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Broken Play

PCU Storm, Book 1

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Broken Play

By: Riley Paige
Narrated by: Anthony Palmini, Savannah Thomas
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Jaxon - I’m months away from the NFL draft, from everything I’ve ever wanted. Except none of it matters without her. Madison Blake has always been it for me—my best friend, my biggest what-if, the girl I’ve never stopped loving. One drunken voicemail. That’s all it took for me to drop everything and transfer to PCU. She doesn’t remember calling. But now that she knows the real reason I’m here? She’s running faster than ever.

Madison - Jaxon Montgomery was never supposed to be mine. I spent years convincing myself he was better off without me. But now I know the truth—he’s here because of me. Because I asked for him. Because he’s never been the one to walk away. I thought choosing him would only end in heartbreak. But maybe the real mistake was believing he wouldn’t choose me back.

©2025 Riley Paige (P)2025 Riley Paige Contemporary Sports Heartfelt
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The book is overall good but the mindset and actions the FL has/does is really annoying. That makes the story lose it’s appeal.

Good but FL is annoying

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**𝓝𝓞 𝓢𝓟𝓞𝓘𝓛𝓔𝓡𝓢**

⚜️ℝ𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕟𝕘𝕤-
* 🗣 𝗡𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿s Anthony Palmini ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Savannah Thomas ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
* 📚 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 / 5
* 🌡️ 𝗦𝗽𝗶𝗰𝗲 MF 🌶🌶 / 5 -𝑐ℎ𝑒𝑐𝑘 𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑚𝑦 𝐺𝑜𝑜𝑑𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑠 𝑠ℎ𝑒𝑙𝑣𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑛 𝑚𝑦 𝑟𝑒𝑣𝑖𝑒𝑤 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑑𝑒𝑡𝑎𝑖𝑙𝑒𝑑 𝑠𝑝𝑖𝑐𝑒 𝑚𝑖𝑐𝑟𝑜𝑡𝑟𝑜𝑝𝑒𝑠


⚜️𝕂𝕖𝕪 𝕀𝕟𝕗𝕠:
* Genre- Contemporary Romance / College Sports Romance
* 𝐹𝑖𝑟𝑠𝑡 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑜𝑛 DUAL 𝗣𝗢𝗩 / 𝚍𝚞𝚎𝚝 𝚜𝚝𝚢𝚕𝚎 𝚗𝚊𝚛𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗
* 𝗣𝗹𝗼𝘁 or 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗿 driven? 𝒞𝒽𝒶𝓇𝒶𝒸𝓉ℯ𝓇
* 𝗣𝗮𝗰𝗲- uneven
* 𝗠𝗲𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲? ✅ Mainly for Jaxon, the emotional relationship and fantastic narration
* 𝐀𝐧𝐲 𝐑𝐞𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧? (Disability, plus size, mental health etc...) ✅ mental health / trauma rep / seeing a therapist

⚜️𝕊𝕡𝕚𝕔𝕖 𝔽𝕒𝕔𝕥𝕤:
🌡️ 𝑂𝑝𝑒𝑛-𝑑𝑜𝑜𝑟 𝑠𝑝𝑖𝑐𝑒
😇CONSENT KING
🥵 𝒟𝒾𝓇𝓉𝓎 𝒯𝒶𝓁𝓀
❤️‍🔥 𝐿𝑜𝑛𝑔-𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑚 𝑦𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔
🫦 𝑉𝑖𝑟𝑔𝑖𝑛 𝑀𝑀𝐶
💚 𝒢𝒾𝓋ℯ𝓇 𝑀𝑀𝐶
🔥𝐒𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐁𝐮𝐫𝐧
💞ՏᗴᑕOᑎᗪ ᑕᕼᗩᑎᑕᗴ ᖇOᗰᗩᑎᑕᗴ
🙏𝐻𝑒 𝑓𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑠 𝑓𝑖𝑟𝑠𝑡
🫵friends to lovers


⚜️𝕋ℝ𝕆ℙ𝔼𝕊
🏈 𝐶𝑜𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑔𝑒 𝐹𝑜𝑜𝑡𝑏𝑎𝑙𝑙
🧸 𝐶ℎ𝑖𝑙𝑑ℎ𝑜𝑜𝑑 𝐹𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝐿𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑠
❤️‍🩹 𝑆𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑑 𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒
🥺 𝐻𝑒 𝐹𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑠 𝐹𝑖𝑟𝑠𝑡
🫶 𝐼𝑡’𝑠 𝐴𝑙𝑤𝑎𝑦𝑠 𝐵𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝑌𝑜𝑢
🐌 𝑆𝑙𝑜𝑤 𝐵𝑢𝑟𝑛
💔 𝐵𝑟𝑜𝑘𝑒𝑛 / 𝑇𝑟𝑎𝑢𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑠𝑒𝑑 𝐹𝑀𝐶
🤐 𝑀𝑖𝑠𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑢𝑛𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 ish
🫂 𝐹𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑 𝐹𝑎𝑚𝑖𝑙𝑦 / 𝐹𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑝
🏆 𝐷𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑚 𝐶𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑒𝑟
😈𝕊𝕖𝕔𝕣𝕖𝕥𝕤 & surprises

