i received an arc on netgalley, consider me disclaimed!
3.5, rounded up because i think this book deserves a higher goodreads rating.

all in all, predictable, occasionally clunky, but really quite sweet and well-written. i enjoyed myself! i think farron needs to get over himself, but then again i never grew up poor, so i can't say how that would affect how i see the world.
there was more soccer, and less college content than i was expecting. i have no idea what farron or tore studied, other than farron was taking at least on psychology class and tore went on to go to diplomacy grad school.
also, i did absolutely appreciate the blatant sequel bait, and i probably will pick up future books in this series!
all in all, an easy read that didn't hit me too hard but sometimes that's what you need. thanks!

The Prince and The Player had all the makings of a fun, swoony romance—an undercover prince, a grumpy soccer captain, and a delicious enemies to lovers, bi awakening storyline. As a fan of Red, White & Royal Blue, I was excited for a similar blend of royalty, romance, and playful tension. While the book delivered on the cuteness and was an easy, enjoyable read, I couldn’t help but feel like it was missing something.

The chemistry between the prince and Farron had potential, but the story felt a bit flat at times. The tension and emotional depth weren’t as developed as I wanted, and there were moments that felt repetitive rather than building momentum. I kept waiting for deeper character growth or more complexity in their relationship, but it never fully landed for me.

That said, it’s still a fun and lighthearted read. The premise is charming, and if you’re looking for a low angst, feel good romance with an opposites attract dynamic, this one delivers. It just didn’t quite reach the same emotional heights as some of the greats in the genre.

Thank you to NetGalley, Nora Phoenix, and Boldwood Books for the eARC of this book.

Nora Phoenix's The Prince and the Player is a captivating and heartwarming romance that expertly weaves together slow-burning tension with sizzling chemistry. The story centers on Prince Tore, who, disguised as a student at a college in Ohio, embarks on an undercover mission. However, things take an unexpected turn when he finds himself drawn to the one person who seems to despise him the most - Farron, the brooding soccer team captain.

In the beginning, the pacing feels deliberately slow, as the author takes time to lay the groundwork for Tore's complex journey and his evolving relationship with Farron. This slow buildup may challenge some readers’ patience at first, but once the dynamic between the two protagonists begins to evolve, the story picks up pace, and the tension becomes undeniable.

What truly makes The Prince and the Player shine is the sizzling, slow-burn romance that develops between Tore and Farron. Farron’s initial disdain for the prince sets the stage for a delicious push-pull tension, making their "hate-to-love" journey both believable and irresistible. The emotional stakes escalate dramatically as their animosity transforms into something much deeper, culminating in a passionate, explosive kiss that reveals the depth of their mutual attraction.

The book also stands out for its handling of the characters’ personal growth, particularly through the lens of a "double bi-awakening." This added layer of complexity enriches the narrative, making it more than just a romance; it becomes a powerful story of self-discovery. Tore, who initially set out to win over a grumpy soccer player, ends up confronting his own fears and emotions. Likewise, Farron must come to terms with his unexpected feelings, which adds further depth to his character and their relationship.

The chemistry between Tore and Farron is electric, and their gradual realization of their feelings for each other feels authentic and genuine. Though their journey is fraught with obstacles—especially due to the secrecy surrounding Tore’s true identity—their evolving relationship makes for a rewarding and satisfying love story.

Overall, The Prince and the Player is a witty, charming, and heartfelt romance. While the opening may feel a bit slow, the eventual payoff is more than worth it, as the story blossoms into an engaging tale of self-discovery, passion, and the beauty of unexpected love. This book is perfect for fans of opposites-attract romances with a touch of royalty and plenty of heat!

ARC REVIEW:

3.5⭐️2🌶️
Thank you Nora Phenoix, and Netgallery for reaching out with this ARC read. This was my first MM romance ever and I very much enjoyed it. The two MMC leads were great, Farron being the grumpy, broody athlete and Tore the pretty boy, well mannered and dressed royal who just wanted to be normal and not have the royal spotlight.

Tore leaves Norway in hopes to go undercover as a normal man in college and play on the soccer team. He doesn’t want people to know his royal status, he just wants to be like everyone else. Then he meets the broody Farron, who hates him, or so he thinks?

It a cute coming out story from both leads, and it’s written in a respectable, well mannered way. It was a beautiful love story and I very much enjoyed the read.

Nice, fun and easy read!

I really loved Tore and his genuine kindness and he was definitely a sunshine character and I really loved the introduction to his friends and the hint that there could be a chance to see there stories.

I had more complex feelings around Farron as I could understand his issues surrounding wealth and how Tore was a visualisation of that but it fell a little flat for me. I also hated how he kept bailing after intimate moments and being forgiven and wish that the hurt that caused was explored more fully. I did love the realisation of his feelings and his effort after that tho.

It was a quick read to get through and I enjoyed the writing.



Thank you NetGalley for giving me the chance to read The Player and the Prince early.

Two and a half stars.

This is clearly part of a series where young royalty go undercover for a year to 'find themselves'.

Prince Tore is fourth in line to the Norwegian throne, he had a chance of playing professional football (soccer) for the Dutch team Ajax but his father forbade him, saying his duty was to the throne and country. However, (don't ask, plot hole) he has now persuaded his father to allow him to attend college in the USA at Hawsley College for one year - a college which happens to have a pretty good soccer team.

