Play With Me & Ryan Hunter by Piper Shelly

Play With Me (Grover Beach Team #1)

Piper Shelly

190 pages

Publisher: Piper Shelly Books

Release Date: December 9th, 2012
Rate: Loved it

Liza Matthews is in love. She has been in love her entire live, or at least, as long as she can remember. She is a lucky girl, because the boy she is in love with is her best friend, Tony. So she spents all the free time she has with him and the free time she is not with him she is writing about him in her diary. 

But this story begins when Tony turns back from a Football Camp. She was expecting to show him her new bikini and maybe make him fall for her once and for all, but Tony has better things to do. Like attending a football meeting. However, Tony is a nice guy and a nice friend so he tooks Liza with him. 

In the cafeteria a lot of things happen. First, she meets an horrible girl who his best friends seems to pay a lot of attention. More than she wanted. Second, the-witchy-girl insults Liza. Third, Tony does not defend her. Can anything go more terribly wrong? It does. As mad as a teenage in love can be, she decides to do the only thing everyone expects her no to do: she joins the trials to be part of the football team. And all thanks to the football captain team, Ryan Hunter.

Although Tony warns Liza, she goes to the trials and she gets in the football team. The only problem is that she suspects that Tony had paid Hunter with something to get her in. Moreover, her biggest surprise is when Ryan Hunter invites to his legendary party. That has never happened before. 

Ryan Hunter's legendary parties is everything someone calls an epic party. He has a big house, without parents, loud music, full of people and drinks. Liza is excited about the party, but she thought Tony would be all the time with her. He has more experience in this type of situations, well, he's been to those party a while ago now, because he and Hunter are best friends. The stinky thing here is that Tony never brought Liza with him.

What would have been a dreamed night in the Hunter's party, was not. Tony leaves Liza alone, with a bunch of friends, but she really wanted to be with him. So she goes after him. That is when she finds Ryan Hunter, alone, in the kitchen. And she ends up agreeing to train with him. She cannot believe the captain of the football team is going to be her personal trainer, but what she does not know is that the boy has another agenda in mind.

This handsome boy not only takes care of her when she gets accidentally drunk, but thinks in every detail. Who would have think of Ryan Hunter this way? He's know to be a player and when Liza wakes up in his bed, with Ryan Hunter touching her legs in a seductive way, she cannot believe the feelings she has at this moment. 

She's in love with Tony. She's always been in love and she'll always be. So, why the scent of Ryan Hunter is making her mind going wild or why his challenges always puts her on the edge of agreeing everything he asks her to do?

Ryan Hunter (Grover Beach Team #2)

Piper Shelly

350 pages

Publisher: Piper Shelly Books

Release Date: April 24th, 2013

Rate: Loved it

Ryan Hunter has been in love with Liza Matthews since third grade. He has not been able to like any other girl the way he likes Liza. She does not know how he feels about her and he hates seen her with Matthews all the time. They are like this type couple that they are not together but that everybody know that they are going to end up together. They have even a nickname! They are called M&M.

Ryan cannot stand this relationship. However, Tony is his best friend and he would never hit on a anybody's girlfriend, least her best friend's girl. He is sure that Tony feels something for the girl, but he does not see it. That is why he is been always in the shadows. Never able to approach Matthews and always just watching her drooling over Tony. 

But this year is different. They have been in football camp and the boys were all excited to see girls from the school on the camp, too. Everybody knows that summer is the perfect time to get a new girl and better a camp. All his lucky stars get alienated when he sees Tony hit on Cloey, a girl that is the feminine version of him: a player. He had won this label because he had tried so hard to forget Liza that he had to make himself sure. The first one may not be the one, but why not another? But Cloey excuse? 

However, this would be her lucky time. 

And his suspicions are confirmed when Tony asks him, after the football meeting at the cafeteria, that he wanted Liza to enter the football team. He had acted like a total douchebag, but that is not a reason to ask such a favor. He tells Ryan that he does not want Liza to be hurt. So in order to protect her feelings for being rejected in front of witchy-Cloey, she needs to get into the team. That's find with him, if Matthews is on the team, he can work his way through her heart. However, he needs to know if Tony has any interest to get the girl at the end, Ryan does not want to mess his best friend relationship. So he is relieved to hear from Tony lips that he has no interest in going out with her, ever. He thinks he is in love with Cloey and although Ryan warns Tony about the big mistake he is making and that Cloey is a player and Liza a girl you only find once in a lifetime, Tony stills wants to date, secretly for now, Cloey.

