Title: Play On
Series: Play On #1
Author: Samantha Young
Release Date: September 12, 2017
Nora O’Brien chased a dream from Indiana to Scotland, so sure it was the right thing to do. Three years later she was left in her adopted country with nothing to her name but guilt and regret.
Until Aidan Lennox entered her life.
Older, worldlier, a music producer and composer, the sexy Scot should never have made sense for Nora. But somehow in each other they found the light they were looking for, the laughter and the passion—the strength to play on despite their past losses.
But when life dealt Aidan another unlucky hand, instead of reaching for her he disappeared. The agonizing loss of him inspired something within Nora. It fired her spirit— the anger and hurt pushing her forward to take control and reach for her dreams.
Finally pursuing a career on stage while she put herself through college, everything is how Nora wants it. She’s avoiding heartbreak and concentrating on her goals.
Sounds easy but it’s not. Because Aidan is back. And for some reason he hates Nora.
He’s determined to be at war with her.
And she has absolutely no idea why.
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EXCERPT
Despite Seonaid’s warning that I couldn’t keep my feelings bottled up, I tried very hard to convince myself that I was okay with how things had played out with Aidan. That I needed to be okay so I could go on living my life in perfect contentment. While he gallivanted around the theater with his beautiful women and horse-assery.
Finding my Zen, however, was proving more difficult than I’d thought. I was a bundle of confused feelings. At war with myself.
So it wasn’t any wonder I reacted the exact opposite of how I’d hoped when Aidan finally confronted me in private.
Having to meet up with another student to work on an assignment we had for a tutorial, I hadn’t seen any point in heading home to Sighthill only to have to return to Tollcross for rehearsal. I’d grabbed a salad from a shop on Potterrow, and walked to the theater. I was ninety minutes early so no one was there. Thankfully, Quentin was usually at the theater during the day so the doors were open. When I got inside the auditorium, however, it was pitch black.
“Quentin?” I called out. “Are you here?”
My voice echoed.
Nothing.
“Anyone?”
But the silence told me I was alone. I wondered if Quentin had accidentally left the theater unlocked. I’d need to let him know.
Switching on the stage lights to make me not feel like I was about to become part of a horror movie, I found my way into an empty dressing room.
Eating my salad, I worked on a paper, waiting for the minutes to tick by.
A noise far off in the distance made me still like a rabbit caught in headlights. I cocked my head, listening, and sure enough, footsteps approached. Blood rushed in my ears as my pulse raced. I then cursed myself for being freaked out when it was obviously a cast member who was—I glanced at my watch—an hour early.
I waited, and the dressing room door I had left slightly ajar squeaked open.
My breath caught at the sight of Aidan filling the doorway.
He crossed his arms and his ankles and leaned against the jamb, staring at me dispassionately.
All I could do was stare back, my emotions whirling in a mess of feelings, like a tornado, with no thought to what it was sucking up into its wind funnel. “What are you doing here?” I finally said, my voice hoarse.
“I was sitting in the coffee shop across the way and I saw you come in.”
“You followed me?”
“I argued with myself about it for a while. But aye.”
Adrenaline coursed through me and made my hands shake. I curled them into fists and hoped I looked back at him with as much boredom as he was bestowing upon me. “Why?”
“Curiosity.” He shrugged.
“Curiosity?”
“Were you always such a heartless robot and I was just too fucking blind to see it?”
I flinched, knowing this was the moment I should tell him that Laine had lied to me. But I couldn’t get the words out. I wanted to and I didn’t want to.
So fear of him hating me and fear of him loving me left me in some kind of exasperated, frustrated no-man’s land. I shot to my feet. “If you came here to use me as your emotional punching bag, you can leave,” I hissed.
His eyes flashed and he pushed off the jamb, coming into the room. For the first time, I hated that I had to tip my head back to look up at him. “Not before I tell you what I really think of you, Nora, instead of hiding it behind the subterfuge of giving a fuck what happens with this play.”
