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2.91 AVERAGE
2.91 AVERAGE
adventurous
fast-paced
A Review of Steamy Romance with Missed Potential
3 out of 5 stars
Lora Leigh's "Play Dirty" is a steamy romance with a promising premise: childhood friends reunited, undeniable chemistry, and a thrilling suspense subplot. However, the execution falls short in several key areas, leaving me with a feeling of unfulfilled potential.
Positives:
Steamy Scenes: Leigh delivers on her signature brand of passionate romance, with scenes that are both graphic and emotionally charged.
Intriguing Suspense: The underlying plot of danger and secrets adds a layer of intrigue and keeps the story moving forward.
Dual Perspectives: While not always seamlessly integrated, the dual perspectives of Poppy and Jack offer insight into their thoughts and motivations.
Negatives:
Weak Character Development: The characters, particularly Poppy, remain somewhat flat and underdeveloped. Their motivations and desires are not fully explored, making it difficult to connect with them on a deeper level.
Predictable Plot: The core romance follows a familiar formula, lacking the surprise and originality that would elevate it to a more satisfying read.
Clunky Dialogue: The dialogue often feels forced and unnatural, particularly in scenes of high emotion.
Unresolved Issues: While the book introduces a compelling suspense plot, it is ultimately left unresolved, leaving the reader with a sense of incompleteness.
Overall:
"Play Dirty" is a fast-paced, steamy romance with a thrilling undercurrent. However, its underdeveloped characters, predictable plot, and clunky dialogue ultimately limit its impact. While fans of Leigh's signature style may enjoy the familiar tropes and scorching love scenes, others may find themselves wanting more depth and originality.
Here are some specific points that left me wanting more:
Poppy's inner conflict between her love for Jack and her fear of commitment is never fully explored.
The reasons behind the danger Jack and Poppy face remain vague, leaving the suspense plot unresolved.
The secondary characters are largely one-dimensional, lacking the complexity needed to truly engage the reader.
While "Play Dirty" offers moments of heat and suspense, it ultimately falls short of its full potential. With deeper character development, a more nuanced plot, and more attention to detail, this book could have been a truly memorable romance.
3 out of 5 stars
Lora Leigh's "Play Dirty" is a steamy romance with a promising premise: childhood friends reunited, undeniable chemistry, and a thrilling suspense subplot. However, the execution falls short in several key areas, leaving me with a feeling of unfulfilled potential.
Positives:
Steamy Scenes: Leigh delivers on her signature brand of passionate romance, with scenes that are both graphic and emotionally charged.
Intriguing Suspense: The underlying plot of danger and secrets adds a layer of intrigue and keeps the story moving forward.
Dual Perspectives: While not always seamlessly integrated, the dual perspectives of Poppy and Jack offer insight into their thoughts and motivations.
Negatives:
Weak Character Development: The characters, particularly Poppy, remain somewhat flat and underdeveloped. Their motivations and desires are not fully explored, making it difficult to connect with them on a deeper level.
Predictable Plot: The core romance follows a familiar formula, lacking the surprise and originality that would elevate it to a more satisfying read.
Clunky Dialogue: The dialogue often feels forced and unnatural, particularly in scenes of high emotion.
Unresolved Issues: While the book introduces a compelling suspense plot, it is ultimately left unresolved, leaving the reader with a sense of incompleteness.
Overall:
"Play Dirty" is a fast-paced, steamy romance with a thrilling undercurrent. However, its underdeveloped characters, predictable plot, and clunky dialogue ultimately limit its impact. While fans of Leigh's signature style may enjoy the familiar tropes and scorching love scenes, others may find themselves wanting more depth and originality.
Here are some specific points that left me wanting more:
Poppy's inner conflict between her love for Jack and her fear of commitment is never fully explored.
The reasons behind the danger Jack and Poppy face remain vague, leaving the suspense plot unresolved.
The secondary characters are largely one-dimensional, lacking the complexity needed to truly engage the reader.
While "Play Dirty" offers moments of heat and suspense, it ultimately falls short of its full potential. With deeper character development, a more nuanced plot, and more attention to detail, this book could have been a truly memorable romance.
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is no slow burn ladies and gentleman, this is a fast paced, straight to good stuff kinda read if you know what I mean.
This book has an easy to digest plot line, characters that stir up complicated feelings, all whilst maintaining the wonderful vibes of a small town romance. ‘Playing Dirty’ is great for those that want to dip their toes into the darker side of romance. It isn’t ‘dark’ per se but it is on the deep grey side of romance, it does touch on complex topic such as attempted sexual assault, ‘murder’ and possessive/dominating men.
There is an element of AI that drives the plot, and for me this had me questioning whether I would enjoy this read in full. However, on the off chance you are like me and don’t always love robotic elements in your romance, trust me when I say although it is an important element to the plot it doesn’t impose on story in way that makes it feel too sciencey.
