I've officially added another series to my favorites list.  This is the 2nd book in the author's Kate Green series.  I read Lights Out last year and absolutely loved it, but I loved this one even more! 

Sports reporter Kate Green is back, and her new assignment is covering women's Olympic soccer.  She's definitely familiar with the sport since she used to be a professional player before an injury ended her career.  She also used to play with the USA's head coach, Savannah Baker.  This should be an easy story to reestablish her career.  But when famous jewelry designer Alexa Kane is found dead in the locker room, things get very complicated.  Kate, Savannah, and Alexa have a history.  They played on the US youth national team together, but Alexa quit soccer a long time ago, and they haven't spoken in years.  What was she doing in the stadium?  Kate starts to investigate with the help of her estranged father, an NYPD detective who has secrets of his own.  Will Kate be able to find out what happened without putting her own life in jeopardy?

This book was SO freaking good!  I seriously couldn't put it down!  I was so invested in the story I read it in one sitting!  It's totally bingeable, filled with mystery, suspense, and lots of drama!  Told in dual timelines, there's never a dull moment and the twists!🤯  Kate Green is such a great character! She's definitely become one of my favorites.  I seriously can not wait for book 3!  If you're looking for a highly addictive crime thriller, this is it!  I HIGHLY recommend this book!

Second in a new series about sports reporter Kate Green , Dangerous Play scores big as a character driven whodunnit mystery with many twists and turns. Kate is chosen to cover Women’s Soccer at the Olympics. The field at Yankee Stadium is being converted to a soccer pitch for the occasion. In Kate’s teen age years she was a promising soccer player who was selected for the US Youth National Team. The present Olympic coach , Savannah Baker, was a teammate of Kate’s. Hard feelings and long kept secrets have caused a rift between the two. And then…..a third former teammate, and Kate’s roommate at the time, Jewelry designer Alexa Kane is discovered murdered in the locker room ice bath. What on earth was she doing at the stadium? Who would want her dead?

Fast paced and totally engaging, this book is hard to put down as Kate finds herself once again trying to unravel a complicated situation. Her estranged father ( Liam) is a NYC police detective assigned to this case, so the two work together as in Kipness’s first book. While father and daughter unofficially team up to solve the murder, background is revealed in a second timeline during Kate ‘s own soccer playing days. So many memories. And a very big secret Kate has held in for way too long.

Smart, savvy, self driven Kate is able to juggle her job, family, recent boyfriend David, and amateur sleuthing, epitomizing how a strong woman can indeed have it all. It’s impossible not to love Kate. Elise Hart Kipness shows her strength as a writer as she weaves a tale that is more than just a murder mystery. Important societal issues such as family estrangement, bullying, lying, child abuse, rape and the personal toll of keeping deep dark secrets are all addressed with insight and compassion. While this book is the second of a series and is definitely a stand alone why not treat yourself to the debut, Light’s Out? I know I am hooked on this series. Four twinkling stars for a book that’s an engaging read. It was published on September 17, 2024 so you can read it NOW. My thanks to Netgalley and Thomas Mercer Publishers for and advance copy in exchange for my review.

The story itself was interesting, but I had a hard time focusing while reading it because it was much more sports-oriented than what I was expecting. I wish I had known this was the second book in the series, because there was definitely some context that was missing that I feel would’ve been helpful.
I was also pretty disappointed by the twist, it was predictable and didn’t really shock me.

Overall it was a quick read, but I probably wasn’t the target audience for this.

The book is unputdownable, suspenseful and gripping. Before a former teammate was found dead. Now, a famous jewelry designer Alexa Kane. The mystery is deep and the two case seem to be connected. Kate is a sports reporter and she is covering women’s Olympic soccer. Kate’s attempt to investigate and solve the mystery not only brings her life at stake but dark secrets, past, and buried truth comes on surface too. Twists were unpredictable . I liked reading about Olympics. The characters were interesting. I didn’t see some of the twists coming. The book takes us a really dark and suspenseful turn and the ending was scary and clever.

Thanks to the Author and Publisher

Former Olympic soccer player, Kate Green, is now a reporter on assignment covering the US Olympic soccer games. She had previous experience playing with the coach, Savannah Baker, so she hopes this will be a career changing story. However, the story takes a different turn when Alexa Kane, a famous jewelry designer who also played with Kate and Savannah, is found dead and Kate’s past and present suddenly collide, making this a page turning whodunnit murder mystery!

