I struggled getting through this book. I feel like the characters and plot were not well developed, I didn’t really care if the main love interests were together or not, and it really could not keep my attention.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4
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Thank you to Netgalley, Atria Books, and Elena Armasfor providing me with an eARC of this book. This is my honest review.
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I finished the Long Game earlier this week and I’ve been sitting on this review for a couple of days. I think I just wanted to like this book more than I actually did. Which doesn’t mean I didn’t like it at all! I just have thoughts and I’ll try my best to kinda lay them out.
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Let’s talk positives first! I really loved this setting. The beautiful North Carolina backdrop, the small town feel, the cabin in the woods. It was my absolute favorite. It added a warmth to the Long Game that I really appreciated. The moments between Adalyn and Cam and the girls were some of my favorites. I wish we had seen more of that. I also really enjoyed the competitive streak between Adalyn and Cam. It was like enemies-to-lovers lite, enough to add some 🔥 pizazz 🔥, not enough to make me believe that these two hot people aren’t seconds away from hooking up in their cozy cabin in the woods 😂 Which is fine! I enjoyed their push and pull for the most part.
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Pivoting to my next point though! I have mixed feelings about Adalyn and Cam individually. I feel like we didn’t get to know them as much as we should have. They had sweet moments as a couple, sure, but I couldn’t pinpoint any actual character growth for either of them. It left me wanting more and not in a “I need more of this or I’ll combust” kinda way.
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I loved both of Elena Armas’ previous books, but the Long Game wasn’t quite a win for me. I enjoyed parts of it like the setting and our cast of secondary characters, but the main couple left me wanting. Regardless, I think I’ll read the second book in this series. Maybe we’ll get an update that’ll switch me over? Here’s hoping! 🤞🏽
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P.S. this aesthetic and concept is still really cute though 👀😭

I’m gonna be honest… this book was mediocre and then the last 20% was tough to get through… I felt like Cameron started off as a good grump and then all of a sudden he was head over heels

I got about 30% in and didn’t feel like anything was happening. I felt like there was no chemistry between the 2 MC, we had no clue why she was actually there (banished) and I just found it to skim the surface of everything and I didn’t want to pick it back up. I loved authors 2nd book but this was a miss for me.

Combining soccer and romance - what could be better? A sizzling fast read with just the right combination of romance, soccer and rural mountain charm.

A little enemies to lovers with a dash of grumpy Roy Kent vibes. Adalyn is an exec with the pro soccer team that her father owns in Miami. After an incident involving her being mistreated by a manipulative ex (gunning to take over the team), she finds herself exiled to community service in the form of a youth team in the middle of nowhere NC.

Cameron is a former footballer who came to play in the states following a successful European career. He’s building a life away from the media and has been quietly coaching a youth girls’ team.

The premise was fun but this book definitely dragged on for me. I struggled to get through it which surprised me, as a big fan of Armas’ previous two books. I think it’s worth reading but it didn’t completely enamor me like The Spanish Love Deception.

Thank you so much to Atria Books and Netgalley for providing an advanced copy of this!! All thoughts and opinions are still my own.

Look.

Was this romance over the top and ridiculous at times? Yes.
Was it also completely delightful? Abso-fucking-lutely 🤌

This was my first book by this author because I'm mildly allergic to books with too much hype. But when I saw that this book was not only about soccer (the only sport I watch) AND had cats and goats on the cover, there was no way I could pass this one up.

Going into this book I was in a bit of a slump and was rating everything 3 stars. So I was nervous that this would fall into the same category or that my mood would ruin this.

But this was the perfect contemporary romance to snap the streak. It was messy and funny and so damn swoony.

We're following 2 main characters who are both escaping soccer for different reasons, and find themselves at an isolated cabin in rural North Carolina. Trying to corral a team of under 10 girls soccer.

After an absolutely disastrous meeting, the two can't stop butting heads and bickering. And of course, the bickering leads to EXCEPTIONAL on page sexual chemistry.

There is a scene where the MCs are forced to participate in goat yoga. And this scene will forever live in my brain. Not only is this massive, burly goalie scared of goats, but has to help the heroine with hands on adjustments. And reading the two of them try and handle these innocuous touches, was EVERYTHING. So. Much. Tension.

