The Player in New Zealand by Liz Alden: review

3/5 stars on Goodreads

The Player in New Zealand by Liz Alden

The Player in New Zealand is the fourth book in Love and Wanderlust series, but it’s a standalone and no prior knowledge of the series is needed.

Claire has come to New Zealand to put as much distance between her and her stalker as possible. She has a job as a bartender, which she can keep for six months and then has to switch them because of visa rules. Tane is a former rugby player veering on a brink of alcoholism. She’s not impressed by him, but he pulls his act together and becomes sober. They are sort of forced together by Tane’s sister, but realise they lust each other and make the most of the situation. Later they decide they love each other and get married for visa reasons.

The description above is a tad spoilery, but that’s how the book played out. There’s a handful of scenes where Claire and Tane interact, with no emotional engagement whatsoever that the reader is made a part of. Most of the book is filler scenes about Claire’s daily life and New Zealand that are told not shown, and which had no impact on the plot whatsoever. The ticking clock of Claire having to switch jobs doesn’t add any tension to the narrative.

Nothing important happens in front of the reader. Tane quits drinking behind the scenes and if it’s difficult for him, it isn’t shown. Claire, whose point of view we follow, presumably falls for him, but doesn’t bother to share it with the reader. For example, we are told of longing phone calls when they’re apart, but we never witness one. Since it’s a romance, the reader automatically infers love, but the emotional payload for reading to the end isn’t there.

I liked Tane and I would’ve wanted to be there for his journey to sobriety, only I wasn’t allowed to, but I didn’t really get Claire at all. She constantly reacted oddly to everything, and I kept wondering if she read situations wrong or if I did. Her trauma for being stalked for years wasn’t dealt with, only the stalker. And since I wasn’t told why Claire and Tane liked each other, I couldn’t really see them as a couple either.

I like my romances light, so this was fine. But I like the emphasis to be on the romance and the couple. And I’d like to feel at least something by the time we get to the I dos.

I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.