I must firstly apologise for the amount of time it has taken me to provide a review of this book, my health was rather bad for quite some time, something that had me in hospital on numerous occasions and simply didnt leave me with the time I once had to do what I love most.

Unfortunately that does mean I have missed the archive date for many of these books, so It would feel unjust throwing any review together without being able to pay attention to each novel properly.

However, I am now back to reading as before and look forward to sharing my honest reviews as always going forward. I thank you f0r the patience and understanding throughout x

As the second novel in the Kings of Kroydon Hills series, More than A Game can be read and fully enjoyed as a standalone.

Murphy and Sabrina have been circling each other for many years but their freshman year of college is when their stars eventually align.

What results is a fairly standard college/sports romance with the highs and lows of college sports teams and, usually, the women that capture their hearts.

Certainly the author's writing style captured my attention and held it form the first page ro the last.

There is nothing to dislike of Sabrina and Murphy and the clues for further books in this series are intriguing and definitely worth a closer look.

I can see a Bella Matthews binge read in my future!

A friend to lovers romance that was better than the first so in glad I gave it a chance. Aiden's and Sabrina's story was interesting.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book received from the publisher via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I enjoyed diving back into the world of the Kroydon Kings. Murphy and Sabrina were a wonderfully sweet couple. Much like with the first book I was frustrated to find the climax and high stakes situations happening in the penultimate chapter of the book. I wanted more time to see how their struggle with her parents affected their relationship and ultimately how they overcome all their challenges. I enjoyed the epilogues but the ending always feels like it arrives too soon.

I have received a digital advance review copy of this book via Netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

I liked this book. The relationship between Aiden and Sabrina is interesting, mainly because they were friends first and I love good childhood friends to lovers romance. They are complete opposites and yet their personalities just complete one another.
I really liked how the side characters were not lame but actually interesting. Bella Matthews' writing made me want to know more about certain side characters than the main ones.

Murphy and Sabrina are perfect together! They are such opposites that compliment each other! Sabrina has always had a ‘crush’ on Aiden Murphy, but it takes this typical man to open his eyes! Sabrina comes from a political family, one who doesn’t think a football star is good enough for. The love and passion these two share is so much stronger than anything her family can say. Bella writes such amazing couples but the supporting characters are so important to her stories as well! This group of friends is a family, especially when Murphy’s mom falls in love with big daddy Sinclair! Just ask Murphy as his eyes are scared forever!! I absolutely loved this book and am amazed this is only Bella’s 2nd book!!! She’s got an amazing future with this crew!

I rarely read sport romance and I'm regretting it a lot! This book open my eyes to start reading more sport romance. I love this book so much. I love the two characters, the plot I just love it so much. I need more of it. Their chemistry were mind blowing.

Thank you netgalley for sending me this copy in exchange of honest review.

3.5 stars

It’s an easy read and the story and characterisation is good. I liked the writing style, the author mixed some different styles like texts into it which I thought was well done. However, the pace was slower than I usually like. Also the really interesting aspect would have been the progression of their careers post the conversation with her father which was not developed at all. Shame

The second book in the Kings of Kroydon Hills series deals with Sabrina and Aiden. This one takes place a little while after the first book and our characters are now at University rather than school. I think that I mentioned when reviewing book one that I liked that they didn't seem too young as often happens when books are set in schools or Universities.
Aiden sleeps around a lot and the book opens with him facing the potential consequences of that. I'm not a huge fan of heroes that are players that settle down once they meet the heroine, but I didn't mind it too much in this story.
Aiden and Sabrina have a few things to deal with before they can be happy. Despite having grown up together and coming from more or less the same world there are pressures on Sabrina that Aiden just doesn't face and it does put pressure on their relationship from the beginning.
I'm really enjoying this series. I like the way that the other characters are brought into each story, even when it isn't 'their' story. There are more books to come in this series and I'm looking forward to reading them.
I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

It's the 2nd book in The Kings of Kroydon Hills series by Bella Matthews. This is going to be the 1st book I've read that was written by her. This book is just like the other sport contemporary romance books that were published before. The tropes are also pretty the same as the other. I haven't read the 1st book so there are some parts that got me a little bit confused. I like the cover and the whole book is just pretty decent.

ARC provided by Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op for an honest review.
I really enjoyed this book.. It had enough humour and angst to keep me reading long after I should have started supper! I would have liked more history on Murphy and some of the peripheral friends, but maybe in the forthcoming books.
I enjoyed how well the extrovert/introvert personalities played against each other..
I was prepared for a "surprise" in the book and I wasn't disappointed.
You won't be disappointed with this read!

​​​​​I am typically not a fan of the young adult genre, however, new to me author Bella Matthews left me clamoring for more. Her latest book offering, More Than A Game, is a lively sports romance with well-developed characters. This is the second book from The Kings of Kroydon Hills series and it can be enjoyed as a standalone.

