Four Play

Lodes Chronicles #3

by Fiona Walker

Despite her broken heart, when Dilly Gently joins Magnus Olensen's new band, the chemistry between them is explosive. Both impossibly romantic dizzy blondes with the souls of poets, they could be made for each other. But before they have chance to declare themselves, Dilly's friend Nell confides that she has a huge crush on Magnus, and Dilly nobly steps down in order to play reluctant matchmaker. Nell returns the favour by setting her friend up with her dashing twin brother Flipper. But Flipper the bounder is not a good rebound for a true romantic. He hides a secret that could break Dilly's heart all over again ...

Genres: Chick Lit, Fiction, Romance, Contemporary, Humor, Contemporary Romance, British Literature

400 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Lauren White · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love this book. All Fiona Walker's books are light-hearted and frivolous, but also have interesting characters and are a decent length so you really get into the book.

[Virginia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Como una película de sobremesa, Juegos preliminares, es aburrida y previsible. Su enorme extensión y una trama vacía e insulsa consiguen que sea una lectura tediosa, que no logra engancharte en momento alguno.

La autora, Fiona Walker, resulta una escritora un tanto mediocre. Su estilo de escritura es funcional pero no emocionante. Cuenta con un lenguaje simple y pragmático (algo que sorprende en una novela rosa), unas descripciones parcas y penosas, y unos personajes nefastos, mal construidos y peor trabajados. De éstos últimos es Delly, la protagonista, la que se lleva la palma. Se trata de una mujer de 20 años con la mentalidad de una chica de 15, buscando el "amor verdadero" (si es que eso existe) en los peores ejemplares del género masculino. Resulta estúpida e irritante a partes iguales.
Juegos preliminares cuenta la clásica historia de amor. No busquéis nada original o sorprendente. Ni siquiera algo minimamente divertido. Toda la historia es un peñazo de principio a fin.

La trama de este bodrio, nos invita a acompañar a Delly, jovencita soñadora (o idealista estúpida, según se mire) que tras ser abandonada por su novio, decide dejar la universidad y volver a casa. Así como olvidarse de los hombres durante una buena temporada, para lo cual idea un gran plan (nótese el sarcasmo): hacerse fea (¿Habéis apreciado ya la enorme inteligencia de esta chica?) . Sin embargo, la vida tiene otros planes. Y es que el reencuentro con una vieja amiga de la infancia y la llegada de un vecino bastante guapo, conseguirán que Dilly cambie sus planes, con el obvio y predecible final feliz, con pajaritos cantando, ciervos bailando hip-hop (o lo que sea que bailen en las películas de Disney), etc...

Resumiendo, Juegos preliminares es un libro ideal para desconectar (no es broma, las neuronas se empiezan a apagar si lo leéis durante mucho tiempo) lo que hace que sea un estupendo libro para los periodos de entrelecturas.
Pero mi consejo es que no perdáis vuestro tiempo con esta insípida historia de amor. Os aseguro que no es nada que no conozcáis ya.

[Seadaz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fiona Walker is very similiar in writing to Jilly Cooper, similiar settings, similiar country folk, just as bawdy as JC, and lots of intermingling storylines.

I enjoyed Four Play, I still find it difficult to remember who is who due to the umpteen characters in her books, but enjoy it I did.

I did read this book out of order, but it made no difference, somthey can be read standalone.

Nell and Flipper are just horrible characters. Both utterly self absorbed selfish sods. Dilly a pleaser who always puts others first. Rory still hopeless.

[Eleanor · Rating 3 out of 5]

It had a lot of unnecessary details, which were completely irrelevant to the story. It was okay, but I wouldn't read it again. There were a lot of situations which I felt were too unrealistic, so that put me off a bit. But the main story was not that bad, it had some elements of cuteness, so it gets three stars.

[Plum-crazy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fiona Walker's books are always great fun & this was no exception, although I don't feel this was one of her best. I didn't realise that this was an "Oddlode" book & it was nice to catch up with the next generation of characters....I'm now hoping there'll be another in this series as I want to find out if Faith ever gets Rory!

[Amy Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as the first two books in this series. I'll be honest, I forgot that I had read this until it popped up on my 'readers also enjoyed...' feed! It's not a bad book, but it doesn't stand out. Still an enjoyable read though.

[Rebecca Du toit · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've enjoyed Fiona Walker books in the past, but didn't enjoy this one. I found that I couldn't empathise with the main characters at all - in fact, I thought the most likeable characters were the horses.

