Reading the Paranormal: Play Smart by Aly Stiles [Review]

Play Smart (Work For It #5) by Aly Stiles
Format: ebook
Source: provided for review
Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Date read: September 25, 2022

Work For It
1. Street Smart
2. Heart Smart
3. Book Smart
4. Smart Mouth
5. Play Smart - Paperback | Kindle
6. Look Smart
7. Smart Move
8. Stage Smart

Aly Stiles
| Website | Amazon |

Synopsis (Goodreads):

Nash Ellis knows music. Producing, performing, writing—if it involves the creative process he’s there for it. He knows nothing about copy machines. Or financial reports. Or anything related to the stuck-up business world his best friends have been chasing since they were kids. But Nash also needs money, so when his roommate gets him a paid internship at Reedweather Media, he reluctantly agrees. At least his know-it-all intern competitor is kind of cute in a nerdy-librarian sort of way—especially when she’s being tormented by an angsty rocker she can’t stand.

The only thing Paige Andrews hates more than failure? Nash Ellis. She has little patience for incompetence and zero tolerance for indifference. He clearly doesn’t belong in their corporate world, so why does he insist on ruining her dream job? And the worst part—he’s not what he seems. In fact, it’s all the things he’s hiding behind those electric blue eyes that make him straight-up captivating in an ironic-slacker sort of way.

But their smoldering friction bursts into open flames when the feuding interns are forced into a high-stakes mission that requires intimate knowledge of the music industry. Yep, what could go wrong when the least-qualified candidate to ever walk the halls of a major corporation becomes their only hope of success?

Thoughts on Play Smart: Heh. We're back in the...err, I'm not going to call it high-powered because Eva's father and Chad put a painfully awkward spin on corporate wheelings and dealings. Instead, I'm going to say we're back at Reedweather Media and the odd things that go on there.

Nash might not be a corporate drone at heart (the man is a musician and pretty much everyone who spends time with him figures that out pretty quickly), but he takes the intern job at Reedweather because it's offered. He doesn't expect to like Paige's fierce sense of competition (SERIOUSLY, these two send off sparks when they're trying to one-up each other) and he certainly doesn't expect to start daydreaming about just how sexy he thinks she is.

On Paige's end, she's driven, but she's also holding herself back. Family, man. They can mess a person up. Nash's attitude might drive her up a wall, but she can't stop fantasizing about him and his abs. Which makes working together interesting, to say the least.

A little case of corporate espionage, a few familiar faces (Leo and Abram!), a musician who makes things happen for others even though his dreams were smashed, and a lady who starts to see there's a whole lot more to Nash Ellis than the lazy slacker he pretends to be. My heart eyes are strong with this one.

Excerpt

Turning around, he stops in his tracks when he sees me. His face falls, and I don’t know how to read the mix of emotions that filters over him. He clearly doesn’t know what to do next, so I close the gap and grab his wrist.

“Let’s dance,” I say.

“What?”

“Dancing.” I wave behind me at the sea of bodies demonstrating this ancient ritual.

“You… wait. You want to dance with me? You’ve been turning me down all night.”

I nod. “Yes. Because I don’t dance.”

“But you do now?”

“No.”

“I don’t understand. What’s changed?”

“My internal—and a few external—organs.”

“Huh?”

His brow scrunches, and I notice for the first time how much I like the image of his silver piercing when he does that. I reach up and brush my finger near it, then let my touch drift down the side of his face. My gaze settles on his lips and a sharp wave of desire surges through me.

“I turned you down because you’re extremely attractive tonight,” I explain. “Dangerously so.”

“Wait, you’ve been turning me down because you wanted me too much?”

I nod again, forcing my attention back to his entrancing gaze. “Yes, and since we agreed we can’t have what we want, it felt like a terrible idea to indulge in a sample of the forbidden fruit.”

His confusion morphs into amusement. “Do you always have to say stuff in the weirdest way possible?”

I narrow my eyes at him. “Do you always have to be a jerk when I’m trying to be nice?”

“This is you being nice?”