Warning- it did feel very teenage, v-card, high school drama to me rather than adults in college. Teenage outbursts with teenage thought processes and teenage actions… petulant and dumb basically.

📝Cliff Notes Review-
I loved Jaxon, the friendships, the romance when it was actually allowed to breathe, the emotional premise, the gorgeous spice, and especially the audiobook narration, but Madison’s constant push-pull behaviour became exhausting.
Her trauma was valid, yet the story relied too heavily on repetitive internal monologues and miscommunication instead of letting her genuinely work through it. She repeated the same fears so often that she began to feel defined by them rather than developed through them.

The relationship also relied far too heavily on miscommunication when one proper adult conversation could have solved so much.
Jaxon was a massive green flag, although I wanted him to stop patiently suffering and actually fight for the relationship sometimes.

I just wish those ideas had been explored with more nuance rather than repetition.

The audiobook saved this for me though, bevause Savannah Thomas and Anthony Palmini were phenomenal. They honestly kept me invested through the sections that nearly made me DNF. Infact I almost DNF’d because their relationship conflict became so unbelievable to me, including the inevitable third-act breakup. The whole thing desperately needed two grown adults to sit down, lock the bloody door and actually finish a conversation. There were also frustrating continuity gaps, especially around Madison’s family history, that should have been caught in editing.

⚜️𝔸𝕦𝕕𝕚𝕠 𝔹𝕠𝕠𝕜 ℝ𝕖𝕧𝕚𝕖𝕨:
Now THIS is where I’m handing out the flowers. 🌹
Savannah Thomas and Anthony Palmini were down right excellent.

I listened at 2.0x speed and every word remained clear and crisp. The pacing between sentences worked beautifully, pronunciation remained clean and both narrators used fantastic tonal variation and vocal inflection. Even the little laughs, breaths, gasps and reactions sounded natural rather than deliberately performed.

Savannah Thomas was particularly brilliant at making Madison’s emotions feel real, whole and lived-in. Her breathier moments, little giggles, emotional reactions and changes in tone drew me further into scenes than the writing sometimes managed on its own. When Madison hurt, Savannah sold that hurt.

And Anthony Palmini’s voice is basically smooth chocolate poured directly into your ears.

I was initially surprised by just how deep and masculine his voice sounded for a college-age character, but good GOD does it work. He somehow gives Jaxon warmth, safety and s3x appeal simultaneously. He can take an otherwise completely innocent scene and suddenly I’m wondering who turned the heating on.

Both of these narrators are already among my favourites, and this performance reminded me exactly why. If their names are attached to an audiobook, I’m listening.

😥 𝕎𝕙𝕪 𝕟𝕠 𝕗𝕚𝕧𝕖 𝕤𝕥𝕒𝕣𝕤?
The biggest problem was pacing and manufactured conflict.

This book is considerably longer than the story needs it to be because the relationship keeps travelling around the same emotional roundabout. Madison withdraws. Jaxon waits. Madison panics. Jaxon waits. Madison pushes him away. Jaxon remains lovely. Repeat.

Trauma can absolutely explain someone’s behaviour, but explanation doesn’t automatically make every behaviour satisfying to read. I needed Madison to begin recognising her patterns, actively seeking help and learning how to participate in a healthy relationship rather than Jaxon endlessly absorbing the consequences. And if the genders were reversed, I genuinely think some of these relationship dynamics would receive considerably harsher criticism.

There were also enough continuity and backstory problems that I was shocked they survived all the way into the finished audiobook. Is Madison’s father dead or in prison?!
Other readers apparently couldn’t work it out either, so at least I know I didn’t hallucinate the problem. 😂 There are also questions surrounding her childhood, finances and family circumstances that should have been fundamental pieces of her character. Music is supposedly important enough to her future that she wants to become a music therapist, yet it barely feels woven into her personality or daily life. And given her chosen career, I especially wanted more self-awareness around her own mental health and recognition of when professional support might help.

These aren’t tiny decorative details. They’re the scaffolding holding Madison’s entire character together.

Warning-very teenage, v-card, high school drama to me rather than adults in college.

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