review: played by liz fichera

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Riley has always been the good child and an excellent student, but she starts to rebel after becoming injured on a school-organized leadership trip. Instead of focusing on her school work, Riley is obsessed with setting up the boy who saved her with her brother's girlfriend (the boy who saved her has a crush). Riley starts spending a lot of time with Sam, but she also is on the lookout for a boyfriend of her own. As Riley pursues her agenda, Sam starts to realize he has feelings for Riley.

Played is the sequel to Liz Fichera's Hooked, which I didn't realize, but it turned out that it wasn't really important to read the first book as Played is about the sister of the male lead from Hooked. It probably would add to the story to know the background as the two main characters from Hooked do play a role in Played, but it doesn't seem necessary. There's lots of relatable high school drama with crushes, strained friendships, parties, and poor decisions, but Fichera adds in an interesting dynamic by setting the story in Phoenix (where I live now!) and having Sam and some of the other characters be from the Gila River Indian Reservation.
4/5
Review copy from Amazon Vine.