Playing Away - Adele Parks

"I'm married," I said. "I'm a tart," John smiled Both the defence and the challenge. I. Simply. Can't. Resist Connie lives a happy and normal life - a 9-5 job, a group of brilliant friends, and a fantastic husband she's been happily married to for only a year. But then she meets John Harding, the sexiest and most outrageous man she's ever met. He is confident, funny, arrogant, rude, disrespectful and completely unscrupulous and Connie can't resist. After reading my first of Adele Park's books, Tell Me Something, which I absolutely loved, I was quite excited to get into my second of her novels with some high ...  Read the complete review

A while ago, whilst looking on amazon.co.uk, I came across a special offer for 3 books (Larger Than Life, Game Over and Playing Away) by northern author Adele Parks. The first one I read, is this one, 'Playing Away'. The book promised to be a close up look at having an affair, but the design of the book did not make me think that it would be a serious look into the pros and cons of affair. I had an image of a Bridget Jones style character as the lead, only this time she is married. The main character is a management consultant called Connie Green. Connie seems to have it all, a gorgeous loving husband, Luke, a good job (even though she hates it), and a ...  Read the complete review

Over the years, I've become quite a fan of the chick-lit and bloke-lit genres. It's one of those guilty pleasures, in which you know every time you pick the book up that you should be reading something with a bit more depth but you just don't quite have the will power to let go. Fortunately, I think I may just have found the book to cure my addiction to the genre. A couple of years ago, I was given a free book on the purchase of a travel guide. This book, Adele Parks' "Playing Away", sat unwanted and unloved upon my shelf until a friend who has similar reading tastes to me mentioned she was a big fan of the author. Given that our tastes coincide in ...  Read the complete review

I had been told by two friends that this was the best book they had ever read, so I was excited to see this in the library and borrow it. Unfortunately, it didn't live up to the hype. The cover boasts that reading the book will be the closest you will get to having an affair, without actually having one. I don't think so. The plot is about a successful woman called Connie, who has a good career, lives a very nice life and is recently married to Luke. We see her life, her job, her friends and everything seems rosy. Then she goes away to a conference with her work and sees a man from her firm, who is called John and is drop dead gorgeous. ...  Read the complete review

One of the worst books that I have ever read! The story tells of how Connie has been married to Luke for a year and is now finding it hard to stay faithful. She meets John at a conference and just can’t keep her hands off him. Although she manages to use warped logic to explain why what she is doing is ok (she didn’t sleep with him the first night so it’s not unfaithful!). John messes her around but she still gives up her world for him. Eventually Luke finds out about the affair, and leaves her (well you can’t blame him really!). Naturally, the book then goes into a completely stereotypical ending. Connie realises the error of ...  Read the complete review