Friday, June 6, 2014

Review for GROOMING THE PLAYER by Allie K. Adams + Giveaway


"Someone needs to be stabbed in this scenario to really liven up the story." - Emma Rae

Grooming The Player
Campus Players #1
Author: Allie K. Adams
Published: March 24, 2014
Source: author for review

Purchase Links: Amazon - B&N - Kobo - iTunes

Don't hate the player...

Bainbridge University sophomore, Emma Rae, embraces her title of perpetually single. All the guys at BU are total players, and if there's one thing Emma hates more than anything, it's a player.

Learn to play the game...

Ryan is tired of being the embarrassment of his frat house. Being a Delta means he should be playing the field, a different girl every night, just like the rest of his frat brothers. But he's the king of nerds, as they constantly remind him, and has never even had a real girlfriend. Hell, he isn't even allowed to live in the Delta house, instead living in a mod behind it.

He begs Emma to turn him into a player. In return he'll bring her to the Delta DASH--the party of the year. As an underclassman, Emma isn't allowed to the DASH without a Delta escort. She quickly agrees, knowing she can turn him into anything, as she's done with so many of the ghosts of boyfriends past.

She updates his image, teaches him how to flirt, how to kiss, and even how to drive a girl wild with his heated touch. She's groomed Ryan into the ultimate player, which is exactly what he wants.

The problem is she turns him into exactly what she wants too and must now decide whether this Project Em's Way is her greatest creation... Or her ultimate downfall.




Funny story... The night I started reading Grooming the Player, I was chatting with a friend about movies from the 80's that we both loved. No joke, one of the movies we both adored was Can't Buy Me Love. About 2 or 3 chapters into Grooming the Player, I say to my friend... "OMG! This book is totally the new adult version of Can't Buy Me Love!" And then I preceded to imagine Patrick Dempsey playing Ryan. By the time Ryan and Emma have sex in the book, I was grinning ear to ear. I adored this book for several reasons. First of which, was Ryan. He was genuinely a good guy. I did not want him to turn into a player. He was perfect just as he was. A male nerd is not something we see often enough in romance books. Although he was still sporting some hot abs, but the image of him playing video games with his online friends will forever be how I remember him. The second reason why I adored this book was the fact that we get both Ryan and Emma's point of view. My own pet peeve with new adult romance is that they are usually only from the girl's point of view. I also love knowing what it going on in both character's heads. Especially when they are fighting and flirting. That is always the best.

Then there was Emma... I have to say that I really had a difficult time liking her for parts of the book. The scenes where she's being herself, Emma is amazing. She's a supportive friend and she can be a rockin' girlfriend. But then, she flips the bitch switch and I really did not like her. When it is the bitchy Emma, she runs hot and cold with Ryan. For example, it was her idea to turn him into a player by pretending to be Ryan's girlfriend. The second he shows any sign of affection, she pushes him away. I did end up liking her for most of the book (and I loved her in the 2nd book), However, there was one scene at the end of the book where I felt Emma took things too far. Someone should have slapped some sense into her and I would have been first to volunteer. 

Overall, I really adored this book. The idea of Emma trying to turn Ryan into a player when he ends up teaching her a few things was a lot of fun. I loved Allie's style of writing and the simple fact that neither one of these characters were rich college students. *grin* 




Allie K. Adams is the bestselling author of several award-winning stories. An active member of the search and rescue, as well as previously served as a reserve deputy, Allie has firsthand experience in most of the dangers she writes about. Known for her highly erotic, deeply intense suspense romances, she can be found most days in front of her computer, saving the world one sizzling story at a time. She grew up in Seattle and now currently lives in southwest Montana with her husband, two kids, and two fluff ball dogs.
She loves to hear from readers and encourages them to reach out to her through her website at www.alliekadams.com.


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