Fallon hates Tore, the entitled, rich Norwegian who has wormed his way into their soccer team. But all that hate becomes something far more, lust.

A well written take in two people navigate new feelings and old, trying to come to terms with all the emotions that come with falling in love with the last person you expect.

The writing, the characters, the pacing of the story, everything about this was great.

This is a romance between two college students playing on the same soccer team.. Fallon has always had to scrape to get along. He comes from a poor family, and has a huge chip on his shoulder towards anybody that has wealth. Tore is a Norwegian prince and is secretly having a gap year to explore the United States.before resuming his royal duties.

I never felt a real connection between the two men. Fallon's hatred towards Tore was intense even as I understood how much his family struggled. He really never felt likeable to me and I don't feel he redeemed himself..Tore while sweet and upbeat had a formal speech that was a bit much. He also seemed to forgive Fallon really quickly for his awful behaviors. I had trouble over how quickly things changed for the men..

Even though I won't revist this book I am sure others will enjoy it. Special thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book.

The Prince and the Player by Nora Phoenix is a new college sports/royalty MM romance. Tore is part of a unique friend group of royals far removed from their crowns but still restricted to living in the public's eyes and expectations. He is given the opportunity to attend college in the US and makes their soccer team. The captain of the team, Farron, is less than receptive to this new addition to the team. Tore is able to charm every except the captain no matter how hard he works. It isn't until Farron lets his guard down that he sees there is more to Tore than high end clothes and a posh accent. The two connect on the field with matching intensity for the sport as well as loneliness that can only be seen under close inspection. But life is complicated in dramatically different ways for each man leading to their budding relationship being torn apart. While they're just getting started familial expectations threaten to destroy what they’re building.

This was a semi predictable but sweet MM college sports romance. I really liked Tore, he was royalty who wasn't stuck up and embraced new experiences. Farron was rough around the edges and while you got to know his background, he still made it hard to like at times. There were a lot of assumptions made by Farron that felt stereotypical and got annoying. Overall it was a cute college mm romance where a royal finds himself wanting the biggest grump on the pitch. I am looking forward to Tore's other friends finding their matches.

3.5 stars for Tore giving Farron the royal treatment.

I was so excited to start this book. I'm a big fan of the show Young Royals and loved Red, White, and Royal Blue. Royal + Commoner is my JAM! However, The Prince and the Player fell short for me. I certainly enjoyed aspects of it (bisexual character rep!), but overall it felt very disjointed and lacking in depth.

I didn't connect with Farron at all. He infuriated me endlessly.

I outright giggled at the moment Tore ducked when a soccer ball was flying at his head instead of him simply doing a header? Little details like that took me out of the story several times.

Overall, it was a good, quick read while I'm sick with the flu but I probably won't pick it up again.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and BoldWood Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

The Prince and the Player is such a fun and lighthearted romance. In this book, we follow the two main characters, Tore and Farron. Tore is a Norwegian prince attending an American college to play soccer and Farron is the grumpy captain of the soccer team. Tore wants to be friends, but Farron does not and actually has an immediate dislike of Tore. However, what starts off as hate, slowly turns into love.

I really enjoyed the quick pace of the story, the growth from both of the characters, and the progression of their relationship. And while yes, this book can be a bit trope-heavy, some of the plot points did not make sense, and the third-act is very obvious, but overall I really enjoyed this romance!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me to read this eARC!

This was my first MM romance, and im ALWAYS a sports romance fan, so when I was approved for this one, I was beyond excited! The story itself is very cute, American grump meets Norwegian prince (undercover) sunshine. This story had alllllll the foundation to be a 10/10, but for me, it just never built up to that! I wanted to see more of the actual growth between Farren and Tore's relationship beyond just acting on their lust for one another. The tension build up was great, the spice was spiceyyyyy and the characters were all likeable enough, I just wanted more!

So for me, I am only going to give this book 2 stars but only for a lack of depth! Still, very cute!