This book is the second one in the series but can totally be read as a standalone. I enjoyed the dual timeline. It really showed just how much the girls went through to make it as Olympic players and it gives a glimpse into the past relationship dynamics between Kate, Savannah and Alexa. I loved Kate’s character and her determination to get justice for Alexa and make up for past mistakes. As she works with her estranged father who is a police detective, she tries to uncover the truth, and in doing so, realizes more than one person has been keeping secrets. Why was Alexa even there in the first place and who would want her dead? This is a page-turner with short chapters which make it so easy to read! If you love a good murder mystery, give this one a try and find out just what happened to Alexa!

Elise Hart Kipness proves she is no one hit wonder. Dangerous Play, her sophomore book will be another fabulous success. I absolutely loved her debut Lights Out but dare I say this one might be even better?

Elise has created an amazing character, Kate Green, a sports reporter who does am amazing job as an informal detective, solving crimes and getting herself in sticky situations along the way.

I love the premise of this series in that its sports themed mysteries. This is Book 2 in the Kate Green series and I really wish I had read Book 1 first. But I was still able to get a good picture of what happened in the prior book which I will go back and read now. I was pleasantly surprised by the Jewish rep in this book as well. As for the actual murder mystery, I thought it was well written. The way it played out was something I guessed at earlier in the book but not the actual culprit. The murder solved around the 90% mark which is interesting. There was a secondary mystery as a subplot and that goes on a bit longer than the main mystery.

I like the character of Kate Green and also love that she's an older protagonist than a lot of these types of books focus on. I hope future books explore more of her love life as well. Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for the ARC!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨ (4.5/5)

I recently finished book #1 and I really enjoyed it. The 2nd book in the series is 𝗗𝗔𝗡𝗚𝗘𝗥𝗢𝗨𝗦 𝗣𝗟𝗔𝗬 and I just finished that one too! I think I liked the 2nd book better because in the 1st you’re getting to know the characters more but in the 2nd you get more into the crime at hand and also get a bit more knowledge about the characters and people aren’t always who they seem.

The way they find the body in this one actually shocked me and the timing couldn’t have been worse for these characters.

I think another reason I might gravitate more to the 2nd book is because I love soccer and am not really into basketball but honestly it doesn’t matter because Kate Green is where it’s at. She’s a great protagonist. I liked hearing about her time with friends at the soccer camp.

The audiobook on this one is excellent. Very well done. I also love authors who aren’t wasteful with words, Elise gets right into it and her books don’t have fluff or filler to hit a page or word count and I cannot tell you how much I as a reader appreciate that. She gives you enough for the story and character development and keeps it flowing.

This is a cool series and I’m pretty excited that I got to have a sneak peek and hype it for Elise! This is absolutely a series I’ll continue (and I don’t typically do series’ lol).

Dangerous Play by Elise Hart Kipness was a great thriller!
This book definitely held my attention the whole time. I would put it down at night and couldn’t wait to pick it back up.

This is the second book of Kate Green series. Even though I haven't read the first book of the series, I read this book as a standalone.

Kate Green is covering the sports news for the Olympic football match between USA and Argentina. However soon, a body is discovered in the locker room and Kate realizes that the body belongs to a woman named Alexa Kane, a popular jewelry designer. Kate, Alexa and the coach of the football team Savannah has a history with each other. With the help of her estranged father, Kate must dwell into her past and find Alexa's killer.

This was really a fast-paced thriller. There are some twists and turns and the whole story as a whole was engaging and entertaining. I like how the story is divided into the present day and past, the past talking about Kate's teenage years when she first met Alexa when they were both competing for the soccer. I like how there are numerous suspects in the story, particularly Savannah who had bullied both Alexa and Kate during the matches. The ending was completely unexpected. The whole teenage friendship between Alexa and Kate was realistic particularly when Kate failed to help Alexa when Alexa was bullied. The story touches about bullying, sexual assaults in general.

Overall this is a page turning thriller that will keep you up all night. Worth 4.5 stars.

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the book. The review is based on my honest opinion only.

