The two main characters, Ryan and Katherine, are/were professional golfers on the LPGA tour. Events in their pasts have shaped their career paths. Ryan, an erstwhile multiple tournament winner, has retreated to run the golf course her late mother ran. Feelings of guilt around her mother's death, have made her stop playing. Katherine is a reluctant golfer, she would rather be writing books, but is compelled to play in memory of her late sister.
Their lives become intertwined in golf and in love. Good golfing and sexy........a very easy read.

Many thanks to Netgalley for the chance to read in exchange for an honest review.

Perfect, quick vacation read for folks who like their f/f romance on the sporty side. Ryan and Katherine were believable, fun, and their rivalry set the table perfectly for their eventual romance.
I look forward to more from this author

Ryan Gibbs is a professional golfer but quit the circuit when her mother died because she felt guilty for not being with her more.
She now runs a golf course where she plays and give lessons.
Her old coach has dropped in with Katherine Reese who has been having trouble with her game. Katherine is not interested in working with Ryan and has made that clear. Katherine has her own demons that include her sister who lost a chance to play to none other then Ryan.
They need to find a way to work together if Katherine wants to get back into the game.
Along the way they'll start to realize they are attracted to each other but nothing is ever easy when you are full of anger.
Katherine and Ryan's coach know that Ryan still has a lot of her own game in her and are pushing her to return to the game.
But what about Katherine's place on the circuit if Ryan does return?
This is a great story that includes a heart felt romance that brews ever so slowing.

Featured presentation: The Game by Jan Gayle

Follow your dream…

Cast: Ryan Gibbs disappeared from the professional golf scene without a word after a tragic event in her personal life. Now she is content to fill her mother’s shoes as a golf coach in Los Alamos. Katherine Reese is fixated on becoming a champion – she needs to win only one LPGA major and then she has paid her debt. Her terrible swing and lack of focus when it matters has kept her from fulfilling this dream.

The Plot: Katherine is brought to Los Alamos by Maggie Hart, her swing coach and Ryan’s former coach. Maggie is convinced that Ryan is the perfect person to add the finishing touches that Katherine’s game lacks. From the first meeting, it is clear that the game will be played in the rough…

The blazing: I loved the premise! Both Ryan and Katherine put their dreams on the backburner out of guilt. This often happens in real life, though for a variety of reasons… It is clear that the MCs were content in their chosen careers, but not truly happy.
Ms Gayle brought the golf courses to life and she did so without redundant descriptions. The view of the game from the players’ side was brilliantly done. I’ve never been able to watch golf, but it is a different beast when you are there on the fairway with your ball and clubs.

The bright: I loved the people of Los Alamos that we get to meet. It is a small town and people know each other. This can easily be written as a negative, but Ms Gayle chose to focus on the love and support. Rebecca and Eddie have become Ryan’s family, even before her mom passed away. It was refreshing to see Eddie, in his clumsy way, interfering in Ryan and Katherine’s relationship.

The bleak: The story is present, but it seems unrefined at times and disconnected at others. The MCs found each other attractive from the start (and even before they met), but there is little chemistry between them. Furthermore it feels like they talk around the issues and never really talk things out…
We end up with a lot of explanations for irrelevant things from the past, but the two events that had the biggest impact on Ryan and Katherine respectively are glossed over…

The burned-to-ashes: Nothing. Well, maybe Maggie’s unprofessional conduct towards her golf “students”…

And then The Plot Thickens, but it takes a long time to truly become invested in the characters. This is in a big part due to the fact that, initially, there is no reason to root for either Ryan or Katherine as individuals or as a couple. We get an idea of how Ryan and Katherine ended up following down someone else’s path, but never enough to believe it. Towards the end, as both MCs started to live the lives they were meant to, one gets a better feel for who they are and what they mean to each other.

The strong suit of the book is the sport aspect – this is rather a sports novel with a secondary romantic plot than the other way around. This was my first novel by Ms Gayle, so I had nothing to compare it to, but I have read wonderful reviews for her other books and will definitely make a point of reading those.

Studio: Bold Stokes Books

Closing credits: I willingly leave this review based on an eARC copy graciously granted to me by Bold Stokes Books and NetGalley.

Golf is not an exciting sport, I accept it, but this story also has such a slow pace that it does not help to improve things.

This story begins with the meeting between two golfers, Ryan, who had to leave professional golf for family reasons when he was at the top of his career and Katherine, who seems somewhat forced also for family reasons to succeed in golf but who is more interested in writing.

Katherine also has a kind of grudge against Ryan because she stopped playing, which we do not know the exact reason until well into the story.

