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algae429's review against another edition
2.0
I just couldn't get into the two-couple format. Having half of each couple seemed to break up the flow of the story and felt more voyeuristic than other romances I read.
fsmeurinne's review against another edition
5.0
Great modern royal romance with a twist. This story is amazing Tia Louise did an excellent twist from what I thought the story would be about making it way more entertaining. I listened to the audiobook and Joel Froomkin and Natalie Duke did a terrific job, Joel accent was a good choice and great voice change for Rowan and Cal, I also enjoyed how Natalie portrayed Zee and Ava, it was good paced, the voices went in pair with the emotions and what was happening in the story making it interesting. Can't wait to dig into the next one.
anasatticbookblog's review against another edition
4.0
The Prince & The Player and A Player for a Princess (Dirty Players Duet) by Tia Louise
Must be read together.
4.5 Stars
I am going to review both The Prince & The Player and A Player for a Princess by Tia Louise together since they make up the Dirty Players Duet, and can not be read without each other. Let me tell you, this duet gave me so much more than I bargained for! Back in the 90s, I was into the mystery/lawyer, exciting crime books a la John Grisham's The Firm. I realized reading this duet that I still love that type of excitement in my romances. The Dirty Player's Duet is billed like this:
Cinderella meets Ocean's Eleven in this ADULT CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE featuring secrets, lies, royal high jinks, scams and double-crosses; breathless, swooning lust, cocky princes, dominant alpha future-kings, and crafty courtiers, who are not always what they seem.
The duet brought all of this and more. Interestingly, this is about two couples. It is told by the female in one couple and the male in the other which is strange, unique, and it worked once I got the hang of it. At first, I had some trouble with the male narrator. In the first book, The Prince & The Player, he was so not sexy. He sounded kind of old to me and I usually find British accents sexy. In the second book, I figured he must have grown on me because he didn't bother me. I realized it was a different narrator after finishing both! They did a great job on continuity, because I can't believe I didn't realize. In this case, I am going to judge the story without the narration, and will discuss the narration further at the end. Because honestly, the story completely won me over despite not loving the male narrator.
We begin with two American sisters, Zelda "Zee" and Ava Wilder. They have had a really rough life, and Zelda does anything to take care of her younger sister, running cons and cheating at casinos while the beautiful Ava causes distractions and dabbles in pickpocketing. When they are caught by a wealthy stranger, they had to do what he said or go to jail. Zee's job--seduce the Crown Prince of Monagasco in order to discredit him. So Zelda and Ava were whisked away in luxury to Monagasco.
“Zelda Wilder is no princess. The closest I am is a dirty Cinderella, an orphan on the run, and that’s not the kind of girl for a prince.”
Rowan Westingham Tate and MacCallum Lockwood Tate are young handsome royalty. Since Rowan is older, he assumes the King position, but his younger brother, Cal, the Prince, is there to run the country with him. While Zee kept trying to seduce Rowan like she was supposed to, she was so attracted to Cal. And as we hear from Rowan, he quickly became obsessed with Ava.
“Her fingers thread with mine, and I know what I want. I know for the first time, and I feel complete.”
The problem is Zee's orders are to snag the King, not the prince! But the King had some other plans for Ava, and he only had eyes for her.
“I had sex with a king. Correction, I had sex with the king. I pretty much spent the entire night last night having orgasms. Can you believe it?”
The end of book one started getting dangerous and exciting, and ends on a small cliffy, but luckily, I had book 2 queued up, and I plowed right ahead. While I loved The Prince and the Player, I loved A Player for a Princess (book 2) even more. Book two made the sweeter, lighter story get a little darker, a little sexier, and a lot more action-packed. So action-packed that for the first time I actually couldn't do anything else while listening. I just stood there in the kitchen I was supposed to be cleaning, and listened, biting my nails.
Twists and turns, super scary moments, very sexy times and super romantic times, A Player for a Princess had it all.
I will say, I was partial to Zee and Cal, because I think we were supposed to be, being in Zee's head a lot more than Rowan's, or so it seemed.
Likes:
- •A totally unique way of telling a story about two couples, having one voice from each couple.
- •So much action, romance and sexiness!
- •There were lots of lighter, funnier moments as well.
- •An interesting, very twisted storyline that I never had trouble following.
- •Just the right amount of detail to make you picture it all, but never too much to bore you.
- •I can totally see this as a big screen movie. It would adapt really well to screen.
- •Kept my headphones glued in my ears and couldn't stop listening.
- •Loved the female narrator.
- •Some super-hot sexing!
- •The covers stand out as unique in a sea of same.
Dislikes:
- •It took a little bit of time to get in the groove of the two narrators not being together romantically.
- •See narration notes below.
Narration Notes:
- •Different recording quality for each speaker. Background noise for the girl, and not for the guy. (I noticed this in the 2nd book, it may not have been there in the first).
- •At first, I really really did not like the male narrator. So much so in fact, I thought about stopping a few times, but I had made a commitment to read it so I wanted to see it through (so glad I did). At first he sounds old. Instead of his accent being sexy, he sounded like an old, uptight butler. In book two, I noticed he was OK after all. I thought he must have grown on me, but then I found out book two was a different guy! LOL
- •I enjoyed all the female narration, and not loving the male wasn't enough to take away my enjoyment of the book, but I must admit, had he been totally sexy I think it would have elevated the whole duet to 5 stars or maybe even 5+ range, but it's so hard to tell.