📚: Dangerous Play by Elise Hart Kipness
⭐️: 3.5/5 (rounding up on #goodreads)

The gist: Sports reporter Kate Green is back, this time covering women's Olympic soccer. Kate herself is a former Olympic gold medalist, and has close ties to the women's soccer coach, Savannah Baker, a former teammate and frenemy. Ties become even closer and secrets from the past bubble to the surface when Alexa Kane is found dead in the training room after a game - another former teammate of Kate & Savannah's. And one look to each other in passing between police interviews says it all -- don't say a word.

The good: This police procedural thriller has a great pace, complex characters, and multiple plots that kept me interested and invested. I admittedly haven't read Kipness's first installment in this series (Lights Out), and while this spoiled that book a bit for me, I'm looking forward to picking it up to catch up. That said, I found firsthand, that this book works as a standalone, although I'd recommend learning from my mistake and read Lights Out first.

The eh: The reveal felt flat - the pieces came together nicely, but as the truth finally unfolded, it was more of a, "oh..." moment than an "ah-ha" moment. For me, this lands it at a rounded up to 4 stars vs. a solid 4 star rating.

Thanks to Thomas & Mercer via @netgalley for the digital ARC in exchange for an honest review. Dangerous Play comes out this Tuesday 9/17.

And I’ll tell you, I know you will love this thriller!!! There are so many twists and turns that will keep you guessing till the very end!!! I was totally hooked and could not stop listening! This is a must add to your TBR!!

Thank you NetGalley for the advance reader copy!!!

Kate is covering the soccer games in the Olympics and has a especial role in working with the US Soccer Olympic team, however, the coach is not a person who she really enjoys to talk to as she was bullied in the past by her. In one of the games, Alexa, one of Kate's best friends when she was in the Olympic Soccer team, is found dead in the stadium. Kate will team with her father and investigate Alexa's murder to bring the justice to her family and to settle their past. A story full of twists and turns, mystery, greed, envy that will entertaining the readers, even the ones who are not soccer fans.
I thank the author, her publisher, and NetGalley for this ARC.

I am totally obsessed with Kate Green! Elise Hart Kipness took home the gold medal with this sequel to Lights Out. What could be better than a strong female lead, sports, and a little murder. I cannot wait for next installment because I know it’s going to be great. Literally, could not put this book down. Cannot recommend enough.

After reading the second rip-roaring mystery about sports reporter Kate Green, I would have known without being told that author Elise Hart Kipness was a former sports reporter herself. The book is overflowing with the authentic detail available only to the subject matter expert. Some of the very best parts describe the pressure of live reporting from a dynamic scene while simultaneously coordinating with producers and technical staff back at the broadcasting station. These sections will give readers a new appreciation for live action reporters, who make what they are doing look easy.

The book tells two stories, one about Kate Green the budding soccer star who helped bring an Olympic gold medal home years ago, and the second about an older Kate Green who moved on from the game and turned her experience into a live network sports reporting career. The first thread describes the grueling training Olympic hopefuls and their families endure, and the cutthroat competition among the players for a few coveted places on the final team.

The second thread takes place in the present during the Olympics summer games being hosted in New York, where Kate gets the on-air reporting assignment because the coach of the U.S. soccer team is one of her former Olympics team mates and Kate’s management assumes she will be able to capitalize on the relationship to gain access to the team and exclusive material.

One of the U.S. soccer players is displaying shockingly poor sportsmanship and creating a disruptive locker room, and the media’s focus is on her antics until the body of a former Olympic hopeful from Kate’s playing days is found in the medical treatment area underneath Madison Square Gardens. Both Kate and the U.S. soccer team coach knew the victim well at one point in their lives, and naturally the police assume they had something to do with the death. Not unnaturally Kate decides to investigate on her own.

Kate’s father, who had chosen his law enforcement career over his marriage when Kate’s mother gave him an ultimatum, is active in the investigation and he is Kate’s source for forensic information. So often in amateur sleuth mysteries the nonprofessional relies on a police boyfriend, a device that has been overused, so supplying a parent as an inside source is a refreshing change.

Another good bit is the incident involving the release of false information. While it was pulled within the hour, the release was so deliberately sensational that it spread like wildfire across the Internet and did some damage. Some pointed comments about the media’s responsibility in stopping misinformation instead of chasing ratings were completely on target.

I realized about two-thirds through what the motive for the killing was, which pointed at an obvious culprit but other readers may well not be as jaded as I am. Even so, the strength of this very good mystery is in the portrayal of the cutthroat world of Olympic sports and the similarly vicious ecosphere of network media.

