Dirty Plays is a steamy best friend's older brother accidental roommates romance with a side of hockey. Salah does a good job keeping the romance front and center, but she also gives the two main characters their own arcs--challenges they help each other through. I skipped the first in the series as the male protagonist in that is dealing with trauma from an abusive childhood, but this stands alone well. I do want to mention though that Aidan's sister is one of the MCs in the first book. Aidan and Zac were childhood best friends and now hockey teammates. Aidan has quite a bit of guilt for not realizing what was going on with his best friend and helping. Processing that is part of his overall story arc. 


Letty is being treated horribly at work, but she drops everything when her family calls. They treat her terribly, demanding money she doesn't have, wrecking her car, you name it. This is her father's "new" family, though, and she's always felt like the unwanted child and like she needs to prove her worth to them. Her arc is satisfying, even though it's hard to watch her get there.

The romance itself is great and I'll definitely read more from Emma Salah.


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Content Warnings:  mentions of past child abuse of secondary character, mentions of racism in hockey, workplace microaggressions (racism and misogyny), toxic family (Letty's)

I received a copy of this ebook from the publisher for review.

I really loved Dirty Tastics and was super excited to read this book. Unfortunately I did not enjoy this one as much as I enjoyed the first one. I feel like this fell flat to me compared to the first book. I do look forward to other Thomas brothers finding love.

DNF at 25%. I really enjoyed the first book in the series but this one isn’t working for me. It feels too slow and I find myself getting so frustrated with Letty. This may be a case of wrong time to pick it up but I’m going to stop for now. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the free review copy.

I received a complimentary copy of Dirty Plays in exchange for an honest review. This was a quick and easy read, and had a unique spin on the plot. Was hoping for less characters and more one on between Aiden and Letty, but overall it was a good read.

Dirty Plays by Emma Salah was a good read. I featured it as Book of the Day on all my social media platforms, and I’ll include it in my monthly roundup of news releases for my Black Fiction Addiction blog.

I really enjoyed book one in this series, Dirty Tactics, and was excited to read the sequel. Sadly, it was a bit of a letdown compared to the first.

I liked getting to know more about Letty, Reagan's BFF who was introduced in book 1, but I also hated it? Without giving too many spoilers, I will just say that her family sucks. As does her job. And as much as she puts on a front of being tough and independent, she's kind of a doormat. I found it disappointing.

Aidan. really fell flat for me. It seemed like his main conflict had more to do with his friend Zac's struggles than his own. I really didn't take away much from him as a character.

For me, the real problem was the pacing. I usually love forced proximity tropes, but this one seemed to move so slow, and by the time anything happened between the MCs it was like "boom, now it's the end". I needed more of the two of them together! I will still read the next book in the series, but I hope it has a better flow, like book 1 did.

This is my read by Emma Salah and I will be reading more of her books. I am big fan of friends to lovers with benefits romance and this is a great book.

Aiden and Letty meet up with a little misunderstanding. They know each because Letty is Aiden’s sister best friend. Letty needs a place to stay because of a recent rent increase. Aiden is having his place remodeling and when he arrives at his brother’s place he finds Letty. The two forge a friends with benefits relationship but Aiden wants more and Letty because of previous relationships she wants to keep things the way they are.

This was an enjoyable read and this is one of my favorite reading tropes. Pick up your copy to read about Letty and Aiden will they keep their relationship friends with benefits or will Aiden get what he wants?

I received an ARC via Netgalley and I’m voluntarily leaving my review.

I enjoyed this story, but I wanted more. There was a lot of character development individually, however we didn’t get enough of the main characters as a couple. I wish there was more to the relationship throughout the meaty parts of the story. I didn’t know about the first book, so I’m definitely going to go back to read it.

One thing I really liked about this book is that there was significant character progressions about real life situations that were relatable, but no real progression together as a couple. The majority of the book was them dancing around their feelings, and not very well. I love a good amount of angst, but it was too much for me. Them getting together at the end seemed rushed to me, and the given the title, I expected more romantic action.

Dirty Plays took me by surprise, I was expecting a steamy Romance but I found a love story based on trust, friendship and of course steamy situations
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All Latina women can feel honored and in love with Letty Garcia, she is such a real and palpable character in any Latino family. Living micro-aggressions in a toxic work environment where the misogynistic opinion always wins. Letty finds in her new roommate someone she can trust and lean on, overcoming the ideas she had from her best friend's brother.
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Aidan is another incredible character, a faithful guardian of his close affections, interested in helping and always taking care of others with a deeply interest in helping more children of his community to get closer to hockey and find a place in a world that closes the door in their faces because of their skin color or for not having enough resources
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I was surprised by the dynamics of the story as Emma Salah gives place and forms to these characters, taking them to a good place without interludes or plow twists that generate angst
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I really enjoyed this story a lot, thanks to Harlequin - Carina Press , for giving me a copy of this beautiful book in exchange for my honest opinion, surely I will look for more books by Emma Salah

Enjoyable read but at time the story and the pace felt very flat. Their coming together comes late into the story and I like my books with a lot of spice.
ARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley. The opinion is all mine.

Dirty Plays the second in the Dirty Thomas Siblings series was an enjoyable romance between Letty and hockey player Aidan. And it was an engaging read with two main characters who had a lot more going on under the surface and I really liked that and how they each challenged their preconceptions of each other as the story developed, and
it was sweet, fun, and surprisingly easy to read. Even though there is some angst and family drama.

Furthermore, all the additional characters added to the story and I'm looking forward to reading more from the rest of the Thomas siblings in the future.

Would recommend.

I truly enjoyed Reagan and Zac's friends to lover story and had high hopes for Letty'story because she seemed so spunky and outspoken. Ideally, Aidan seemed quiet and broody.

Both characters were not as surface as they came off in the prior book. they were deeper individuals with family drama, insecurities and work issues.

I loved the story I just wished there was more sex. I wish they got together sooner and we could have experienced more of that

The work issues that Letty was having were very similar to what Reagan experienced and I wish that was a different storyline.


All in all, I loved it

He does not like living in hotels , she had to live her apartment because of money increase and they became roommates with benefits . What happens when one of them wants casual and the other serious ?
I received this novel from net galley and the publisher as an ARC. Thank you! All thoughts and opinions are my own.