Plays Well With Others

Plays Well With Others is one of Lauren Blakely’s contemporary romance novels, working in the territory she has built her career around. Blakely is one of the most prolific writers in modern romance, with a back catalogue that runs into dozens of standalones, novellas, and series across contemporary, sports, and rom com territory. Her readers come to her for fast paced, often funny novels that lean into banter and slow burn tension, with male leads who are usually emotionally available and willing to actually communicate.

The plays well with others premise hints at the kind of unconventional relationship setup Blakely has explored in some of her work. The phrase suggests either a friends with benefits arrangement that develops complications, or a multi character romantic situation that requires the title’s particular kind of openness. Blakely tends to handle these setups with the practiced confidence of a writer who knows her audience and her tropes deeply. Whatever the specific configuration of the central romance turns out to be, Blakely’s strengths apply. Sharp dialogue, characters who actually communicate, heat scenes that serve the relationship, and a payoff that arrives because she has done the work of building the case.

Blakely writes short and tight. Her novels move quickly, her chapters end with hooks, and she does not waste time on subplot threads that will not pay off. The dialogue carries most of the romantic chemistry, and her couples tend to talk to each other like adults rather than miscommunicate their way through three quarters of the book. That alone puts her ahead of a lot of contemporary romance writers. The heat level in her books is consistent, with her readers knowing what to expect.

Readers who enjoy Christina Lauren, Tessa Bailey, Helena Hunting, or Lauren Layne will find familiar pleasure here. Blakely’s standalones can be read in any order and her wider universe is loose enough that crossovers feel like bonuses rather than required reading. Plays Well With Others is a comfortable, well crafted entry into her catalogue and a fair sample of what she does.