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raynebair's review
5.0
OMG! This book was so good! Alex as an amazing secondary character so I enjoyed his side subplot. I never could figure out Donovan's issue, but Zach was the sweetest guy ever! He and Lucas were so cute together.
ryanpfw's review
4.0
Spoilers!
So for most books, all that matters is the final opinion, assuming I made it to the end of the book. For most of this book, I was aiming for three stars. At one point, it dipped down to two stars. What can I say? It ended strong.
Lucas was a difficult character to get behind. I’m a firm believer that realism doesn’t mean the same thing as entertaining, and realistic stories do not need to always be made into books. Lucas was a timid, rudderless character who kept getting hit over the head. He’d make friends who weren’t there for him, and then he’d be let down and led around, and it was difficult to read. Madison Parker had Lucas hit his floor early, and then rebounded and brought everything back from the abyss. Every character, from Donovan to Trish to Alex to Mason to especially Lucas’ dad were allowed to have shades of gray. His dad didn’t know how to be proud of Lucas, but learned. Mason treated Lucas horribly, and we learned why. Even the end fight with Zach is resolved as it would be on an after school special, and it just works.
Not every story is wrapped up in a bow, and life goes on. This story very much stops, and I actually scoured the web to find a bonus chapter and vignette that follow the conclusion here. I appreciated the realism that sort of ending shows, and on the “does it tell a good story front?” I’d only wished we’d had one more scene with Lucas and his Mom. She raised him fairly badly in this, and it was fully acknowledged in the plot, but I would have liked to have heard it from her as we did from Lucas’ dad. Although maybe it would have been too much?
Very pleased!
So for most books, all that matters is the final opinion, assuming I made it to the end of the book. For most of this book, I was aiming for three stars. At one point, it dipped down to two stars. What can I say? It ended strong.
Lucas was a difficult character to get behind. I’m a firm believer that realism doesn’t mean the same thing as entertaining, and realistic stories do not need to always be made into books. Lucas was a timid, rudderless character who kept getting hit over the head. He’d make friends who weren’t there for him, and then he’d be let down and led around, and it was difficult to read. Madison Parker had Lucas hit his floor early, and then rebounded and brought everything back from the abyss. Every character, from Donovan to Trish to Alex to Mason to especially Lucas’ dad were allowed to have shades of gray. His dad didn’t know how to be proud of Lucas, but learned. Mason treated Lucas horribly, and we learned why. Even the end fight with Zach is resolved as it would be on an after school special, and it just works.
Not every story is wrapped up in a bow, and life goes on. This story very much stops, and I actually scoured the web to find a bonus chapter and vignette that follow the conclusion here. I appreciated the realism that sort of ending shows, and on the “does it tell a good story front?” I’d only wished we’d had one more scene with Lucas and his Mom. She raised him fairly badly in this, and it was fully acknowledged in the plot, but I would have liked to have heard it from her as we did from Lucas’ dad. Although maybe it would have been too much?
Very pleased!
leelee68's review against another edition
4.0
I really enjoyed Lucas and I wasn't bothered that he cried a lot, hehe. I know at that age being bullied and not being understood can make anyone emotional but someone young like himself I'm not surprised. I really enjoyed Alex he was such a sweetheart and a great friend but Mason annoyed the mess out of me. I know he's the younger brother but ugh, but what drove me the craziest was the fricken adults, teachers allowing things to go on, his mother gave some of her advice yikes, and also how his parents allowed his brother to talk to him. That wouldn't be cool in my house if I'm going to be upset about strangers talking to my kids anyway, why would I allow their brother or sister to the same thing to them? I wouldn't mind finding out how they're doing in the future.
photogcourt's review against another edition
3.0
A friend bullied me into reading this (& that's the story I'm sticking with.)
Play Me, I'm Yours is regarded as a young adult novel, and though it's set in high school it's a lot more graphic than what I'm using to seeing for this age group. The characters are 18, so it could really go either way between YA and New Adult, definitely one of those books that flip flops. However I don't really recommend it for readers under 17.
So I was expecting it to be a lot more innocent than it was, but no matter, I don't really care about all that.
Unfortunately, I couldn't really relate too much to the main POV, but considering I'm a straight female this is really no big surprise to anyone. Overall I thought it was cute, but the bursts of immaturity annoyed me a little bit. I think for readers who can relate better to the situation would be more moved by it. I don't regret reading it but I'm convinced there has to be better LGBTQ/GLBT books out there for young adult readers.
Play Me, I'm Yours is regarded as a young adult novel, and though it's set in high school it's a lot more graphic than what I'm using to seeing for this age group. The characters are 18, so it could really go either way between YA and New Adult, definitely one of those books that flip flops. However I don't really recommend it for readers under 17.
