Hello bibliophiles and bookworms! The week is coming to an end, and I seem to be on a roll with my Reading Challenge, so I figured I’d keep up the pace and bring you another review! It’s The Player by Kresley Cole! While it is a third in the series, The Game Maker, there was a gap between my readings with books one and two, and this third installment, hence why it is standing all by its lonesome. You can check out my combined review of the first two books, The Professional and The Master here. They’ll help to serve as a foundation as to where Dmitri comes from in his brooding storm of a persona. 

Let me start off by saying that I had no idea Dmitri was getting his own book (that, or I just completely forgot amid the chaos that is my library and endless TBR). Anyway, as soon as it was on my radar, it was all but overnighted to my house thanks to Amazon. I was nowhere near disappointed! 

I’m not even going to pretend I understand where Victoria or Dmitri are coming from in their family situations (you’ll understand at the end.. they’re a bit cuckoo), but their lives work for them and that’s why I had to go ahead and say that neither of them are nutters. 

Victoria’s family owes a debt, and it’s a large one. She’s known con games for as long as she can remember, and it’s honestly all she does know. It’s when her work brings her directly into the path of one Dmitri Sevastyan that her life not only takes a complete 180, but is also set on the fast-track. Within days of meeting, Dmitri is talking marriage and Victoria finds it impossible to say no. After weeks together and really getting to know each other, the lovers seem completely blissful, until Victoria’s family make a discovery that seems to pop the bubble of happiness and send both Dmitri and Victoria crashing back to earth. Will new revelations, confessions, and past demons tear these two apart, or make them stronger than ever? 

Their story sounds like absolute lunacy, and to an extent, it really is, there’s no denying that little fact. However, there’s also something enviable about their instant need and draw to one another. It’s complete fairy tale and story-book, a life that’s seemingly unrealistic,  but Dmitri has zeroed in on Victoria and has had her in his crosshairs since day one. She may have been burned a few times in past relationships, but Dmitri promises to give her the goddamn world, and he does. 

Trust me, they have moments of less-than-stellar swoon city emotions, but doesn’t every couple? They did a lot of things in an unconventional way, and they have a lot to work through, but their determination and resilience for one another and their relationship almost make you want to believe a true happily ever after could exist in this world. I both adored and despised them for the unwavering affection they obviously had for one another, through both good and bad.

My Final Rating: five out of five stars