Bland but sweet
Having read some of the author's other stories, this one was ... Okay. Safe. Set up to be a little more chaotic and challenging than the story plot really ended up being.
Spice was there, but not as much as in the first book with Frankie and her guys.
This book still carries some humorous lines and snarky behavior, but it lacks the same oomph that "Scrum Heat" has that made it so endearing. (I find either you loved that level of chaos or hate it, no in-between, bur personally, I found it delightful.)
Emery has potential as an interesting character, but you really don't get a lot of the drama to her history. Just passing references to shitty previous employment and a cheating boyfriend/boss, but it barely seems to hit as phasing her other than being a plot to move her to an isolated small town. The MMCs are pretty bland and boring compared to other MMCs the author has written. you have your strong and silent martyr, the (sort of) golden retriever, and then the steady and logical one that is just there. You get a bit more personality and backstory for Beau, but it's almost like the other two exist simply because the author felt this needed to be a pack story, and doesn't really fill in much behind the scenes for them.
*A potentially spoiler -ish part*
I also kept waiting for the big plot twist... Career ending injuries? Major family drama ? Old flames or jealous observers causing drama? Lack of approval for the potential pack growing? Nope. Not really. Things kind of just happen and then the story ends. Like, cool, okay, I guess that's it?
"Playing Hurt" was overall pretty decent with a few editing issues, and if you want a story where nothing really truly vile or bad happens and your MMCs mostly act like the adults they are with a hint of hormones and biology tossing in some random alpha dominance drama, it's a perfectly acceptable story. Especially if you are in the mood for something not quite as heavy (other than one character's mom struggling with dementia while the father is less than supportive, but even that features fairly lightly compared to what I expected from the trigger warnings).
Also, my two biggest complaints are: the obsession with the name "Theo" starring as a MMC in three of her books that I've read as of now, as if there is a shocking lack of male names acceptable to use in literature. I get reusing from time to time, but it's feels a little weird that it's in 3 of the 4 books available on KU under this author's works.
The second issue for me is that the world building between the author's books definitely isn't consistent or explained. I wish there was a little more background on how packs/claiming worked in her worlds, because this feels like a totally different world than "Scrum Heat" (and definitely different than the unfinished "Unmarked" story). It's not a deal breaker, and it's probably a little nitpicky, but most Omegaverse authors have their worlds built up so you know what to expect book-to-book, even if they are completely different stories, but I don't really see that here. It personally changes the way I approach reading these books compared to some other Omegaverse authors, and I feel like it might strengthen her work if she had something more consistent, and least within a series.