* Review * PLAYED by Naima Simone

I voluntarily read an early copy of this book.

Played by Naima Simone
Published by Montlake on September 3, 2024
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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.

 

Fast paced and attention grabbing! Let me start this review by saying that I adore Naima Simone and her writing as a whole and I adore hockey romance, so I went into this book expecting to LOVE it … but sadly it just wasn’t a hit with me. It wasn’t the plot as a whole because I loved Adina and Solomon both and their storyline and surrounding drama was spot on. The disconnect for me came from how slang filled the writing style was, how much race talk there was, how those things distracted from the heartfelt goodness that was pouring out from these characters as they co-mingled on their journey of healing and rediscovery. I walked away loving the characters and their happily ever after, but the route to get there was super choppy and a tad painful. I love snark, I love REAL … but I need things to make sense without having to dissect every sentence and to have a point other than to just be preaching a platform. This book won’t stop me from picking up a Simone novel again because she’s been the bomb many times in the past, this just isn’t my favorite.