Thank you Boldwood Books and Netgalley for this eARC, these opinions are my own. Tore is a Prince of Norway but further down the line. He and his friends, other royals not likely to see the thrones of their countries, make a pact to try and spend some time living as a non-royal in America. Tore ends up at a college in Ohio where he goes to play football or he means soccer as Americans would call it. The only thing is no one can know he is a royal. Farron is in his last year of playing and wants to go out with a bang. The last thing he needs is to train some freshman on how to play. Especially not one who seems like he’s got privilege to spare. The two have an instant dislike that turns into something else the more they are around each other. But when neither has felt this way about a guy before what does that mean? And how will Farron react if he finds out Tore is a prince? A fun hilarious read with plenty of cutesy moments! A quick read with plenty of enjoyable moments!

i would have liked this book more, had i not spent half of the book waiting for farron to be a decent human been.

i didn’t like farron, i really tried, but i don’t know if it was her judgements attitude or what, but i just couldn’t really enjoy the book as much as i would have liked it

i understand where he was coming from, and i also understand his position when the truth is discovered— i too would’ve been heartbroken if i found out the guy i liked had been lying to me—, but he’s judgemental from chapter one onwards, simply because it looks like gore has money

also, as a european myself, call it as it is, it’s football not soccer, so you bet your ass i’m going to call it that, i don’t care if i’m in the us or in tasmania

and let's talk about the one scene where they get outted, because it's one thing for a teammate to discover them kissing and them telling him they're together, but it's another thing for said teammate to call every single one of their teammates back to the locker room, and basically force them to say they are together. who are you to decide when they are ready to come out? that was not okay.

many thanks to NG, Nora Phoenix and Boldwood Books for the earc.

not bad at all…
randomly requested this on NetGalley cause it sounded like an easy fun read, and that proved to be right
it was really quick to read
i initially loved the dynamic between our main characters
just for some reason it started to go downhill and I stopped caring as much???
the writing also wasn’t the best… really repetitive and awkward at points
overall still enjoyable though

The title The Prince and the Player immediately set certain expectations for me. I anticipated a story reminiscent of familiar films and books—a prince going incognito abroad to experience life as an ordinary person, only to fall in love. That expectation was certainly met, but little beyond that.

I had hoped for more depth in the story, better-developed characters, and a more balanced narrative. Instead, the characters felt quite flat. Even with the alternating first-person perspectives, I struggled to understand their motivations. Their actions seemed driven more by the demands of the plot rather than stemming naturally from their personalities. The two protagonists, Tore and Farron, are portrayed in an almost exaggerated contrast—one as a benevolent, considerate, and emotionally open prince, the other as a hardworking young man from a modest background, full of pent-up anger and little space for emotions. Farron’s lack of willingness to empathize with others made it difficult for me to connect with him, and the shift from hostility to affection felt too abrupt.

That being said, the book is undeniably a quick and entertaining read. If you're looking for a lighthearted love story without much depth, this book might be a good choice.

I’m giving this 2 stars, and here’s why. The story was entertaining, I read it quickly, and it kept me engaged the entire time. But I did notice some flaws, mainly in the pacing and how the story developed.

I appreciate that the book took time to establish the rivalry between the characters, though, to be honest, it felt pretty one-sided, making it almost inconsequential. One of the characters had an issue with the other purely because he was rich. And while his resentment is justified by his personal trauma with wealthy people, it still felt immature, especially considering they’re college students. Holding such intense hate for someone just because of their wealth felt extreme.

The book focused so much on this (unjustified) hatred that it missed the opportunity to really explore how the relationship evolved from enemies to attraction and then to love. As a result, I struggled to understand why Tore fell for Farron, especially since Farron treated him poorly well into the story.