Read this beauty if you like:
- A little action with your romance
- Possessive/ protective MMC
- Morally grey male characters
- Childhood friends to lovers
- Small town
- Touch her and die energy
This book has an easy to digest plot line, characters that stir up complicated feelings, all whilst maintaining the wonderful vibes of a small town romance. ‘Playing Dirty’ is great for those that want to dip their toes into the darker side of romance. It isn’t ‘dark’ per se but it is on the deep grey side of romance, it does touch on complex topic such as attempted sexual assault, ‘murder’ and possessive/dominating men.
There is an element of AI that drives the plot, and for me this had me questioning whether I would enjoy this read in full. However, on the off chance you are like me and don’t always love robotic elements in your romance, trust me when I say although it is an important element to the plot it doesn’t impose on story in way that makes it feel too sciencey.
Read this beauty if you like:
- A little action with your romance
- Possessive/ protective MMC
- Morally grey male characters
- Childhood friends to lovers
- Small town
- Touch her and die energy
Content Warnings
Minor: Death, Rape, Sexual assault
3.5 Stars (rounding up for Goodreads)
There wasn't anything super unique about this story line. It's the typical alpha male who's in love with the vulnerable heroine. I did like that they knew each other in the past and they had always had a thing for each other. He's ex-Navy Seal so he's protective, direct and has some much needed built up male energy he needs to get out (if you catch my drift).
I listened to this on audiobook (thank you Macmillian Audio!) - it was a quick, easy listen.
There wasn't anything super unique about this story line. It's the typical alpha male who's in love with the vulnerable heroine. I did like that they knew each other in the past and they had always had a thing for each other. He's ex-Navy Seal so he's protective, direct and has some much needed built up male energy he needs to get out (if you catch my drift).
I listened to this on audiobook (thank you Macmillian Audio!) - it was a quick, easy listen.
Jack's constant use of "baby" when he is talking to Poppy made me want to hurl. To me it is the equivalent of female characters calling male characters "daddy".
The rest of the book was interesting, I liked the mix of the SEAL team, romance, and the alternating timelines.
Brianna Bronte did a good job narrating the novel and I would listen to books narrated by Brianna in the future.
The rest of the book was interesting, I liked the mix of the SEAL team, romance, and the alternating timelines.
Brianna Bronte did a good job narrating the novel and I would listen to books narrated by Brianna in the future.
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
The spice was good, the story was...messy. If you're just looking for a fun, sexy time with friends to lovers, military man, alphahole, and/or possessiveness tropes, this book is for you. However, if you're looking for a romance with solid plots that understand how the military functions or even structure suspense well, this probably isn't the book for you. It was a fun listen, but not a good book, if that makes sense.
As for the narration, I think this book would have benefitted either from clearly demarcated dual POV in the narration, or multiple narrators. This poor narrator is trying to do too many voices and accents and it just didn't always work. She tried, and I don't blame her, because the material definitely didn't help. Making the speaker clearer and not forcing her to switch between sentences but rather between chapters would definitely have helped.
Thank you to NG and MacMillan Audio for an ALC in exchange for an honest review.
As for the narration, I think this book would have benefitted either from clearly demarcated dual POV in the narration, or multiple narrators. This poor narrator is trying to do too many voices and accents and it just didn't always work. She tried, and I don't blame her, because the material definitely didn't help. Making the speaker clearer and not forcing her to switch between sentences but rather between chapters would definitely have helped.
Thank you to NG and MacMillan Audio for an ALC in exchange for an honest review.
Thanks to NetGalley for the arc audiobook!
I’ve always loved Lora Leigh’s books, this was no different! The storyline was great, had some twists along the way and kept things interesting. The spice was so good! Only downfalls were the narrator attempting the male voice was odd and the ending left me slightly confused. Overall a great book!
I’ve always loved Lora Leigh’s books, this was no different! The storyline was great, had some twists along the way and kept things interesting. The spice was so good! Only downfalls were the narrator attempting the male voice was odd and the ending left me slightly confused. Overall a great book!
A former Navy Seal with a tortured past is back in town to thwart the baddies. Reconnects with the woman who saved his life. Does he deserve her?
Absolutely he does! Read this. It was a fantastic story with twists and turns.
Thanks to Netgalley for the eArc!
Absolutely he does! Read this. It was a fantastic story with twists and turns.
Thanks to Netgalley for the eArc!
I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would. This is my first by this author but it will not be my last. I loved the storyline. I didn’t realize this was the 2nd book in a series but it didn’t feel like I missed much by not reading the first.
Good story. The narrator did a great job bringing the characters to life.i would recommend this audiobook to anyone who loves a good narration of a suspense book with a bit of romance.