All right, so let's get on with my review :P
Power Play by Deirdre Martin
published by Berkley in October 2008
They were acting when they met. They dated under false pretenses. But their attraction was all too real.A leading soap opera actress, Monica Geary is good at faking it. But pretending to fall for NHL star and notorious playboy Eric Mitchell is going to be her hardest role ever. Yet she has no choice, for she desperately needs an edge in order to maintain her daytime diva status.
Eric Mitchell is a man in demand. First he was traded to save the New York Blades, and now the publicity department has loaned him out to help save Monica Geary's career. What no one knows is that one of People magazine's hottest bachelors is also a closet soap opera fan. He's had his eyes on Monica for years-and can't wait to get his arms around her.
Genre: contemporary romance, sport romance
Series: Blade series, Book #8
The Story: Eric Mitchell has just been exchanged to the New York Blades with a very well-liked player. His new teammates and the fans have not warmed up to him yet and his cocky attitude is not helping. As a result, he needs some good PR. Monica Geary is a soap opera actress who's been on the W & F for 10 years and has kind of taken her role for granted. Now that her position in the soap opera is threatened by a younger and bustier actress, Monica realizes that she's been neglecting her fans and PR. As a result, Eric and Monica are thrown together by publicist Teresa Dante and have to fake going out together.
My Opinion: I've been in the mood for sport romances lately and Ms Martin is well-known for her hockey romance novels... I wasn't much of a fan Chasing Stanley, her previous release, but I've seen some good comments and reviews for Power Play and so decided to give it a chance.
Power Play was an okay book. The basic idea of the book wasn't bad, throwing two persons who needed publicity together to increase their popularity. What didn't work however are the two main characters... Unfortunately, Eric is the typical jock where he thinks that he's God's gift and has a very cocky attitude. I don't even think he knows the "real" him anymore and that is sad ^_^; He didn't have much layers and personality in my opinion. As for Monica, I thought she was annoying. She's a soap actress and is at a status quo in her career. She has this idea that being a day-time actress is not good enough, that it's not real acting; however, she is comfortable with her career, drawing a steady paycheck and doing what she loves, acting. My problem with her is that I thought she was superficial... doing "fake" things to attract attention from journalists to keep her face out there. I guess I would have been okay if she always did it, but in this case, she's renewing her relationships with fans and public only because she feels threatened. She did allude to this, saying that she felt bad and if it was wrong, but in the end, it's still the path she chose.
Basically, I thought the two main characters were hard to relate to and not very likeable. The storyline is quite predictable as well where Monica and Eric eventually fall in love after spending time together... Monica getting kicked off of W&F because she refused to sleep with the new producer therefore losing her role to Chesty... Of course, there are some good parts to the book... I enjoyed seeing the hockey players watching the soap drama and getting very involved, LOL. I also enjoyed the W&F script which was so unprobable :P Eric's attempts to win back Monica were very sweet, but it's the whole "How come she didn't fall for it?" afterwards... I mean, are you kidding me? You really think that it's going to be enough to win her back? The last scene where Eric proposes was very nice though...
My Grade: C... Just an okay book with an okay plot, but not very likeable characters. I doubt that I'll ever read this book again :(