[Juju · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fio à is one of my favourite authors, but this book just didn't do it for me. Maybe because I'm not a rich horsey person.

[RJC · Rating 1 out of 5]

Why do authors think that promiscuity makes a good plot device? Slow, not great.

[Terry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stereotypical English village, full of sex and horses. A little curveball introduced with the battle of the bands. This book doesn't pretend to be anything else. It was an entertaining read.

[Janine · Rating 1 out of 5]

A lesser version of Jilly Cooper with lots of characters with similar names and morals.

[Charlotte · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good old naff cheese

[Chloe Henderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favourite of the Lodes Chronicle’s!

[Hannah · Rating 1 out of 5]

0.5⭐

Do not waste ur time on this. It’s badly written, the relationships are all unhealthy and don’t make sense. None of the characters are likeable and they all have terrible names/nicknames.

[Amelie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pesar de que es una historia de amor no se aprecia ese sentimiento, puesto que la protagonista busca el amor o mas bien se quiere desligar o no buscarlo, pues sufre una decepción amorosa. Ademas de que se pude apreciar de que como novela inglesa los sentimiento son menos mostrados, por lo que son mas fríos e indiferente en varias demostración afectivas.

Lo que si muestra es como una "amistad" surge y puede ser destructiva si uno de ellos tiene celos del otro, por lo que si se podría decir que menos mal que al final se puede remediar, porque a pesar de todo su amistad sigue, si ella no se quieren desligar la una a la otra.

Aún así la destrucción de una persona cuando tiene la moral por el piso, es siempre apoyar, pero cuando esa persona se deja pisotear es algo que te deja cansado porque no reacciona como debería ser...

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Synopsis
Despite her broken heart, when Dilly Gently joins Magnus Olensens new band, the chemistry between them is explosive. Both impossibly romantic dizzy blondes with the souls of poets, they could be made for each other. But before they have chance to declare themselves, Dillys friend Nell confides that she has a huge crush on Magnus, and Dilly nobly steps down in order to play reluctant matchmaker. Nell returns the favour by setting her friend up with her dashing twin brother Flipper. But Flipper the bounder is not a good rebound for a true romantic. He hides a secret that could break Dillys heart all over again ...

[Vera · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had read Tongue In Cheek before I read this one and thought it was a fun book to read, so I bought Four Play in the hopes of finding the same chemistry but sadly, I thought it was boring and hard to finish. I was already familiar with some of the characters so it was easy to get into the story, but the story never takes off, I put my book down several times, only to continue a couple of weeks later. I prefered Tongue In Cheek but if you have never read that one, Four Play can still be entertaining.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

Though I've rated it five stars there are some parts of the book where I was tempted to read a little quicker just to get past bits I thought a little disappointing but that was because there were parts I believed weren't happening fast enough or parts that were just a little silly for me, despite that I still loved the book and I'm all for a happy ending and I love that there are some loose ends that are dangling giving an opening for another book or two possibly.

[Tanita Francis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book in the library, I read the premise at the back and thought it's just another lovely love story. WOW!!! Was I wrong. This book (particularly the sex scenes) literally raped my virgin mind. It was like a graphic porno. Besides all the naked stuff, I really enjoyed the "story". It's very "real" non of that fluffy stuff.

[Louise · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this once a year just when autumn starts. Not completely sure why, just seems right. One of my favorite book to read when you need something "easy" and sweet, and don't want to think too much about what's going on. Until right now I've never know it was part 3 of something. I would definitely recommend this ^^

[Nicola Hession-Kent · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although I have rated it 5 stars, it is nowhere in the region of Tongue in Cheek. I found it a little difficult to adapt to the characters as I just wanted the previous book to carry on. I don't suppose that is Fiona's fault, it just shows how wonderful her previous book was!

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Better than recent efforts by this author - much closer to her previous sparkling form. A very sweet central romance and two likeable main characters manage to save this from the Cottrell twins, who have all the nastiness of people like Hugo and Spurs and very little of the charisma.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great Read

[Saroop]

A roller coaster indeed !

[Cassandra Lopez · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very strange book! The last 100 pages were good though!

[Tania Easton]

It was ok wouldn't rave about it.

[Lorelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good escapism read. I really enjoyed reading this story. Love Fiona Walker's style.

[Caroline Montague · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a little slow in parts but I still enjoyed it.

[Elektragedia · Rating 3 out of 5]

a ver este libro es el tipico libro de las tres C creo que con eso digo todo

[Viola · Rating 5 out of 5]

fun read!