I am sure this book is for someone--it just is not me.

Adalyn has a fall from grace and her father's major league soccer team. She gets shipped off to a small town to help a little league soccer team...where lo and behold a former Major League Soccer player is currently coaching the team.

The characters were flat and unbelievable. Situations with each character felt rushed and not explained. Honestly, I did not find any of the characters remotely likable.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC.

Loved this new one from Elena Armas! The enemies-to-lovers trope is uniquely done. Cameron as a MMC is supportive and trusting, which is incredibly refreshing (plus he’s got some Roy Kent vibes). Adalyn’s interaction with Sparkles was a hilarious, perfect catalyst to connect the two lovers. I adored how she found her home and family in North Carolina.

This was a book worth reading if you love a slow burn, slow to spicey parts but this book was so good i couldnt put it down cameron and addalyn are so cute and i love the banter and meanness they both show and how he just takes care of her when she sprains her ankle i just love it

I was really excited to have the opportunity to read The Long Game, as I am a fan of Elena Armas' work. But...this one didn't connect with me. I had a really hard time getting into the book and didn't feel like I got hooked until I was about 70% done with it. I loved the sass and bickering between the two characters, Adalyn and Cameron, to start out with but found it irritating as the story went on. I just couldn't get into it.

Loved all of the banter!!!! Enemies to lovers was amazing and they were so fun! I really enjoyed the side characters. The girls on the team were the best! The way that he broke down her walls and he wasn't phased by any of her hang-ups was beautiful. The patience of a saint! :)

I did not like the cliffhanger and I am not a fan of having to wait for the next book!

This book is everything for people who want to read about a Roy Kent variant coaching youth soccer in rural North Carolina while also falling in love with an overworked corporate city girl, and I ate it up! I absolutely loved this book and it had me laughing, giggling, kicking my feet, and screaming! I was going through every emotion but it was worth it. The setting and plot of putting our main characters together to coach a youth soccer team was great. As a soccer girlie, I loved it. Also these girls were great and I loved the relationship both Adalyn and Cameron had with them, especially with María. The relationship between Adalyn and Cameron themselves was also perfect. They definitely got off on the wrong foot and are stubborn and competitive in their own way but they just got each other and we’re made for each other. Cameron just knew Adalyn and accepted her for her and saw her as she was. He fell and he fell hard. Adalyn also fell just as hard and I loved seeing how her experiencing that kind of love and patience from not just Cameron but the rest of her town helped her grow and realize what had been wrong with how she’s been treated by the people she was trying so hard to please.

Overall, I loved this book and highly recommend you read it when it comes out!

Read if you like…
•forced proximity
•small town romance
•Ted Lasso and Roy Kent
•slow burn
•dual pov
•🌶️

2.5⭐️

I wanted to like this book so much because I was obsessed with TSLD. But I ended up just waiting for this to be over so I can move on to a different book.

This book had all the right parts to be a great read but for some reason they didn't really go well together. the book felt SO long and started dragging for me after the 25% mark and it just felt meh.

Overall its ok and if you have nothing else to read then give it a go but don't expect anything great.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy. This was a fun read with an added soccer bonus for me. I liked how Adalyn developed some sense and self worth during the book.

If you loved Spanish Love Deception or the American Roommate Experience, then you will LOVE this book! I love a good enemies to lovers story, and this delivered. Not to mention the former Soccer star MMC was a treat! Loved the banter between the main characters!

This was my first Elena Armas book and it definitely won't be my last. Such a fun romance with just the right amount of tension and banter between the love interests and a great cast of supporting characters except for her dad and former love interest. They are in fact the worst, but necessary for the story. Overall, four stars and can't wait for others to enjoy it when it comes out in September.

"The Long Game" is about a disgraced soccer dynasty heiress and what happens when she is sent to work with a junior soccer league in rural North Carolina. While there, she meets a stern recluse who happens to be a major soccer star. Sparks fly and hijinks ensue. Eventually, I really got into this, but it did take a little while. It didn't feel like the chemistry between these leads was as evident as with the leads in Armas's previous books.

A soccer themed romance about a woman banished to a small town to run a little league team and the gruff coach who has his own secrets. A quick enjoyable read featuring many interesting and quirky characters.

Shoutout to NetGalley for the ARC!
This was a solid 4 star read for me. I loved the North Carolina storyline and the super slow burn. Small town, enemies to lovers, forced proximity? Check, check, check. The Miami plot line was a little silly and unbelievable, which is why I knocked a star off, but the banter and unbelievably captivating cast of characters made up for it!

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Shuster for an arc in exchange for an honest review!

I LOVED the Spanish Love Deception, but I did not like The American Roommate Experience so I was hesitant with this book at first.. However, I really enjoyed it - the banter made me laugh out loud, the location made me want to visit, and I have zero interest in soccer but now I want to be a GM of an all girls team and give them shorts that mimic tutus.

I did think the blurb comparing this book to It Happened One Summer by Tessa Bailey is deceiving since it is no where near as spicy as IHOS. There is some spice, but Armas thrives in tension which we definitely got that here. It gives off sweet, small town vibes that I hope we can get back to soon since I fell in love with *almost* every side character. Overall it was the perfect summer read and pulled me right out of my reading slump so I highly recommend.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for this Advanced Readers Copy of The Long Game by Elena Armas!

