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Playing The Game
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Playing The Game
Unavailable
Playing The Game
Audiobook12 hours

Playing The Game

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

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About this audiobook

From the bestselling author of A Woman of Substance comes an explosive novel about one woman's journey to success.

Annette Remmington is a London art consultant and private dealer at the top of her game. When a rare and long lost Rembrandt finds its way into her hands – and sells in a frantic and high profile auction – she is at the pinnacle of her career and becomes the most talked about art dealer in the world.

Marius Remmington is Annett's husband. For twenty years, Marius has groomed her into the international art star that she has become, not to mention saving her from a dark and gritty past. She is his pride and joy, and as her best advisor, it's with great care that he hand picks only the best journalist possible to do a profile on his beloved – Jack Chalmers. Marius believes only he will be able to capture the true brilliance of his lovely wife, but he never intended putting his marriage in jeopardy. And how could he know that Jack would uncover a scandal that could ultimately destroy them all?

LanguageEnglish
PublisherHarperCollins
Release dateSep 30, 2010
ISBN9780007377411
Unavailable
Playing The Game
Author

Barbara Taylor Bradford

Barbara Taylor Bradford was born and raised in Leeds, and worked as a journalist in London. Her first novel, A Woman of Substance, is one of the bestelling novels of all time and Barbara’s books have sold more than 90 million copies worldwide. In 2007, Barbara was appointed an OBE by the Queen for her services to literature. Ten miniseries and television movies have been made of her books. She currently lives in New York City.

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Reviews for Playing The Game