Sabrina Murphy is a smart and beautiful young woman. Her father is a prominent Senator and her mother is a wicked witch. Luckily, Sabrina has a good head on her shoulders and is enroute to a fabulous career in politics. She attends Kroydon University and hangs out with a great group of friends. She has lusted after footballer Aiden Murphy since grade school, and is sort of shocked when he begins to care for her. Especially since they have been friends for years and Aiden's preference for one night stands is well known. He just can't help his attraction to Sabrina. Aiden's claim to fame is his humor, as well as his toughness on the field. Overtime, he and Sabrina fall into lust and love.

I truly enjoyed this sexy romance. It is chock-full of good friends, a few sexy couples, and a loving bulldog. The author did an amazing job of weaving the families of football and politics together. Sabrina and Aidan are a hot couple, and Aidan's protectiveness toward Sabrina is quite thrilling. I can't wait to read the next book in the series.

Complimentary copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley.

This was pretty cute, but nothing special. The BIG MOMENTS weren't as interesting because they felt like they were happening out of the blue, I would have preferred a nice buildup.

Writing style: Matthews writing is quite nice as a whole, but there's just a tad too many unnecessary details.

Characters: I liked Murphy in the first book, so I couldn't wait to read about him in this one. His banter was still topnotch, but other than that he wasn't all that interesting. I enjoyed being in Brady's head a lot more than Murphy's.
Sabrina felt a bit flat to me, which was a pity because her character had so much potential.

Story: I definitely think book one had the better plot. This book just felt messy. Like Matthews wrote a bunch of scenes and then decided to throw them all together in a book. If you take away the smut in this book, then there's not much interesting stuff left and that's very disappointing.

It was cute, but book one was better. I'm giving this one two stars (Sorry Murph)

I thought that this was a great story and a really good book!

I thought that this had great characterisation and I love getting to know the characters and following their stories as the book progressed.

I thought that it was a great romantic and sexy read and thoroughly enjoyable.

It was a 5 star read for me here – I really enjoyed it – highly recommended!!

Oh boy, what a treat. I loved this. The teenage goings on of young adults growing up with money and balancing study, first love and difficult parents. Our couple are slow to get together although their friends had bet on them falling for each other. Young love is always hard though especially when your father is a prominent politician or your mother is dating your coach in secret! Running alongside this is the rough and tumble of loss, friends in trouble and football.

This was a new author to me, When I finished this book I immediately tagged her other books as WANT to read and added them in wish list on amazon. Both characters were very likeable, their storylines were well developed, their dialogue was believable and relatable and their chemistry was pretty hot. All of the supporting characters were well written and added tot he storyline., There was few sad moments, funny ones and lovely ones.

After reading the first book in the series I was certainly looking forward to the next book in the series. Sports and romance galore! This book managed to keep me immersed in the story and I hated having to put it down. I wish I could have read it in one go, I couldn't wait to find out how it would all end! Roll on book 3

I read the previous book in the series and enjoyed it. Unfortunately, this book fell flat for me. There were too many overused tropes. There was the trope of the playboy football player, the unloving politician parent who uses their children for their careers, and the dutiful, innocent daughter. The author did not do anew take on these tropes so I was bored for much of the book. I also started to get annoyed at the text threads in the book as they reminded me of what high school students might text. The book gets three stars since it was well-written. But it still fell short for me.

I was pleasantly surprised by the first book in this series and I have to say, it keeps getting better.

I love the characters have all moved to college now as this alway felt a much more adult series than the high school setting of the last book.

The main characters here, Murphy and Sabrina were such a great read together as a couple and their “slow-burn till it wasn’t” romance was written wonderfully.
I did feel there was much more backstory provided for Sabrina than Murphy but equally he got much more attention to his here and now with his broader friendship group much more involved in this story.

I thought the whole group of friends worked well on the pages and laughed out loud at lots of points in this book. Eye bleach makes me cringe and the surprise scene made me cry so this book is totally capable of making you feel ALL the emotions.

I have to say I had heard there was a shocking scene and this isn’t what I thought it was going to be at all....

I end this book eager for the next one and with hope in my heart about who Annabelles other half might well be. I also can’t wait for Bash’s story and really really hope that Coop gets a HEA too.

Aiden and Sabrina have known each other for years but she is the straight laced Senator's daughter and he is the life of every party footballer player. Sabrina is sure that even if she did admit to having a little crush on Aiden nothing would ever come of it but when the two of them spend a little more time together away from the rest of their group of friends suddenly the roles they have always played with others no longer seem to matter as much.

This is the second book in the series, but one that can easily be read as a stand alone. However, I am glad that I had read the first book because I already understood the group dynamics and back stories. I think that this book worked so much better now that everyone is college. The group is still close even as some members have splintered off on their own paths. Sabrina and Aiden's relationship develops really quickly but it was very sweetly portrayed. I appreciated that the plot managed to have dramatic elements without crossing the line into overdramatic. There book was still light and entertaining even as the characters faced hardships which was exactly what I was looking for when I picked up this book. I enjoyed this book much more than I did the first book in the series and I am really looking forward to seeing what is in store next for this group of friends.


I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.