The Down & Dirty:
The Dirty Players Duet is a Cinderella Story filled with deception, lies, action, espionage, sabotage, kidnapping, hot sex, romance, political intrigue, human trafficking, assassination plots and more. It was truly an unputdownable roller coaster ride of a read that grabbed me so much I wasn't able to do anything but listen. The Dirty Players Duet needed to span two books because it is truly an epic tale of two couples told in a very unique way. My only complaint would be the male narrator in the first book, who had no sex appeal at all.. Still, I highly recommend this series, however you read it.
Rating: 4.5 stars (first book 4.25-4.5, second book 4.75), Heat 4.25, Narration 3.5
Purchase The Prince & The Player: Dirty Cinderella (Dirty Players Duet Book 1) by Tia Louise
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Purchase A Player for a Princess (dirty Players Duet 2) by Tia Louise
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read_on_reader's review against another edition
4.0
This book was fun and interesting read. I really enjoy this author’s other books so when I went in, I knew it would still have the same steam and romance, but different from her other books. This book has multiple points of views and follows several different people. The beginning begins with Zelda and her sister Ava who are con artists and they get caught by someone who threatens to hurt them if they don’t help him take down the prince. It kept me on the edge of my seat throughout with different twists and turns sometimes frustrating me because I was dying to know more. I loved each character as they all brought something unique to the story. It does end on a cliffhanger, but I will definitely be reading more to see what happens next.
jaimejustreadsromance's review against another edition
4.0
I realize that this was a book about two couples but I have to admit that I felt more of a connection with Cal and Zee than I did with Rowan and Ava. I suppose it's because I have a tendency to cheer for the underdog and I feel like Zelda definitely has to fight just a little bit harder for things in life. Not just for herself but for her sister whom she's always felt responsible for, while somehow seeming to play second fiddle to. Cal was just a lot more easy-going than Rowan and seemed far more approachable, which made him and Zelda pretty perfect for each other.
Of course the story wouldn't exist if it weren't for Rowan and his future as King of Monagasco and the whole plot from his uncle to oust him so I can't discount Rowan and Ava's importance to the story, I just wasn't as into them as I was their siblings.
Overall this seems like a great start to a new series and I cannot wait to find out where these couples go from here.
*I received an ARC from the author in exchange for an honest review
Of course the story wouldn't exist if it weren't for Rowan and his future as King of Monagasco and the whole plot from his uncle to oust him so I can't discount Rowan and Ava's importance to the story, I just wasn't as into them as I was their siblings.
Overall this seems like a great start to a new series and I cannot wait to find out where these couples go from here.
*I received an ARC from the author in exchange for an honest review
yazzy101's review against another edition
3.0
I liked this book. It was cute. However I didn’t read the blurb properly and thought the matches would be the other way around. Especially since it was Rowan and Zelda who had POV chapters. Instead it was Ava and Rowan and Zelda and Cal.
I definitely preferred Zelda and Cal to Ava and Rowan. The latter seemed a little too stuffy for me. And maybe it was because there wasn’t enough attention to their romance (compared to Zee and Cal) it just seemed to jump every quickly.
I definitely preferred Zelda and Cal to Ava and Rowan. The latter seemed a little too stuffy for me. And maybe it was because there wasn’t enough attention to their romance (compared to Zee and Cal) it just seemed to jump every quickly.
profromance's review against another edition
5.0
Overall Grade: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
There is an interesting narrative quality to Tia Louise’s rebranded Prince, book one of the Dirty Players series. Unlike other romances with dual POV where the hero takes one chapter and the heroine takes another chapter, Prince offers a dual POV with two different stories. When you pick up this book, it feels like you are getting a “two for one.” Two romances are encapsulated in Prince, and it makes for a wild ride of romance.
The story follows two sisters, Ava and Zelda, and two brothers, Rowan and “Cal,” a future king and his princely brother. Until these two meet Ava and Zelda, they are taken with fast women, playboys of a sort. As their worlds become entwined, a story of intrigue and suspense acts as the backdrop. From sultry moments and heartbreaking romance, you can’t help but fall in love with Louise’s Prince.
What Tia Louise does well in Prince and her romance-writing ilk is create chemistry. While it would be easy to say that the chemistry I speak of is only relegated to the bed, that isn’t the case. She crafts soul-mate-esque couplings that make sense from the first meeting. This is no different in Prince. You love to love Rowan and Ava, and you fall as deeply for Zelda and Cal. However, Louise always loves to complicate it, and by the end of Prince, there is still more to come, found in book 2 of the series, Player. Keep that in mind as you read this story.
If you love royals and suspense and fire between the sheets, then you want to pick up Prince. Today.
There is an interesting narrative quality to Tia Louise’s rebranded Prince, book one of the Dirty Players series. Unlike other romances with dual POV where the hero takes one chapter and the heroine takes another chapter, Prince offers a dual POV with two different stories. When you pick up this book, it feels like you are getting a “two for one.” Two romances are encapsulated in Prince, and it makes for a wild ride of romance.
The story follows two sisters, Ava and Zelda, and two brothers, Rowan and “Cal,” a future king and his princely brother. Until these two meet Ava and Zelda, they are taken with fast women, playboys of a sort. As their worlds become entwined, a story of intrigue and suspense acts as the backdrop. From sultry moments and heartbreaking romance, you can’t help but fall in love with Louise’s Prince.
What Tia Louise does well in Prince and her romance-writing ilk is create chemistry. While it would be easy to say that the chemistry I speak of is only relegated to the bed, that isn’t the case. She crafts soul-mate-esque couplings that make sense from the first meeting. This is no different in Prince. You love to love Rowan and Ava, and you fall as deeply for Zelda and Cal. However, Louise always loves to complicate it, and by the end of Prince, there is still more to come, found in book 2 of the series, Player. Keep that in mind as you read this story.
If you love royals and suspense and fire between the sheets, then you want to pick up Prince. Today.