This book was definitely dramatic and over the top. But I loved every second of the sexy chaos. This definitely won't work for everyone, but if you love a tension filled, steamy, enemies to lovers romance with goats, 10 year old soccer girls, and temperamental cats - pick this one up.

And now I'm DEFINITELY picking this author's next book!

Elena Armas has done it again! The Queen of the Slow Burn delivers with this fun Ted Lasso-inspired story about a high-powered executive named Ada who is required to do damage control by becoming the general manager of a small town little girl's soccer team. While there, she meets the coach, Cam - a former MLS player hiding out from a traumatic incident - and sparks and barbs fly. But while Ada is desperate to complete her assignment and return home, could the small town - and Cam - be growing on her?

Ada and Cam were adorable! Loved the enemies to lovers slow burn. Ada was relatable and driven while Cam just proves why women are the best writers of fictional men. This was one book where I wouldnt mind if they got spicy a few more times ;). Loved the small town setting and sweet story that reveals that what you are truly looking for isnt what you thought. The characters were great and the cliff-hanger ending and revelations set up for a return to the world for book 2. I, for one, cannot wait!

I struggled with this one unfortunately. I didn’t really feel the connection between the couple, and it felt a little like whiplash. they seemed to hate each other for no reason, or their feelings would swing strongly between hate and lust and I never really understood why. I wanted to like it, it i just don’t think this one was for me.

I was really intrigued to start this because I wasn't in love with Elena Armas' debut, but I went into this with an open mind and I enjoyed it. I was really drawn into the concept of a book revolving around a retired soccer player, and someone who works behind the scenes in the professional soccer world. I think the relationship development could've had some work, I did feel like the grumpy/sunshine dynamic worked well between the two.

Broody Englishman falls in love first? Female main character with daddy issues? Little surprises thrown in? Sign me up. I wasn't sure I'd be into a story about soccer, but the romance and family issues definitely take center stage in this one. I loved the relationships that formed between the main characters and other supporting characters in the story. I'd love to see this made into a series.

This is more like a 3.5 rating.
I’ll start with the basics. So many tropes going on but I generally like them all in theory. Forced proximity, enemies to lovers, sports, small town romance, grumpiness, guy falls first. I was skeptical of this book when the main characters first meet. I felt like Adalyn was way too intense and mean to Cam for no reason? I get that the author was trying to establish the enemies and tense atmosphere early on and make Adalyn out to be an “ice queen.” I generally don’t like that type of harsh female lead and I found Adalyn confusing for a lot of the book. To try to be understanding, I’m assuming she was unnecessarily mean and closed off, especially in the beginning, because of how she was raised and treated by her father. Although this is another complaint I have: her relationship with her father didn’t make much sense and I didn’t feel like there was enough of a backstory to understand or believe why she was still pining over his approval. Also at the end, I was waiting for her to actually do something to her father and/or ex. She had not problem beating up a mascot!
I think it did help overall to have the dual narrators to hear more of their inner thoughts and understand them better.
Now for Cam. Let’s be real, he’s a rip off of Roy Kent from Ted Lasso. Which is fine and I liked it but it felt a little to close/literal. I also didn’t feel like we got enough backstory about him and I ultimately still never understood how he ended up in such a small town. Did I totally miss that explanation? But I always find it refreshing to have a mml who is emotionally mature and can express his feelings.
My main overall complaint that brought my rating down to a 3.5 was the pacing and length. The Long Game was indeed long. The slow burn was maybe a little too slow, while somehow at the same time almost being out of nowhere. It just seemed like all of a sudden Cam decided to be nice and be attracted to Adalyn. On the other hand it was, once again, refreshing to have a couple take things generally slow.
All in all, this was an enjoyable read with some swoon worthy scenes. Maybe just needed a little more development along the way.

My fave Elena book! the slow burn SLOW BURNED!! I was in desperate need of a football romance and this did not disappoint! Fell in love with Cam from the first meeting and Ada was the badass female character I needed in my life.

Wow! What a fun and wild ride. The thing I love about her books is that they are so funny and you can't help but smile and laugh along with these characters as they get themselves out of situations.

This one was tough for me. I received an ARC through netgalley, and had I not had to write a review, I probably would have marked this one DNF. But I powered through, and started to enjoy the book at about 60% percent.