So between one that seems forced to play and the other that is thinking about whether to return to the competition the thing is messed up a little, all mixed with instant attraction / lust / love that does not make much sense either.

Not a bad story but it was a bit insufficient in my opinion

I like the cover and the main idea of this book but it wasn't executed smoothly. Ryan Gibbs was an up and coming pro golfer on the LPGA tour circuit. After losing her mother while she was at a major tournament she has returned home for the last two years wracked with guilt. She has taken over her moms job as a golf pro at a course in New Mexico. A previous coach brings Katherine Reese who currently plays on the tour to get some coaching from Ryan on her swing.

I had whiplash from Katherine. She likes Ryan one minute and hates her the next. She blames Ryan for her sister not achieving her goals. Their first time together feels awkward because nothing is mentioned but attraction. I want flirting and banter. I didn't understand Katherine's epiphany that she was finally free to work on her own writing goals. She could easily stayed playing in the tournament with/against Ryan. And the information about the sister, which is important, comes very late in the story. It is frustrating when we've learned all about friends and parents but not the sister. The ending where lack of communication causes some drama drags on and then is over in a minute. It is an okay story but it could have been so much better. Thank you to NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

2.5?

This book definitely was not for me. As I’ve probably said a million times, I hate giving bad reviews. But this book was a disappointment.

The book follows retired professional golfer, Ryan and Katherine, a writer living her dead sisters dream. They meet when Ryan’s old coach brings Katherine to her golf course looking to get Ryan to help Katherine out.

For me everything about this book felt forced. The chemistry, the drama, the characters, hell even the dialogue.

Something that every romance author has to learn at one point is simply having a character find another one attractive, isn’t enough to build chemistry. It was the perfect formula in this book to be honest. Katherine with a secret illogical grudge against Ryan, Ryan with an immediate physical attraction to Katherine. Should’ve been the perfect set up for chemistry yet even with the right tools the author did a poor job at meshing them together. Katherine instead of coming up as a unattainable diva, was just plain annoying. It’s hard to believe that her and Ryan are even adults by just how immature they act in general.

I absolutely hated the character of Maggie who introduces Ryan and Katherine. Her and Ryan apparently had some sort of affair which was entirely inappropriate but that isn’t what topped me off about this character, it’s how unprofessional and irrelevant she is in this book. First we find out she also tried to pursue sex with Katherine and then she just leaves Katherine to Ryan, who is virtually a stranger, instead of doing her damn job. Not to mention that none of this ever comes up again. Especially the affair which adds absolutely nothing to this book. Her and Ryan share some random kisses and then it’s never mentioned again.

But that is only the first of irrelevant things in this book. I feel rather confident saying that this book could’ve been 100(e-book) pages less. We didn’t need to know about Katherine’s dead sister’s school life. We didn’t need to know about her dad’s school life. We don’t need an explanation for every fact that Katherine or Ryan present.

This may seem rather harsh but the only thing I can think of to describe this writing is.. lazy.

Everything was. There’s nothing special about this book. It is absolutely forgettable and the writing fails to satisfy me.

The dialogue especially ticked me off, there’s no specialization and it’s absolutely awkward. With injections like “Ah…okay…” or “Ah…Well…Ah” I couldn’t help but cringe. But that wouldn’t have bothered me nearly as much as it did had the story didn’t depend on dialogue the way it did.

Every attempt the author made to revoke some sort of emotion from me just fell short. Every event of drama or conflict that happens after the initial one is also so forced and unnecessary. Perhaps if Katherine found herself more in a moral dilemma and guilt of dating Ryan instead of the story immediately just jumping to them being in love with barely any build up- that would have been an entertaining read. But instead we’re faced with immature problems and a predictable back and forth that makes it simply, annoying.

If I were to scrape for a compliment, the sex scenes weren’t bad, Rebecca provided an entertaining side character and I like golf.

This is just my experience with this book. I couldn’t enjoy it. Maybe you can. So I advise that you check out other reviews.

I received an ARC from netgalley and the publishers in exchange for a honest review.

Golf professional Ryan Gibbs stepped away from the LPGA tour to run her home course in New Mexico. She was a hot rising star on the pro tour at the time. Katherine Reese is a woman on a mission to win one LPGA tournament but her game is falling apart. Ryan’s old coach brings Katherine to New Mexico for Ryan’s technical help.
The Game is an enemies to lovers romantic fare with a backdrop of golf. Ryan and Katherine are appealing main characters with a penchant for not communicating. There are a few areas of concern for me in the novel. The initial sex scene descriptions are pedestrian and lacked an intimate connection between Ryan and Katherine. The good news is this does improve later in the story. The other area is Katherine’s sister who is a key plot point but is mildly confusing due to any clarification of details until much later in the novel.
Gayle brings the beauty of New Mexico easily to the mind’s eye with her prose. You can sense a true connection to the area. The golfing scenes are very well written with a deep knowledge of the game yet not threatening to a non golfer.
Although The Game has some issues, and don’t we all, it is a satisfying read.

