PLAYING DIRTY

For fans of Bared to You and Beautiful Bastard comes the start of an irresistible new erotic romance series in which competition is the ultimate seduction.

Shaw Matthews plays to win, and he intends to snag a coveted partnership at San Diego's hottest sports agency by signing America's top athlete. Only one woman stands in his way: rival agent Cassidy Whalen. But eliminating the competition will be Shaw's pleasure when he concocts an ingenious plan to seduce Cassidy and show the beautiful ballbreaker who's the better man for the job. That is, until Cassidy turns the tables—and their steamy encounters start breaking all the rules. 

Cassidy has worked hard to make it in a man's cutthroat arena, and she isn't going down without a fight, not even against the six-two alpha hunk whose rock-hard body awakens desires she's never known before. As Cassidy shares night after night of unending passion with Shaw, the game begins to change. Now Cassidy stands to lose everything—unless a fiery contest of wills can become a winning proposition for two people who keep raising the stakes. 

Playing Dirty is an erotic romance intended for mature audiences.

Release Date May 12, 2015

Monkey Business Trio #1

Random House Bantam

I was provided a review copy from the publisher through NetGalley. C.L. Parker is a new-to-me author and I was excited to give her new series a try.

I really loved both Shaw Matthews and Cassidy Whalen. The animosity between them was so intense, I knew they wouldn't be able to stay away from one another. I loved how competitive they both were at the sports agency. Both Cassidy and Shaw work so hard to land Denver "Rocket Man" Rockford for their agency, knowing the partnership in the agency is on the line.

I could totally feel the mutual attraction between Shaw and Cassidy even as they were hating on each other and fighting to land Denver as a client. There is a fine line between love and hate, and the passion between Shaw and Cassidy seems to run along those same lines. Shaw and Cassidy couldn't seem to keep their hands off one another, yet continued to act as if they hated one another. In fact they had some pretty hot angry sex more than once in Playing Dirty.

Shaw and Cassidy honestly had the most unconventional office romance. Their love/hate relationship was actually pretty epic in Playing Dirty. As much as they appeared to hate one another, they seemed to love to have sex with one another. In fact, they pretty much were guaranteed to be together if they were ever alone in a room together. I have to say I liked the more time they spent together, the more the hate end of their relationship started turning to like and edging towards love, at least from Cassidy's point of view.

I realized that Playing Dirty was book 1 in the Monkey Business Trio, but assumed, in error it would seem, that each book would be about a different couple. I'll totally be honest and let readers know there is a cliffhanger ending with Playing Dirty. While I'm not opposed to the cliffhanger ending, I do like to have a bit of warning and honestly didn't see it coming with Playing Dirty. I really thought I would turn the page and have another chapter when I got to the end of the book. 

I really enjoyed the progression of Shaw and Cassidy's relationship in Playing Dirty. I felt like both characters grew by spending time together and even fighting to land Denver as a client for the agency. While I didn't love the book ended on a cliffhanger, I still felt the story was very strong and I'm impatiently waiting for the next book in the Monkey Business Trio.

***3.5 out of 5 stars***