Book Review: Playing for Keeps Series by Becka Mack

If you’ve happened to walk through a drugstore or airport in the past few weeks (in Canada), you’ve likely seen the covers of the Becka Mack Playing for Keeps series of books staring back at you from the shelves. Instant bestsellers, Consider Me, Play With Me, and Unravel Me were all published in December 2023 after reaching massive success as e-books via their popularity on TikTok. Now that they are in print, they’re reaching an even wider audience to great success. Each is a romance that follows a different hockey player on a fictional NHL team closely modelled after the Vancouver Canucks, and not surprisingly, each book results in true love found. You don’t need to necessarily read them in order, but there are ‘relationship spoilers’ if you don’t. With each being 500 pages, it is a commitment, but one that many are clearly diving into anyway.

Consider Me

Carter Beckett is one of the most handsome and most highly-paid hockey players in the NHL. He’s the team Captain and a notorious playboy, photographed with different models, actresses and other beautiful women every night. Settling down is never in his plans until he meets Olivia, the best friend of one of his teammates’ girlfriends. Their chemistry is immediate, but Olivia refuses to enter into anything but a relationship, and she doesn’t feel she can trust Carter based on his reputation. With women literally throwing their selves at him every time he’s out in public, he’s desperate to reform his ways, but scared to commit to just one person.

This book won’t be in the running for any literary awards (perhaps other than a reader’s choice award) but that’s not really the point, is it? It’s fun to read about wealthy, beautiful people who eat nothing but junk food and stay miraculously thin, and the idea of an NHL player in his mid-20s being monogamous is probably a fantasy too, but again, romances don’t have to be realistic, and this shouldn’t be a strike against it. Its got a lighthearted tone; the serious ‘drama’ is hardly drama at all, and the characters speak directly to the reader at times, almost as if we are all in on the same joke. This book could have been hundreds of pages shorter, but then there wouldn’t have been as much room to incorporate all the sex scenes – and there are many!

Play With Me

Jennie Beckett has always lived in the shadow of her older brother, Carter (see above). So when one of Carter’s teammates, Garrett Andersen begins to show interest in her, she doesn’t believe she can trust he is truly interested in HER alone. Garrett has always had a crush on Jennie, but Carter is famously protective of his younger sister, and everyone on the team has always known she’s off limits. But when Jennie moves into the same apartment building as Garrett they quickly hit it off, yet both are hesitant to admit they have more than just sexual feelings for one another. Plus, Garrett is terrified of the consequences to his career if Carter even found out has been going on between him and his younger sister Jennie.

Very similar to the first book in the series, this one features a couple that will obviously end up together, as the challenges they have to overcome aren’t really challenges at all. Still, this artificial suspense offers opportunities for us to get to know the characters better, and some of their anxieties are genuine based on their family history, which both are delved into quite deeply. Although their lives may seem unrealistic, the baggage they each carry is definitely reasonable, and I appreciate how this book acknowledges that relationships are not carried out in a vacuum – people bring their past experiences and family beliefs into every romantic relationship they have. It goes deeper into the emotional side of a relationship then the first in the series does, so I appreciated this progression.

Unravel Me

Adam is the star goalie of the team, and feeling more and more despondent about his singledom. His fellow players Garett and Carter (see above) have both found the girls of their dreams, but Adam is still stinging from the betrayal of his long-time girlfriend Courtney, who he caught cheating in their own bed. Adam goes on lots of dates, but women are only interested in his money and status, until he runs into Rosie, who doesn’t watch any sports, and has no idea who he is. They hit it off immediately, and even though Rosie is a single mother with lots of responsibilities, Adam is smitten, excited to have found a girl who truly loves him for him, so much so that he avoids admitting to Rosie who he truly is. As each book in this series does, the perspectives alternate between the couple so we regularly see what the other is thinking, which helps illuminate the differences between them, but also delays the inevitable miscommunications that are bound to come up as two people begin a romantic relationship.

I’d consider this book the most ‘serious’ in the series, simply because it’s about a couple who have more challenging emotional history (both come from the foster care system) and Rosie is already a Mom. Things are definitely more complicated, but it follows a very similar pattern to the first two, so a happy ending is all but guaranteed. And although the situation seems a tad more realistic, I must admit that when this author is trying to write serious dialogue scenes between Adam and Rosie, they quickly devolved into ‘therapist speak’ that you simply wouldn’t see between two human beings without a background in psychology. It felt repetitive and extremely unrealistic, but again, why am I reading a book about a professional hockey players falling in love and looking for realism? Once you accept this is a fantasy, (which I’m still clearly struggling with), you’ll enjoy these books, and despite my little complaints and eye rolls, I enjoyed reading this series too. Give these a pass if romance isn’t your thing, but if you are at all intrigued, definitely give the first a try and let me know what you think in the comments below.