part, he's on thin ice with the team and another big scandal could be disastrous for his career. So, he (and his PR team) proposes that he and Lily stay fake married until the end of the season.

This book covers a range of difficult childhoods and familial relationships, constant parties and puck bunny blunders, life, death, and the illusive fugue state reveal.

::Sigh:: I hate to give bad or less than stellar reviews on newer authors but here goes. While we had good basic bones of the story... it needed a lot of editing to smooth out the story, awkward verbal conversations, sexual situations, and just the general flow. I felt zero chemistry between Connor and Lily. I knew what inner monologue state the author was going for but it felt very textually forced and well, it all just needed a lot more finesse.

I do look forward to more by the author and hope to read more from this series.

*ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*