I received an advance review copy from Bold Stroke Books and NetGalley. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

The Games is a great book if you have an interest in golf. Author Jan Gayle really knows her stuff.
Ryan and Katherine have an attraction to each other but Katherine has a history of dislike towards her.
They are both nice characters but if I'm being honest the story itself was a bit weak. I felt that it didn't flow well.

Would I recommend: Yes if you love a golf romance

The premise of this book was really good. Ryan is a pro golfer who is in semi-retirement following her mother’s death and now manages a golf course in New Mexico. Enter Katherine, a brash pro who’s been having issues with her swing and is looking to Ryan to help fix that. Ryan’s and Katherine’s meeting does not go well and I was ready for some sporty enemies to lovers trope-y goodness.

While there was some of that, I actually struggled with the whiplash of emotions. They were on one minute and the off the next. Characters would suddenly get mad, and I couldn’t see the reason why or there was no clear lead up to why they felt that way. I was hoping for a bit more of a build up to the romance but it was all rather quick. Also I would have liked to see more talk between the MCs, there were lots of interesting threads that were opened up but the book didn’t go deep there.

The second half of the book was more interesting, the competitive golf-y bits were good. Even though I don’t know much about the sport, it was well written.
Overall a quick romance read within a sporty golf setting. 3🌟s

Thank you NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Jan Gayle is a new author to me, but I am a fan – I need to find her back catalog. The Game is the story of two female golfers, but you need not know anything about golf to appreciate the story. It is above all, a love story – all types of love, from romantic love to love of family to the love of home.

If you are reading this, you have access to a synopsis, so I won’t include one here. Both main characters are young women who have been through the up and downs of life. They have won golf tournaments and have known terrible losses as well. Ryan and Katherine are interesting and complex, and we are given enough of their backstories that we understand why they act as they do. I liked them both and rooted for them to get and more importantly to stay together.

The secondary characters were appealing and contributed to the story. I am particularly fond of Rebecca, Eddie, and the rest of the Los Alamos folks. I have mixed feelings about Maggie, but I would read a book dedicated to her.

I enjoyed The Game from cover to cover and will most likely read it again. I recommend you read it too.

I received an ARC copy of this book from the Publisher via Netgalley and voluntarily leaving my review.


Ryan retires early from the LGPA now she coaching and is content in her small town with her family. Katherine is a pro and comes to Ryan for lessons because she barely made it to the top ten the only thing they have in common is gold and mentor Maggie. As they both work together the stakes are higher because they haven’t count on their feelings for each other. I love small town feel but I did wish we more with the others characters Rebecca Terry etc…. I love their interactions. Although I thought the ending was bit rush I enjoy the read despite not liking golf.

A perfectly good sports romance. If you’re here for the golf, I would t get your hopes up but if you’re here for a sweet sapphic romance between two badass women at the top of their fields then you’re in luck! The second half of the novel picks up pace fast with the characters becoming more involved, some typical cliches also pop up here and there but as a whole I really liked the romance between Ryan and Katherine. I loved the feel of the busy body small town (as someone that grew up playing golf in a small town I could really relate to this book), the interactions that we don’t see are some of the most natural (small town gossip etc).

I do wish that the ending hadn’t felt so rushed, almost as if the other wasn’t sure how to wrap it up in a neat bow so tried a couple of endings at once? Also the background characters, give me more of Rebecca and Eddie and Terry. Their interactions were some of my favourites but so fleeting that it felt like an after thought. I would definitely read Jan Gayle books again, they’re easygoing and a good palette cleanser if you’ve read some heavier titles recently.

Thank you so much for providing me with this title.

This is a cute sports romance. I liked the second half better than the first- the stakes were higher and it flowed better. I got right into the story at the beginning but there were a couple things that took me out of it - Ryan’s reconnection with Maggie, the first steamy scene, and Katherine’s angst. It wasn’t quite as believable as I hoped. I enjoyed learning about golf though and I was rooting for the characters in the end.

Short Summary: Ryan retires early from the LGPA to be with her family in small town Los Alamos. When feisty pro, Katherine, shows up for a few weeks of lessons, it shakes up Ryan’s comfortable routine.

Thanks to Netgalley and Bold Strokes Books. ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.