🍂Book review 🍁

Dangerous Play
by Elise Hart Kipness


"Dangerous Play" by Elise Hart Kipness is a gripping sports thriller that pulls you in from the start. The story follows sports reporter Kate Green as she finds herself entangled in a murder mystery at the Olympic women’s soccer locker room. With a dual timeline, the book delves into Kate's past as an Olympic soccer star while unraveling the mystery of her former teammate Alexa Kane's death. The pacing is fast, and the plot keeps you guessing with twists and turns. I enjoyed how the soccer backdrop added to the story but didn’t overwhelm it—this is definitely a thriller at heart. The dual mysteries, both in the present and from Kate's father’s past, add depth and complexity. Even without reading the first book, I found this story engaging and easy to follow. Perfect for fans of crime fiction, sports drama, and strong female leads. Looking forward to the next in the series!
Very grateful to the publisher for my copy, opinions are my own

Thank you to ThrillerBookLovers The Pulse, Thomas & Mercer, #partner, for an advanced e- copy of Dangerous Play in exchange for my honest review.

I loved the 1st book in this series and was excited to get my hands on this 2nd installment and it did not disappoint. And while this can be read as a stand-alone, I highly recommend reading Lights Out first so you can fully appreciate Kate and some of the side threads running through this book. ⁣
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This time around, we delve into the world of soccer and this is a sport I actually know, though I will say, it is not necessary to have any knowledge of the sport. While this can be considered a sports thriller, it really is a crime fiction/thriller at heart and the soccer is just the vehicle used to tell the story if that makes sense. ⁣
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I loved how we have a dual timeline to weave a captivating tale of the pressures that athletes face at all levels of the sport. I was equally invested in both timelines, finding myself so caught up in where we were at any given point, I didn’t want to switch when the switch would occur. ⁣
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This book kept me guessing as to who the guilty person was and I loved that. I definitely had my theories and it was only as the pieces started coming together did I begin to see where it was going – though I didn’t get it all figured out. ⁣
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This is a fast-paced thriller that keeps you engaged from start to finish. I can’t wait to see what comes in this series!

Thanks to #NetGalley and #Thomas&Mercer for the book #DangerousPlay by #EliseHartKipness. Alexa and Kate were on the same competing soccer teams growing up. Kate has since played in the Olympics and is now a big time sports reporter. When Kate is covering the women’s Olympic Games, Alexa ends up there dead. Is this something to do with things that happened at the soccer camp years ago or is something else to blame

Check out one of the latest reads from Thriller Book Lovers—The Pulse! You won't want to miss "Dangerous Play" if you love thrilling mysteries or the Olympics. Even if you haven't read the first book in the series, "Dangerous Play" stands strong as a standalone.

Follow the gripping story of Kate Green, a former Olympic soccer player turned sports reporter, as she stumbles upon a shocking discovery during her Olympics coverage. A mysterious murder brings back memories from her past, and before long, she finds herself entangled in a web of secrets and scandal.

This page-turner kept me hooked with its cleverly intertwined timelines and a secretive journal filled with jaw-dropping revelations. Plus, thanks to the publisher's generosity, I had the pleasure of experiencing both the ebook and audiobook versions. The audiobook narration was top-notch and brought the story to life in a new way.

And check out the amazing book bling that the author sent over! It was like unwrapping a box of treasures. Who wouldn't love receiving such fantastic book goodies?

Thanks to Thomas & Mercer/Brilliance Audio and Elise Hart Kipness for providing the gifted ARCs through NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Reporter Kate Green, former Olympic soccer star, is conducting interviews at Yankee Stadium, where the Olympic soccer games are taking place. She heads to the locker room to talk to Coach Savannah Baker, a former teammate and the current team coach. Kate discovers Coach Baker and the team's current superstar, Quinn, in the therapy room along with the dead body of Alexa Kane, a former friend of Kate's and another Olympic team member. Kate calls her father, Liam, who is a NYPD police officer and a task force is immediately organized. Alexa is a social media giant, with her own jewelry label and there are too many suspects to investigate. Who benefited the most from Alexa's death? As Kate digs into Alexa's past, she uncovers a lot of secrets and she regrets the time she missed with Alexa. An interesting look at the competitiveness and difficulty of competing at the Olympic level for young women (or any athlete, for that matter). This is the second book I have read recently narrated by a media person; the other was a radio personality. I wonder if this is a new trend in mysteries.