Two Can Play by Ali Hazelwood

e-Audio, 04:24:37
Narrated by: Kelsey Navarro Foster 
Release Date: October 1, 2024
Published by: Spotify Audiobooks
Read from: September 28-29, 2024
Stand-alone
Source: Netgalley (I received an e-ALC from Netgalley and the publisher.  This did nothing to influence my review)
Content Warning: Death of a Parent, Alcohol, Sexual Harassment, Infidelity, Misogyny, Bullying
For Readers Interested In: Romance, Contemporary Romance, Adult, Gaming, Enemies to Lovers

     An enemies-to-lovers spicy romance set in the world of video gaming from the bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis—available only in audio!
     Viola Bowen has the chance of a lifetime: to design a video game based on her all-time favorite book series. The only problem? Her co-lead is Jesse F-ing Andrews, a.k.a. her arch-nemesis. Jesse has made it abundantly clear over the years that he wants nothing to do with her–and Viola has no idea why.
     When their bosses insist a wintery retreat is the perfect team-building exercise, Viola can’t think of anything worse. Being freezing cold in a remote mountain lodge knowing Jesse is right next door? No, thank you.
     But as the snow piles on, Viola discovers there’s more to Jesse than she knew, and heat builds in more ways than one.

*MY THOUGHTS*

A new Ali Hazelwood that I had no idea about? Absolutely I’ll be reading this lol There really was no question about it. This one is still about STEM, but it’s the part that actually interests me, so who am I to turn that down?

Ok so the immediate thing that stuck out to me was the characters. I hate enemies to lovers, but it’s even worse in novellas. They were so mad at each other over a thing that shouldn’t even count as a misunderstanding. And I think since this is so short, it took too much time for them to be together? I would have rathered them tell each other at that one scene instead of when they did. The ending felt rushed because of it.

The romance itself was ok. It was like mutual pining which I love, but we don’t really see the pining. Just them being jackasses to each other lol When they finally do fall for each other, it’s like hard and fast. They were seriously making up for lost time lol But to me this is why I don’t care for enemies to lovers. Especially as novellas. We saw them being jerks to each other but we hardly saw them as nice to each other. It always weirds me out as a Scorpio. If you can’t tell, YES I hold grudges lmao

The plot was fine. I wish we saw more of the game side because the book and the plot both sounded incredible. Maybe it’s the story nerd in me, but I was hopeful that they were going to give us an excerpt or something, but it seems that the two main characters were “living” it so it was fine.i do have to say tho, this is EXACTLY like her other ones. I wish she would try like friends to lovers or a meet cute or SOMETHING other than enemies to lovers. They all feel the exact same, just dressed up differently.

It wasn’t bad, but I do wish some things were different. If you’re an enemies to lovers girlie and you don’t mind reading the same thing over and over, you’ll be fine. But if you wanted a bit more or a bit different even, then you might understand where I’m coming from.

Overall, I give this