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The Play
- Narrated by: Ana Osorio, Teddy Hamilton
- Length: 12 hrs and 11 mins
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Summary
A brand-new stand-alone novel in the New York Times best-selling Briar U series!
What I learned after last year’s distractions cost my hockey team our entire season? No more screwing up. No more screwing, period. As the new team captain, I need a new philosophy: hockey and school now, women later. Which means that I, Hunter Davenport, am officially going celibate...no matter how hard that makes things.
But there’s nothing in the rulebook that says I can’t be friends with a woman. And I won’t lie - my new classmate Demi Davis is one cool chick. Her smart mouth is hot as hell, and so is the rest of her, but the fact that she’s got a boyfriend eliminates the temptation to touch her.
Except three months into our friendship, Demi is single and looking for a rebound.
And she’s making a play for me.
Avoiding her is impossible. We’re paired up on a yearlong school project, but I’m confident I can resist her. We’d never work, anyway. Our backgrounds are too different, our goals aren’t aligned, and her parents hate my guts.
Hooking up is a very bad idea. Now I just have to convince my body - and my heart.
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What listeners love about The Play
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Becca
- 29-01-22
Best in the series
seriously funny, I laughed out loud on multiple occasions. it wasn't that spicy - and I really loved how hunter redeemed his character from past instalments.
only small annoyance was that Teddy Hamilton cannot do a female voice with a light Spanish accent, kind took me out of it when he had to speak her parts.
3 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 14-08-23
50/50
I almost DNF this book but I love Elle Kennedy and I’m too stubborn not to finish the series. It was nothing to do with the story itself (although, Demi was infuriating) and everything to do with the female narrator. She made it sound like a children’s book, didn’t even try to do male voices and continuously mispronounced words. The editors should’ve picked up on that too. It all did this book and Elle Kennedy a huge disservice. As always, Teddy Hamilton was stellar in his performance.
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- Dub4747
- 26-03-23
Annoying lead female character
I couldn’t get past just how annoying Demi is. I never warmed to her and am actually hoping for a follow on book where Hunter dumps her!
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- Lisa
- 04-12-22
Another great addition to the series
I have loved this series so far, and preferred some to others. This was a great story with really good characters. I loved Hunter. He’s funny and gorgeous and supportive. I liked Demi although I found her a bit irritating at times. I did like how both characters communicated well which ensured any misunderstandings were cheated up quickly which is refreshing.
I was however disappointed with the female narrator. She isn’t great. Her reading style was a bit monotone and the acting not great. She also pronounced a lot of words incorrectly, which I found frustrating. Teddy Hamilton was great though.
I’m sad I only have a couple more to listen to in the two Briar U series, but I’m really looking forward to Connor’s story.
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- Maddie
- 02-12-22
Not my cup of tea
I've not read much of Elle Kennedy but if all her books are like this I will be steering clear. I have never read a book with a more obnoxious main character than Demi, Demi is the ultimate pick-me girl who does not understand consent unless it applies to her and thinks every man is obsessed with her. She's just one of the girls who "find it easier to hang with boys instead of girls" and "can eat anything without ever putting on weight". I really tried to like her character but my god she was insufferable, she does not respect her, albeit sleazy, boyfriend when he said he's tired, and then when pursuing Hunter she does not respect his vow of chastity to try and be a better person. I could write a dissertation on how much I hate her character but that's the spark notes version.
Hunter was a semi-decent character, I could respect what he stands for and how he just wants to do what's best for his team and his personal growth. But like every other male character in the book, he becomes obsessed with the damp dishcloth that is Demi and tries to establish his boundaries but is taken advantage of by her disrespectful and coercive ways. If the genders were switched we would be outraged but as it's a woman pursuing a man it's suddenly okay?
I disliked that there wasn't much of a story, it was just Demi is cheated on, Hunter is an ice hockey player, Demi and Hunter become friends, and Demi wants Hunter as a rebound but Hunter is celibate. Demi manipulates Hunter to sleep with her and enter into a relationship. Demi disrespects Hunter's wishes and connects him to someone to pursue a different career from what he was looking at, without consulting him previously. Demi believes she is the best psychologist, even though she's a college student. Demi is upset when she is unable to diagnose her friend's depression because she is so self-absorbed she ignores all the clear signs.
Performance-wise, I found it hard to listen to as Demi's portrayal leaned into the whiney pick-me girl and tried to emphasize her Latino heritage at the most random times. Don't get me wrong, I am a white woman so I can't comment on cultural differences but I found it disrespectful. I may be wrong and I don't want to offend but I felt like the performance and the novel did nothing to pull away from the disrespectful stereotypes that are out there. I really struggled to enjoy her chapters but I don't know if it was due to the narration or the story.
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- whatcha.listening.to
- 29-12-19
The Play
Demi & Hunter
This was an interesting book, I couldn’t get enough I never wanted to press pause. This couple went from friends to lovers and those are truly my favorite kinds of stories. I loved the other two books but I think this might just be my favorite.
Demi is so outgoing and Hunter is so set in his ways he doesn’t even see her coming. The humor in this book was great too. I love that it wasn’t too serious. They could poke fun and it was still sexy.
There was this one very serious scene and I am glad it was in here because it showed Demi’s depth as a character not that we didn’t already see it but it was just that little extra push.
I LOVED the narration, it’s no secret Teddy is a favorite of mine but it was Ana Osorio that hit it out of the park for me. I don’t think I have listened to her before or if I have I never put two and two together. I will be looking for more books by her you can’t bet your booty.