The reasons I struggled with this book were two-fold. First, the premise was so wild that I was having trouble connecting with it. A communication exec from a professional football team screws up and is sent to a small town to help their youth girl's soccer team... how? A retired pro soccer player is in the same town hiding out. Because sure. And they have to do all of the Hallmark-esque small town events together because... reasons? Oh, and their forced to share a Airbnb, one house of which is fancy and the other is a dive? It made my head hurt. The second was that I just didn't like the main characters for most of the book. They were both just mean to each other. And yes, we do get the back story as to why they are the way they are, but it just didn't work for me.

Once we start getting answers to some of these, and the main characters become less terrible, I started to enjoy the book. I finished the last 40% in one sitting. I enjoyed Armas's other books, so I'm going to give her another shot with her next book, but this one just wasn't for me.

Slow burns kill me but this was so heartwarming. Cameron is so swoon, so many lines I can’t stop thinking of. Him knowing adalyn doesn’t need his protection but wanting her to need him still was just delicious. The girls and the animals made me smile and I just really enjoyed this, beginning to end. I hope there’s a sequel with Sophie and Michael

my primary issue: I felt as if there was ever-present insta-lust from the get-go between these two characters and then romantic feelings between the two simply appear out of thin air mid-way through the book, with no natural progression or transition.

my second issue: I enjoy a character-driven romance novel. in fact, this is what I prefer in contemporary romance. However, if you're going to write a character-driven novel and make your heroine highly unlikable, you're going to make your readers disengage. Cameron was fine, but that's just it. he did not stand out, and he was no Aaron Blackford.

ultimately this is a good hate-to-love sports romance to settle your romance fix, if you can forgive some of the issues with flow and character development.

2.5 stars

Literary iterations of Roy Kent are starting to fill romance shelves with curt, grumpy heroes. Cam follows that mold, a former superstar hiding away while coaching a kids’ soccer team. Overachiever Adalyn clashes with Cam when she’s banished to North Carolina to rehab her image after her personal life turns into a viral meme. The characters rarely elevate beyond flat stereotypes and Cam sets a snail's pace for their romance without much communication with Adalyn. Details are brought up for dramatic effect then dropped without consequence. For fans of small-town romance that set up a series.

Fans of Ted Lasso will love this adult romance.
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Adalyn Reyes lives life by routine so when she goes off and attacks the soccer team mascot at a match, her father who owns the team banishes her. Now Adalyn is working with a soccer team of nine-year-old kids helping coach The Green Warriors with a grumpy ex-soccer player named Cameron Caldani. As the two try and get along for the sake of the kids, they end finding they have more in common than they thought.
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This was…okay. I liked the audiobook because Cameron’s British accent was on point, but I felt like it was overly long. I haven’t read anything else by this author, but I know her first #book was a viral TikTok sensation so maybe I need to read that one. This is the first in a new series.

CW: panic attacks, anxiety, PTSD, harassment, break-in, sexism, death of a parent (off page), child abandonment

The Long Game by Elena Armas, 3 stars

I did have high expectations for this book, considering it was a sports romance and it was a boss FMC. However, that is not what was given. I feel like the writing was mainly focused on the love story and not on what happened to Adalyn. I wanted to know what happened to her at the company and I feel like the transition to the company to small town just made me confused. In regards to Cameron, I loved him and how he was going underground to help the local youth team. And I did love Adalyn going into help, it just wasn't understandable how she didn't want to participate, when her life sort of depended on it? Like it was her job and she just wanted to go straight back when she attacked the mascot?

I did enjoy the romance and the "we both don't want to admit it" but honestly it felt so rushed. Like Adalyn was in this place where she didn't even want to work at and therefore, she just went for her coworker (to a certain point). I feel like she did not have the best self control and these are the moments that make me realize this is a true fiction romance.

Elena did an amazing job at writing the small moments and building up the tension but the storyline was a bit disruptive, Adalyn kept so many secrets when Cameron was honest with her and opened up to her, and it didn't seem fair for Adalyn to be unfair. I was kind of lost halfway because I had so many expectations for this book based on the blurb.

I did enjoy this book to a certain point, however the storyline just was a bit too confusing for me and I feel like we did not get the whole storyline of everything, and it also felt rushed.

A huge thank you to Elena Armas, Atria Books, and NetGalley for the eArc in exchange for my honest review.