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Play With Me

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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.

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!

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.

Play with me is the most recent anthology by Janice Maynard who pens entertaining, romantic, sexy, hot, sensual stories. Three long time friends make a pact that in the year before they turn 30, they each must make one of their deepest, secret fantasies come true. How these three friends go about fulfilling this pact is a fun read.

STILL WATERS the first story is about Catherine Maderis who is inhibited, reserved by nature, self-contained, and not accustomed to throwing caution to the wind. Catherine must over come her shy and introverted ways to approach Phillip Trent, who has tried repeatedly to take her out, but has always struck out. Phillip is astonished that now Catherine is coming to him, but he certainly is not going to turn his back on her, although he wonders about this turn of events. But he feels that if he treads gently, now that he has the window of opportunity, they can finally see where this powerful, sexual chemistry between them will take them. The road is not a smooth one, but Phillip is determined to make this work as no one has ever affected him the way Catherine does.

SKIN DEEP the second story is about Kallie Bradshaw who must seduce the man of her dreams. Although how she is going to go about this feat, when that man is Beau Donavan, who has always looked at her as a best bud and little sister. She wanted him to be more, but what if he was horrified and embarrassed it would ruin their friendship forever. Unbeknown to Kallie, Beau was thinking that friendship sucked because he had feelings for her that were not platonic. Their common love was baseball and it was at the baseball game that Kallie decided to go for broke and made a suggestion that so stunned Beau that he looked at Kallie in disbelief. It is a pleasure to watch Kallie and Beau discover that they set off enough sparks to ignite a fire in dry wood. But is it the real deal or just the reaction from a knock in the head?

PARTY GIRL the last of the trilogy is about Gina McCutcheon. Gina has had to overcome a lot of problems in her life. Her best friends send her on a cruise despite her fear of water and her tendency to burn while sunbathing, thinking this is the ideal way for Gina of fulfill her fantasy and her pact. Imagine how devastated she was to discover after setting sail that Thomas (Trey) Lipman the Third was also on the cruise. Apparently his grandmother had given him the cruise because Trey was a workaholic and never relaxed. Trey had hurt and humiliated Gina six years prior and she had never forgiven him. Trey on the other hand was remorseful for being such a jerk and thought this might be his opportunity to prove it. Gina is horrified to find that she still has feelings for Trey and what she thought was hatred isn't. Watching Trey and Gina work through their problem from the past and act on the sexually magnetic and down right intimate chemistry between them is a pleasure.

Janice has done it again; she has penned three stories of friendship, love, and understanding. This book is a terrific read and will not disappoint. It has romance and heat with an ending that is a definite "sigh" moment.

Play With Me has three delightful and sexy stories by Janice Maynard.

Three friends are celebrating their 29th birthday and make a pact to fulfill their wildest fantasies by their big 30 birthday.

Catherine Maderis is the cool reserves on in Still Waters. She has had her eye on Phillip Trent for some time. This pact has her going outside her comfort zone to pursue Phillip. What she doesn't know is Phillip is just as attracted to her. What follows is a sensual awakening for Catherine and a deep abiding love for them both.

Skin Deep has artist Kallie Bradshaw setting her sites on her best buddy Beau Donovan. Can she get him to see her as a woman? Beau does see her as more then just a friend and when he read Kallie signals he makes her wildest dreams come true. These two friends stumble into love with funny and sexy results.

Gina McCutcheon in Party Girl has tried to put her wild youth behind her. She takes a cruise hoping to meet her fantasy man. She meets a man all right, the one man that rejecter her and broke her heart, Trey Lipman. Trey couldn't believe his luck in getting a second chance with Gina. He decides to right a wrong. Will he be able to make Gina see he loved the girl she was but loves the woman even more?

Play With Me is a romance lovers dream book. These three hot and sassy stories that are funny as well as sweet. Janice Maynard is a must buy for me.

Play with Me by Janice Maynard is one novel with three separate love stories. Three life-long friends decided on their 29th birthday that they need some spark in their lives. They decide that before their 30th birthday they will fulfill there intimate fantasy. Each woman takes their fantasy and makes it a reality. I was pleasantly surprised that this was R-rated book but not over the top. Enjoy!

If you enjoy this genre check out; Curveball by Kate Angell, Beach Blanket Bad Boys by Linda Lael Miller and A Wedding In Paris by Barbara Bretton

"Prologue". In Charleston best friends Catherine Maderis, Kallie Bradshaw, and Gina McCutheon are all twenty-nine and single so they vow to make love with their fantasy lover before their next birthday.

"Still Waters". Museum archivist Catherine has never tasted love. Extremely shy she goes after her secret fantasy, business mogul Phillip Trent, who makes her dreams sexual thoughts. Catherine invites him to be her escort to the museum's Midsummer Night's Masked Ball.

"Skin Deep". Artist Kallie feels good that Catherine is engaged, but five months have passed since the pact and she still has not told Beau Donovan how she feels about him. She knows he thinks of her as his best buddy. Beau must let Kallie know he finds her very attractive. He pays their friends to not join them as they usually do when they go to watch the Savannah Sand Gnats play baseball.

"Party Girl". It has been nine months since the pact has been made and Gina has no one so she agrees to go on a cruise and find someone to have sex with. Also on board is family friend banker Thomas "Trey" Lipman III who six years ago rejected her advances when he ripped her for being a party girl. He tells her he is proud of her charity work that he has followed; she in turn thanks him for showing his contempt six years ago making her wanting to change. He apologizes as he says he wanted her then and wants her now.

"Epilogue". The three friends thank one another for pushing them to go after their fantasy man.

The three tales are fun as each of the couples is likable and the interactivity of the three novellas through the female friends adds to the understanding of their personalities. Though there is limited conflict, readers will enjoy these women pursuing their fantasy.

Harriet Klausner