AUTHOR: Elena Armas GENRE: Sports Romance PAGES: 384 pages RELEASED: 5 September 2023 SERIES: Long Game #1 SYNOPSIS: Adalyn Reyes has spent years perfecting her daily routine: wake up at dawn, drive to the Miami Flames FC offices, try her hardest to leave a mark, go home, and repeat. But her routine is disrupted when a video of her in an altercation with the team’s mascot goes viral. Rather than fire her, the team’s owner—who happens to be her father—sends Adalyn to middle-of-nowhere North Carolina, where she’s tasked with turning around the struggling local soccer team, the Green Warriors, as a way to redeem herself. Her plans crumble upon discovering that the players wear tutus to practice (impractical), keep pet goats (messy), and are terrified of Adalyn (counterproductive), and are nine-year-old kids. To make things worse, also in town is Cameron Caldani, goalkeeping prodigy whose presence is somewhat of a mystery. Cam is the perfect candidate to help Adalyn, but after one very unfortunate first encounter involving a rooster, Cam’s leg, and Adalyn’s bumper, he’s also set on running her out of town. But banishment is not an option for Adalyn. Not again. Helping this ragtag children’s team is her road to redemption, and she is playing the long game. With or without Cam’s help. This book was kindly sent to me by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. Sometimes you’ve just got the play the long game if you want to get what you want…
After a viral altercation with the Miami Flames mascot, Adalyn Reyes is sent off-the-grid in North Carolina by the team’s owner, who just so happens to be her father. To redeem herself, and by extension the team, Adalyn is tasked with helping the local soccer team, the Green Warriors, turn things around. The last thing she’s expecting is for the team to be a bunch of nine-year-olds and their current coach to be former player Cameron Caldani, who recently fell of the grid after retiring before most were expecting. Things go from bad to worse when the pair get off on the wrong foot and can’t seem to work together. But if Adalyn is going to redeem herself and get back home to Miami, she knows she can’t give up, no matter how difficult Cameron is determined to make things for her. I do love me a sports romance! Although, this one was definitely more romance than sports since the focus is on coaching kids than it is Cameron actually playing. But even so, it still had all the fun and swoon of a sports romances with a bigger sports focus. Adalyn and Cam had a really great chemistry, even with their initial dislike and slight animosity towards one another, and it was enjoyable to watch their relationship grow and flourish throughout the book. It was a juicy slow burn with a few road-bumps along the way before these two finally realised they were meant to be together. I really enjoyed the focus on the kids football team, which was made up of a bunch of really fun characters with great little personalities. They really balanced out the tension and drama with Cam and Adalyn, and I only wish they had had a bit more of a focus as it was easy to confuse who the characters were. Throughout the book, I did struggle a little to connect with Adalyn as she was so damn stubborn, but thanks to how easy it was to fall in love with Cameron, I did eventually warm up to her. I had a lot of expectations going into this book, and I feel like not being able to connect with Adalyn so easily impacted on those expectations. If you’re a lover of sports romances and don’t mind a bit of a slow burn, this is definitely a book that needs to be on your TBR! |
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