Elena Armas has done it again with this absolute banger of a book! Aaron Blackford needs to watch out, because there is a new book boyfriend in town. I loved how caring, patient, and praising 😜 Cameron was while still being a growly grump. He was a perfect match for our Adalyn. Now Adalyn on the other hand has been through a lot and is dealing with undiagnosed anxiety and panic attacks. There are plenty of times where I was really scared she had blown it, but our perfect patient Cam was right there waiting with kindness. And can we talk about the slow burn?! My god, these characters don't even kiss until after the 50% mark 🥵. I loved every second of it, I really loved the ending, and I'm hoping by the last line of the epilogue that there is more to this world.

This was my first Elena Armas book and while I have her previous two, they are still sitting unread on my bookshelf. I really loved the premise of the book and I love her writing, however there were some things in this book that I didn't love.

Adalyn is shipped off to North Carolina to help a youth soccer team after an outburst caught on camera causes a lot of problems for her the MLS team owned by her father. There she meets Cameron, a retired soccer player, who is laying low and doesn't want anybody to know his real identity.

What I loved:
the meet cute, the chemistry and banter, the side characters who shined just as much as the main characters, the grumpy x sunshine

What I didn't love:
the twist at the end (half-sister) that came completely out the blue and felt random, too slow of a burn, MMC grump turned softie turned dominating and aggressive in the bed., THE SLOW BURN because it was toooooo freaking slow (seriously - if you are going to have spice, give it to us at least by the 50% mark, if not sooner), they kind of lost focus on building up the team at the point that she hurt her ankle

I would rate it at 3.5 - I'm still excited to read her other two and I will definitely check out future books from her as well.

Thank you NetGalley and Atria for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

✨ Review ✨ The Long Game by Elena Armas; Narrated by Frankie Corzo and Shane East

Adalyn Reyes is exiled from Miami by her boss and father, owner of the Miami Flames, after a video goes viral of her attacking the Flames' mascot. She shows up in middle-of-nowhere North Carolina with the quest to work on a charitable enterprise -- which turns out to be an under-10 girls soccer team being led by none other than recently-retired goalkeeping star Cameron Caldani. Small town romance at its core, Cameron and Adalyn wrestle with girls soccer, their vastly different neighboring housing accommodations, and their growing curiosity about each other.

I enjoyed the cast of NC characters in this book, but I didn't love the Miami story line since it was clear that several of the characters there were awful to Adalyn. I did feel like the book stretched on too long (13.5 hours is LONG for a romance) and my interest waned in the last 3 hours or so.

I loved the male narrator's voice especially, totally giving grumpy Roy Kent vibes (Oy!) though even this faded a bit as the book went on. I also liked the female narrator but less so when she was doing the male voice in her chapters (it just didn't compete with his own voice).

⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: contemporary f/m romance
Setting: small-town North Carolina, a little bit of Miami
Length: 13 hrs and 30 mins
Pub Date: 05 Sep 2023

Read this if you like:
⭕️ sports and small town romances
⭕️ Roy Kent grumpiness

Thanks to Atria Books, Simon & Schuster Audio and #netgalley for an advanced e-copy of this book!

This is my first book by this author. I’ve heard so many good things about The Spanish Love Deception (which I still do look forward to reading) so I was excited to get to read her new book early. It was unfortunately not for me at all. I found myself incredibly bored throughout most of the story. I love a small town setting, but this one lacked the charm of others that I’ve read. Both Adalyn and Cameron were soooooo stubborn and proud and it got old very quickly. It was not banter at all, just gruff statements hurled back and forth. By the time the romance part started, I just didn’t care anymore. And truthfully, the amount of times he said “darling” was just too much. I got to 52% and just didn’t have the motivation to continue. I’m sure there will be plenty of other readers that will love this one.


Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for an advanced digital reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review.

This. Book. Was. Everything.

The Long Game by Elena Armas is easily one of my top reads of the year.

This book follows Adalyn Reyes who finds herself in the middle of a media frenzy after her conduct at a recent professional soccer game (for the team her father owns) goes viral. To control the situation with the media, her father sends Adalyn, who works for the team, to the middle of no where in North Carolina to work on a community project being run by the team. The "project" turns out to be a U-10 rec soccer team that is being coached by a grumpy, recently retired professional soccer player, Cameron Caldani. It turns out that not only are Cameron and Adalyn working together as part of this soccer team but they are living on the same property. Tensions rise, and feels come to life the more these two are close to each other which they soon find impossible to resist.

Have I mentioned that I loved this book!? Because seriously, this is a grumpy sunshine, sports romance with all the amazing things that Elena Armas always brings to her books. And can we talk about the protectiveness and care-taking going on in this one. If you are a sucker for a big, grumpy man who can't help but take care of his woman, you will fall head over heals for Cameron Caldani.