Once he have warned several times Tony, he stubbornly keeps his eyes on the wrong girl while Ryan makes his first move: he's going to be his personal trainer. He has all the opportunities and Liza's attention. All he needs to do is play this game right.

Let's start with Liza's point of view. We really enjoy Liza's personality. She is in love with her best friend and she stills acts cool when the situations she thought was a perfect romantic moment for him to kiss her, turns out to be a joke-time moment. She is strong and determined and always jumps when someone challenges her, mostly Hunter. Although it was obvious that her best friend was dating the only girl she detest the most, she lets us know that she suspects this, but does not want to believe it.

All the scenes with Ryan Hunter are incredible. The first one, at Hunter's party, when she thanks Hunter for inviting her to the party, we thought it would be an awkward moment, but no. Instead, he acts really cool and even he even plays in a seductive way with her. The pool game when he looses all his money and we thought he may kiss her, etc. We could not have enough of Ryan Hunter moments! 

Liza is a smart girl when she realizes what Ryan Hunter really represents and starts watching him for the person she is starting to know more about.

About Ryan's point of view, we can only say one word: fantastic. Our hearts were aching every moment he spent away from Liza. It felt like his pain was ours as well. We could not understand how a person could feel such things for another, and the other person don't notice it. 

He is a horny teenager that happens to be in intimate situations with the person he is in love with, but still act like a gentleman. He's now, definitely, in our Fictional Boys we are in love with list.
Piper Shelly's writing is unique and it made us feel everything each character was experiencing at each time in the story. With a fluid plot and a magnificent story, we can say that both books captivated us from the beginning and our only regret is arriving to the end and not having more of their story to read. We can assure you Book Addicts, that this story would make you ask for a Ryan Hunter for Christmas or your Birthday and that you would fall in love with it. 

THE SUN BREAKING through the windows woke me the next morning. I felt as if I was drifting out to a restless sea on an unsound airbed. It took a few seconds for the eerie swaying to stop so that I could focus.

My cheek rested on a pillow smelling of pine trees and warmth. I inhaled deeply, wanting to keep that scent, and opened my eyes to stare at the sensual lips of Ryan Hunter. My hand on his naked chest rose and fell with his slow, even breaths.

Holy cow, what the hell happened? I was in bed with the captain of the soccer team. Heck, I should have never gone to that party.

Now, my only thought was run. But shock kept me pinned to the bed as I became aware of the entangled position Ryan and I had taken on in our sleep. Lying on my right, my left leg was slung over his hip. My calf rested neatly on his groin. He lay on his back, his left leg bent so, that I wouldn’t be able to withdraw mine. I tried to stop my body from shivering. No chance.

Not daring to wake him, I didn’t move, frantically running through the options I had. Great, there were none. I was trapped.

Maybe if I lay still, pretending to be fast asleep, until he woke up and got out of bed first, then I could sneak out after him and be gone before he noticed. I would have slapped myself for that idea if I could remove my hand from his warm chest.

And a firm chest it was. He must lift weights besides playing soccer. As if my eyes had their own mind, they traveled down his gorgeous body. A thin trail of dark hair led south from his navel over his flat stomach until it vanished under the waistband of his jeans. His bent leg seemed amazingly long. I never paid attention, but he must be more than a head taller than me.

My gaze swept up to his neck and the part of his face not covered with his arm. A lean jaw and a perfect, straight nose. He sported an overnight shadow that begged to be rubbed. I resisted. Under his left ear was an old scar, about an inch long. One would never notice unless close to him, like I was now.

Suddenly his lips twitched.

“I can feel you staring at me,” he said in the softest wake-up voice I’d ever heard. “I only hope you’re a girl and not one of the drunken guys.”

My breath caught in my chest. I jerked my hand back from him. Not taking his arm away from his face yet, he reached down with his other hand. And slowly ran his palm over my naked thigh in the direction of my bum.

“Yep, definitely female,” he purred.

In panic, I held his hand in place. “Move another inch, Hunter, and you’re a dead man.”

“Matthews?” Surprised amusement filled his chuckle. Unlike me, he seemed relaxed enough.

