Playing Dirty

Hero: Cade Gallari
Heroine: Ava Spencer

I couldn't finish it.  Playing Dirty is the last book in the Sisterhood Diaries trilogy by Susan Andersen.  I started reading it in September, the day after I finished Bending the Rules.  I made it to 51% on the Kindle before I finally gave up.

I really enjoyed Hot & Bothered, my first taste of Ms. Andersen's work.  I enjoyed the rest of the Marines series and the first two books in the Sisterhood series.  I've enjoyed Ms. Andersen's efforts in the past.

Why I quit Playing Dirty:

• The characters had a bad past, and the references to it, although not constant, became irritating.  The hero had apologized multiple times for his actions, but the heroine never really accepted his apology.

• There was a bit too much introspection in some places.
• There wasn't a lot going on in a lot of the scenes.  It seemed like filler, but the book didn't need filler.  It needed a good purging.
• There wasn't really any romance.
• The hero and the heroine faced struggles to get together, but I wasn't rooting for them.  What was there to root for?  Aside from the fact that I knew they would get together in the end, I didn't see any reason for them to be a couple.
• I didn't like the hero or heroine enough to care about them.
• The final straw was the excessive misuse of the Lord's name.  I can overlook the occasional misuse, but it just got to be too much.  I was already irritated with the book.  The insult to my God finally gave me a good excuse to give up.

I may be in the minority with my opinion of Playing Dirty, but it is what it is.  I think I'm done with Ms. Andersen.  There are plenty of other authors out there that tell stories I enjoy reading, and my TBR pile is overflowing with them.

I don't like rating books by a star or number system, so here's my rating system:
Bad=Quit reading the book
Fair=It was okay; I finished it
Good=I liked it
Great=I loved it; definitely would enjoy re-reading it someday

Rating for Playing Dirty: Bad