This is the kind of book I really enjoy when I need to wind down. It was a fun, heartwarming read, with a grumpy- sunshine trope I really enjoy.
Tore is a prince of Norway and has his sabbatical year in a college in Ohio, where he hides his identity and just want to be...himself. While enjoying soccer, the biggest love that was taken from him by his royal obligations.
Here he meets Farron, a grumpy player who as an acquired distaste for wealthy people, therefore he's not quite fond of Tore. Even if he's eccelent in playing soccer.
There is a reason behind his being so reluctant, nevertheless,Tore never gives up to try to approach him in so many ways. And, in the end, Farron gives in, trusting him first of all as a team member, then as a friend, and in the end, as a lover.
There are definitely similarities with other books going with similar tropes, still I enjoyed this book a lot. The writing flows well, I had fun while reading and, despite the drama, I found this simply...cute.
It was a ray of sunshine making me forget all the ugliness of our real word and, for a little bit of time, I was able to dream and giggle along with Tore and Farron. Because, sometimes, all we need is to dream fora little bit, and hoping, we all meet our prince charming someday.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Spice: 🌶️🌶🌶

🏳️‍🌈 MM Romance
⚽ Sports Romance
👑 Royal Romance
💥 Enemies to Lovers
☁️🌞 Grumpy x Sunshine
🌈 Bi Awakening
📖 Dual POV

The premise of this book was really interesting—an Enemies to Lovers romance with a Grumpy x Sunshine dynamic in an MM setting featuring a prince and a player. It definitely gave off Red, White & Royal Blue vibes, which had me intrigued. I enjoyed parts of it, but there were several things that could have been better.

For an Enemies to Lovers story, the animosity felt very one-sided, which took away some of the intensity I was hoping for.

Somehow, their relationship felt surface-level, and the bi-awakening arc wasn’t explored deeply enough to feel truly impactful.

Farron’s deep resentment toward wealthy people felt over the top, and poor Tore took the blame for no real reason.

Despite its ups and downs, it was still a quick and enjoyable read!

this book was cute, and I had a great time reading it.

however, when it was marketed as a book “for fan of casey mcquiston’s red white and royal blue”, i imagined it to be a little further away from the source material… the main characters are tore, a norwegian prince coming to america under cover to blend into the american college culture. tore has for some reason a very british accent and incredibly britishized mannerisms—so much that the reader tends to forget that he’s not from great britain in the first place. then we have farron, our typical american football player with family issues and a wish for greatness that he somehow cannot achieve from his social status, who likes to punish himself for things he cannot control.

when the similarities with other stories i have read and loved can be overlooked for the sake of a cute and easygoing story, there are still a few points that made me wonder if this story was not a little too heavily inspired from them. typically, the “then let’s go make history” line before an important match had me a little skeptical, to say the least.

apart from that, the story was lovely. both farron and tore were nice characters to follow around and see evolve in their football team, even if the reason for their hatred for one another was pretty much swiped under the rug very easily. the difference in wealth between our main protagonists (and whole plot point of the book) was maybe a little too emphasized for my taste—i thought it was a clever way to show rivalry and to point out the differences between farron and tore at the start, but it felt a little off to me to have tore immediately staring at the worn out furniture in his friends home upon visiting over thankgsgiving. or maybe it’s just me, then again, i am being a little picky and it’s just thoughts i had written down during my reading!

overall, i had a great time and this book was flowery and easy to read. thank you again to the publisher and netgallery for the ARC!

3 ⭐️

I was attracted to this book from the heels of Red, White and Royal Blue and anything by Alexis Hall too. But once. you get started, you'll soon realized there's nothing alike, and I'm grateful for it.

Tore, a prince is bored with his life got permission to have a gap year to be a commoner. Loving soccer, using that as an 'in' to continue his dream to play. Except his existence really annoyed the captain, Farron. Not only is Tore, handsome, better clothes, better cleats, his sunny disposition and great at soccer to boot. It was a blow to Farron's ego. Farron came from a poor family, tries his best to support his family, sees that soccer is his ticket way to pull his family out of poverty, super dedicated to school and soccer.

This book has all the tropes: enemies to lovers, price and a commoner, sunshine and grump, bi-awakening for both, and steamy scenes to boot.