I also LOVED Adalyn. I related to her so much that parts of this book were actually triggering for me. The manipulation and gaslighting she experienced from her father and her ex are tough. I also related to much to her drive to better herself to prove her worth to people who honestly, didn't deserve the time of day from her.

This book is wonderful. The found family and dialogue is captivating and I could not put it down! I definitely recommend picking this one up.

Thank you to the publisher for an EARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Adalyn is banished to a small town after a viral incident puts her fathers MLS soccer team at risk. There she starts coaching the the kids soccer team along with Cameron, a retired professional soccer player.

This book is the slowest burn ever! So if you are not a fan of a slow burn it is not for you, but the romance in the last quarter of the book is great! Just enough spice! Filled with cute tropes and fun moments!

As someone who really felt like I could’ve taken it or left it when it came to the ‘Spanish Love Deception’ I don’t know whether or not it’s foolish how excited I was to read ‘The Long Game’

Something about it just really called to me. Maybe it’s my weakness for sports romances, or maybe it’s my attachment to emotionally frozen heroines. I really don’t know. Regardless, I do think this is my favorite of Elena Armas’ work that I’ve read. The character’s archetypes definitely are a favorite romance set up for me, which is a large part of that. The story though, is also significantly more unique than her other (quite frankly, exceptionally generic) books.

I still don’t think I’ll be touting this as an all time fave and making Armas an auto-buy, but this was definitely fun. I thought the small town kids soccer team was really cute and loved the grumpy+grumpy dynamic. There was definitely a whole lot of comedy here that made for easy reading.

Light and entertaining! A perfect book to flip between heavier stories or use to get out of a reading slump!!

I loved The Spanish Love Deception so I had to check out The Long Game!

Briefly…A disgraced soccer exec reluctantly enlists the help of a retired soccer star in coaching a children’s team in this smalltown love story.

Here is what I loved about The Long Game…sports themed romance (I love soccer), grumpy sunshine, enemies to lovers and small town found family. I mean who doesn’t love girls soccer and community Goat Yoga? All the animals in this book were characters and made for some comedic relief.

Here’s the tough part…this is a VERY SLOW burn. You don’t see any action until 84% so I found my self disinterested during the middle. The conflict did not have much explanation and was wrapped up in a tiny bow with little description of the resolution.

Check out The Long Game if you like a slow burn enemies to lovers romance with a side of cute farm animals.

Unfortunately, I don’t think Elena Armas is the author for me. I read The Spanish Love Deception back in 2020 and enjoyed it but was thrown off by some of the insensitive descriptions – based on the description of The Long Game, I was hopeful that I would enjoy it more, but I didn’t have a great time with this. There’s nothing particularly *wrong* with The Long Game, it’s just aggressively *fine.* I couldn’t bring myself to care about or sympathize with either Cam or Adalyn, despite their very real trauma, and I was struggling to finish this. Towards the end, I just started skimming pages to get to it faster, which is never a fair reading experience for the story. I found their relationship to be a bit cringey and one dimensional.
I really enjoyed Adalyn’s growth and watching her walls break down regarding the girls’ team – Maria was my absolute favorite and it was a thrill every time she was on the page. I also really loved Josie and I wanted more from her.
Unfortunately this was a miss for me and I don’t think I’ll be picking up anything else from Elena Armas, but thank you so much to Atria and the Netgalley for the advanced copy!

Elena Armas gets better with each book! I absolutely loved this enemies to lovers, forced proximity slow burn story! Cam is my favorite type of MMC. He sees Adalyn for who she is beneath the strong, business-focused exterior, and wants to care for her like no one else has. The supporting characters, especially the girls on the soccer team are so much fun! I can’t wait to head back to small-town North Carolina for a sequel!

The Long Game was an entertaining light=hearted read with the warmth of a close-knit whacky small town featuring grumpyXgrumpy and slow burn. I had many cackle-worthy moments and this was an overall cute book with wise 10-going-on-30 year olds, goats, and fun small-town bonding activities.

However, I felt like the chemistry between the main characters wasn't 100% there. Initially, all of their touches felt super forced and awkward. Even for potential witnesses around them because they'd do that cheesy thing of "the world disappeared around us" so early on in their supposed enemies/rivals/hate relationship. (Though it was addressed that people stared and found it weird.) I was a little more convinced of their chemistry past the 50% mark naturally, but it wasn't entirely there. It still fell flat and felt forced for me.

And their reasons for hating each other or being enemies felt very flimsy. They were just too stubborn and immature that they were both wrong, but I ran with it. Along with that, the conflict of the plot also felt overdramatic and kind of weak.

