Even one-night stands deserve a second chance in New York Times bestselling author Rachel Van Dyken’s novel of sporting desire.What else can a virgin do when she’s ditched at the altar? Seattle heiress Mackenzie Dupont is treating herself to a single-girl honeymoon in Mexico and a desire to relinquish her innocence to a gorgeous one-night stand. Fake names. True pleasure. But when she wakes up … But when she wakes up alone, Mackenzie realizes just how much anger is left in her broken heart.
Suffering a tragic personal loss, pro soccer player Slade Rodriguez has his reasons for vanishing without a goodbye. Right or wrong, he’s blaming the beautiful and infuriating stranger he never wants to see again. They’re both in for a shock when Mackenzie shows up as his new personal assistant. And they both have a lot to learn about each other. Because they share more than they could possibly know, including a common enemy who’s playing his own games. And he’s not afraid to get dirty.
Now there’s only one way Mackenzie and Slade can win: to trust in each other and to stop hiding from the lies they’ve told, the secrets they’ve kept, the mistakes they’ve made, and the attraction that still burns between them.
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An all-new sports romance from the amazing Rachel Van Dyken!
RISKY PLAY (Red Card Book 1) by Rachel Van Dyken is the first contemporary romance in a new series featuring pro soccer players.
Mackenzie “Mack” Dupont had her fiancée walk away from her at the altar. Splashed across all of the society pages, Mack’s humiliation leads her to taking her already scheduled honeymoon trip to Mexico alone to get away. She is ready to lose her virginity and live life on her terms.
Slade Rodriguez is now the highest paid striker in the American soccer league. After finding out his fiancee was pregnant with a teammate’s baby he knew he had to change his life and location. Before the new season begins, he is off to Mexico to hide out and get away from the paparazzi.
When Mack and Slade come together, what they hope can be more turns into a one-night-stand with Mack waking up alone and wondering why everyone leaves her.
Slade has tragic personal reasons for vanishing from Mexico without a goodbye. Grieving and blaming the stranger for his loss, Slade is shocked when Mack shows up at his door as his new personal assistant. Mack cannot believe who opens the door for her new temporary job. They both have a lot to learn about each other after all the lies. Slade needs to let his grief and anger go and Mack refuses to be walked all over anymore. What they do not know is that they have a common enemy who wants to ruin them both.
Mack is such a great heroine. She had a lot of emotional growing up to do. She starts out just rolling along filling everyone else’s expectations and doing all the right things. After having two major emotional upsets, she learns to stand up for herself and make herself first and she does this without becoming bitter or hard. I love sports, but I do not necessarily like the players, young men with too much money, too many women and bad attitudes. I had a hard time liking Slade and his treatment of Mack at first when she ends up working for him, but he did redeem himself and had me cheering for him in the end. The author’s writing has made me interested in finding out more about the other players in future books.
I loved the dialogue in this book. It feels realistic and had me laughing out loud and near tears at times. Ms. Van Dyken brings her characters to life on the page. The sex scenes are hot and explicit and at times funny, but they never felt gratuitous. The secondary characters were fully fleshed out and realistic. This is a new to me author that I am looking forward to following in the future.
This was a sweet romance story. I did enjoy the story.
I love watching MacKenzie grow in this book. To going from being left at the alter and everyone in the country knowing about it, to moving on and living in the moment, to showing Slade he wasn’t going to break her. She was an amazing character.
Slade is a hot, cocky soccer player. But he’s also a great person once you get to know him on a personal level and not what he shows the public. I really enjoyed watching him fall in this book!
This is a great start to a new series by RVD! Love her books!
Ditched at the altar…enter a sexy soccer player during her would-be honeymoon in Mexico! This enemies-to-lovers sports romance from Rachel Van Dyken is available now.
