'Play Dirty' by Lora Leigh is not just spice but an engaging story that makes you want to read about the characters.

Jack is a “disgraced” ex-SEAL with a secretive mission in his hometown.
Poppy has been in love with Jack since they were kids. She helped him in ways no one cared to, and he saved her from potential trauma. Jack left her behind to be a SEAL and ignored her while on home visits.
Jack uses Poppy as a pawn in his mission will Poppy be able to forgive him?

I had a hard time getting into this book. I wish that there more of a transition between the time lapses, with the audiobook it was confusing at times.

My favorite thing about this book is not remembering what it was about when I started listening!
Navy Seals, Artificial Intelligence, Smut 😉, Friendship, Deceit & Loyalty!
Looking forward to the next book to find out wth is happening!

She saved his life when they were kids and then he saved hers. When she became a young woman, Poppy knew she would never love anyone the way she loved Jack Lee Bridger.
But after a near tragedy, Jack left home to become a Navy SEAL and Poppy knew there wouldn't be another like him. Not for her.
She remembered the way it felt when he looked at her with those smoldering eyes.
The way he kissed her. Touched her...
Now it's years later and danger is dogging her footsteps and Jack is back.
And Poppy knows that he will do anything—absolutely anything—to keep her safe. She trusts him to protect her body, but can she trust him with heart?

Thank you to NetGalley & Macmillan Audio for the ALC of Play Dirty!

Play Dirty
By: Lora Leigh
Narrated by: Brianna Bronte
Series: Tempting SEALs: Triton, Book 1
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Release date: 03-26-24

We meet Poppy and Jack in the first of this new series. She is sweet kind soul who was the first person in the world who showed some love and compassion to Jack as a battered abused child. His life takes a turn when he joins the military and disappears from Poppy’s life. Years later, to save himself he is tasked ti investigate a situation in his home town that has potential to change the world in the worst all while doing everything to protect and win Poppy back. If and or when she finds out the trust it will upend her world. It’s an offbeat sometimes disjointed story. Maybe the next in the series will clarify things for me if I decide to read it.

Holy yes!
This book will make your heart race for all the right reasons! I love that there is a true storyline to this book instead of just romance. The characters are so easy to picture and literally see the story unfold. The spiciness level is just perfect! It doesnt cross the line to being just weird and gross, but stays true to being what any person would fantasize for a relationship. I love how Lora was able to show how much Jack truly loves Poppy and how protective he is over her, but not in that dominate, possessive kind of way, truly because he loves her. I'm so excited for the series to grow and cant wait till the next book comes out!

I have been missing reading new Tempting Seals series books, and now my favorite romance author, Lora Leigh, has begun a spinoff series: Tempting Seals: Triton with book one being Play Dirty. Listing to this audio book was the highlight of my month!

Brianna Bronte narrates this one and she hits it out of the park! She is one of my favorite narrators and she is so skilled that listening to her was like watching a movie in my head.

Listening to Poppy and Jack's story was one of the best audio experiences I've ever had. Lora Leigh's writing style really lends itself to this format. While I will read anything and everything she writes, I gravitate to the narrated versions of her books, which are always at minimum a 3 out of 5 for "spice."

I have not listened to a Lora Leigh’s book before. This Narrator really did justice to this story, so much so that even having read the book before I didn’t want to stop listening. Jack and Piper are meant to be together and that fact that it will protect her at all costs just adds more to their story.

RATING: ⭐️⭐️
HEAT: 🌶️.5

Unfortunately, this was a DNF for me around 50%. I wanted to like it, but it was a struggle. Let’s discuss, shall we?

For starters, this seems all over the place. Jacks mission is about drug cartels but it’s also about AI that’s human like, but then someone else might start trafficking girls…y’all, I’m sort of lost. Also, somehow it’s not suppose to be noticeable that all of these ex-navy seals are relocated to this small town and things start going down, like a plane for instance.
Next, the FMC and MMC. The FMC, so far, has mostly been naive about the world around her. She’s in her 20’s and still a V after holding on to hope of being with Jack, who she may or may not have fallen for at 7. Our MMC is a major alpha-hole. Listen, I LOVE me some dark romance and a possessive, morally grey MMC, but Jack wasn’t it. He’s possessive, he’s morally grey, but he is also unlikeable. It almost felt like they tried too hard to make him unlikeable. Then, when these two finally get together and she loses her V card, it was anticlimactic. No pun intended. He also started with an@l play on her first time. Damn, Jack, let a girl warm up with some P in V action before you throw her into the intermediate level stuff.
Lastly, the narration didn’t do it for me. The accents weren’t great and I did not love the narrators portrayal of Jacks (or other male characters) voice. It was a distraction.

