Most Valuable Playboy

Ballers and Babes, Book 1

By: Lauren Blakely

Narrated by: Jason Clarke, Andi Arndt

A brand new production of Lauren blakely's first ever sports romance now in duet performed by Jason Clarke and Andi Arndt!

When I enter the Most Valuable Playboy charity auction, my goal is simple—be the player who goes for the most dough. But when trouble shows up at the auction, I need a whole new play.

Enter Violet—she's my best friend's sister and she's my close friend too. With a smile as sweet as cherry pie and a mind that runs quicker than the 40-yard-dash, Violet saves the day with the highest bid. I don't even give her a two-minute warning before I kiss her in front of the whole crowd and then announce that she's my girlfriend. Which would be fine except my agent tells me we've got to keep up the act while he's negotiating my contract.

Violet takes one for the team and pretends to be mine, and soon our boyfriend-girlfriend scrimmage quickly turns into a full contact sport.

But falling for her wasn't in the playbook…

©2024 Sourcebooks (P)2025 Lauren Blakely Books

Phenomenal listen!

Sports romances are so much fun, always the handsome athlete gets the hot, popular girl. This friends to lovers story is a wonderful twist on the story, giving a fresh look at the star quarterback. Lauren Blakely has a way of writing that takes us inside the hero's vulnerability and shows the true heart of the character. Cooper and Trent have been best friends forever. Trent's little sister Violet has been part of their group too, knowing Cooper better than anyone. When a situation arises that pushes them together, the sparks that have been smoldering since childhood ignite. And Lauren Blakely makes those embers HOT! The question is, can their situation result in a happily ever after? Cooper and Violet give you that feel good rom com I love from Blakely, and look forward to the next in this series.

Andi Arndt and Jason Clarke narrate this book in duet and it's perfection! I love this team! Arndt is Violet and she is spot on as this woman! A bit of a flirt, she knows her heart and is ready to give it to Trent. Clarke is Trent, he becomes this player. I love the conflict, the emotions of dealing with his best friend's sister, and their hearts as they fall in love. The comedic timing of this pair could not be better and it was an amazing listen!

Love this the second time around!

I loved the 2025 (from 2017) updated story of a QB, and his best friend's sister.

I absolutely loved this friends to lovers tale. As is her M.O., Lauren gives you the sweet with quite a bit of dirty (wink!). Cooper is an all around good guy, but in addition to leading his team hopefully into the playoffs, he's worried about his impending contract end/renewal. He's got family, friends, and teammates depending on him to keep it cool, but Cooper's working overtime to keep everything balanced.

When Violet (Cooper's best friend's sister) helps him out at a charity auction, she ends up kind of not denying she's Cooper's girlfriend. Violet has known Cooper since she was in elementary school, and they've been good friends ever since. In order to help her brother's buddy out of a sticky situation, Violet agrees to pretend to be his girlfriend. They both do a great job pretending, until they're not, and that's when the fun starts.

With the original narrator of Andi Arndt, Lauren brings in Jason Clarke this time to play our favorite QB. I love his smooth, sexy voice, and the way he brings life to not only Cooper, but Trent, Jones, and the rest of the gang.

No spoilers, but I devoured this story--not surprising w/LB books. The story was happy, funny, so sexy, and there's football! Five stars!!

Duet Touchdown!!

Cooper and Violet’s story is the reason we all love a Blakely sports romance story!! The first foray into the lane and it’s a touchdown !! I love the refresh the story took on. Andi Arnt never disappoints and she captures Violet’s vulnerability and sass perfectly! Jason Clark can do no wrong in my book and continues to throw the perfect spiral in this role as well. Sexy… Confident… Alluring… He captures Cooper in every word he others!!

Friends to lovers through a necessary rouse is always always a fun trope that I gravitate to and the story does not disappoint! Lauren Blakely is a Mastercraft woman in this arena and she won the Super Bowl with this new twist on an old favorite!!

Cooper & Violet - long time friends to lovers

Jason Clarke is my favorite, absolute top male narrator. Andi Arndt is my favorite female narrator. 'Nuff said, right? They do a fabulous job in this book, which, while told primarily from Cooper's POV, is still a duet with Andi voicing Violet whenever she has dialog.

Cooper Armstrong is an NFL quarterback, first year as a starter. Football has been his life, long supported by his mom. His best friend since 2nd grade is Trent, and Violet is Trent's sister. Cooper has always considered Violet a friend, but one night at a bachelor auction for charity, Violet has to come to Cooper's rescue to save him from an aggressive, borderline stalker-type local radio host.

Violet kisses Cooper at the auction and it lights up everything in his brain that used to only light up for football. As Cooper's team approaches the last few games of the season, hoping to clinch a playoff spot, they start spending more time together. They don't really have to get to know each other, but they get to a point where they each realize that they've actually been hiding deeper feelings for one another for a very long time - longer for Violet but we know boys are usually slower to catch up on these things ;)

No dramatic 3rd act breakup, just the tiniest little miscommunication that is resolved within just a few pages.