Rating: 3.447916677083333 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

48 ratings13 reviews

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  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Not my favorite Barbara Taylor Bradford book. Annette is too needy and naïve. There is not a lot of depth and the story wraps up too cleanly.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Enjoyable. I really liked it!
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I did not enjoy this book. I found the beginning of the book slow and dragging. In fact, I ended up skipping parts to get the gist of the story because it was slow. The premise of the book is the cliche "beautiful woman with a secret in her past." Unfortunately, the characters in this book did not pull me in or generate an emotional reaction. The aura of mystery seemed forced and contrived.My favorite Barbara Taylor Bradford book is A Woman of Substance - which I loved. I will probably try her books as they come out hoping to get another one like that. "Playing the Game" did not live up to expectations.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I can vividly remember reading Barbara Taylor Bradford's first novel, A Woman of Substance, back when I was in high school. Her heroine, Emma Harte, was a brave, strong protagonist, a woman who could overcome anything and run a huge department store, while navigating the tricky waters of romance.I read many of Bradford's subsequent books, but I haven't read one in awhile. Bradford has been a successful author for over 30 years, mostly by sticking to her formula of strong female characters overcoming the odds through hard work and strength of character, and adding in a forbidden romance.Her latest novel, Playing the Game, sticks to the formula. Annette Remington is a successful art dealer in London, married to a much older man. She becomes famous for selling a long-lost Rembrandt painting at auction, and soon the entire art world knows who she is.But Annette has a secret from her past, one that her husband knows of and has used to keep control of her. Bradford weaves tidbits of Annette's disturbing past, expertly piquing the reader's curiosity about the truth. We know that Annette and her sister Laurie were the victims of violence in their childhood, and that Laurie is now in a wheelchair. Is the secret related to their childhood? And why does Annette panic when someone comes looking for a woman named Hilda Crump? All these questions keep the reader turning the page.While I found the novel to feature typical characters in a familiar plot, with a beautiful woman keeping a secret while falling into forbidden romance, it is the setting that elevates this novel. I found the art world totally fascinating, and Bradford does a marvelous job immersing the reader into that world.One of the most compelling reasons that I read is that I can learn about something I never knew before, and this book is filled with interesting facts about fine art, art restoration and art forgery. I learned that a priest hole is a small room in old homes where, during the Stuart period in England, aristocratic Catholic families hid their priests when the soldiers came to search the houses. I never knew that before, and now I have new cocktail party conversation.Playing the Game comes at a good time; many people are talking about Steve Martin's novel, An Object of Beauty, and this is a good companion book for those looking to continue their immersion into the world of fine art.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Annette Remington married young to renowned art dealer Marius Remington. She confided a dark secret to him when she was young and almost 20 years later still holds it over her head as a way to control her life and their marriage. After an amazing sale of her own, Annette allows an interview by Jack Chalmers a very charming reporter. They are immediately attracted to one another and it develops into an affair. Over the course of several weeks, several things come to light. With Jack's help, Annette comes to realize that she was not responsible for the secret that Marius holds over her.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I haven't read any of BTB's books lately so I decided to request this one when I saw it come up on ER. It was a pretty decent book (in other words, I did not trouble finishing the book but I did skim a litte through parts).Love triangle (young woman + older/mentor type husband enter hunky guy), the world of arts, secrets, etc. Not my cup of tea but probably fine for those interested.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is the first book that I have read of Ms. Bradford’s and I was excited to be peeking in the world of an author that I am not familiar with. Playing the Game is centered around the life of Annette Remmington, a rising star in the art world, and her struggles to succeed in not only her art consultant business but in her personal life as well. Married to the controlling, manipulative Marius, Annette’s life is turned upside down when she starts to fall for the young journalist, Jack Chalmers, who confesses his love for her. As the story progresses, we start to learn the truths about Annette’s past and why it continues to haunt her in her present life. For me, this book was a little difficult to get into as it moved rather slowly in the beginning and seemed to drag out in places that could easily have been avoided. Once I got to the middle of the book, it started moving much more quickly and kept me intrigued for the remaining pages. There are some brief flashbacks brought to life in the book about Annette’s childhood that some may find disturbing, but other than that it would be a good read for mature audiences. Overall, I give this book 4 stars as it is a nice quick read, once you get past the beginning, and the characters are well written and can easily be related too.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I read Brandford’s original book, A Woman of Substance, many years ago, and was enthralled by it, and probably also its sequel. After that, I became less enchanted with her work. This book, Playing the Game, is probably the only work of hers I’ve read since the early ones. I remember her as a writer of generational sagas. Her new one is more in the category of romantic suspense. I think generational sagas sold better twenty years ago, romantic suspense sells better now. I’ve tried some of her books in the meantime and could never really get into them. This one I had to read as part of the Early Reviewers Program. There wasn’t much else to interest me in the October lists, so I thought, what the heck. And they sent me this one!It wasn’t bad, but I think others are doing romantic suspense much better nowadays. This plot is the poor little waif who is taken under the wing of the older wiser man, who turns her into a magnificent creature. But he makes her think he is keeping an evil secret of hers, so he has a hold over her life. She finds someone better, who of course helps her break his hold. We all live happily ever after, except the evil one. All this takes place in the atmosphere of high stakes art: finding lost works, Old Masters, auctioning, forgeries, etc. I found the book somewhat plodding, although it did pick up a bit in the second half. You do learn a bit about art history and the history of forgeries. This area is not of much interest to me, which didn’t help much. Others might find this of greater interest. But I think it’s been done better in other books.But I didn’t really mind reading through to the end, even without “having” to for LT, so I give it a 3.5, and I even might try other BTBs again.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    The dialogue is stilted, coincidence upon coincidence drives the story, a love triangle fizzles - but somehow I just kept reading this book! It's typical Bradford; if you enjoy her other books, you'll like this also.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I received this book as an Early Reviewers copy. Annette Remmington is a woman with a secret. Married to Marius, a successful but controlling gallery owner, Annette learns the business and becomes successful in her own right as an art consultant.When Annette takes on Christopher Delaware as a client and holds an auction that brings in twenty million pounds for his Rembrandt, it sets into motion a series of events that changes Annette's life forever.When Jack Chalmers comes to interview her on her successful auction, Annette cannot deny the attraction to Jack--a man so different from her husband. When Jack declares his love for her and asks her to leave Marius, Annette has a decision to make. Can she leave Marius who knows her secret and can destroy both her and Jack or does she stay under his thumb and trapped in the marriage?A nice romantic novel and a quick read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Secrets, secrets, everyone has secrets - Annette and Marius and Jack - and they're all intertwined with one another - unbeknown to the others. These are secrets that cause pain and betrayal and blackmail and where will it all end?Barbara Taylor Bradford answers these and so much more in a tale that will mystify and keep you in suspense until the end - even if you think you've got an answer, it's not the whole answer - there's more.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The perfect book to escape with on a chilly November night. Lots of detail about art and high society ( at times more than necessary) but overall a fast, fun read. The main characters, a young, sexy wife and an older husband and mentor, have been seen before, but this story moves at a fast pace and is very entertaining. Not fine literature but a good time nonetheless....
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Unlike most books, I found this book captivating from the very begging. Within the first 5 pages it became a page turner that I had difficulty putting down. (I finished this book in a single day.) There was just the right amout of mystery and scandle to be entertaining without being distasteful. I'd recommend this book for readers of all ages.