That said, I do think the author did a great job conveying the characters' emotions (even if they weren't justified). If I had to critique anything about the writing style, it would be the occasional redundancy, sometimes the same idea was repeated in back-to-back sentences when it didn’t need to be. Also, at one point, I swear I saw "Fallon" instead of "Farron," but that could be just me. Overall, the language and vocabulary were well executed.

However, as I mentioned earlier, I feel like some aspects of the story weren’t fully explored, and as readers, we were just expected to assume that time had passed and things had resolved themselves. For example, there's a moment in the book where a character has a sudden epiphany that conveniently alters his entire future. If the story had provided hints early on that he was considering changing his dreams, this shift wouldn’t have felt so abrupt. The same thing happened with other key moments where characters conveniently changed their minds a little too quickly. I think this all comes down to pacing, so much time was dedicated to the initial “(unjustified) hatred” phase that the actual character development and resolution felt rushed.

great concept, not the best execution in my opinion. this honestly felt more sunshine x judgmental a**hole, not sunshine x grumpy.

the characters:
tbh I wasn’t really invested in anyone. I liked Tore and loved how sweet and understanding he was. honestly, I thought he was too good for Farron.

Farron frustrated me. like I understand the childhood trauma & how hard growing up with financial insecurities can be. but he judged Tore the SECOND he saw his designer clothes. like Tore is 18/19 years old ?? he only really has control of his own actions, not how rich he is ??? I’d he fine if Farron was grumpy and a recluse, but he literally was gunning after Tore.

I didn’t really care much for any other character. no one else really played a big role in anything.

the plot:
I was bored tbh. I love sports romances and maybe I would’ve loved this more as a rivals to lovers romance.

But the progression of the plot was.. very disjointed & too fast in my opinion. I also didn’t really feel invested in any of the soccer which is a lot coming from someone who loves soccer as much as I do.

I also didn’t care about the romance really. It felt more like lust.

the book cover:
super cute!! I really like it!

overall, this book had a very cool concept, but the writing style felt a bit discombobulated to me & I did not care for Farron.

Tore es el cuarto en la línea de sucesión a la corona noruega. Toda su vida está centrada en la imagen pública, por lo que rara vez puede hacer las cosas que realmente le gustan. Sin embargo, cuando su tío, el rey, le concede permiso para tomar un tipo de año sabático, hace un pacto con sus primos: cada uno escogería un lugar y estarían de incógnito, disfrutando al máximo. Tore decide ir a Estados Unidos para estudiar en la universidad y formar parte del equipo de fútbol.

Farron es un estudiante que forma parte del equipo de fútbol, con la esperanza de convertirse en profesional y poder darles a su madre y hermanos una vida mejor. Mientras eso sucede, sabe que debe dar lo mejor de sí mismo en la escuela, en el trabajo y en el equipo. Pero cuando llega Tore, con una actitud despreocupada, Farron no permitirá que el nuevo le quite la oportunidad de un futuro mejor, y ambos se enfrentarán constantemente.

~

Es un libro juvenil, entretenido, ameno y de lectura rápida. Aunque hay algo de drama, ya que Farron tiene prejuicios contra los ricos, no es un conflicto grave y el final es satisfactorio.


Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a really sweet grumpy/sunshine MM romance. Tore, the undercover prince is all beautiful sunshine and joy doing everything he possibly can to win over Farron first in soccer, then in life. Farron is all hot and grumpy with a major chip on his shoulder. When their antagonism (i.e. foreplay) boils over, the sparks fly! Spice was very spicy and well placed in the novel.
The conflict did not come as a surprise, but even with that, the feels were all there. I was a little surprised at how accepting everyone in their lives were. They just wanted them to be happy.
Thank you to Netgalley and Boldwood books for the ARC!

The Prince and the Player is a fun, lighthearted romance book, with vibes similar to the movie The Prince and Me as well as Red White and Royal Blue. We get dual alternating POVs from the two main characters, Farron and Tore. Farron is a senior in college from Ohio and captain of the soccer team. Tore is a prince of Norway who enrolls in the same university as Farron and joins the soccer team. With Tore quickly becoming a rising star on the team, the two clash almost instantly. Farron immediately seems to dislike Tore, both because of Tore’s talent on the field and Farron’s perception of Tore’s wealth and privilege.

