Review: Wonderful New Voice!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 11 30, 2013
Playing for Love immediately grabbed my attention and did not let go. From the very first page, I was asking, 'who, what, where, why?' And as the story developed, even more questions arose in my mind. Paige is a woman who is hard to figure out, and harder still to understand is her relationship with Carlos. He is attached to her, fiercely loyal to her, and she to him, and yet, their connection is something just, short of romantic, just short of dysfunctional, and very, very hard to understand. Enter Kenneth, a fairly uncomplicated guy. He's young, rich, famous and enjoying being single. Paige is a puzzle and he wants to figure her out. But standing in the way of that is her relationship with Carlos, his best friend.I was torn almost throughout the entire book, trying to decide who I wanted Paige to end up with. And later, I experienced a shift and began to think of who Paige should end up with. And that is the central conflict in the book for the reader and for the characters themselves. Is Carlos what's best for Paige? Is she what's best for him? Are they bound to each other out of a deep love, or because of a shared difficult past? As I read Playing for Love I could feel Tia Kelly's own conflict over this question.She spent a long time in the initial parts of the book developing and helping us see the connection between Carlos and Paige, and also between Carlos and Paige's young daughter. They have a rhythm between them, but there is no balance -- Carlos is a caretaker for Paige, a protector for her daughter, but is he more? Paige is reluctantly dependent on Carlos and somewhat intimidated by him at times. And Kenneth is a respite from the intensity of Paige and Carlos' relationship, but is he more?I went back and forth several times on that question.At the end of the book, I was somewhat resolved and understood the conclusion and believed it was the one that made the most sense for the characters and who they were. But I wasn't sure I could feel the author's commitment to that conclusion in the same way I felt her commitment to other parts of the story -- she was ambivalent and in places, it showed. That alone is what made me give this book four stars instead of five. I want to be thoroughly convinced of the outcome and I felt as though the author was not herself thoroughly convinced.Still, Tia Kelly is a wonderful new voice and I look forward to reading more of her work in this series. I have a feeling that like The Love Sessions and the novellas that preceded it, she is still working on these characters and we will see them again, growing and changing and going through the developmental pains that all real people go through.That, above all is what makes me recommend Playing for Love and this author -- she writes real people, going through real stuff. And sometimes the real stuff leaves us without the resolutions we seek. In Playing for Love, as in all her work, I want to get to know these people, and I want them to be okay. And that is what's going to keep me reading. I hope you join me, and do the same.