Review: Play it Safe by Kristen Ashley

Title: Play It Safe
Author: Kristen Ashley
Series: none
Genre: contemporary romance, erotica

No connections. Play it safe. These were the rules Ivey lived her life by.

Until she hit Mustang, Colorado, a perfectly imperfect town where the citizens were welcoming and one of them included the tall, beautiful, macho man rancher cowboy, Grayson Cody.

On the run for a decade, Ivey knew she was supposed to play it safe. But she was tired of being on the run. She wanted a normal. She wanted real. She wanted a home.

And she wanted Grayson Cody.

And Grayson Cody wanted Ivey.

No one who looked at them couldn’t see they belonged together. There was one man in this world for Ivey and one woman in this world for Grayson Cody.

So they fell in love.

But just as quickly as they fell together, they were betrayed and torn apart. Separated for years, Ivey was certain her life would not include her rancher cowboy. Until the town of Mustang reached out to her when Gray was in trouble. Even though she thought he broke her heart, she charged in to help. Then Gray and Ivey discovered they were betrayed and, not only that, Gray had an enemy who would stop at nothing to defeat him.

Amazon US | Amazon UK

MY REVIEW

Play It Safe by Kristen Ashley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

4 I'm in love with a cowboy STARS

“I loved you then. I love you now. I’ve loved you every day for seven years.”

I'm a broken record. What you are about to read, or maybe in the best case scenario skim over or even more likely ignore altogether, will feel like a repetition of something I said before. Just a fair warning in the spirit of public safety. ;D

Now that we have this out of the way, let me start gushing about how much I love Kristen Ashley, her books and how she just makes my life better every time I get lost in one of her novels.

I was in a bit of a book funk for about two seconds until I remembered starting this gem a few weeks ago before I got sidetracked by some other stuff I needed to finish, but I'm finally here and I really enjoyed Play it Safe. Which is btw a second chance story...my holy grail of romance tropes.

“Prettiest thing I've ever seen.”

Ivey leads a very unusual life. Together with her brother she is always on the move, from one town to another. Doing what needs to be done to survive. With no skills or work experience whatsoever the two get by with Ivey playing pool like a pro. Take the win and move on. No connections and always playing it safe.

That is until they hit the small town of Mustang. Ivey immediately falls in love with the sweet and quiet place, but once she lays eyes on the handsome cowboy named Grayson Cody her life changes forever.

“How can one day you have next to nothing and then a week and a day later you have everything?”

From the first moment I was in love with every single character. I guess it comes down to the writing, but Ivey as well as Gray felt very well rounded and three dimensional. They are good people who, and the whole town would agree, just belong together.

Ivey is twenty-two years old, and despite the life she was thrown into at a very young age, she is still very innocent and open to the beauty in life. She decides to stay in Mustang and give a real life with a real boyfriend a chance.

Yes, there was insta-attraction and some would say the love thing happened too fast as well, but I didn't really care.

Gray is the ultimate sweet and caring macho man rancher cowboy. ←that's a direct quote from Ivey!
He takes care of his land, his grandmother and has a heart of gold. The moment he lays eyes on Ivey he looks right through who and what she is, but wants her nevertheless.

But things aren't that easy, there is trouble in paradise and through no fault of their own they get seperated for a long time. Question is, can they pick up where they left off when they cross paths again?

“Say you love me, Ivey.”

“I love you, Gray.”

As always Miss Ashley brings her descriptive style, but contrary to other books this one is not as excessive and considerably shorter than the rest. The beginning was very lovely and sweet, until it started to drag on a little. I would have loved for the big twist (which is also mentioned in the blurb) a.k.a. the moment Ivey and Gray get separated to occur a bit earlier. But other than that I had very little to complain with this one.

Play it Safe certainly isn't the best KA book I read so far, but it was a wonderful all-is-well-in-the-end chick-flick to escape the world for a second. And there was a porch with a swing. What more does a girl want? Oh, I know. A cowboy!

Yes, it is entirely possible that I have a huge crush on Scott Eastwood right now. Damn, that's a fine looking man.