Playing Dirty cover art

Playing Dirty

Leighton U, Book 4

 Preview

Get 30 days of Standard free

£5.99/mo after trial. Cancel monthly.
Try for £0.00
More purchase options
Buy Now for £15.24

Buy Now for £15.24

About this listen

Our rivalry formed long before we became siblings.

Madden Hastings has been my nemesis since the day we met.

A divide was born from the age-old rivalry between our universities,

but this year, another layer developed. It became personal.

Because the captain of Blackmore’s baseball team?

He’s also my new step brother.

My disdain for the sudden blending of our families leads to more conflict,

and despite their efforts to force us together, coexisting proves impossible.

But something else starts burning beneath my bitterness and resentment;

an attraction as unexpected as it is potent.

And when the chemistry becomes too powerful to deny,

our already complicated relationship gets even messier.

Because a forbidden fling is one thing, but falling for the enemy?

It forces me into a choice I never wanted to make.

One between loyalty to my team, or the love of my life.

*Playing Dirty is the fourth in a five book standalone college sports romance series featuring two rivalry-fueled step brothers, a cut-throat game of capture the flag, and sexual tension that oozes from the story. Not suitable for anyone under 18 years of age.*

©2025 Deserted Press LLC (P)2026 Deserted Press LLC Contemporary Romance Sports
All stars
Most relevant

Listener received this title free

Book 4 in CE Ricci's Leighton U series and I would highly recommend that you read from book 1 if you haven't already. Previous characters appear throughout each book, so it's best that you know who's who. 

This is the perfect step-siblings, rivalry, enemies to lovers story. I actually think this is my favourite of the series so far, the tropes just speak to me big time and there's no third act break up which I was so relieved about. Theo and Madden actually communicate with each other, hurrah!! I loved their angst and the chemistry was so more realistic and throw in a one bed scenario, it's a winner. 

As a brit, I know nothing about Baseball, so I'll admit I was so lost with all the baseball talk, it flew over my head lol

Featuring one of my favourite narrators, Christian Fox is a big tick in itself, so I was excited to listen and hear the story this time around. I have never listened to Brandon Francis before and I have to say, he was brilliant! He was very engaging, especially during the spicy scenes, woah 🥵 so I will definitely be listening to him again! The narration was definitely 5 stars for me. The story 4.5 stars.

Great Narration!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I was looking forward to this so much and it’s such a disappointment. I’d go as far as saying it’s a disaster of a book. The step-brother trope is one of my favourites and this is a huge fail. I honestly found this too trope heavy. Sports Rivals, School Rivals, External cheating, one bed (that’s not even utilised so it’s literally pointless), enemies? Secret relationship. It’s just too much and too messy. The constant whining about “rivalry” is pathetic and incredibly immature. Just a stepbrother trope would have been more than enough, but the focus was so heavy on a rivalry that made little to no sense that it just ruined the rest. It was genuinely so childish I quit the audio at at 50% and skim read the rest of kindle. The plot was literally all Over the place or non-existent. Excuses being made left and right for cheating, which to be honest I’m not surprised about considering the author but still annoying. The entire cast in this book behave like little kids it’s just cringe at this point. The ending was so anticlimactic. I genuinely feel quite bad saying this but this book is a literal train wreck. The author tries way too hard to write poetically but it’s just juvenile. I’m not bothering with book 5.

Brandon Francis is one of my favourite narrators and I was so happy when I seen he was the narrator when I pre-ordered this…but for some reason he didn’t work for this.

Super disappointing 🙁

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.