So I was expecting it to be a lot more innocent than it was, but no matter, I don't really care about all that.
Unfortunately, I couldn't really relate too much to the main POV, but considering I'm a straight female this is really no big surprise to anyone. Overall I thought it was cute, but the bursts of immaturity annoyed me a little bit. I think for readers who can relate better to the situation would be more moved by it. I don't regret reading it but I'm convinced there has to be better LGBTQ/GLBT books out there for young adult readers.
jedbird's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
I recently reread this author's SOCK IT TO ME, SANTA, which is a delightful, though definitely not perfect, little holiday story. With that story, I was definitely left wanting more, and I was curious how the author's talents would expand into a full-length book. As it turns out, a longer story is much less special than the xmas trinket.
This is a high school story generally similar to a lot of gay YA high school stories. Piano-playing Lucas is teased and tormented by his classmates. His younger brother, a member of the swim team, is embarrassed by Lucas' effeminacy/obvious gayness. Their parents bought Lucas a car with the understanding that he will give his brother a ride home after swim practice, so Lucas does homework in the bleachers while discreetly checking out the swimmers in the pool below.
Lucas has a couple of false starts at love and makes friends with a bold girl. All of the young people seemed a little off to me, but it has been a long time since I was a teenager, so what do I know? There are some moderately graphic sexual scenes that do seem in keeping with Lucas' personality and lack of experience. Lucas cries more than any MC I can recall, but it doesn't seem out of character.
This was perfectly okay, but something of a let-down since I'm so fond of this author's (flawed, charming) xmas story. This is a more or less basic gay high school story in a sea of gay high school stories.
This is a high school story generally similar to a lot of gay YA high school stories. Piano-playing Lucas is teased and tormented by his classmates. His younger brother, a member of the swim team, is embarrassed by Lucas' effeminacy/obvious gayness. Their parents bought Lucas a car with the understanding that he will give his brother a ride home after swim practice, so Lucas does homework in the bleachers while discreetly checking out the swimmers in the pool below.
Lucas has a couple of false starts at love and makes friends with a bold girl. All of the young people seemed a little off to me, but it has been a long time since I was a teenager, so what do I know? There are some moderately graphic sexual scenes that do seem in keeping with Lucas' personality and lack of experience. Lucas cries more than any MC I can recall, but it doesn't seem out of character.
This was perfectly okay, but something of a let-down since I'm so fond of this author's (flawed, charming) xmas story. This is a more or less basic gay high school story in a sea of gay high school stories.
ssjonoyoung's review against another edition
4.0
That was cute but still randomly explicit. I keep picking excessively elicit books. The relationship of Zach and Lucas was cute though Alex was a missed opportunity. Lucas was quite a hard character to read from because he really wasn't emotionally stable and that was upsetting. Donovan can go die though.
anya_doesntmatter's review against another edition
4.0
A 4 star joyride!
please forgive my fumbling. My thoughts are a bit disjointed and jumbled in my mind and I really should take some time to gather them before posting a review but I wanted to get it out of the way rather than leaving it on the back burner and eventually forgetting to review it.
Overall, I enjoyed this story. There are a couple elements that didn't quite work for me though that caused this story to fall a bit short of Parker's other work that i absolutely love Sock it to Me Santa. The constant woe is me, over the top naiveté of Lucas juxtaposed with
Spoiler
BDSM sexual history of ZachThe most important, poignant, empowering quote I read that made me hobble on my bad leg out of bed to grab some Kleenex:
“There’s nothing you could do to make me any more or less gay, Dad. It’s who I am.”
“It’s not who you are. It’s part of who you are, but it’s not who you are. You’re so much more than just that, and I’m proud of you. All of you.”
His dad may not have been there when he wanted him to be but he more than made up for it by being there when Lucas needed him.
chadjames312's review against another edition
5.0
I do hope this author plans a sequel, with the characters in college because I loved Zach and Lucas, Alex and Trish, maybe even Donovan's skanky butt can be redeemed ;-) Also Lucas's brother Mason needs to meet his match in a lady. Great story Madison Parker thank you for writing it, I LOVED it!!!
merny88's review
4.0
Honestly, I'm a bit miffed that Alex wasn't endgame, because he was perfect, but whatever, Zach was cool too.
cloudyday's review against another edition
Main character is such a senstive wimp. Ok I'm an empathetic person and ofc boys cry and all that and I love when fiction shows boys crying because ofc they do. but this guy cries 24/7 he is literally so pathetic it was hard to read. other than that i did like it. but he was just really pathetic