This is a cute romcom - like a sexy Hallmark. A fish out of water, enemies to lovers slow burn (like the burn only happens in the last third).

My biggest issue with this is that it’s about 50 pages too long.

This is my first Elena Armas novel and I thought it was okay. I've never read a grumpy x grumpy romance before, and idk if there's enough balance without the sunshine. I also was confused about how/when Cam's feelings changed from enemies to lovers. I was suffering from a major book hangover which initially made it hard for me to connect with the characters, but by the end I was really rooting for them and the town. It ends on a sort of cliffhanger and it looks like there will be a spin off. I would absolutely read it, because I was intrigued by Matthew and felt we didn't get enough of him. I also really loved the cats, Willow and Pierogi.
Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the ARC.
ARC was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Such a fun cute summer read! Spent all of 4th of July holiday sitting in the pool enjoying the steamy read! The characters are cute and fun, and I loved the mashup of the summer rom-com with a Ted Lasso vibe. Looking forward to more books by this author

After the devastation of Ted Lasso ending, I was really looking forward to getting similar vibes from this book but unfortunately it didn’t quite hit the mark for me.

Fans of Armas will really enjoy this and if you like enemies to lovers, this is for you.

I enjoyed the small town kids coaching element, but that was about it.

I think it just didn’t have the same heart and depth that I was expecting for a book compared to ted lasso.

This book was NOT meant for me to read. There were an abundance of modern references, which will age this book quickly after its release, and there was some usage of slang that made me physically cringe. The main character was, quite frankly, annoying and stubborn to the point where it was hard to read her POV chapters at times. Some of the sentences were hard to understand, and I just had to skip them and hope that it didn't affect my understanding of the book later on. Overall, a mediocre romance.

“𝙄’𝙡𝙡 𝙖𝙡𝙬𝙖𝙮𝙨 𝙜𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙣 𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙖𝙨𝙠, 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚.”

I’m obsessed with a grumpy British man that has secy tattoos and lives in a cabin.

Once again Elena armas deleivereddddd. She just never fails to make you the biggest simp on her men that are written on paper😭 Their always that IDEAL man. Always able to create that tension on that page that make ur stomach churn and make the butterflies fly🤭🦋

I will admit though as much as I LOVED this book it didn’t give me that spark I had reading TSLD & TARE😫 but the story still hit in all the right places with all the emotional feels… however now that I finished this book I’ve got a question to ask😏😏

The Long Game by Elena Armas
🗓 Pub Date: September 5, 2023

Thank you for the #gifted copy of The Long Game!

Read if you like:
👥 Forced proximity
🏡 City girl in a small town
🥵 “Good girl”
🐐 Brandy (the goat, obviously)
❤️‍🔥 Slow Burn
⚽️ Sports Romance

Rating: I liked it!
*This review may contain spoilers

What I liked:
🩵 The small-town vibes are perfect! Each well-developed supporting character made me fall in love with the middle-of-nowhere North Carolina. The farm, the festival, and community events all fostered the comfy and cozy vibe of this book!
🩵 Brandy, Maria, and Cameron’s cats STOLE the show. Period.
🩵 Cameron and Adalyn are an adorable couple, and they generate a cute moral lesson for the story.

What I didn’t like:
🩵 While I love a slow-burn romance as much as the next person, this was a little *too* slow burn for me. There are a few flirtatious scenes throughout the book; however, the ‘true romance’ doesn’t begin to take shape until you are 65-70% through with the book. Conversely, I did appreciate the time I spent with Adalyn; it helped me see her as a person and, consequently, root for her happy ending.
🩵 There are a few things I would have appreciated being addressed – Mathew’s supposed lack of romantic interest in Adalyn, the energy drink drama, the community activity list.
🩵 Adalyn and Cameron’s reason for being enemies makes no sense. It works, but not well-enough for me to truly engage with their romantic transformation.

“I’ll always give you more than what you ask, love. Even when you don’t know what you want.”

Did not finish book. Stopped at 24%.

The premise was interesting, but I couldn’t get into the story. Definitely nothing like Ted Lasso, which was one of the main selling points in the description on NetGalley.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria for the free eARC.

