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Bel ♡ is currently reading

Two Can Play

by Ali Hazelwood (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: currently-reading

Reading for the 2nd time

read in October 2024

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Bel ♡ said: " I really enjoyed this! This was my first ever novella from Ali Hazelwood and it delivered everything I could’ve wanted.

The storyline felt incredibly predictable, but this didn’t stop me from having a great time (I imagine there’s only so much you can I really enjoyed this! This was my first ever novella from Ali Hazelwood and it delivered everything I could’ve wanted.

The storyline felt incredibly predictable, but this didn’t stop me from having a great time (I imagine there’s only so much you can do with a limited amount of time to build chemistry/history between characters). I felt like there was just enough character growth, a slight hint of insta love (I imagine this is hard to avoid with this being a novella and all), and a slight hint of miscommunication in the past (gotta give the MCs some history where you can I guess??).

Pent up tension, spicy scenes, and workplace drama - this was a really enjoyable, short novella. Also, we LOVE when the MMC is down BAD for the FMC 😍
I really appreciated the video game talk, but can imagine some readers who aren’t well-versed with the gaming world would be tuning out for these segments. I thought they were a relevant, fun addition to the story that allowed the readers who had insight on the games a more in depth look at the characters and their personalities.

Overall, I enjoyed the characters, the setting (hello, forced proximity because they’re snowed in - anybody????), and I even enjoyed learning what we could about the side characters in the short time we had. This genuinely would’ve lended well to being fleshed out - I would’ve read this if it was a full novel, but I’ll take what I can get. Parts of the story felt rushed and predictable, again, likely from being squeezed down into a novella length story, but I digress (and this was fun anyway, so who cares 🤭).

I ended up giving this a 4☆ for a few reasons. Firstly, at the beginning of the book there were a few cringe moments that made me question when this was actually written (like HELLO, grown adults flossing - like the dance - when given great news in a team meeting… at work?). Also I can’t ignore the fact that the release of this was handled somewhat poorly - from what I’m reading online, many people were having difficulty finding copies, accessing it on platforms like Spotify, and it was just an overall clunky release.

This is an audio exclusive (for now, I believe there’s talks about it coming to print/ebook format in 2025 [I’m not certain, so don’t quote me on that]). But for any of my friends who can’t access this on Spotify or Libby, try Hoopla! My library had copies available on there and no wait time! Highly recommend if you’re looking for a short, 4-hour audio novella to pop onto your TBR. I genuinely read this in one sitting and had a great time!

Final rating: 4☆ ...more "

Oct 08, 2024 08:13PM · see review