Played

By: Naima Simone

Narrated by: La'Rey Aris, Sean Bassett

Length: 11 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's summary

USA Today bestselling author Naima Simone heats up the page with intensity and wit in this romance between a pro hockey player and a firefighter, both struggling to move on from the past.

Being a firefighter isn’t easy. Especially for a Black woman. Working with family helps a little. But when somebody from your company doesn’t come back from a call, it’s brutal—as in, “How’m I supposed to go on?” brutal.

And one death took me to a really dark place.

A year later, I’m at the Pirates’ hockey training facility. Just another day on the job. Until I find a charred journal. I look inside for the owner’s name, but the words on the page punch me in the gut. It’s like reading my own thoughts. Reliving my own pain.

The journal belongs to Solomon Young, left-winger for the Pirates—a father and widower. When I return it, I’m racked with guilt for the invasion of privacy. The look Solomon gives me is cold as ice.

But damn if that man isn’t hot as hell.

Now he’s stuck in my brain. And fate seems intent on making us face off.

©2024 by Naima Simone. (P)2024 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

“This touching, funny, sexy novel from Simone is a joy to read and is sure to be popular…” —Library Journal (starred review)

“Naima Simone stuns with this heartwarming romance about a woman firefighter and a hockey player. Solomon and Adina's romance is just the right mixture of humor, angst and heat. An exhilarating literacy experience.” —LJ Shen, Wall Street Journal bestselling author

“Unputdownable. I was either giggling and kicking my feet or feeling my heart squeeze at the poignancy. Maybe the best hockey book I’ve ever read.” —Kenya Goree-Bell, bestselling author

Slow Burn 🔥

This was a slow burn but it made it so much better. The narration was excellent! They really encompassed the characters.

I could not stop!!!!

OMG!!! The narrators are AWESOME!, especially the male narrator. His voice was panty dropping sexy!!!! Give me all the books he’s narrating !!! This book had me hooked from beginning to end. Do yourself a favor and LISTEN to this audio. It makes a huge difference, I promise!!!! It’s everything.

Played

I really enjoyed Adina and Solomon’s story. I’m a fool for a good hockey romance and I loved that Adina was a bada** female firefighter. Both have lost their partners and while Solomon has played the field and isn’t looking for something serious, Adina is wondering if she’s ready to get back to dating. These types of books always make me think….what if? The author packed in a good balance of each of their personal lives and then getting to know each other. My only complaint was that I felt the ending was abrupt. I did flop back and forth between the book and audiobook. Overall the audiobook was performed well. I wasn’t a huge fan of the female narrator and how she accented certain words when it wasn’t written that way. Khalil absolutely stole the show.

Grief can take hold and never let you go

This book has all the feelings. There were moments when I could feel the MFC’s pain. And by the next sentence I was laughing so hard until I was crying. This is a great story.

Yes!!!

I absolutely loved this book. I was drawn in from the beginning and didn't want to put it down. Adina and Solomon were supernova hot together. The narrators brought this book to life. I wasn't ready for their story to end and want more.

Loved all the characters

Sports
Single dad
Widower
Firefighter MFC
Enemies to lovers
Grumpy MMC



Adina - working in a make dominated field is hard enough as a black woman but when your father and brother were working stationed in the same house, it didn’t make it easier. When she lost her fiancée to a fire, her job was what kept her going. She was at a standstill in her grief until she found a journal of another person’s story of grief.
She personally returned the journal but instead of being grateful, the owner was rude and offensive.

Solomon Young - widowed NFL player with a young son and in laws that like to cross boundaries. He has a hard time expressing his feelings so, the journal was his way of letting things out. When he realized Adrian read his journal, he did not react well. After two years he is still struggling with his loss.

As the story continues and Adina and Solomon grew closer they had to deal with the guilt of moving on and the fear of getting hurt again. I loved the realness of their feelings. They didn’t just jump in, even though the chemistry was smoking. Not only do they have to struggle through their own emotions, but there are others who try to get in their way.

Both characters were great. They both made some bad decisions that caused unnecessary hurt. Solomon let Adina down more than once. She held her own with him and cut him loose when it got to be too much. She felt like she had to handle things on her own. She had a great support system but didn’t use it. Her job situation almost caused her to lose her life.

And the side characters were great. They added a bit of lighthearted humor. Solomon’s son was adorable. Everyone needs a friend like Monie!!!

All the horniness was getting in the way of a good story

This was a DNF for me. The story sounded really fascinating but I couldn’t take all the “my dick is hard from her voice” and “I have to squeeze my legs tight when he looks at me” and that’s all from barely even speaking or getting to know one another! It’s not hot! It’s annoying! The fact that Adina is a firefighter was definitely something I wanted to know more about. A woman of color in a predominantly male career is interesting and I was looking forward to hearing more about it. All I got was that she was a firefighter in the same house as her dad and brother and that’s it. No description of her state of mind working along side men, facing danger and the stress of being “enough”. Nope. Just, “oh I want to climb that hot hockey player!” I got more information with the hockey player and even descriptions of hockey drills and practices! Do better! Stop insulting your readers! We’re not constantly needing a play by play of the sex moves these characters want to do to each other when they barely like each other!