A strange heat rose from my gut to my head as I studied his hand on my bare skin. Wearing nothing but jeans and a black wrist watch, he looked more like a guy from the many posters on the walls of Caroline Davis’ bedroom than the boy I knew from school.

I felt awkward for not letting go of his hand on my leg, but I was too scared he’d continue the path he’d started if I did.

“Tell me, Matthews,” he said as he dropped his arm to the pillow and tilted his head to study me with warm eyes. “Why do I have you in my bed, when I’m not allowed to touch you?”

“I didn’t know there were strawberries in the soda,” I whined.

His brow furrowed, his lips pursed. “Come again?”

Jeez, did he not realize that he was still holding my leg, and how very uncomfortable—and excited—it made me? “Someone was getting me sweet soda all evening.” My voice shook slightly. “I didn’t realize it was the wine cooler you meant when you said—”

“—not to touch the strawberries,” he finished for me, closing his eyes. “Damn, I told her not to punch it too much.”

What? The wine cooler? I was pretty sure I had a tad too much of that stuff.

A frown creased Ryan’s brows as he looked at me again. “Sorry, I don’t remember much of the night after I carried you up here. Am I in trouble?”

Considering I still had my clothes on, nothing had happened during the night. “As far as I remember you were pretty drunk yourself. So I was quite safe from you.”

A smirk played around one corner of his mouth. “I’m afraid my time of numb indifference is over.” His thumb had started drawing small circles on my skin. “So, unless you’re up for some trouble now, would you mind moving your leg?”

My eyes widened at his seductive threat.

“What? You know you’re not the ugliest girl in the world.”

Wow, what a compliment. Idiot. I needed to get out of here. Back to…back to… Damn, Ryan had a nice smile.

Do you identify yourself with any character of your books?

Yes, actually with all of them. I think, as an author it’s impossible not to pack a load of your ticks and traits into each person you create. The most of me you get in Liza Matthews and Jona Montiniere (LOVING YOUR LIES). They are two girls truly based on my personality, but even the guys have bits of me ;-)

Did you or do you have anyone in your live like Tony?

Hm, no, not really, other than I have a best friend who I do everything with. But she’s a girl, a real bbf. Tony, for once, was made up totally off the blue.

Which part of Play With Me is your favorite? And from Ryan Hunter’s story?

From Liza’s POV, I loved the pool scene best. Did you know that it wasn’t even meant to be in the book? I added it after the story was finished, and I thought it could do with a few more words and two extra scenes. The other one added was the karaoke scene, by the way.

From Hunter’s book, I loved the epilogue best. The moment outside in his garden, when he sits on the swing and pulls her closer, grabbing his ‘former’ leather jacket. I really loved to write that scene and I can read it time and time again.

Could you tell us a little secret about Ryan to make us fall in love with him even more?

Oh my, I think after reading his book, you know ALL his secrets, ha ha. But you might like to know that some time ago, his father took in a homeless kitten which he kept until he found it a new home. It was white and gray, and even though sixteen-year-old Ryan wasn’t allowed to keep it himself or take it into their house because of his mother’s cat allergy, he went to see it in the vet office everyday to cuddle and play with it. He’d named it Liza. J

Could you describe Liza & Ryan’s relationship with three worlds?

He stole her.

Was it difficult to write Ryan Hunter’s point of view?

Absolutely not. I wrote this book within three weeks. Couldn’t stop, really. The only tricky part was to totally go with the dialogue from PLAY WITH ME and get all the interactions right, when they were together. So I had the book lying open next to my laptop and worked my way through it. I liked writing the new scenes much better. J

Is there any chance we would read more about these two or their friends?

There will be a lot of them both and all of their friends in the next book in the Grover Beach Team series. It’s called T is for…he’s a Total jerk. Tony will find his challenge in Sam Summers, or maybe it’s just the other way round. Sam is frustrated with him being such a dickhead. They have a lot to overcome before they meet their happy end, and Liza and Ryan will be present all the time. So will be Susa, Simone, Alex, Frederickson, and then some new friends, by the way. J

Any advice for those Book Addicts who are looking for their personal Ryan Hunter?

Aw, that is hard. I think boys like him happen to be very rare in real life. I was lucky, I met mine when I was seventeen, LOL. So maybe just keep your eyes and hearts open. J

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