Risky Play combines a one night stand (with fake names and all!) with an arrogant sports star to create a story of second chances. Poor Mackenzie is abandoned at the alter (literally) by her fiancee who was her best friend. She is a bit lost after that. She doesn’t know who she is any more. She decides a trip to Mexico (what would have been her honeymoon) is just what she needs.Slade starts off great as a hero. Then he gets hit with a stupid stick. Hard. He said some things that made ME tear up and he wasn’t even saying them to me. Mackenzie has just been continually beat up-left at the alter, left after a one night stand, accused of being a stalker…Then to know even her dad didn’t take her side?! How could one woman have literally NO ONE in her corner? So, I really needed Slade to bring the grovel extra hard. No dumbass flowers were gonna fix this.Because Slade said some truly horrific things, I was kind of rooting for Jagger. He knew what she had been through and saw that she needed a friend. He wanted to be more than her friend, but he was the first person in the book I thought actually SAW her as a person. It was probably the one (and only) time I was ever hoping for a love triangle. Slade does grovel so well though…I will admit he won me over, and I am NOT forgiving at all.Risky Play will appeal to those readers who like the secret identity trope as well as those who like the sports romance aspect! Slade’s status as an athlete is a major part of the story, but the actual sport isn’t the focus of the book. So, if you like the athlete heroes more than the actual sports, Risky Play is right up your alley!
I love sports romances! And Enemies-to-Lovers too. It’s one of my favorite combos and RVD hit it out of the park!
Enemies-to-Lovers, Soccer Player, Virgin
Risky Play (Red Card #1) was a good read by Rachel Van Dyken. Mackenzie Dupont is an heiress who was left at the altar. She treats herself to a single-girl honeymoon in Mexico. She is hoping to relinquish her virginity to a one-night stand. They gave each other fake names but the next morning Mackenzie wakes up alone. Slade Rodriguez is a pro soccer player who suffers a deep personal loss. He blames Mackenzie for his loss because she distracted him. But they both get a shock when she becomes his personal assistant. I really enjoyed this book and can’t wait to read more by the author.
What is there to say about this book besides that it’s amazing?
I was hooked from the first chapter!! I mean, how could you not be?
Near death experience, hot guy, hot girl, Mexico, one night stand, all of that was in the first couple chapters. Haha!
You get to see the characters grow throughout the story. Weather it’s Mackenzie who’s growing by learning to stand up for herself and not let others walk all over her as well as fall in love with someone that deserves it.
Or if it’s Slade who lost his dad and was cheated on and took it out on the world! Was able asshole to everyone around him and then finally came to his sense.
This book made me laugh, it almost made me cry, it made me feel all of the feels!! It was just amazing! I need to start reading the second book in the series next, I like to go in blind so I don’t know who it’s following but I’m hoping it’s a story for poor Jagger. Haha!! Well done Rachel, well done!
Amazing! I loved the characters
Audio review:
I loved Mackenzie and Slade.
From their near death beginning to their heartwarming ending they had me laughing at their banter, cursing at their stupidity and smiling at the good times.
But the drama didn’t stop there!
Towards the end I honestly had doubts that it would work out between them because their beautiful little bubble was popped – in the most conniving and malicious way.
It took me a while to get used to the narration, as Eric was new to me. However, he and CJ did a wonderful job of bringing their story to my ears.
4
Mack and Slade definitely have that bursting chemistry that could either go really wrong or really right. They’ve both had massive heartbreak and the world seems to be working against them. I loved their fight and determination once Slade got out of his head with a little help from Mackenzie.
This HEA was good.
Soccer, wine expert, celebrity, KU
I freaking flove RVD. Whenever i got a book by her i always knew its going to be a fantastic 5 star read and this was no different… This book sucked me right into it from the first page. Seriously unputdownable read. I love Mack and Slade’s story and the one night stand thing… RVD takes us on an awesome journey of angst, sexiness and romance. And Slade is *sigh*. Can’t wait for next book in this series!!!
I was really excited for this book, I binged all of RVDs books in about a week and couldn’t wait for more and Risky Play didn’t disappoint.
Loved this story. So much more than your thinking when you read the synopsis. Great characters with a cute dog in it.