I felt like the plot opened up many threads that were left unraveled. Quite a few things were underdeveloped so the "plot twist" felt randomly plopped for the sake of a plot twist like a soap opera. And I felt like many scenes were cut short as they were building or the readers missed out on actually being shown certain scenes that would've been relevant.

Though this book fell flat for me, it was still an entertaining read. I think I prefer The Spanish Love Deception and The American Roommate Experiment over this. Josie, Maria, Brandy the goat, and Maricela were my highlights. And I am a little intrigued about a possible future story between two secondary characters I adored.

Thank you to Netgalley and Artia Books for the ARC!

The Long Game by Elena Armas
Narrators: Frankie Corzo and Shane East
Rating: 3 stars
Pub Date: 9/5

The Long Game by Elena Armas was a highly anticipated read for me. While the Spanish Love Deception was almost too much of a slow burn, I decided to give this one a chance because of all the glowing reviews for it and The American Roommate Experiment. But sadly, this book was just okay for me.

After an altercation with her soccer team's mascot goes viral, Adalyn's life takes an unexpected detour. As a punishment for the bad press her behavior has brought on, she’s banished to the serene landscapes of North Carolina to hide until the situation blows over. As if that isn't enough, she's tasked with turning a group of soccer-playing nine-year-olds into a formidable team. But here's the kicker—Adalyn's partner-in-coaching is none other than Cameron Caldani, the soccer prodigy with a mysterious past. And so begins their enemies-to-lovers dance, fraught with hilarious mishaps and simmering chemistry.

There is so much to like about this book. It’s an enemies-to-lovers, sports romance set in a small town. It has quirky and hilarious side characters, including baby goats and a spunky group of 9-year-old soccer players. Cam gives off total Roy Kent vibes, and I think they couldn’t have picked a better narrator to play him than Shane East. And there are some genuinely swoon-worthy moments between Cam and Adalyn. So what’s my problem?

Good question! I think I’m just not a fan of long, drawn-out, slow burns. I love a good romance, but I get bored if the main characters aren’t spending much time together. And since that didn’t start happening until almost the halfway point, I was almost ready to quit by then.

Some of the dialogue was cringey, and I had a difficult time connecting with Adalyn. Her stubbornness was explained more by the end, but she was so hard-headed that it caused her to make bad decisions and she almost became unlikable. Her terrible attitude really stood out next to Cam’s adorable cinnamon-roll-hidden-beneath-a-grumpy-exterior personality.

So while this wasn't my favorite rom-com, it was still a fun, light-hearted read that many romance readers will enjoy! I enjoyed listening to this on audio, and Frankie Corzo and Shane East did a fantastic job bringing the characters to life.

Read if you like:
*small towns
*Ted Lasso
*baby goats
*enemies-to-lovers
*forced proximity
*sports romance

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Atria books for my advanced copy, and to Simon Audio for my free ALC!

This grumpy/sunshine romance was the sweet soccer story that my heart needed. I appreciated the way the main characters were complex, and that the whole small town was given backgrounds and development. For fans of Ted Lasso, that want to see Roy Kent have a happy ending, this is for you!

I loved this book!! It has sports, a hot grumpy guy, a kick butt boss lady, kids and animals! What’s not to love!

When Adalyn has an embarrassing act of hers go viral she is banned from her soccer club and sent off to redeem herself. When she arrives to a little town in North Carolina to coach the green oak warriors not knowing g it was a group of young girls. Her other surprise is that the cabin she rented in more of a shack than a cabin and the mysterious man renting the Calvin is grumpy and wants nothing more than to see her leave! Will their fiery banter tune into more? Will adalynn redeem herself and be able to return to the anima Flames? Will her relationship with her father, owner of the Flames, be repaired? Read this sizzling slow burn and find out today!! Thanks you NetGalley for my arc!! I just reviewed The Long Game by Elena Armas. #TheLongGame #NetGalley

I was really looking forward to reading The Long Game as I’ve enjoyed all of Elena Armas previous books, but this definitely wasn’t my favorite. The stories main characters lacked chemistry and I never really got to connect to either of the love interest. I did enjoy the kids and the secondary story of the soccer program. But truly, I found myself disconnected from this love story. As always, Armas is a good writer, but this just wasn’t the story for me.

Thank to #netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars rounded up. I enjoyed The Long Game, but it wasn't my favorite from Armas. This is an odd one for me to review, because I feel like there is a lot I enjoyed, but there was also a lot I didn't enjoy. So 3.5 stars feels appropriate.

