My rating: 3.5/5 stars
Sam Young is easily one of my top authors because when I discovered her “Dublin Series” I crushed hard and became a die hard fan. This addiction continued with all of her books and here I am, reading another thrilling adventure and of course, love story, because duuuuuh, she rocks at it.
“Play On” I believe is her most mature and complex book, looking behind at her previous work. Don’t get me wrong, all of her books have complex characters and plot, but I could feel a lot of maturity in this one and a whole other level of awesomeness. It has something different in it and I know her readers could spot the difference “Then and Now”.
The books displays Nora, the main female character, in important parts of her life. From my POV, Nora is centered 95% of the book, all the focus being on her. At 18 years old she is left with a workaholic mother and a crippled father, whom she has to take care of. Her dreams of being an actress and starting school are postponed because of financial lacks, but mainly because her family depended on her. One day, she meets Jim, a charming Scottish fellow, who falls in love with her and wants to offer her the world. Because she believes in being more than this, Nora agrees and follows him to Edinburgh, marrying him in the process. From this moment on, Nora left her family behind to follow her dreams and never look back. Only that life is no always the way you plan and unfortunately, this was Nora’s case. She finds herself alone in a unknown city, playing Peter Pan at a local hospital and reading stories to sick children and most important, being dangerously attracted to her favorite girl’s uncle, Aidan.
This female characters was particularly interesting and complicated, with a lot of focus on feelings, guilt, drama and family issues. Nora always wanted something more from life, something to define her as a woman and individual, but life always had other plans that got in the way. She was tormented by how she left her parents, how she used Jim to get away and how her feelings didn’t matched his. Guilt was a constant element in her life and this vulnerability of not being enough. This book was full of pages of her thoughts, fears, dreams and sad moments. She was the most important element. When given a second chance, Nora hesitated much in approaching Aidan, because first, he was older (12 years difference) and second because she felt she was not good enough for him. Aidan is a known person in the music industry, a famous music producer, that worked with tons of famous people and has sky high experience. Only that Nora didn’t realize how much she needs him in her life until it’s too late… and Part 3 of the books arrives:))) They connected much due to Nora’s approach to Sylvie, his niece, and together they became 1 and the same, until I repeat, Part 3 happened.
So, I can go on forever with analyzing this book because you have much to say about the characters, but to make it short.. Why 3.5 stars? Well, because it focused mainly on Nora, and she can be frustrating sometimes with overthinking all the possible situations in life and not go with her feelings. It is tormenting sometimes to be in the head of a characters that doesn’t things opposite to your actions. Second because I wanted to get to know Aidan better (he kind of reminded me a little of Braden.. with his alfa and seductive attitude) and third because I think Sam stretched a lot some parts of the book that weren’t meant to be so debated and chatted about and rushed the final like ” bam-bam, that’s it”.
Ramonisme 