Proceed With Caution:
This book contains and an attempted sexual assault and a brief mention of miscarriage.
The Basics:
Playing at Love is a second chance, rivals-to-lovers romance between Tess, a high school choir teacher, and Jack, the hot new football coach.
My Thoughts:
Playing at Love was super cute! I was iffy about it in the beginning, but soon I found myself invested in the rivalry and the romance. Tess is teaching at the high school she attended and is very proud of her show choir. She has big plans for them, but then a bomb is dropped. The school's finances are in ruins, and show choir might be removed from the roster as it's the most expensive activity. However, all is not lost, as football is also a fund-suck and is being considered for the chopping block. But Jack is back in town and has just been hired to salvage the football team. Tess is not happy to see him as he's the boy who broke her heart at fifteen and now he might be the reason she loses her job. He's still sexy though and you never forget your first love.
The reason that I wasn't sure about Playing at Love at first was because of the way that the rivalry was set up. The superintendent said he didn't want this to turn into a competition and then promptly gave them criteria for a competition. Tess had to lead her group to a regional victory and Jack had to whip the team into shape and win four out of the six upcoming games. Whoever met their challenge would be the extracurricular that stayed on. That is not fair. They'd already established that the show choir consistently won while the football team barely even scored. It should have been obvious who to cut, but then I guess there wouldn't have been much plot.
Tess and Jack are actually really cute together. I adored them sneaking around, because they didn't want anyone to know that these supposed rivals are hooking up! There's no real drama between them. Of course, there is a misunderstanding, but it's cleared up pretty quickly. Then there's a moment where one of them is having second thoughts, but it all felt believable. There's a lot of pressure on these two, but they make it through!
I enjoyed Playing at Love quite a bit. It did have its minor issues, but nothing that hindered my enjoyment. It was fun to see Tess and Jack work with their groups to make them the best they can be. Sure it started out as a way to "win" but ultimately both of them just wanted to be there for their students. There's a perfectly cheesy happy ending as well.