This is a FUN feel-good story with quite a bit going on in the spicy scenes too.

Sweet Scale: 5/5
Spicy Scale: 4/5

⭐️⭐️ 5 STARS ⭐️⭐️

Duet narration with Jason Clark and Andi Arndt on an audiobook I already loved, YES PLEASE!

This story made my heart smile and my insides a little mushy! It was a very sweet friends to lovers story with NO drama!!! I love how Lauren Blakley can give us a beautiful romance without the need for the unnecessary drama added just for excitement.

Cooper is a great character for me because he is rich and well known but he doesn't act it! He didn't use his money to impress her and the money didn't change who he was. He still hung out with his friends, focused on his love for football and was a complete momma's boy in the best way!
Violet might be my favorite character! She is strong and confident. She stuck to her feelings, never trying to hide behind them or had insecurities! With her business, her family and her love life she always seemed to do what felt right and didn't really play "games". She knew who she was, what she felt and she didn't try to fight it! These too had great chemistry and I think that stems from the years they have known each other. I love friends to lovers because the love is not instantaneous and it is so easy to feel the love between the characters because you know it's not just physical attraction after all those years! Although I will say this book was light on sex but the few scenes it had were very hot!

The narration was spot on as always! You can sure tell the author is an audiobook listener, it shows in her casting choices!

Even better in duet!

Most Valuable Playboy is book 1 in the Ballers and Bakes series and brings us a football romance that will hit you in all of the feels! Cooper is such a great guy who just happens to be sweet, sexy, fun, and one of the most eligible bachelors on the team. Violet is the perfect spunky, confident, strong, beautiful, sexy woman. Together they are perfection! This story has so many great tropes I knew I would love it: Friends to lovers, fake to forever, forbidden - best friend’s sister…all of the best ones! These are characters I would want to know because they are flawed and learning, vulnerable and strong, and they are beautiful humans who make the world a better place. I love it!

Lauren delivers another beautifully written and perfectly casted audiobook that had me hooked from beginning to end. Cooper + Violet are a wonderful couple with the perfect voices to bring them to life. This re-release narrated by Jason Clarke and Andi Arndt brings new life to a wonderful story I already loved. Their duet performance is absolutely delightful!!

5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I loved the dynamic between these two and liked that they were childhood friends first.
But also, Violet is his best friend's little sister which puts a bit of a wrench into the situation.
What I love about Lauren’s writing is that she doesn’t give us the norm, meaning you would expect drama around her being the sister to his best friend but nope we don’t get that at all. I love this about Lauren’s writing.
Cooper himself is the one with his inner voice reminding him who she is and why they can’t happen. But attraction and lust throughout the years had its toehold and isn’t going anywhere any time soon.

I very much enjoyed that they had their secret signals it made their story unique.
In a lot of sports romance books, I have been listening to lately the author tends to forget about the sport or the teammates and I really liked that we get a glimpse into his team, his coach and even the gameplay itself.

Lauren always surprises me in all the best ways. Very low drama it was a fantastic sports romance with game scenes!!
Jason Clark and Andi Arndt did a lovely job with these two unique characters and I for one want more from both narrators.

Football Romance.

I so love a friends to lovers romance, Lauren Blakely is the master of writing these type of books. She has the knack of balancing the banter to flirting to wit and adding in a dash of angst. Most Valuable Playboy is special because of these reasons but also it is set in one of my favourite cities - San Francisco - and with Lauren's descriptions, I felt like I was back there again.

Let me tell you about Coop! Cooper Armstrong is a mans man, who is very career orientated being a quarterback, and committed only to football. He is loyal, dedicated and extremely dependable. He has a small group of friends that he would do anything for, and vice versa. It's funny when you don't know what you're missing, until it is right under your nose. Violet Pierson is not only a close friend, but she is also Coop's best friends little sister. They already have a special bond growing up together, but when having to pretend to be a couple, this brings out Cooper's lovable side. The flirting is so exquisite I couldn't put this one down. Violet has her own business and is a very independent woman, but when she is with Coop, she is putty in his hands. I loved this couple and also enjoyed the banter between the players. Another mentionable component to this novel is the sports aspect. It was so interesting to get a behind the scenes insight to American football.

This edition has been re released with an updated audiobook that I loved listening to. LB has taken the time to bring this amazing book to another level with the changes and the narrators being Jason Clarke and Andi Arndt did a brilliant job with these characters. This is definitely one for all Lauren Blakely fans, but also for all lovers of rom-coms. Highly recommend it.

Sweet fun rom com

Most Valuable Playboy is a friends to lovers sports romance. Violet bids on Cooper in a charity auction to save him from a sports reporter who has been giving him unwanted attention. They end up in a fake dating situation and the romance sparks from there. This romcom was fun to listen to with plenty of heat and sweet moments.

Andi Arndt and Jason Clarke narrate this book in duet and are wonderful. You cannot go wrong with these two. They brought the romance and chemistry between the characters to life and I enjoyed both of their performances!

So cute!

I loved this book! I would’ve liked to know more about what Violet was thinking but it was still good.