This one…this one was so good. I had it on audio and found myself smiling my way through it and rolling my eyes and LOVING it. Mackenzie was left at the altar and after being in the tabloids and even her father not taking her side she finally escapes to Mexico for vacation. Next to her in first class is a gorgeous man and when their plane loses an engine and it appears they are going to crash they kiss. Turns out they have chemistry and share a ride to the same motel and each have penthouse rooms. Convenient. Their vacation turns into a seduction and a thrill ride and even though they give each other fake names, something special forms until he disappears. Soon they are both back in the states and surprise she turns up at his door as his assistant. He is a famous soccer player, she is worth more than he is. Oh the joy. This one was so good! It was witty and full of banter and full of fun. I highly recommend it.
I ended up really enjoying this book. I was a little nervous at first. But, Rachel turned things around in a very big way and I loved it. The way Slade and Mackenzie meet was cute and I loved the day they spent together. Then it all goes to crap when Slade turns into this major jerk who blames Mackenzie for not answering his fathers phone call before he died. Mackenzie takes everything in stride and helps Slade put himself back together again. As Slade realizes what a jerk he was and sees how wrong it was to take out his grief on her, he does everything in his power to make things up to her.
This is when the story really turned around. I was on the verge of hating Slade. He was almost irredeemable, but with the help of Jagger, Matt, and a young boy he really turns himself around. I really loved that part. He starts to see what a great person Mackenzie is and even though she works for him she takes the time to pay attention to little details. She cooks him dinner, knows his soccer schedule, makes the shakes that he likes, and cleans for him. The fact that he made it his mission to make up for the way he treated her made him redeemable in my eyes. He did a great job and I loved how he protected her when it came to her jerk of an ex and how her dad took the exes side over her. That was not cool at all.
I liked this book. I starts off a bit shaky and Slade is no doubt a jerk, but he totally redeems himself and we see that wonderful guy we meet at the beginning of the book.
Audio. Full disclosure: I love 99% of what RVD writes. CJ Bloom & Eric London are definitely in my list of favorite narrators. So, it was going to be difficult for this book to disappoint. Even though I could read/listen via KU ~ I bought it.
Yes, the jilted-bride-goes-on-honeymoon-anyway-and-meets-her-forever-man has been done numerous times before, but RVD pulls it off well by adding a few unique twists and turns. Places where I thought I knew where she was going, she made a different decision with great results.
I loved Mac. She was adorable (I’m sure CJ Bloom’s voice helped here), yet strong and determined despite all the crap coming her way.
Speaking of crap, Slade’s attitude toward her when they meet up again is what brought this down for me. He was particularly vicious and it went along a little too long for my taste.
It’s still a book I see myself listening to again and worth buying. They get their HEA. We also get to know Matt & Jagger well enough that I can’t wait for their stories.
I love a sports romance, and I’m a fan of Rachel Van Dyken’s work and was eager to read Risky Play the first title in the Red Card series.
I quite enjoyed this title, the hero and heroine are complicated, but also quite intriguing. I loved that they were both resilient, but also quite vulnerable.
Mackenzie Dupont was born in to a life of wealth and luxury, but it hasn’t stopped her from working for what she wants. When she becomes a jilted bride, she is determined to find her own happiness.
Slade Rodriguez is a soccer star who is left reeling after a tragedy and the guilt and loss leave him reeling.
Their banter is witty, and their lust and chemistry between them is undeniable.
I will be looking forward to additional titles in the series.
When I was 22, I was dating my first real love. I took a trip and a week later I came home to a phone call that my love had met someone else and started seeing her while I was away. I was devastated. I didn’t think I would ever find true love again. My heart went out to McKenzie. She knew this guy her whole life. It seemed like they were raised together to marry each other. Then during a bad plane ride, she met him. I could see her coming out of her darkness. The feelings Slade and Mackenzie have for one another are so strong. They’re both so consumed by hurt that I just wanted to hug them both. I laughed and cried while reading their story. This a definite must read again!