Published: 23rd March 2016
Publisher: Self- Published
Pages: 211
Format: Ebook (Free on Amazon)
RRP: $3.99 – but currently FREE on AMAZON!
4/5 Stars 
From the USA Today bestselling author of the Bliss series comes a new spin off series featuring your favorite Bliss series characters who are yet to meet their match.
Matt Taylor’s motto:
“I’m the king of the cut ‘n’ run. I wine them, dine them, then slide inside them, making sure I get up, get dressed and get out before they can even utter the words “second date.”Mia Roberts’ motto:
“I’m queen of the chase. I meet them, greet them, date them and leave them. A social butterfly, I’m happily single and happy to stay that way.”The players have been found.
The challenge has been set.
Whatever happens, they’ll soon find out that playing the game can get you played in the best possible way.
Game Player is the first book in the Bliss series by New Zealand author BJ Harvey. It’s a super fast rollicking read that left me smiling from ear to ear and wondering why it took me so long to pick up a BJ Harvey book in the first place!
Game Player is not a sports romance book like I first thought, but rather a fast paced romance between a self confessed man-whore and the girl who got under his skin. The characters are sassy and command attention through their lightening tongues and their soul baring honesty. What I think I loved best about them perhaps was that while the characters did bare their souls, and their incredible strength through out the duration of the novel, neither character permitted themselves to fall victim to stereotypes and they challenged every preconceived notion I might have had going into the book.
Matt Taylor is an Alpha male with a capital ‘A’. He is also a man well known by his peers – and let’s face it, perfect strangers – as the ultimate play boy. For years he has no trouble picking up women, using them and moving on. As easy as that …. but when it comes to Mia Roberts, he finds his game lacking it’s usual appeal. Matt was a lot of things in this book, but he was so refreshingly honest and direct that I loved his character almost instantly. He was the type of character who was brave enough to stand out for his differences and I found him not only charming, but compelling as a the hero and lead. It was refreshing to see this type of character not represented as a snarky-but-hot-asshole.
Mia Roberts is one hell of a heroine. Forget your damsel-in-distresses, and lacklustre heroines who take whatever shit the alpha male, or any male for that matter, might dish up to them. Mia is smart, sassy and has a mouth on her that will have you laughing out loud. She takes no shit from anyone, and while she isn’t a player like some, she isn’t looking to settle down any time soon. So why does Matt get under her skin so much? I loved Mia’s character so much. While she didn’t have life all figured out like some, she was willing to try things outside of her comfort zone when allowed to do so on her own time. She was passionate and fiery and fiercely loyally and proud. While there were some scenes that made me cringe at her choice of words, her viper tongue and the way she dealt with situations when she felt she had no control (particular a few of those towards the end of the book), I respected her for her differences.
There wasn’t a lot I didn’t love about this book, in fact I thought for sure it was going to be a 5-star book. But on reflecting the narrative while I sat down to write this review, a little voice nagged at the back of my mind about the pacing of the story. Like I said at the beginning, this book is fast. Like super fast. While the characters have known each other for more than two years, the events happen in the space of a matter of months and some times the characters timeline was hard to comprehend and even at odds with what they were saying. The story also seemed to jump around a bit, like it was missing a couple of scenes that possibility needed to be slotted in at certain points. Then again, maybe that was just me reading it and wanting more. More of the characters, more of the story. More of everything.
As a whole I really enjoyed this book and can’t wait to get stuck in the rest of the series. The characters were uniquely original and familiar all at once, the setting and plot fiery and fierce and all in all it was a super hot romance that I was sad to see finish (when the story ended naturally ended not because of how it finished!).
To learn more about BJ Harvey, visit the following social media sites:
BJ Harvey’s website | Goodreads | Facebook | Twitter | Tumblr
To purchase a copy of Game Player visit the following online retailers:
Amazon AUS | Amazon CA | Amazon uk | Amazon Us | BArnes & Noble | Ibooks | Kobo
