The Player Next Door
by K.A. TuckerPublished on June 16th, 2020
Genres: Adult, Fiction, Romance
Format: eARC
Source: Kindly provided by the ValentinePR and the author in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!
Summary from Goodreads:
From the international bestselling author of The Simple Wild and Ten Tiny Breaths comes a new second-chance, hate-to-love romance.
Scarlet Reed has returned to Polson Falls, convinced that twelve years away is long enough to shed her humiliating childhood identity as the town harlot's daughter. With a teaching job secured and an adorable fixer-upper to call home, things in her life are finally looking up.
That is, until she finds out that Shane Beckett lives next door.
Shane Beckett, the handsome and charismatic high school star quarterback who smashed her heart. The lying, cheating player who was supposed to be long gone, living the pro football dream and fooling women into thinking he's Prince Charming. Shane Beckett, who is as attractive as ever and flashing his dimples at her as if he has done no wrong.
Scarlet makes it abundantly clear that old wounds have not been forgotten. Neighbors they may be, but friends they most certainly are not. She won't allow herself to fall for the single father and firefighter again, no matter how many apologies he offers, how many times he rushes to her aid, or how hard he makes her heart pound.
But as she spends more time with him, she begins to fear that maybe she's wrong. Maybe Shane has changed.
And maybe this time she's the one playing herself—out of a chance at true happiness.
Review
The Player Next Door is K.A. Tucker's newest work, a second-chance romance standalone.
Scarlet Reed lived her life in Polson Falls, Pennsylvania, and couldn't wait for the opportunity to get away from the town and reputation she carried. When she gets the chance to go to college in New York, she jumps on it leaving everything and everyone behind. However, when she returns to her hometown years later, excited to be moving into her dream home, she meets her new neighbour Shane Beckett. In high school, Shane Beckett was a popular football quarterback. Before senior year, Scarlet spent the entire summer with Shane, sparking a romance so sweet....until he suddenly ends things saying he couldn't be in a relationship. When she seems him later kissing another girl, she is left feeling heartbroken and played.
Scarlet is not the same love struck girl she used to be years ago and hasn't gotten over the pain Shane has caused her, making sure he gets a clear message that there will be nothing between them again. But, as she repeatedly runs into him, she finds it harder to resists him, especially when he claims he is nothing like the teenage boy he was and wants a second chance to make it work. The question is whether Scarlet will continue to hold onto teenage mistakes or will she learn to open herself up to the possibility of giving Shane another chance?
Can I just mention now how much I adore second-chance romances? In a way, they feel more realistic and that much more sweeter to read. Now I have read, and adored, K.A. Tucker's previous works (The Simple Wild, Until It Fades, and Say You Still Love Me) so I was beyond excited to have the opportunity to read her newest work.
Scarlet's grudge against Shane was surprisingly strong, I mean this supposedly happened over ten years ago and she is upset like it happened the day before. I can understand that Scarlet might have been so deeply hurt, especially as Shane knew her background, by his actions that it made it that much nicer to read Shane's attempts at melting Scarlet's protective wall. Letting the past go can be difficult but it was nice to see her character develop throughout the process.
The drama, at times, felt completely irrational but then things managed to smooth over and I know there are some people who are overly sensitive when it comes to particular individuals so I continued reading and by gosh I am glad I did. The initial rollercoaster romance finally started to spark into a real life bonfire romance. As they continued to be around each other there was no way they would be able to deny what they were feeling, especially when his handy man self seems to always be readily available to fix anything. It also didn't hurt that his curtains were always open, leaving Scarlet with a full view.
Though I liked her previous works, I felt like something was missing in this story. I would have liked to read more about Scarlet's relationship with her mother and for the story to extend a least another chapter or two in order to make it feel less rushed. With that being said, The Player Next Door was still a nice, light, read to pick up and dive into. Full of sizzling chemistry and hilarious moments, I definitely recommend checking it out especially if you have never read any of K.A. Tucker's previous works.
Rating
★★★★
About the Author
K.A. Tucker writes captivating stories with an edge.She is the internationally bestselling author of the Ten Tiny Breaths and Burying Water series, He Will Be My Ruin, Until It Fades, Keep Her Safe, The Simple Wild, Be the Girl, and Say You Still Love Me. Her books have been featured in national publications including USA Today, Globe & Mail, Suspense Magazine, Publisher's Weekly, Oprah Mag, and First for Women. She has been nominated for the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Romance 2013 for TEN TINY BREATHS and Best Romance 2018 for THE SIMPLE WILD. KEEP HER SAFE made Suspense Magazine's Best of 2018 list for Romantic Suspense.
K.A. Tucker currently resides in a quaint town outside of Toronto.
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