I was hopeful for this one, especially as my first advanced copy, but I just couldn’t do it.

Thanks to NetGalley, Lora Leigh, and MacMillan Audio for the chance to preview this audio book. All expressed thoughts are solely my own.

Poppy and Jack have been in love with each other since they were kids. Now that Jack is back from an early retirement from the Navy Seals, Poppy is ready to take what she wants. But Jack’s back for a job and while the pull to Poppy is real for him, he’ll do anything to protect her and keep her away from his life.

This is a great book if you’re in the market for something to just entertain yourself with. Plotwise it’s a little far-fetched and I would have liked a much stronger grasp of the AI piece and how it all came together. Character wise, we have great chemistry but very little build up which makes the relationship seem abrupt.

I would compare this book to any big budget action movie with lots of explosions and little deep dialogue, in the sense that it’s good entertainment and for what it is. Is it going to win a literacy award, no. Was I thoroughly entertained and will I read the next book, probably. Definitely come for the steam not the plot with this one.


Play Dirty comes out March 26, 2024! Huge thank you to Berkley for my advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion. If you liked this review please let me know either by commenting below or by visiting my instagram @speakingof.books or on Tiktok @speakingof.books

Great story, gripping characters and hard to stop listening to! The author did spectacular with the strength of the characters and made this a very enjoyable story to follow. I could even see a series done with the main guys in this audio! Truly enjoyed this. Thanks for allowing me to listen and review! Well done!

*3.5 Stars On My Instagram Account*

"You're acting like a possessive lover."
"I am a possessive lover."

"You're still dressed baby girl. I'll have to punish you for that."

There's no denying that the military romance Play Dirty by popular romance author Lora Leigh is a hot sexy contemporary romance but what was surprising was a twisty end that left me with my jaw on the floor.

Poppy is the sweet girl from the good side of the tracks. She finds a bloody boy in her backyard, Jack from the wrong side of everything, and their lives are never their own. Jack knows he is no good for Poppy. He enlists, becomes a killing machine Navy Seal but politics, evil men and his own sense of justice lead him down a dangerous path...until that danger finds Poppy.

Jack comes back into her life to protect her from people who will hurt her to hurt him. They have created something that can destroy the world and for some reason Jack's the one that can stop it and them. The truth was shocking and this writer needs to enter the thriller genre.

I enjoyed narrator Brianne Bronte as Poppy but this audiobook would have benefitted from a male narrator for Jack. A deep sexy voice like Connor Crais or Tim Campbell would have added to the panty melting steamy scenes rather than a forced male version. Also, some of Jack's alpha possessive "dirty talk" and actions felt unnatural. The way he loved her I don't think he would ever belittle her. Some scenes were uncomfortable to hear.

However, I felt for Jack and believed in his righteousness, "He was fine with killing the monsters of the world. Killing those monsters kept the world safer for Poppy." And kill for Poppy he does but in the end it's this mysterious creation that can destroy the world that plays dirty.

I received a free copy of this audiobook from #macmillanaudio via #NetGalley for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

Thank you to NetGally for providing this ARC.

I really wanted to like this book as it sounded very interesting/enticing. However, I did not connect with the character and couldn’t get into the story. I ended up DNFing this book 40% into it. Additionally, the use of moist during a spicy scene was not helpful.

Love love love. This was a different kind of book for me but I'll definitely be reading more from this author!

This is a friends to lovers, spicer version of fifty shades of grey. Poppy quietly pined over Jack for years, even when he avoided her. Once Jack came back home and saw Poppy again, she was his whether she knew it or not. Was not expecting the end but interested in reading the next book.
This book has a perfect balance of spice, mystery and action. Easy read if you are looking for a palette cleanser.

This audiobook fell kind of short for me. A female narrator changing their voice to a feminine male voice just doesn't do the book justice. Definitely think dual narration would take this to the next level.

