Title: Run the Play
Series: Nashville Rampage #2
Author: Kaylee Ryan
Genre: Contemporary Sports Romance
Tropes: Football/Fake Dating/Found Family
Workplace Romance/He Falls First
Release Date: August 19, 2025
BLURB
NYT and USA Today Bestselling author Kaylee Ryan brings you a new standalone series surrounding the Nashville Rampage football team. Run the Play is a fake dating, found family, workplace, he falls first romance.
Rowan
I swore I’d never look twice at a football player again, especially after barely surviving the last one. But when my abusive ex gets traded to the team I work for, my past shows up to haunt me.
Not a moment too soon, star player Landry Reynolds runs interference, announcing that he’s my boyfriend. My emotions get the best of me, and I find myself playing along.
He’s charming, bold, and way too convincing. The more time we spend together, the harder it is to remember that it’s all pretend.
I might be falling for my fake boyfriend, but I can never have him for real. I could lose everything I’ve finally found, and that’s scarier than having my heart crushed by the wide receiver.
Landry
I didn’t mean to get involved. I just couldn’t watch her shrink away from him a second longer—not after knowing what he put her through.
So I did what I do best: I ran the play and told him she’s mine. Now I can’t stop thinking about how right that little white lie feels. How right she feels.
There’s a good chance I was never faking.
This started as a way to protect her. I never imagined it’d be so hard keeping my hands off her. Then again, I’ve never been very good at following the rules.
WARNING: There are on- and off-page situations that could be triggering. Please read the content warning for more information.
PURCHASE LINKS
Sunny Shelly’s Review: 5 Stars
Kaylee Ryan came in strong with book 2 in the Nashville Rampage series! I really love this group of friends and the family they’ve created among themselves — and they all show up for Rowan big time when her abusive ex-boyfriend shows up.
Landry is the brother of Corie and best friend of Knox from Make the Play, so I felt like I really knew him well going into this book. Rowan, not so much. She recently moved to Nashville after a bad breakup and works as a physical therapist for the team. Because she was raised in the foster system and has no family of her own, Rowan feels like she’s on the outside of the friend group for much of this story, even though they all try to make her feel included. So when her skeezy ex, Chaz (the best skeezy name, IMO) takes a pay cut to get traded to the team, she understandably freaks out. That’s when Landry steps in to pretend to be her boyfriend and get Chaz to back off.
I love a good fake relationship story and this one hit al the right notes. The “fake” part of their relationship doesn’t last long at all for Landry, and they slip into an easy, comfortable relationship rather quickly. Rowan is hesitant to give in to her feelings because she doesn’t want to lose the family they’ve created if things don’t work out, but it doesn’t take much convincing from Landry before she makes the leap.
There are some rough chapters when Chaz assaults Rowan (so trigger warning), but KR wrote the delicate situation so well, and I felt it made a huge impact on the story, especially in how it propelled Rowan to stand up and fight back after years of being abused by Chaz.
All along the way, Landry shows Rowan every day just how much she means to him in both big ways and small. He treats her like a queen, and it was so lovely to see these two get their HEA!
I can’t wait for the rest of this series! I received an advanced copy and voluntarily left a review.
ALSO AVAILABLE
COMING SOON
Releasing October 14
Only available at the following
retailers for a limited time
AUTHOR BIO
New York Times and USA Today Bestselling author Kaylee Ryan has been crowned the Queen of Swoon by her readers. With nearly fifty romance books under her belt, she’s known for penning happily ever afters with heart. When she’s not writing, you can find her with a book in her hand or hanging out with her family where she resides in her home state of Ohio.
AUTHOR LINKS
Sunny Shelly Reads 