I inhaled this book, reading it pretty much in one sitting. I thought both main characters were well written, and I particularly liked Tore, who just seemed so sweet and thoughtful. Farron, while grumpy at times, was also likable as a character and I think we get a lot of depth from them both beyond just grumpy/sunshine. Though they both act like idiots at certain points of the books, I’m glad we get to see them at their highs and lows.

I’m a soccer fan, and though I usually don’t read that many sports romances, I actually loved that aspect of this! Having to work together as a team while they work through their feelings put a really interesting spin on things!

The only real negatives were that there were a few cringey bits of dialogue that had me rolling my eyes a bit and one scene which made me angry. In a heated discussion about wealth with Farron, Tore argues that ‘not all rich people are bad, a lot of them are really charitable, there’s just a few bad apples’ which left a sour taste in my mouth. Do we really need Tore to be arguing in support of extremely rich people? Unless this book is being marketed to billionaires it seems unnecessary, and really took me out of what otherwise was a very pleasant read.

But overall I really enjoyed this book! It’s the first in a new series and I will definitely be reading the next one when it is published!

This was such a fun read! I took me a few chapters to get into it but once that happend I had a hard time putting it down. Ferron and Tore were fun together. The ending was kind of..easy and some moments just didn't make sense but that didn't take away from the fun of reading this book.

Sadly, this was mostly a bland patch-up of tropes without any real depth or work put into the characters or their circumstances. I only know what the two MCs look like, and ironically I think the cover has them switched, because Prince Tore was always described as blonde and blue-eyed, and Farron as the tanned brunette. The side characters exist solely to get the MCs together and out of the woods.

I was promised Casey McQuiston’s banter and frenetic energy, but what I got were two figurines being puppeteered through predictable and yawn-worthy situations. Not to mention how repetitive everything was, down to the dialogue.

But hey, at least it’s a fast read.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Nora Phoenix and Boldwood Books for the chance to read and review this book.

This was a fun, short and easy to read book.

I was looking for something with a Red, White and Royal Blue feel to it and this has a bit of that for sure!

In this book, we follow a soccer team, but mainly two players. One is a Norwegian prince and the other is the team captain...and they do not get along at first.

I did find the pacing of their relationship to be a bit weird and all over the place. At first I thought this was going to be an enemies to lovers type of situation, but then they were kind of insta-love. They were fast and then slow and then fast again, it was kind of weird.

Thanks to NetGalley for the e-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review! My Goodreads review is up and my TikTok (Zoe_Lipman) review will be up at the end of the month with my monthly reading wrap-up.

★ The prince and the player is such a cute read. It was a fun and enjoyable book filled with a whole bunch of cuteness.

★ I loved both the mmc Tore and Farron so much, I enjoyed the way we got to see Farrons home life and the way Tore had thanksgiving with Farrons family made my heart melt.
The only thing I do wish we got to see a little more of Tore and Farrons relationship develop just because I enjoyed reading about both of them so much.

★ I read The Prince and the Player in one sitting. It’s a fun, enjoyable and cute book. So if you are looking for a read like that or enjoy the tropes Grumpy x sunshine and enemies to lovers then I recommend this book !

★*Thank you Netgalley and Boldwood Books for providing me this ARC in return for an honest review*

The Prince and the Player is a fun, steamy MM romance with great chemistry between its opposites-attract leads. While it’s a light, enjoyable read with plenty of heart, some moments felt rushed, and a few inconsistencies kept it from being a standout.

OBSESSED. these two are one of my fav couples EVER. the sexual tension/friendship/enemies to lovers was all perfection. I loved both characters- each was so strong and loveable and complicated… ugh and it was a sports romance with a secret prince?! come on! 100% would recommend for an LGBTQ sports romance w chemistry and a gripping storyline.