I will say, once I got started, the pacing flowed very well. The characters developed fully very quickly but doesn't feel like it was shoved down my throat, we learned alot about the boys thru their journeys and growth. Of course, despite their differences, there's a HEA. I'm totally down for that.

Thank you to NetGalley & Boldwood Books for the ARC.

Give me all the queer books forever. You can never go wrong with a queer book and this is another one that everyone needs to add to thier list.

This isn’t my usual go to for books but I did enjoy this.

This story is really well done having both povs to see how the relationship grows… this is the perfect book for lovers of Royal Romances and Sports Romances.

Big thanks to Boldwood Books and Netgalley for the ARC!

Thank you to Nora Pheonix, Boldwood Books and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Firstly, how adorable was this? I absolutely loved the relationships in this book, specifically between Tore, the Norwegian Prince and other members of his royal family. The close knit and supportive group dynamic was wonderful and I enjoyed all of their encounters.

There was quite a bit of tension between Tore and the American team captain, Farron. Farrow clearly had a chip on his shoulder regarding people that come from a place of wealth and privilege and as the story unwinds, we discover exactly why and I began to empathise with him. The grumpy/sunshine dynamic was definitely strong between Tores constant enthusiasm and Farrons disgruntledness and I enjoyed watching Farrons bias thaw the more he interacted with Tore.

I personally would have preferred a little more tension. Both characters believe they are straight and there has been no previous thoughts or questions about their sexuality, so it felt like their attraction was a little quick and unexplained. I feel like if at least one of them had at least acknowledged their confusing feelings (in more depth) then the romantic transition would've been more authentic. However, I did completely enjoy their romance once it started and how hard both fell for each other. There was a sweet, nervous and innocent energy about both Tore and Farron and having them explore that together was one of my favourite aspects about the story.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a sweet, bi-awakening story that will leave you smiling and kicking your feet.

Thank you to Netgalley and the UK publishers for an Advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This gave everything I was hoping it would. It was cute, spicy at times, and had such a good feel to it.

The characters had motivations, which could have been explored more, and the dialogue was funny at times and believable. The story is fairly predictable but that gives it a cosy feel.

2.5 Stars

I saw the name and title and that it was similar to Red, White, and Royal Blue and immediately wanted to read it. Even better it’s about a soccer player and my bf plays soccer hehe. I was surprised to find out that Nora Phoenix already has many books published! They also primarily write MM gay romance.

Unfortunately, though the book wasn’t horrible but I wouldn’t say it was good. The only similarity it has with Red White and Royal Blue is that one MMC is American and the other MMC is a Royal. That’s where the similarities stop…he’s not a crazy important royal.

The big dilemma in this book isn’t even that he’s a royal or that the public will care or their teammates but that the American hates rich ppl. In fact, the American is soooo mad at the Royals privilege and his life experiences that it gets too repetitive and frankly annoying.

I genuinely don’t know why the main guys liked each other. They both claim to eb straight and barely talk then boom the American basically tries to fight him over cologne and then grabs him to kiss him. Once again over and over again money comes up. blah blah blah

The amount of dialogue bothered me. I swear every sentence in this book has quotation marks. This book could be vastly improved by adding 100 pages.

Lets get to the spicy stuff. Sorry if you are my family reading this review.

I laughed at the detail that one is not circumcised. Not because that’s a big deal but because the way the author wrote it in was awkward. Like the other guy touches his dick and they discuss not being circumcised and one of them runs away and stops the spicy time. Just very awkward over all. Made it seem like it was a problem then its never brought up again.

THEY MOVE FAST. It just goes straight to everything.

I’ve also never read a book where they constantly reiterate that they are straight and are in such denial.

