18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
PLAY WITH ME - a reading pleasure, January 8, 2007
This review is from: Play With Me (Paperback)
STILL WATERS
Catherine Maderis, sedate museum archivist, finds herself in a sticky situation after making a pact with her two best friends Kallie and Gina, to meet again in one year, after they've each made their wildest, naughtiest fantasies come true. Catherine has set her sights on Phillip Trent, a long-time friend who has been asking her out for some time. Phillip intimidates Catherine with sheer potent maleness; he is an alpha male to the core and quiet, reserved Catherine has been just too shy to go out with him. Catherine proves to be a provocatively sensual woman underneath the delicately cool facade and Phillip finds himself struggling for gentlemanly restrain whenever he is around her.
SKIN DEEP
Kallie Bradshaw sets out to seduce her best friend, Beau Donovan, in keeping with the pact she made with Catherine and Gina. Kallie has wanted Beau for more than just a friend for a very long time. This seduction could prove difficult seeing how Beau treats her like a sister. Little does Kallie know that Beau is equally interested in her. He had just decided to do something about it when Kallie shockingly makes the first move. The odds seem to be against the young lovers and both begin to question their relationship, and whether they can successfully take it to the next level.
PARTY GIRL
Gina McCutchen reluctantly agrees to go on a cruise in an attempt to keep her end of the three-way pact made with her best friends Catherine and Kallie. They both took their chances at love and came out on top. Gina doesn't have high hopes for this cruise to be the shoehorn for her glass slipper, but she's determined to give it her best shot. When Trey Lipman ends up on the same cruise, Gina is briefly convinced that her trip is destined for certain ruin. An encounter with Trey a few years earlier left Gina shamed and humiliated. It turns out that Trey's rejection of Gina before was simply an effort to protect himself because he cared for her. He still cares for her but isn't sure that there will be time on this cruise to get through the barriers that Gina has put up around her heart.
Janice Maynard has put together an excellent collection of stories that mesh well together. Her characters are always extremely likeable and so well-suited that you can't help but give them a mental push towards each other.
I give the highest of recommendations for this book - anyone who enjoys incredible sensuality, sexy fun and romantic settings will adore this book.
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13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Don't miss this sexy, playful read!, January 7, 2007
This review is from: Play With Me (Paperback)
Janice Maynard has done it again!! If you haven't purchased this book you have to run to your nearest store and get it!! Three women friends all different, physically and personality wise, they decide to make a pact on their 29th birthday. All three put their plans in motion but fate steps in to give them something more. This book has all the ingredients I enjoy in a romance, heat, heart and humor, I just love the way she tastefully put the sex scenes together and the way she made all three stories sound so different to match the characters and at the same time made them follow the theme on the book. This is another keeper for me, like all her books. There is also an excerpt of her next book (Improper Etiquette) that I cant wait to read!! Way to go Janice!
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8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
5 Klovers! Courtesy of CK2S Kwips & Kritiques, February 20, 2007
This review is from: Play With Me (Paperback)
Lifelong friends Catherine, Kallie, and Gina celebrate their twenty-ninth birthday together, ending the evening by toasting a pact. The three women have vowed to each other that each will pursue their deepest, most intimate fantasies before they celebrate their thirtieth birthdays together. But none of them could anticipate what happens next...
Fantastic! If I needed to sum up Janice Maynard's anthology Play With Me in one word, that would the first to come to mind. This is the kind of book that has you immediately logging on to the author's web site to make a list of all the other books you need to buy immediately, then digging for your car keys to high tail it to the book store!
Although Play With Me is essentially an anthology, Maynard weaves the three stories together with a clever connecting storyline, weaving the tales together seamlessly. Prefacing the stories with an intriguing prologue whets the readers' appetite, and the author succeeds in polishing off the three tales with an immensely satisfying epilogue.
~Still Waters~
Catherine grew up painfully shy, a result of a childhood speech impediment that made her a target for bullies. While she has overcome her stuttering, she is still a social wallflower, in spite of her great beauty.
Phillip once pursued Catherine relentlessly, but after Catherine's repeated rejections, has finally stopped asking her out. Catherine was too frightened to accept his attentions before, but the pact she made with her friends insists she indulge in one night with him. Will Phillip still want her? And if he does, can shy little Catherine handle a man like him?
I think Still Waters may be my favorite of the three stories, although I loved each of them. Shy of love and relationships, Catherine is a woman I found very easy to relate to. Watching her take a chance, and bolster her confidence for a fleeting moment in order to reach out and fulfill a long-held dream is inspiring.
And speaking of `inspiring', Phillip is a man sure to inspire many a fantasy in readers everywhere. A surprisingly sensitive Alpha male, it is no wonder that Catherine sets her heart on him. I think I lost a little of my heart to him as well...
~Skin Deep~
Tagging along with her older brothers and their friends to baseball games guaranteed Kallie a role as just one of the boys. Now she has realized her romantic feelings towards one of those friends, Beau, and isn't quite sure how to change his perspective of her from `little sister' to that of a possible lover...
Beau has always liked Kallie, but knew her brothers would kill him for trying anything with her. But after being just friends for fourteen years, he can't deny his growing feelings for her and is determined to find a way to take their friendship to the next level. Little does he know about Kallie's pact with her friends...
While not as traditionally romantic as the first story, Kallie and Beau's tale is no less heart warming. Indeed, this story about love blossoming between a pair of best friends while they fear losing their friendship is just as rousing as the other two stories. What better way to start a relationship than as best friends? But their fear of losing each other's friendship is palpable, and Maynard pays due attention to the couple's very real concerns regarding both their friendship and their budding relationship in Skin Deep.
~Party Girl~
Spoiled, rich party girl. That's how the world sees Gina. No one sees her for who she really is, and that's the way she likes it. Her friends think Kallie will have an easy time fulfilling their pact, but little do they know Gina's maneater persona is all a ruse.
A workaholic, she lets her friends convince her to take a cruise in order to find a way to fulfill her part of the pact. The last man she ever expected to find on the same cruise is the one who once crushed her dreams, while changing her destiny...
They say you can never go back again, but Janice Maynard proves differently with the story of Trey and Gina in Party Girl. With this delightful pairing, she gives us a couple who have made their share of mistakes in the past, but have learned from them, and grown past them enough to try again.
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