Well, the beginning was interesting. A Norwegian prince going to a school in Ohio and falling for his team captain Farron. The soccer playing was fine. I didn’t like how a fellow teammate outed them. That wasn’t cool at all. They should have had the time to figure out how to come out on their own. The ending felt odd. Farron was like a different character all of the sudden which didn’t flow from his earlier behavior. Otherwise it was a cute m/m romance book. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for my ARC.

I'm rounding up to four stars on this. It was... fine, I guess. Good premise, okay execution.

I can always tell when I'm not wild about a book when I start highlighting passages to kvetch about in my review.

- The author lost me early on with a big block of "As you know, Bob" dialogue where one of the MCs is talking to his brother about their father's family. The reader could have gotten the exact same information through the MC's thoughts while having a shorter conversation with his brother, and it would have been more realistic.

- I recognize that the Norwegian prince is supposed to talk in an overly formal and stilted manner, but it felt overdone to me. Given all his language education and practice, I'd expect him to sound much more natural, with only occasional missteps.

- Having the homecoming game be (1) the first game of the year and (2) against an arch-rival doesn't fit with my understanding of homecoming games.

- One of the MCs comes from a working-class/poor family and continues to work to send money home to his family... yet he has a bottle of hundred-dollar cologne. The idea that any non-wealthy college student would wear hundred-dollar cologne makes me raise an eyebrow, but it especially doesn't fit this one. The issue could have been addressed by having him comment that it had been a gift (though I'm not sure from who) or a raffle prize or even something he'd been allowed to take from his job at Walmart because it had been opened (though I suspect Walmart isn't that generous with its workers)... but it was just there as if it weren't remarkable at all.

- In one scene, it's mentioned that the roommate of one of the MCs has to go out of town because of a death in the family. This is described as "super sad," but in the next breath, the MC is on to the "upside," which is that now he'll be alone in the room for the weekend, so he can have sex with his partner. Yes, teenagers can be callous, but ouch.

- Someone greets a friend with "I thought I heard your soft baritone." Unless the speaker and the person they're talking to are singers (they're not), this makes no sense to me.

- Defending billionaires, even ones who give portions of their wealth to charity... is not a good look.

- This is petty and probably not the author's fault, but the images of the characters on the cover are backward! The Norwegian prince is blond, and the American has dark hair.

So, yeah, the story didn't grip me enough for me not to want to poke holes in it. But it was a cute idea, and some of the interactions were fun. Three and a half stars from me.

My thanks to the publisher/NetGalley for an advance copy of this book.

The story follows a prince wanting to escape his royal duties and a charming player who shows him a new side of love and life. Phoenix’s writing is full of wit, great chemistry, and strong character development. The romance is steamy and heartwarming, with themes of freedom and identity at its core. Perfect for fans of opposites-attract stories, this book is a fun, emotional ride that you won’t want to put down.

A good, fun read. I flew through this book and felt the story flowed nicely. Never boring as we explored these two characters. They felt quite believable even in this unusual situation. It was a fun double bi-awakening and "hate" to love. Soccer/football played a bigger role then expected but it was well ingrained and did not feel boring or too much. I do maybe wish the book was a little longer to just have more time to explore their feelings and growing relationship.
4.25 stars
Recommend for fans of Red, White and royal blue or the show Young Royals. Just not as angsty as those two.

4.5 ✩
➺ 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺: feb 5 - feb 6

꒰ 💌 ꒱ྀི ❛ He loved me. Farron loved me. And gods, I was in love with him. ❜

to be fair when i went to sleep last night 20% through this book, now literally 10 hours later i finished it. This was amazing, loved Farron & Tore so much.

did not support Tore being a man city fan but yk we’ll pretend it never happend ;)

Thank you for allowing me to get the Arc from Netgalley, appreciate it so much.