Honestly, I recommend reading Rachel Reid instead. This book will do well on kindle unlimited since it is short so it can be a quick read. Will it see success to the levels of Red, White, and Royal Blue in print? I don’t think so. It would need to be longer and have more in terms of a story where its believable that they like each other for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

The premise is fantastic, but the writing feels really, really amateurish. I've read other Nora Phoenix books and not had that feeling, so not sure what it is with this one, but the writing and in particular the dialogue does not hold up the story well, there's a lot of filler content, Tore's oddly formal way of speaking just doesn't feel real at all, nor do his interactions with his friend group of royal kids, the story essentially vacilates between soccer and sex, they are allegedly at a university but there is zero mention of Tore actually, you know, going to school..... Sweet idea - love the 'royal undercover' trope, but poor execution. Sorry, this one just didn't work well.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

How best to describe this book? Think The Prince & Me meets Red, White & Royal Blue. This book is on point with the enemies-to-lovers trope, and the banter between our MMCs is fantastic. Too often, the banter and/or the angst takes too long to build without a payout, but I didn’t feel that way with The Prince and the Player as the pace of the story was quick. My only criticism of the MMCs is that while the banter was good, Farron skipped straight past brooding and was just aggressively angry the entire story, and there was no real development of a relationship other than going from enemies right to lovers. Most enemies-to-lovers tropes have a period where a relationship starts to form before the eventual realization that there are feelings involved.

Overall, I enjoyed this book and would recommend it. It was also my first introduction to Nora Phoenix, and I look forward to reading more from the author.

This double bi-awakening romance is a gem, and I devoured every page.

The Norwegian prince, Tore, jumps at the chance to escape royal life and spend a year undercover as a college student in the U.S., thrilled to make the school’s soccer team. But team captain, Farron, dislikes him from the start, and no amount of charm can change that until their heated rivalry takes an unexpected turn into a kiss that neither of them saw coming. With both men questioning their feelings and attraction, Tore is falling hard, but there’s one problem: Farron has no idea who he really is. If the truth comes out, Tore risks losing everything in this royally romantic, enemies-to-lovers college romance.

Farron and Tore’s dynamic is full of tension. Tore is endlessly sweet, while Farron can be downright infuriating at times. His treatment of Tore had me fuming, but their emotional struggles were written with such depth that I couldn’t put the book down. The angst was impeccable. The spice was on point.

One of my biggest frustrations in romance is when a character hesitates to be brave, and this book had me screaming at the pages sometimes. But that emotional turmoil only made the journey more gripping. Quick, engaging, and sexy, The Prince and the Player was an excellent read. I can’t wait to see where this series goes next!

I rated this book 4.5 stars (rounded up to 5 for this review). Thank you NetGalley and Boldwood Books for this eARC!

Absolutely loved this book so happy I got this as an arc the cover is amazing I loved the banter between the mmc’s I liked how fleshed out the characters are with their stories and personalities it reminded me a lot of red white and royal blue but had its own charm and can’t wait to see what the author puts out In the future 🥰

I am always happy to be able to read and promote any lGBTQIA books when the opportunity arrives as there’s still too few being published in 2025 and there are areas of society that frown on their existence.

The Prince and the Player is a fun MM romance that is exactly what the title implies - a Norwegian prince finds himself drawn to the captain of his football team, despite never having any attraction to men before, It reminded me a little of Red White & Royal Blue in how charming Tore, our prince is to everyone he encounters no matter their background. I confess to being a lover of the enemies to lovers trope and it’s especially delicious when it’s in MM romance and Tore and Farron have a dynamic I was loving from their first encounter = there may well be hate from Farron, and in it’s own way, very understandable but you cannot help but be aware as his best friend does, that if you cannot stop talking about someone at every moment? Then it’s probably not hate after all but curiosity.

Oh how I giggled to myself because I knew something that the grumpy, and fiercely loyal captain couldn't see… that love was going to come a-knocking at his door.

There is so much positivity in this book in regards to acceptance of sexuality that I wish was representative of gay/bi-sexual men in football but sadly this is fiction and we can pretend that the stigma isn’t still there. I was wary initially of how our two now lovers would be accepted and Nora does indeed deliver that joy across not only teammates but the Norwegian royal family of the tale.

This is a perfect book one for the series, and I am so glad I got to curl up and read their story which has everything I think you could ask for - the only thing I would have liked is maybe to see more of Tore’s friends and perhaps a little joy for Farron’s family as the book came to it’s end. No spoilers of course but that would have been the cherry on the top for me.