Review: Princess and the Player by Ilsa Madden-Mills

Princess and the Player by Ilsa Madden-Mills
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was provided an arc of this book from the author via Netgalley, all opinions are my own.

This may be the second book in the series but it reads as a complete standalone. While Ronan (from Beauty and the Baller and Tuck may have met their lady love's in a similar fashion, their stories are completely independent of one another.

This follows Tuck, a NFL wide reciever who is at a crossroads in his life and career. At thirty-five he is aging out of the game he loves and is facing retirement or a trade to another team. He is also dealing with some family stuff that may or may not be impacting his game. Enter Francesca, an artist who has been let down far too many times by the people who were supposed to care about her. She meets Tuck at an exclusive members only club on the night that was supposed to be her wedding, which also happens to be his birthday. Emotions are running high for both of them, especially their attraction to one another so they agree to one night, no strings, no identities to help them both get through the night. Fast forward a couple of weeks and they run into each other and recognize one another and realize they live in the same building. Francesca wants nothing to do with Tuck and his athlete player lifestyle, but he can't do anything but think about her. They both want different things in life, but life has different plans for them.

I really loved Tuck and Francesca together. They had good banter and great chemistry. While this does focus on their relationship together, there is also a good amount of time spent with them working on their issues apart. They enter their relationship with things they both need to come to terms with and things they need to communicate about together. I feel like there could possibly be some triggering topics for some as this discusses abandonment, physical abuse, foster care, mental health, and mentions addiction. I do love that they both had a great support system on both sides as they worked through things. Francesca has a wonderful found family that she can lean on with or without Tuck. Tuck has Jasper whether he wants him or not and he also seeks out professional help from a therapist to deal with some of his issues. While pregnancy tropes tend not to be my favorite, this one was done really well and it created the right amount of angst and turmoil in the story.

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