Farron is the soccer captain and a year above Tore. His father was from a wealthy family which disowned him for marrying Farron's mother. Then when his father died they washed their hands of Farron, his mother, and his siblings. Life has been tough, Farron has had to work to support his family, and act as a father figure to his siblings. You could say he has a chip on his shoulder about rich people.

When Tore joins the soccer team Farron is beyond annoyed that this rich kid just waltzes in and snags a spot. Even worse, Tore plays European football where he can rove the field looking for opportunities whereas the Hawsley team play strict positions, leading him into clashes with Farron.

Soon, inevitably, the smouldering looks of hatred turn to lust and after a particularly heated argument they kiss, despite both of them believing up until that point that they were heterosexuals. Yeah, not so keen on the 'gay for you' vibe.

Anyway, they try to get it out of their systems but are just falling for each other for real. But no-one knows Tore's true identity and that secret is going to bite him in the posterior.

So this gave me The Prince and Me vibes (loved the film), but a bit too much. The soccer descriptions seemed okay but frankly there wasn't much more than Tore running, passing and scoring. I'm not sure we know more than two other players on the team (and them only because they share a room with either Farron or Tore). Also the writing felt stilted, I get that Tore speaks 'posh' with an English accent but Farron also had the same tone of voice.

As a devotee of all things Alexis Hall, I would say this is not in the least bit comparable, the characters had no depth. Am okay read.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

This book was a cute story but overall felt a bit rushed to me. Some of the smaller details (not that they mattered in the big picture) didn’t add up like the timeline & ages of his dads death. I also felt their romance was enemies one day to relationship the next and the length of time or the building of the relationship wasn’t there for me.

Overall it was a cute read, the spicy scenes were good but wish it had more depth.

This book was such a cute read!
It gave me big the prince and me vibes with a little rwrb

The characters were likeable and the banter between them was awesome

Highly recommended this book for any MM romance fans

3…maybe 3.5 stars… I enjoyed reading it - it was cute, fast moving, and has a sweet ending. I loved that for a sports romance, soccer is an integral part of the story (vs. normally the sport is a backdrop but not that important). I also personally agreed with some of the messages the book pushed (e.g., people are more than their title).

I had two issues with the story that are related. The bigger issue to me was that the characters and their relationship felt flat and one dimensional. I think there was opportunity to better build out their connection (vs. insta love) as well as building out their individual personalities (e.g., any mental debates about accepting they are bi, what they are doing with their lives beyond soccer, etc). I believe this arises because the writing is a bit simplistic - everything is spelled out and directly told to the reader which is the other opportunity I thought the book could have improved upon.

I was able to read an early copy of The Prince and The Player by Nora Phoenix thanks to Netgalley.

Tore is a Norwegian prince who has made a pact with his three best friends (all of royalty) to live a year away from expectations and obligations. Tore comes to the US play soccer at an American college where he meets Farron, captain of the soccer team. Farron immediately hates Tore due to his wealth based on past experiences with the wealthy. The story follows them as they are trying to lead their team to the National Championship.

MM Romance
Grumpy/Sunshine
Opposites Attract
Double Bi Awakening
College Soccer

Overall, I enjoyed The Prince and The Player. It took me a bit to get into the story and the characters, but once I did I could not put it down. A lot of the plot was very predictable, and I did not like their coming out storyline. I did enjoy the bi-awakenings and the connection between Tore and Farron. I thought the support of Tore’s mother was excellent. I wish this book had at least another chapter because it felt very rushed at the end. I am looking forward to the other books in this series and hope we get to see more of these two throughout those!

Thanks to the author, publisher and netgalley for the copy 💕

This was such a super cute romance (it gave me a lot of rwrb vibes and I loved!!). I found myself at times unable to put the book down and I flew through, only wanting more of the characters and the universe. I liked the enemies to lovers and the slight slow burn the book had turned at the perfect moment. The spice levels were amazing and I loved how their relationship grew through the book as well as how they healed from their issues towards the end of the book. I also loved how there was elements of the characters rediscovering themselves and their sexualities in the book

I was able to read an early copy of The Prince and The Player by Nora Phoenix through Netgalley. It’s the first of her books I’ve read.

Tore (pronounced Tor-ray) is Norwegian royalty. Weighed down with familial and his country’s expectations, he has a pact with some other royals from various European nations to take a gap year of sorts incognito, to see if they can ‘make it. He chooses to go to college in the US and play ‘football’/soccer. In the process he meets Farron, the captain of the team, who is from Ohio, and so far removed from Tore’s social set. Farron shows an instant dislike for Tore through Farron doesn’t really understand why..

What follows is an attraction to one another, woven into their soccer games. Farron’s struggle with people with privilege seems fairly hardcore in the scheme of things and Tore’s secrets are understandably a significant challenge. Some of the dialogue is a little stilted, slightly disguised as Tore’s formal language. It will be interesting to see how readers take to Farron because he treats Tore pretty poorly during the book, apart from times of intimacy.

This was a cute book, but I felt very surface level. One of the challenges for me was the management of the characters coming out, which was a big no for me and I debated rating the book lower because of it.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley!

3.5 stars

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!