Elena Armas has done it again 👏 I'm such a fan of everything she writes, and this one was nothing short of wonderful. It has everything a romance reader could wish for. Enemies to lovers, small town, children's soccer, goat yoga?! One thing I really love about Elena Armas' writing is her focus on character development, and Adalyn's character grew and learned so much about herself, which was great to see. Coach Cam was a blessing to all readers, seeing the way he cared for Adalyn (turning the shed into an office for her?!!) was just heartwarming. Josie and the Green Warriors were the literal perfect supporting characters. Overall, I give this a 4 out of 5 stars, but mostly just because I was so angry with Adalyn's father and I don't want to fully accept that he was so awful to her for pretty much her whole life. Thank you so much to the publisher and NetGalley for sending me this ARC. ❤️

Wanted to like this one more than I did. I was excited by the premise… enemies to lovers? Small town romance? Hot British soccer player? Sadly, I wasn’t able to get into it. I found the characters difficult to like. They felt undeveloped and one dimensional. Also the whole premise of these two WAY overqualified adults moving to a town to help with a girls soccer team just felt too far fetched for me. My favorite characters were the cats.

Many thanks to Atria and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Adalyn works for a soccer club in Miami, and ends up in a precarious media situation. Her father is the owner of the team (and her boss), and he sends her to North Carolina to work with a girls soccer team. Under 10, to be exact. She meets Cameron, a retired soccer player from London, who is coaching the girls. Sparks fly, and enemies to lovers is born.

I don’t really know how I feel about this one. I felt like it was really long. It was a slow burn enemies to lovers, with the major developments happening in the last 20% ish of the book. I thought the characters were okay. I hated how the MMC called Adalyn “love” and “darling.” It made me cringe throughout the book. I did like how Adalyn was a strong female character, but of course her independence gets in the way of relationships.

A lot of what happened in the book was Adalyn falling, or getting herself in trouble, and Cam saving her. After the third time, I was bored with it. Their spicy scenes were decent. I did like her best friend Matthew but wish he was more in the story! I liked Josie too though she was all over the place. I would read their book, and it seems like that might be next…

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was entertaining overall, if not my favourite romance! I haven’t read Elena Armas’ other books so I can’t compare the writing in “The Long Game” to them, but I enjoyed it for the most part.

Cameron and Adalyn were both fun characters to read about, but their dynamics in the beginning felt a little forced/unnecessary — enemies-to-lovers is difficult to write in contemporary romance, and in this case I don’t think the initial setup of the two characters hating each other after their first encounter was really needed. The plot felt quite disjointed at times as well, so while a lot of the individual scenes were fun, we’d be taken out of that scene randomly and plopped into another scene that took place a few days later, making for a slightly frustrating reading experience. I loved the interactions between Cameron and Adalyn that were related to the soccer team, and my only wish there is that the book focussed on that a bit more! It was the main plot, but really felt like it was pushed to the sidelines. I know this isn’t really a “sports romance,” but the description did make me hope we would follow it a little bit more than we did.

This book definitely did the slow burn well — there was some attraction fairly early on, but instalove was nowhere to be seen which I really appreciated. Overall, this is a fun romance that provides a lot of entertainment/escapism for readers!

Suddenly I’m soccers number one fan. I love soccer. Love it. But not nearly as much as I love The Long Game. Cameron & Adalyn are a ferocious duo that have to find a way to work together to coach the up and coming Green Warriors. An ex soccer star, an ex exec… what could possibly go wrong? Cue the goats, the chickens, the cats, the infested mattresses, and the stubbornness only a Elena Armas heroine can have. Watching these two work together to create a team worth celebrating and a love worth swooning over was truly a joy. For a romance novel in 2023 to not be full of smut and for me to give it a 5 is saying something. You know a romance book is good when there’s not smut every other page and I’m still drooling. Elena created magic in her book, and everyone should be racing to the bookstore to grab themselves a copy.

3.5/5⭐️

While I did enjoy this book, I would have to say I liked Elena Armas’ first two books a bit more (my personal ranking order would be The American Roommate Experiment, The Spanish Love Deception, and then The Long Game). I think I just wasn’t as invested into the plot of the youth soccer team as I’d like to be and would have preferred it to center around a professional league more. But there was a lot that I did enjoy and the pacing in The Long Game felt better than Armas’ other books. Cameron and Adalyn were cute together and I love how Cameron has not just one, but two cats!

