Make Your Play is the kind of book that gives you butterflies in your stomach as the relationship between the main characters develops. Where some of the book’s events could be approached in a dramatic way—and rightly so—Cali Melle has made sure that there’s something positive coming out of them, and that’s something to soothe the soul. 

 

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Riley is Nova’s best friend, and Nova is Nash’s sister, a professional hockey player for whom Riley has long had feelings but has never acted on them, seeing them as forbidden. Having recently started a relationship with another man, she discovers she is pregnant. Not feeling ready to be a father, Chad—the well named—decides not to get involved in Riley’s pregnancy or the life of his unborn child. 

 

Nash has had feelings for his sister’s best friend for years. When the pregnant woman tells him that she has health problems and an insurance policy that covers very little of her maternity costs, he decides to make a deal with her: to get married so that she can benefit from his health insurance until the child is born, and then to have the marriage annulled. 

 

What if Riley’s difficulties and the absence of the father of her unborn child were actually just negative events paving the way for a better future? 

 

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I really enjoyed this book. I thought Riley and Nash were very sweet together. You can tell from the beginning that they have a lot of affection for each other—which was already obvious in Make Your Move, the first book in the series—but that they don’t dare make the first move because the fact that Nash is the brother of Riley’s best friend makes a hypothetical relationship seem ‘forbidden’. 

 

Nash is the definition of the ideal book boyfriend, and Riley is very impressive in the strength and resilience she shows in the face of this solo pregnancy. They are both very endearing characters and I found myself rooting for them from the very first pages of the book. 

 

I was also very pleased to see all the characters from Make Your Move, the first book in the series, and I can’t wait to see what the rest of the Aston Archers Hockey series has in store for us. 

 

Thanks to Cali Melle for giving me the opportunity to receive an ARC of this book. This review is my own. All opinions expressed are mine.