Elena Armas is the slow burn QUEEN.
Usually, I prefer reading books a little more fast-paced in the romance department, but I positively enjoyed reading The Long Game. I have fallen in love with everyone from the small town of Green Oak, and that’s all thanks to Miss Armas. 🥰

Adalyn Reyes is sent to the small town of Green Oak, North Carolina, where she is assigned to manage the Green Warriors. Little does she know beforehand, they are not like the typical professional soccer teams she’s used to. The Green Warriors are, in fact, not professional at all, as they consist solely of girls under the age of 10. Aside from the internal crisis Adalyn’s having being blindsided by this change of p(l)ace, there is also the grumpy Cameron Caldani. Let’s just say, their initial meeting was less meet-cute, and more enemies at first encounter. 😂

As I’ve said earlier, I’m usually not the biggest fan of the slow-burn trope. It’s not because I only prefer action/smut in the novels I read, but it’s more so the fact that I couldn’t see the chemistry between the two main characters in the slow-burn novels that I’ve already read.

For instance, I didn’t finish The Spanish Love Deception because I just didn’t see how the MMC was interested in the FMC at all. It seems like 3/4 of the way through that book, he was showing interest all of a sudden that wasn’t obvious at all before. I don’t know. I just didn’t connect with that book.

This book, however, I am a huge fan of. The way the characters get under each others’ skin. The hilariously written unfortunate events that take place. The way the side characters make you fall even deeper in love with Green Oak. All of these things make this novel stand out and its readers sucked in.

I can only guess who the next book is about (if there is a second book or if this is the first book in a duet is uncertain), but let me just say… I can’t wait for it 😏😉😆🥰

Grab Elena Armas’ The Long Game if you love:
- enemies to lovers
- slow-burn
- small-town romances
- therapy representation

3.5 Stars. I wanted to love this book so much. I'm a huge fan of Elena Armas, but this book missed the mark for me unfortunately.

Starting with the good stuff: Holy cow. I didn’t realize goat yoga could be so hot. Or clay throwing.
The innuendo-ed conversations/banter in this book were amazing. I'm still not quite sure they were ever talking about yoga or pottery.

I also loved Adalyn's growth and how aware Cam is of her and her needs (even when she isn't). I love how he takes care of her and by doing so, teaches her how to take care of herself. I love a good female empowerment story.

Unfortunately, now the not so great stuff: I felt like it dragged for the first 60%. I love a slow burn, and although events were occurring, it didn’t seem like anything was actually happening. Each scene had such tiny pieces of character/relationship/plot development that it felt like nothing was actually progressing forward. I feel like some of them could be condensed with more weight put on the interactions to help develop the scene and characters at the same time.

Some of the jumps in time from one chapter to the next didn’t seem cohesive. There didn’t seem to be any transition especially when a chapter ended suddenly. You either expected the scene to develop more or continue in the new chapter from the other MC's POV, but instead where transported to days in the future without any closure to what just occurred. 

And I’m still scratching my head about the epilogue. It doesn’t seem finished? It seems like it left off mid-thought. There are hints at another book, perhaps? Not very clear.

Elena Armas' "The Long Game" is one of my most anticipated novels of 2023. Having read Armas' previous books, I was so excited for this one! "The Long Game" is centered around Adalyn, a high-profile PR executive for a MLS team who is sent away to a small town in North Carolina after a PR disaster. Upon arriving, she meets Cameron, a former famous soccer player who has escaped the big city for some peace and quiet. After a disastrous "meet-cute" which ends in them hating each other, these two rivals discover that they must work together to help the town's youth soccer league make it to the championships. What started as hate between them quickly becomes something more serious, fueled by their chemistry.

This book was ALL about the "slow burn" and the unresolved sexual tension was off the charts! I enjoyed the progression of the relationship between Adalyn and Cameron. Also, Cameron is a proud cat owner so he gets bonus points from me! Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

This was my first Elena Armas novel and I have heard such great things about the others that I had high expectations coming into this one. I’m not a huge soccer fan myself, so I wasn’t sure how well I’d like this book. I don’t feel like my lack of soccer knowledge affected my ability to enjoy the story though. Overall, I thought the beginning was a bit slow but things really started to pick up at about the 50% mark. I found Adalyn to be generally unlikable until that point in the book, although Cam gives majorly charming Roy Kent vibes. If you know, you know…and if you don’t, go watch Ted Lasso. This one was a slow burn; it took awhile to develop the characters, but once I got to know them, I really did love them and wanted to see how their story ended. The small town setting also gives Gilmore Girls vibes, which made it even more charming to read.

Put this one on your TBR, especially if you’re a Ted Lasso or Gilmore Girls girly like me. All I could picture was Brett Goldstein in the middle of the wilderness, coaching a girls’ soccer team, and man did that make the book even better.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this one early in exchange for my honest review. This was a great summer read!

This is my new favorite Elena Armas book! Soccer and enemies to lovers trope?! Full of wonderful characters and a lot of sizzle this story was enjoyable because Armas creates characters you want to root for and hope that will find a happy place for themselves. Fun and flirty, this is a great summer read!