Dare to Play

Dare to Play (Dare Nation 3)- Carly Phillips

CP Publishing

Release Date: October 6, 2020

Rating:  📚📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: Pitcher, Jaxon Prescott has a lot on his plate. Major League Baseball. Reputation as a player. And now? He’s on the verge of losing it all. He didn’t mean to sleep with his general manager’s daughter or get into a brawl that was captured on camera. But his notoriety is a problem and everything he's worked for is at risk. 

What’s a bad boy to do? Marry his sister's best friend to save his career, even if it’s the opposite of everything he wants and believes in.

Macy Walker is the sole guardian of her half-sister until the girl’s mother returns and wants her daughter back. In order to win custody, Macy needs to provide stability and marrying someone would do the trick. Luckily for her, her best friend’s brother needs a wife.

They're this close to getting exactly what they want - as long as they don't fall in love.

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Macy Walker has been her teenage half-sister's guardian for nearly a year. Now the girl's mother is back and claiming to want custody- and prepared to bribe and cheat to get it.  Jaxon Prescott is a Major League Baseball player with a reputation off the field for being wilder than his team's head office would like.  Both need the image of a stable family to help them move forward. A marriage of convenience seems like the perfect solution. Only one rule: no emotions involved.

Macy Walker has been taking care of her half-sister since Hannah's mother walked out on her, and been the sole guardian since their father died.  Between playing the parent and her work on web design, Macy doesn't get out much or have anyone to help back her up when Hannah's mother, Lilah, shows up again claiming she wants custody and bribing Hannah with expensive buying sprees.  She's a strong character who can handle a lot of stress, but is not too proud to lean on others when she needs help. Jaxon is a star baseball player with a reputation with women, and a few too many off-field antics for management.  But when you get to know him, he's more a wounded, unsure guy still trying to protect himself from an abusive father and the others who have let him down along the way.  Each of the Prescott siblings is dealing with their father's shadow in different ways, and this is Jaxon's. He thinks no one will choose him when the going gets tough. So why put yourself out there? He and Macy click beautifully together and I love how Macy shows through her actions that she will be there for Jaxon when he needs her. Their chemistry is perfect and the story is fast-paced and lovely, flowing with the wit and emotions readers expect from Carly Phillips at her best. 

As far as marriages of convenience go, how can you go wrong with two people who like each other, have excellent chemistry, and instantly have each other's back through incidents that might send others fleeing? Answer: you can't. Dare to Play may be Carly Phillips' first marriage of convenience trope book, but she hits all the right buttons and then some.  A stand alone in the Dare Nation series, characters from other books have cameos that will make series readers happy and won't confuse new readers. The ease and chemistry between Macy and Jaxon flows beautifully from each page, both in and out of the bedroom, and shows what a true partnership can be between the right people.  Even before they realize they are right for each other. A must read romance!

 

I received an ARC of this book from Booksprout in exchange for an honest review