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria for the ARC in exchange for an honest review

CW: anxiety, panic attacks (on page), family tensions, PTSD (MMC experienced a breaking and entering in the past), internet bullying, cheating (past, non-MCs)

I would recommend if you're looking for (SPOILERS)

-m/f contemporary romance
-frenemies to lovers
-hard one and soft one
-forced proximity
-former soccer star turned children's soccer coach
-sloooow burn
-rooster for a pet
-horny goat yoga

This was a fun read. I loved the sports adjacent nature of it. Adayln has been fighting to impress her sports team owner dad and ends up in exile in a small town. With an epic meet cute of whoops I ran over your rooster (which lives don't worry) and then whoops I then hit you with my car Adalyn is a competent, independent woman who has learned to always and only rely on herself but she is struggling. She wears her heart on her sleeve and is just trying.

Cam, gruff Cam in hiding as a former sports star, now just living in a cabin and coaching a girls soccer team. He's protecting himself from his past with so many walls up, and Adalyn just stomps over every single one in those heels of hers. I am just trash for watching a LI turn into a feral mess because they just fall, fall hard and fast. He never doubts it once he realizes it he's just all in on Adalyn. This man is an A+ corning steam talker. Gosh that pottery scene, try not to be sweating I dare you.

I adored how these two really got to know each other even as they were fighting some spectacular sexual tension. They pushed every button for the other but it only brought them closer. How they just saw each other and said, you can be what you need in the world but I'm your soft spot. They were tender, amazing chemistry and I was just rooting for them. But that epilogue has me so intrigued for what's coming next to that small town.

Steam: 3

AHHHHHHH...After reading The Spanish Love Deception, I thought an E Armas book could never reach the same bar again. I was wrong. The Long Game is the perfect mix of enemies to lovers and slow burn. This is a must read and you can bet I will own this physically. Cam and Adalyn are the perfect match. Both are a little grumpy at first but clearly they just need a little love...from each other! I'd also like to thank NetGalley, Atria Books, and Elena Armas for letting me read this book ahead of the release. And as I am sure Adalyn's mom was thinking, "¡YA ERA TIEMPO!"

A fun romance with likable characters and cute setting. While some of the plot was a little predictable, it satiated the need for a slow burn romance.

2.75 stars

Thank you to the publisher for the ARC of this book.

Unfortunately, this book wasn’t a favorite for me. After reading a few of the other reviews, I can see that I am in the minority here! I think this book will work for many other readers, it just wasn’t a great fit for me.

I loved the premise, but there were so many important character motivations that were unnecessarily cloaked in mystery for too much of the story (Why send Adalyn out to this particular team? Why did she actually attack the mascot? Why is Cam there? What is the reason for this small town & team being an “exile” location for both of these prominent figures in MLS?) Hiding the motivations for so long just took the gas out of the story for me. Like I said, this is probably just an issue for me as a reader, because I know many others loved it!

This one didn’t work for me, but I will definitely try out another read from this author at some point in the future.

I desperately wanted to love this book, but it just didn’t hit for me. I’ve loved Armas’s previous books, but this one could’ve used another round of edits. Maybe because I got an early digital copy to read, but there were too many typos and fumbled figures-of-speech to make it an enjoyable read.
Also, instead of ‘um’ in sentences they say ‘hum’ which is just odd to me.
I also didnt love Adalyn until later in the books. I couldn’t tell if she was truly spoiled and naïve or if her character just wasn’t well flushed out enough… I just didn’t click with her or with her reasons for “hating” Cameron at first. That truly made no sense.
Also, you cannot tell me there’s intense sexual tension between these two, they’re living together, he touches her face a lot…and they haven’t kissed once until 76% in?? You can just cut off an almost scene and then be like “days later”… that’s just not believable at all.

This was not for me. I’d heard that Elena Armas’s other books were great and so I was excited to get this ARC. I did not enjoy this at all. The writing was disjointed, there was little to no actual chemistry, it was marketed as enemies to lovers, but there was no buildup to Them falling in love. One day they were enemies and the next, insta-love. Just all around was not a good reading experience for me.