“Aidan—”
“You are the biggest coward I’ve ever met in my life. You’re weak and emotionally defunct. What’s worse is how fucking manipulative you are—”
“Aidan—”
“I’ve never met anyone who had me so fucking fooled!” His chest heaved as his cool fled in the wake of his rage. “You lied and strung me along, fled when the going got tough, not once but goddamn twice, and I’m the idiot who let you do that to me.”
“Aidan—”
“But rest assured, Nora, you are the last woman who is ever going to make a fool out of me. I see you now. Who you really are. A fucked-up, selfish, self-involved, immature little—”
Whatever horrible thing he was going to call me next, I swallowed it in my kiss. Unable to bear his contempt any longer, but not knowing how to make it stop, I went with my gut.
And my gut told him to grab his T-shirt in my fists and use it to haul him down to my mouth.
What a mistake.
Because I remembered him now.
I remembered how beautiful he felt.
So when his hands gripped my forearms and tried to pry me off, I let him, only to slide my arms around his neck and cling on tighter, kissing him in desperation.
He grunted and grabbed my arms again and just as I feared he would shove me away, he broke. Aidan jerked me closer, his mouth opening under mine, his tongue searching for my tongue.
Quite abruptly, he was in charge.
About Samantha Young:
Samantha Young is the New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of adult contemporary romances, including the On Dublin Street series and Hero, as well as the New Adult duology Into the Deep and Out of the Shallows. Every Little Thing, the second book in her new Hart’s Boardwalk series, will be published by Berkley in March 2017. Before turning to contemporary fiction, she wrote several young adult paranormal and fantasy series, including the amazon bestselling Tale of Lunarmorte trilogy. Samantha’s debut YA contemporary novel The Impossible Vastness of Us was published by Harlequin TEEN in ebook & hardback June 2017. Play On
is an adult contemporary romance and the first in a brand new series set in Scotland.
Samantha has been nominated for the Goodreads Choice Award 2012 for Best Author and Best Romance for On Dublin Street, Best Romance 2014 for Before Jamaica Lane, and Best Romance 2015 for Hero. On Dublin Street, a #1 bestseller in Germany, was the Bronze Award Winner in the LeserPreis German Readers Choice Awards for Best Romance 2013, Before Jamaica Lane the Gold Medal Winner for the LeserPreis German Readers Choice Awards for Best Romance 2014 and Echoes of Scotland Street the Bronze Medal Winner for the LeserPreis German Readers Choice Awards for Best Romance 2015.
Samantha is currently published in 30 countries and is a #1 international bestselling author.
is an adult contemporary romance and the first in a brand new series set in Scotland.
Samantha has been nominated for the Goodreads Choice Award 2012 for Best Author and Best Romance for On Dublin Street, Best Romance 2014 for Before Jamaica Lane, and Best Romance 2015 for Hero. On Dublin Street, a #1 bestseller in Germany, was the Bronze Award Winner in the LeserPreis German Readers Choice Awards for Best Romance 2013, Before Jamaica Lane the Gold Medal Winner for the LeserPreis German Readers Choice Awards for Best Romance 2014 and Echoes of Scotland Street the Bronze Medal Winner for the LeserPreis German Readers Choice Awards for Best Romance 2015.
Samantha is currently published in 30 countries and is a #1 international bestselling author.
Connect with Samantha Young online:
Website: http://authorsamanthayoung.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/authorsamanthayoung
Twitter: @AuthorSamYoung
Instagram: @AuthorSamanthaYoung
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/samyoungauthor
Website: http://authorsamanthayoung.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/authorsamanthayoung
Twitter: @AuthorSamYoung
Instagram: @AuthorSamanthaYoung
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/samyoungauthor
Review
The story is broken up into three parts, and part one is mostly Nora's early years in her Indiana hometown just after graduating high school. She's working in a fast food restaurant and has no personal life to speak of. She doesn't live, she exists. With dreams hidden under her bed in a little box, tucked away where prying eyes can't find them and crush them. Ever since her father lost his successful construction business and became wheelchair bound, she and her mother only exist to pay the bills and take care of him. Her home is void of love or encouragement to better yourself. You're expected to accept the dismal fate that was handed to you without complaint. Which leaves Nora feeling very hopeless, trapped, and desperate for any means of escape.