11 people found this helpful
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- Lori E.
- 15-05-20
Teddy Hamilton's narration was the best part!
I hesitated to write this review, but I was disappointed with this audiobook. Teddy Hamilton's narration was wonderful! He does a great job with tone and inflection. I lose myself in the story and feel what the characters are feeling whenever he narrates. Plus his voice is wonderful to listen to! The female narrator was a disappointment. Her voice was fine, but she mispronounced words frequently. I found myself cringing and waiting for it each chapter she narrated. I also thought she used the wrong emotion or tone many times. Her narration actually distracted me from the story.
I am a fan of Elle Kennedy and her Off-Campus series were some of the first audiobooks I loved. I purchased this book even though I did not like the second Briar U as much as the The Chase. Then this book sat in my library for four months and I couldn't get into the story. I finally listened to the whole thing and it felt like a chore. I had a hard time connecting with the characters. There were parts that I thought were unnecessary and others that I would have appreciated more details. For example, Hunter's relationship with his parents. It's discussed but there were no scenes with his parents. Demi's interactions with her parents were frequent, but her relationship with her father confused me. Demi's father treats her like she is smart and strong one minute and then belittles her the next?
I didn't feel warm and fuzzy and satisfied at the end of this book. I just felt relieved it was over.
8 people found this helpful
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- Pam
- 08-07-20
Mispronounced words
I cannot get past the way Ana Osario mispronounces words. Is there no one directing her performance? The story was good and Teddy Hamilton is solid but I will avoid books that she reads from now on.
5 people found this helpful
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- Family
- 06-07-20
So-so. Mispronunciations annoying.
Most people who enjoy listening to books enjoy language. We want to hear language as it is meant to be spoken. So when someone mispronounces words such as “executive” (ex-i-CUE-tive??) or ambiguity (am-BIG-u-I-ty) we get annoyed. It takes us out of the escape that listening to a book provides. Teddy gave a very good performance, but Ava’s reading was just that—a reading, not a performance and the number of mispronounced words was very annoying.
As for the story it was good, though not as good as “The Risk.” It was almost a little boring. I found myself wanting to hear more about the shenanigans of the rest of the hockey team than I did about the female character’s angst and irritating friends & family.
Worth a listen if you have run through the rest of the AE package, but not worth a credit IMO.
4 people found this helpful
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- Denise
- 20-01-20
Just okay.
Elle Kennedy is my go to author for an escape from reality. This book however is not her best work. This was a stand alone book, however since she kept referring to previous characters and relationships I think it is helpful to have listened or read her previous works in this series. I listened through Audible Escape, so I did not use money or a credit. This is worthy for Audible Escape, but I would not buy or use a credit.
3 people found this helpful
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- Stephanie Salmeron
- 24-03-21
Hopefully the author reads this
Being hispanic i was very happy to learn that the main character was Cuban but very disappointed in the way she described the main character , like if she needed a man & be bitchy & needy it was so annoying & then on top of that not really give the girl a real dynamic ! Just saying if you are not hispanic & was to write ab a hispanic character please please get to know a hispanic person spend time with them & really see what walking in someone els shoes feel like !
2 people found this helpful
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- Jaleesa Jackson
- 10-01-21
Female Narrator Really Takes You Out Of It Sometimes
The best Briar U story out of the first three (and I liked one and two)! However the other reviewers are right, the female narrator really hurts the story. Her inflections are off (sometimes she sounds like she’s laughing at something serious). The biggest issue is her mispronouncing medium-level words like waft, griped, and executive. She was also in consistent in Greenwich and Malone (the latter was mispronounced not 30 seconds after pronouncing it correctly).
I think I understand why they went with this narrator (sounds more college-aged and this was a POC heroine) but I had to decipher some words and was surprised she got harder words correctly. A narrator shouldn’t take away from the story like this.
The plot was funny and fun. Teddy Hamilton was great!
2 people found this helpful
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- Kindle Customer
- 03-07-20
Ugh the narration!
Story was okay. Male narrator was okay. The female narrator mispronounced so many words that it was painful to listen to this book. The mispronunciations were incredibly distracting.
2 people found this helpful
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- Conveniently Tongueless
- 30-12-19
Pervasive mispronunciations
Hockey star meets smart girl in a relationship. She breaks up with her boyfriend and gets with jock. Nothing else happens. I don’t know if the major conflict was supposed to be their relationship status, his celibacy or their superficial differences, but none of those devices caused enough conflict to warrant telling a story. I liked the characters even though they were pretty flat. I liked the diversity of the heroine. I don’t see that every day, but it didn’t work. It all lacked something. The story was just ok, but it had the potentiality be better, especially with the likes of Teddy Hamilton voicing the male main character.
My sound quality was garbage, though. It skipped and stopped over and over. When Osorio’s grossly negligent pronunciations are added, I was pulled out of the story far too often to get invested. Ms. Kennedy has mined the Briar U campus of all it’s worth. And by the abrupt nature of the ending and epilogue, I think she realized it about forty chapters too late.
2 people found this helpful
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- Reine
- 22-04-22
Loved the story.
I loved Demi and Hunter’s story. Their chemistry and banter was off the charts. Thanks, Elle Kennedy for adding diversity in your writing. It’s nice to see everyone represented. It would have been nice to see more of Demi’s Afro Latino culture. Most African’s and Lantino really embrace and love their culture. Just a tiny bit of research would have given you insight on how to include that. I also wanted to see Hunter’s family and his relationship with his dad. But still the story was an amazing read and listen. It’s still a 5 star.
1 person found this helpful