Reviews

Real Players Never Lose by Micalea Smeltzer

exquisite_tragedy's review against another edition

3.0

Tropes/Themes:
-MF new adult romance
-Sports romance (baseball)
-Rich Hero x Poor Heroine
-Fake dating
-Curvy heroine
-Dual POV
-Book #3 in an interconnected standalone series

Teddy is such a sweet baby angel and needs to be protected at all costs. He’s just such an endearing hero and deserved every bit of his HEA. However…I wrote a very similar review for the book #2, but I really can’t stand the sheer amount of pop culture references. In this book we were hit with references to One Direction, Eminem, Gossip Girl, unironic use of the word “bae”, the movie Titanic, Taylor Switch, and specific TikTok trends. Pop culture references never age well for me and they totally take me out of the story. Not sure if I’ll continue on in the series at this point.

CWs for physical abuse by a parent (both in childhood and adulthood), domestic violence, neglectful/absentee parent

Story: 3/5
Audiobook: 5/5 (narrated by Iggy Toma & Kasha Kensington)
Length 11h16min

almendraa's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Classism, Cursing, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Violence, Fatphobia, and Body shaming

Minor: Sexism, Pregnancy, and Miscarriage

kelly_mlg's review against another edition

It wasn’t a bad book but I wasn’t enjoying it, and a lot of the time the author would start an activity between the two main characters and before you could even read about it, she would skip to the next chapter and next scene e.g he was giving her swimming lessons but it never actually got to the swimming lessons. They just talked about it, sat at the corner of the pool and then the next chapter came with a completely different scene. And that just pissed me off.

xaaam_o's review against another edition

3.0

These two were cute
Could be shorter tho

cornel_reads's review against another edition

emotional medium-paced

4.0

emilieelrod's review against another edition

Dumb 

bookvoyager1's review against another edition

slow-paced

3.25

sandizzlereads's review against another edition

5.0

Teddy!!! What else do I need to say?

I fell in love with Teddy in Nice Guys Don’t Win, ever the puppy, filled with humor and loyalty to his found family I dare you not to fall for him as well.  But now in this book we get his story and it’s so much more, he’s so much more.

When faced with a chance of losing his inheritance Teddy he finds the solution he wasn’t expecting.  This is where Vanessa comes in, and watching these two together is magical.

At this point if you follow my reviews you know I am a fan of Micalea.  She writes stories that make you laugh, fall in love and maybe even blush a little. 😊. I am halfway done with this series and I’m not going to stop until

I get to the end!  Read this series, read them in order, don’t miss out on these, just don’t!

1. Bad Boys Break Hearts
2. Nice Guys Don’t Win
3. Real Players Never Lose
4. Good Guys Don’t Lie
5. Broken Boys Can’t Love
6. Rule Breakers Fall Hardest (June ‘24)

nazjaimercdes's review against another edition

4.0

I loved these Mcs, the Male protag was so cool and loving, I literally felt like we were the same person we had so much alike. And i loved seeing good body rep as far as with Vanessa being plus-mid size girly. I loved it completely. The reason its not a five star, is because of the disconnect between the first chapter where teddy is made out to be this complete ass and he just isnt like that at all. And the whole insecure about your body because of your sister kind of thing. which is more of a personal thing im sick of reading. but i genuinely loved this book so :)))

velezbooks's review against another edition

5.0

TEDDY WAS MY FAVORITE CHARACTER FROM THE BOOKS AND SEEING HIM FALL IN LOVE WAS