When Jim McAlister inadvertently stumbles into her life and showers her with attention, she grasps on to him with both hands. Starving for someone to show her the barest scraps of affection, she gets swept away by this exciting new romance with the infatuated foreigner.
I peeked at him again and blushed harder under his intense scrutiny. “You’re looking at me.” “Aye. It’s hard not tae.”
It wasn't that she never loved him at all, but unfortunately for Jim, her feelings were tepid at best and it only went downhill from there. Their impulsive teenage marriage was doomed from the start, having only known each other for a few weeks before eloping. But when your life is at such a rock bottom low such as hers, you leap before you look. You take risks on a possible happiness rather than certain unhappiness. Just when their rocky marriage had come to a crossroads, the choice was taken out of her hands on how to proceed with their future. And from that point on, she was stuck in limbo. Unable to forgive herself of the past, and equally unable to allow herself a new start in life.
I’d started to lose myself when I’d followed him to Edinburgh to escape my life. Once there, once I’d realized I didn’t love him like he loved me, instead of being honest, I’d stayed with him and played the part of the wife he wanted and in doing so lost myself entirely.
My first problem was surrounding part one. Don't get me wrong, I sympathized with Nora, and appreciated the development in her character. I just didn't need six chapters and roughly 100 pages devoted to her relationship with Jim. I would have been perfectly satisfied with starting out in part two with a few flashbacks to better understand where Nora's commitment and family issues came from. I found myself wanting to skim over a lot of the details because I just wanted to get to central relationship to the story.
Once Aiden and Nora's section kicked in, I started to become completely engrossed within the pages. Their relationship was bridged by his niece Sylvie who attended her story time at the children's hospital where she volunteered. After introducing her to her uncle whom she hero worshipped, Nora became a little starry eyed herself. With twelve years on her in age and sophistication, he seemed to have his life all together while hers was only ever floundering. He was a rich, successful composer and he intimidated her while simultaneously made her heart pound. I enjoyed their attraction to one another, their crackling chemistry that never got a chance to fully ignite.
As much as I enjoyed their relationship, it was the side story with Sylvie that ultimately brought tears to my eyes. I didn't feel an all-consuming need for them to be together, I was a little more interested in the fate of his niece and how Nora would overcome her internal struggles.
After a somewhat standard and frustrating reason for separation, Nora and Aiden were once again reunited as she finally seemed to be moving on and setting her life back on track. Nora suddenly finds that the man who broke her heart eighteen months ago strangely hates with with a vicious passion. And she realizes that they both may have been the wronged parties in their split. She thought all along that giving Aiden her heart was probably foolish, but the heartbreak was something that she felt she deserved as a kind of penance for what occurred in her marriage. She had to come to realize that she had to give herself permission to be happy. To give love a doorway into her life, and follow her passion in acting. But most of all, to trust that forging a new and solid relationship wouldn't ruin the fragile happiness she had found.
There was one scene in particular that I really loathed and I was so disappointed. After finding each other once again, the best part of a second chance romance are those first intimate moments together. The reunion. And I was not happy at all with the ugly way in which they first reconnected.
As far as your concerned, you’re already a ghost in my bed. I’m so fucked in the head over you, I’m willing to be haunted."
I really loved the wonderful secondary characters in Seonaid, Roddy, and Sylvie. Samantha Young has a true talent in making every character shine and come to life. I also enjoyed her vivid descriptions of Edinburg, and the heroine's journey in shedding her fears and guilt. Overall, a story of overcoming life's tragedies, accepting the love and future you deserve, and finding the courage to heal. It's not my favorite from her, but I think one many will enjoy if you're a fan of a good emotionally charged story.
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