Adalyn works for an MLS team in Miami, and her father happens to be the owner. But after an unfortunate incident with the team's mascot, her dad sends her packing to hide out while the scandal blows over. Tropes for this one include slow burn, sports romance, enemies to lovers, neighbors/ forced proximity, and small town romance. And yes, there's steam. The heroine has some fish out of water moments, as she's a wealthy, city girl who has been relocated to a small, rural town. She also is massively underestimated and underappreciated, and those are some of my favorite qualities in a heroine. I LOVE when heroines get the chance to prove their detractors wrong. Cal is a former professional soccer player who has hung up his boots and is hiding away from the spotlight in the same small town. He's very much a grump, and he and Adalyn totally have an antagonistic relationship in the beginning but it does grow into one of trust and equality, which was nice to see.

So what didn't work? This is a slow burn romance, and although I'm a huge fan of slow burn romances (it's actually a favorite trope of mine), this one was maybe too slow burn. I enjoy when it takes a while for the pair to get together, but I like to feel the tension in the build up. And to be fair, even though they were antagonistic, I didn't really feel the sparks until about 50-60% of the book. Even for a slow burn, that's too long for my liking. So for that reason, I think some people might have a hard time with this one. In general, I just didn't love the pacing with this one. Not just the slow burn aspect of the romance, but this book in general dragged on a bit for me in the end, and ultimately felt a little long (even though it's shorter than her other books). And finally, another issue that I had with The Long Game was that parts of it felt a little bit like paint by numbers. Without going into specifics, it kind of feels like the author sprinkled in events/scenes, characters, and plot points not necessarily because they felt authentic to the story, but because those things are ingredients in the recipe of a successful romance. I get that this is fiction, but I don't want it to feel obviously like fiction, if that makes sense.

What did I enjoy? I really liked the secondary characters, which based on the ending make it very clear they will get their own book. I LOVED the kids soccer aspect of this, and really loved all of the kids on the team. If I'm honest, I kind of hate how that whole thing played out in the end (again, not saying anything because of spoilers), but I enjoyed every scene that the kids were in. There were also some cute animals, which is another thing I'm a sucker for. And as I've already stated, I love an underestimated heroine.

All in all, The Long Game was a mostly enjoyable read. I do think her other books are better, and I don't think this will be for everyone. But if you're a fan of her writing and the tropes I mentioned, it's probably worth giving this a read.

“You’re all I can see…Even when I close my eyes, you’re all I see.”

Adalyn Reyes has a routine that includes working for the Miami Flames FC and trying her best to make her mark. After a video of her altercation with the team’s mascot goes viral, Adalyn’s father, and Flames owner, sends her to a small town in North Carolina where she is asked to help turn around a local soccer team. The team just happens to be an under-10 girls team. To make things more complicated, the team is being coached by Cameron Caldani, former star goalkeeper. They clash immediately and have to figure out a way to work together.

I will start off by saying that I really enjoyed The Spanish Love Decetption, so I was looking forward to reading this. However, it lacks the emotional depth for the issues the characters face, and the romance doesn’t hold the tension. This book was difficult for me to finish because the interactions between Adalyn and Cam feel very forced. It doesn’t fee natural and I didn’t feel any chemistry between them. I think Armas tried too hard to make Cam into a Roy Kent character and it just doesn’t work here.

Both characters have some serious trauma that I felt was overlooked. Cam was he victim of a break-in, which we don’t find out until late in the book. It feels very unexpected and then is just a throwaway plot point t explain his demeanor. Adalyn clearly has issues with her father, and though they eventually have the conversation they need to, it takes way too long for her to realize it. She continues to explain away his behavior despite evidence and it’s frustrating as a reader.

I did enjoy the kids and the fun the bring to the novel. Seeing Adalyn and Cam open up to them was lovely and I wish there was more of a focus on that. It feels like too much is happening that I never felt satisfied. I just feel like this story could have benefitted from some trimming. Some plot point felt unnecessary and I never got to a point where I was swooning over the romance, and that’s always what I look for.

I was looking forward to this because I've enjoyed her previous books and the soccer element interested me, however, this one fell short for me. I couldn't connect with the characters and didn't really buy the hate/annoyance to love happening.

The Long Game was perfection! I loved every minute of it. The chemistry between Cameron and Adalyn was 😍.

I had a feeling I would love it because of I loved The Spainish Love Deception and The American Roommate Experiment.

If you love grumpy x grumpy, small town romance, slow burn, and soccer romance, I would recommend this book!

Thank you Atria for an early copy!

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC.

I enjoyed this book so much. A woodsy retired soccer player and the daughter of a soccer club owner who only owns heels? It’s giving It Happened One Summer meets soccer. Some playful witty banter, he falls first, and slow burn tropes all wrap up. And I love a story that ends hinting at a sequel for the bff.

Some of the plot points felt a little sticky to me, but not to the point that it took me out of the story. And any book that makes me reads “folds” during a sex scene automatically loses a star.

I love what Elena is brining recently and I would definitely recommend for all my romance readers out there.