This was a digital ARC from netgalley, these opinions are solely mine and are not biased in any way.

I was super excited for this book even though all I knew was the title and the MMC was a retired Navy Seal so I knew there was gonna be some mystery and suspense to the plot! And then I started the book and was just confused about the mystery of what the heck Jack was doing, and why it was always going to upset Poppy (maybe I missed an explained moment - if so that’s my bad trying to listen to an audiobook with a newborn 😅) By the time I figured it all out, the book was basically over and I just wasn’t as invested.

The pacing of the romance felt a tad rushed for me. I was looking forward to the Virgin/ teach me aspect of the plot, but yea, it was super fast from no action to pure sexual scenes together. I didn’t feel the romance/ second chance nature for this book.

Will I continue on listening to subsequent books if the audiobooks are available for me? Possible. It’s honestly pretty tbd.

Final rating: 3⭐️, 3🌶️

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for an ALC of this book in exchange for my honest and free review!

I requested this book because I thought it looked good, but very quickly after starting it, I realized it was not the book for me. It had a weird set up and while I knew it was a military romance, it immediately became too right wing for me. I'm sure there are plenty of conservative women who will love this - I am not one of them however,

Well…um… I think I’ve learned I care for smut. This was okay but I wasn’t really feeling it. It was pretty confusing plot if there even is much of a plot. My favorite part was that it’s military which Is what drew me to it. I found their mission to be an interesting idea

Thank you to the author and publisher for the this pre-released audiobook.

ALC REVIEW 3.5 ⭐️

I found Brianna Bronte to be a fair narrator for this book. She has a nice Southern accent & she does an excellent narration of the robotic AI. She easily moves between the voice changes for the female & male characters.

Although Bronte's narration was fair I did not connect very strongly with the characters based on Bronte's performance. In my head, I heard Jack having a much deeper, edgy & intimidating voice. He really did not & being a Navy SEAL on this particular mission his voice should have reflected as such. Also, I don't think there was much distinction between the male characters. Finally, I felt the narration of Poppy made her appear as if she spent a lot of her time whining no matter what she was talking about in the book. There were a handful of scenes where she was whining but not almost the entirety of the story.

Bronte has a nice voice & she is easy to listen to as she narrates still I was not connected with the characters very well here. I had more success with the ARC.

I wanted to love this one. It sounded right up my alley. In all honesty though, I think if I read this one instead of doing it on audio that I may have liked it better. The narration for the MMC was....weird. I didn't even get to finish the story because the app said the format for the book was no longer valid. I don't know what happened.

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.


Poppy’s phone has been ringing nonstop the past few hours. Life in a small town means everyone is in her business – including her brothers – and every single voicemail is about Jack. A Navy SEAL, Jack has been away for years, but that hasn’t killed the connection between Jack and Poppy that began when they were just children. The pair have always watched out for one another, but that connection is about to put them both in danger when local criminals Play Dirty and use that bond against them both.

Lora Leigh is back with her latest adult romance novel and a new cast of characters in Play Dirty, the first in her new Tempting SEALs series. Leigh delivers fantasy and romance, with a twist of science fiction and military procedural drama. Known for her erotic fiction and military-based romances, Leigh delivers a steamy boy-next-door, small-town romance that will have readers panting for more of the moments between Poppy and Jack behind closed doors.

I give Play Dirty 4 out of 5 stars. I appreciate the childhood romance and backstory between the main characters, but it almost felt out of place given the spicy direction their interactions take later in the novel. While steamy romance novels like this are not my usual picks, I really liked those scenes in this book! I do wish the writer had stayed away from the science fiction direction the book took towards the end – it felt unnecessary and too out of reach for a novel set around property, drug, and military crimes.

With some extremely steamy sex scenes and graphic murders, this book would be best directed to audiences over 18. This is a great book for readers who like military or police thrillers, but are looking for something in the romance category. If you have loved Leigh’s other works like Maverick or Lion’s Heart, you will enjoy this read as well!

I hopped at the chance to read Play Dirty when I saw it available on NetGalley! I have seen Lora Leigh’s name on multiple suggestion lists, but this is the first of her books I am reading. It will definitely not be the last. Again, this world of steamy erotica is not something I typically choose, but I enjoyed this book, and I think you will, too!