The Redhead Plays Her Hand by Alice Clayton
Series: Redhead #3 (full reading order below)
Publication Date: December 17th 2013
Source: I received an ARC from the publisher (Gallery Books) in exchange for an honest review
The third sexy novel in USA TODAY bestselling author Alice Clayton’s playful and erotic Redhead series continues the sizzling romance between actress Grace Sheridan and Hollywood’s hottest leading man Jack Hamilton.
Grace has landed the lead in a new TV series—but when the director asks her to lose fifteen pounds, she goes public with her weight struggles and suddenly develops a huge fan club who support her right to have curves. But between that and the public’s continuing fascination with her “are they or aren’t they” relationship with Jack, Grace begins to wonder if anyone’s really interested in her because of her upcoming TV series, or if it’s all speculation about the size of her ass and her bedroom partner.
Meanwhile, Jack is voted the Sexiest Man Alive and becomes a little too enamored with the party-hard lifestyle. Grace vows to give him the space he needs to find himself, but then he begins to spiral down from lovable Brit to Hollywood brat. People are talking, but are Jack and Grace? Her career is on the rise, and his continues into the stratosphere, but will she be able to catch him if he falls? Will they ever be able to just be a couple who can hold hands when they walk down the street?
As frustrating as The Redhead Plays Her Hand was to read, I honestly enjoyed Grace and Jack’s final book. Grace and Jack have been through so much in the previous two books, but they’re not quite done yet. In this third and final book in the Redhead series, Alice Clayton amps up the drama, angst, and heartbreak, but everything else you can expect from a Redhead book–laugh-out-loud humor, hot, steamy sex, and the sweetest love between Gracie and Jack–is still there.
“I love you.”
“I love you more.”
“Not bloody likely.”
Grace has finally hit it big in show-business, but in order to have the job, she’s got to drop some pounds. She feels comfortable in her body already–Jack is a big help in this. He worships her body, loves her body, and is everything you can expect from a perfect (younger) boyfriend. She has no problem with having to lose weight, as it’s part of the job, but the public is harsh against her. With Jack becoming more and more famous, Grace is being critically scrutinized by fans, paparazzi, and gossip magazines.
Pick your path. You don’t get to decide how the public reacts. You only get to decide how you react.
True, very true.
Victim? Warrior? Pick. Your. Path.
The best part that I love about Grace is how she deals with tough situations. In TRPHH, Grace has to deal with harsh criticism about her weight. It’s Hollywood, so everyone who isn’t stick-thin is considered overweight, even if they are perfectly healthy, and this includes Grace. She lets the criticism bring her down a bit before she stands up for herself, and starts to make a change in Hollywood. I had so much admiration for this girl while I was reading, because she uses her growing fame to reach out to all women to show them that no matter what size they are, they’re beautiful.
And in that moment, I realized how out of control everything had become. Big, small, curvy, or bony, beauty was beauty. I was healthy. I was exactly the size I was supposed to be, and that was it.
Meanwhile, Grace also has to deal with Jack being… not so lovable anymore. Jack was perfect in the first two books of the series, and now, Jack’s not so perfect anymore. He’s the main reason why I couldn’t enjoy the book as much as I wanted to. The fame has finally gotten to Jack’s head, and it doesn’t help that he’s making friends with Adam, a fellow actor and known as Hollywood’s party boy. Adam influences Jack to party and drink more, but Adam can’t take all the blame. Jack deals with the fame, as well as the unsavory parts that come with it–the constant paparazzi, no privacy, the criticisms on his girlfriend–in the worst way possible. He pulls away from everyone, including Grace, and spirals down until he’s a mess.
But even with Jack’s hard partying, we can always feel the love Jack and Grace have for each other. These two are it for each other, and this is just another bump in the road for them before they can reach their happily ever after. They’ll work through anything and everything for each other.
In this moment, in this car, on this stretch of highway, we were a couple in love. We were not an older woman and a younger man, Jack wasn’t the Sexiest Man Alive, but he was the sexiest man in my world. I wasn’t an up-and-coming actress who’d been asked about the size of her boyfriend’s dick the night before by a total stranger, I was a girl in a convertible in my pajamas, holding hands with the man I was in love with.
It was difficult to read this book and not get frustrated with Jack, but I still loved the sweet ending to this series. I loved how Alice Clayton blended in the humor and sweetness with the more serious parts of the book. Can’t say I LOVED this book, but Grace and Jack’s story wraps up perfectly.
Quotes are taken from the arc and are subject to change in the final version.
#1 ~ The Unidentified Redhead: Ebook • Paperback • Goodreads
#2 ~ The Redhead Revealed: Ebook • Paperback • Goodreads
#3 ~ The Redhead Plays Her Hand: Ebook • Paperback • Goodreads
Alice Clayton is a novelist with an unholy love for her KitchenAid mixer. Making her home in St Louis, she enjoys gardening but not weeding, baking but not cleaning up afterwards, and is trying desperately to get her long time boyfriend to make her an honest woman. Hi sweetie!!
After working for years in the cosmetics industry as a makeup artist, esthetician, and national educator for a major cosmetics company, Alice picked up a pen (read laptop) for the first time at 33 to begin a new career, writer. Combining her love of storytelling with a sense of silly, she was shocked and awed to be nominated for a Goodreads Author award in 2010 for her debut novels, The Redhead Series.
Alice has penned three novels, The Unidentified Redhead,The Redhead Revealed, and coming soon in November 2012, Wallbanger. She thinks you should purchase them immediately. She’s not kidding, not even a little bit. Everyone needs some comedic erotica in their lives. She is hard at work on the third book in The Redhead Series, set to release in Spring of 2013, continuing the saucy and sexual escapades of everyone’s favorite couple, Jack and Grace.
Additionally, Alice loves spending time with her besties on Not Your Mother’s Podcast, make sure you check them out at notyourmotherspodcast.com or over on iTunes. 3 women rushing towards their forties still acting like teenagers. A saucy little mix of sex, love, relationships, pop cultural, celebrity gossip and All Things Jake Ryan.
Alice enjoys pickles, Bloody Mary’s, 8 hours of sleep, and a good pounding.
Finally Alice would also like all her readers and listeners to help her convince Mt. Alice that the only other thing that would make her truly happy is finally bringing home a Bernese Mountain Dog. She is totally serious. And done talking about herself in the third person…
5 signed sets of the Redhead series
Tiffany “Schmaltz” necklace
Booklovers For Life 