Reading After Dark ~ Play It Again by Ashley Stoyanoff ~

en days ago, someone threw a brick through my front window. Nine days ago, someone keyed my truck right in my driveway. Eight days ago, someone spray painted the words ‘stay away’ across my garage door. That one really pissed me off. The jerk didn’t even have the courtesy to tell me what the hell I need to stay away from.

Each day it’s something new, a new piece of my property vandalized, and I’ve had enough.

Wanting a security system, something with cameras so I can catch the vandal, I let my best friend hook me up with her cousin, a private investigator with the PRG Investigations team.

His name is Vance and I’ve secretly been in love with him for three years. He’s a badass, a little scary, incredibly hot, and he’s never showed an interest in me … until now.

Quick confession. I read Play It Again without reading book one.

In my defense I DIDN’T KNOW! I was reading a sample (for some mysterious reason), didn’t check goodreads, and iBooks didn’t tell me it was part of a series so I just jumped in! Now, in al honesty I followed the story just fine with only just being introduced to the characters and would but I hate reading out-of-order so it really bugs me.

Now that I have that off my chest (seriously I needed that) I can tell you about Play It Again. In all honesty Play It Again wasn’t all that great. The story was quick, extremely predictable and for NA it definitely does not get one “hot around the collar”. Truthfully the only reason it’s getting two stars is because overall, I needed a story like this. Something that was simple to follow and that didn’t require all my concentration to keep up with (looking at you high fantasy!). I’ve been in a bit of a slump and Play It Again helped pull me out it by reminding me that stories can be light and shallow (that sounds worse than I meant it) but at the same time they can be exactly what you need.

The book actually started off really good! Piper, is sweet and nice and quiet and sadly she’s had a stalker vandalize her property for ten days straight without a single clue as to why. In comes Vance, Jase, and Wes. They own a PI firm and, since Vance it the cousin of Pipers best friend Kim, they obviously jump into action to help her. They install a high-tech security system, pull in favors, track people down and do whatever they can to help get to the bottom of Piper’s problem. Of course this is also around the time Piper and Vance develop a “thing” and you get to see this big tough guy get all soft and gooey. Not exactly a new spin on a story told many times in different ways but it was still somewhat enjoyable all the same.

Sadly, Play It Again just had too many things working against it for me. First there was the “chemistry” between Piper and Vance. I appreciate awkward let’s get to know each other attraction. But Piper, a smart business woman who was confident yet humble, being constantly awkward and unsure/intimidated in Vance’s presence kind of annoyed me. Then there was the whole “who’s terrorizing Piper” thing; which was 100% see through very early on. I seriously didn’t even have to work in guessing who was behind the vandalism! In fact the vandalism part (amongst many others) kind of felt half done. Like Stoyanoff forgot half way through the book that she had added this earlier and was just trying to save face towards the end. There were so many things that I personally felt were just brushed off, but they could have been explored and discussed and it would have added such depth to the story! Things that could have helped me as a reader better connect with the characters and maybe let me see from each characters prospective better. Alas, this was not the case my lovelies. If it weren’t for the fact that this helped me out of a slump I probably would have knocked it down a half a start but it had its desired effect. I wasn’t looking to have my socks knocked off or to be pleasantly surprised or anything even close to that. I just wanted something that was light, quick, and would help with this slump and that is exactly what Play It Again was.