Rowena's review of Playing Dirty by Susan Andersen.

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Rowena's review of Playing Dirty by Susan Andersen.

Hero: Cade Gallari
Heroine: Ava Spencer

When high school golden boy Cade Gallari publicly revealed he’d slept with “fat girl” Ava Spencer to win a bet, he broke her heart. Now a decade older and a head-turner with her own concierge business, Ava isn’t the gullible dreamer she once was—and she plans to prove it when Cade, hotter than ever, breezes back into town with an offer she can’t refuse.

A documentary film producer, Cade is shooting a movie about the mysterious mansion Ava inherited. And he wants her as his personal concierge. She’s certainly professional enough to be at his beck and call without giving him everything he wants. Like another shot at having her in his bed. But Ava doesn’t count on Cade’s determination. Because he’s never gotten over her. And he’s not above playing dirty to score a second chance at a red-hot future…

It wasn't until after I requested this book and then received it and started reading it that I realized this is the book that Holly blogged about last year. She blogged about the news the author broke about how it wasn't likely that she'd get to write this book. A few months later, Holly blogged again that things turned for the good and fans of the Sisterhood trilogy books were going to get Ava's book. Holly told me time and time again to read these books but like usual, I didn't.

It didn't stop me from reading this book though. I jumped right in and thought I'd just fill in the blanks later. This book read as a good stand alone as I didn't feel like I'd missed much by not reading the other books. As a straight up contemporary romance, this book was great. Susan Andersen has a way with words and she definitely had my interest piqued while reading through this book.

Seeing Cade grow up into the man that he was today made for some great reading and really, how sexy was he? I wanted to do him right from the jump which is always a good sign. He was an ass when he was younger but he learned from his mistake and he turned out to be an a-okay man. I really enjoyed the fact that Andersen didn't try to downplay Cade's teenage antics with the whole bet thing. I loved that we saw how much Cade regretted it all and how much he wanted to make things right with Ava...and even with all of that, he didn't come off as some cheesy bonehead. He came off real and I liked him.

What surprised me in this book was Ava. She starts off as this great heroine and as you dig deeper into her life and get to know more about her, you can see the insecurities all over her. I understood her insecurities and even sympathized with them and what I enjoyed about Ava was that she wasn't blind to how dumb she was being (when she was being dumb) where Cade was concerned. She was woman enough to realize her shortcomings and I respected the hell out of her because of it.

I'm usually not a fan of playing games but the games that these two had going on cracked me up. The whole teasing and Eduardo stuff had me laughing all the while I was reading it and it all added to the overall reading experience. This wasn't one of those books that was deep and held all of life's meanings in it but it was still an enjoyable read.

The one thing that was a bit of a downer for me was the whole Tony thing. His whole deal with the hidden treasure and what not, I didn't care for as it didn't mesh well with the rest of the story but still, I enjoyed everything else to overlook that part. This book is the perfect summer read because of the steamy romance and charming characters. It was nice to see the friendship between Ava, Jane and Poppy. I enjoyed their scenes together and I really enjoyed seeing Beks peppered into the story (I so would have loved to get to know Beks more).

I'd definitely recommend this book to fans of Susan Andersen and fans of contemporary romance. It's a good one.

Grade: 4.25 out of 5

This book is available from HQN. You can buy it here or here in e-format.