The Set Piece

By: Catherine Lane

Narrated by: Abby Craden

Smart and athletic, Amy Kimball should have it all, but her life's in a tailspin. She's working two menial jobs to make ends meet, barely a paycheck away from financial disaster, and women aren't exactly lining up at her door.

Enter soccer star Diego Torres, who's keeping a big secret: he's gay. His manager fears that if he's found out, his endorsements and his chance to play for the national team will evaporate into the wind.

Amy jumps at the chance to act as Diego's fake fiancee, even though it means signing her life away in a non-disclosure agreement. On the surface, the job couldn't be better: the money's great; the living accommodations are luxurious, and she gets to watch her favorite soccer team from the players' box at the stadium.

But she soon realizes that this new life is even harder to navigate than her old one. Diego's manager is as sleazy as they come, and this easy job soon turns complicated, possibly even dangerous. More important, all the lies Amy is forced to tell are starting to eat away at her soul, especially when she finds herself attracted to Casey Palmer, Diego's pretty assistant.

Will Amy find the courage to get back into the game?

Contains mature themes.

©2016 Catherine Lane (P)2022 Tantor

Abby Craden is a fabulous narrator.

Abby presented another good book into a great experience. She understands and expresses the emotions like only she can do.

Different,Entertaining and no angst

Enjoyable story by the author and great narration, worth the time. Buying the authors next book

Great love story ❤️

True friendship, lies, extended family & a little mystery. All included in this fabulous story ❤️❤️. As usual, a book read by Abby Craden it’s a hit on my personal list. She sounds so sexy and can make so many different voices, it’s a delightful sensation.

Excellent Storyline

Being athletic myself, I could relate to the events. The struggles were real. The romance is believable. Even portrayed some mystery.

The narration was superb.

A Very Different Sapphic Romance

This is a thought provoking novel. In some ways, an indictment of sports and celebrity culture, in other ways a celebration of the resiliency of a group of friends to wend their way and make family in exigent circumstances.

The main characters are lovable and believable. The romance feels right. The inside peeks into elite soccer contribute to the overall experience.

The angst is external and the end believable.

I am glad that I read this story.

Always a pleasure to have Abby Craden's voice in my ear.

Really good!

I enjoyed this story.. took a little while to get going with the MCs relationship development but still entertaining to get there. Really sweet how intense they were about each other. Would have loved to “hear” Casey’s thoughts/side as well, but still an overall good listen with excellent narrator.

Complicated but fun romance around soccer

I listened to this audiobook. I found it enjoyable. Abby Craden was excellent as usual. I caught a few small mistakes but don't know if they were the author's or narrator's. The story is fun but also deep. I didn't really find any faults with the story. The characters all seemed very likable and real. I just hope the Simon situation improves. I'm just going to imagine that it does. This was a short book but compelling. I'm glad there is a happy ending all around. I liked the soccer bits. And I loved Mia and foot golf. Is that really a thing? I loved Dulce. I also loved the main characters' realizations at the end about life and how they want to live it.

It's just not worth the time or money.

I've been a fan of the narrator for a while, so that wasn't a problem, even though it is the same two main voices in every story they read.

My real issue is the story itself.. it felt rushed. I had several moments in the beginning where I had to ask myself if I missed something. Because a lot of things happened with very little-to-no buildup.

There was no real feeling of suspense and the bond between every character felt skin deep at best. None of it really sat right with me, especially since I liked a similar book by this author that felt like it had better everything.

Don't even get me started about the sexual harassment that was glossed over for plot reasons and had no real impact on the characters themselves. Like if someone molested me that would fuck me up for days if not longer, but all it really did to the story was move the plot around haphazardly.

The story hadn't really bothered me until the ending when I felt like I had wasted 6 hours of my time on something without nuance or proper pacing. It's kinda the depth you'd expect in a raunchy smut, but those have shown more depth than this story had. It was also very male gaze-y to me. You can't go two chapters without some small detail about boobs.

I just can't recommend this to anyone. Also I want to emphasise, that this could just be me. I have liked a different book by them, this one just fell short for me by a wide margin. I do hope this author continues to write though. They tell unique stories that I like seeing. I just wish they slowed things down a bit and made each scene count more.