I know The Spanish Love Deception was a huge hit when it came out, and was all over BookTok and everything, but I found The Long Game to be vastly superior. I loved this book, no hesitations, no caveats. This book is part funny, part spicy, part heartbreaking, and one hundred percent addicting. And Cam is the dream MMC - the dreamy ideal.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher.

I could not put The Long Game down and when I absolutely had to, I was still thinking about it. I loved the characters and the plot. The small town feel with larger than life characters was absolute perfection. Highly recommend this book and I can't wait to see if she will move forward with the Easter egg at the end.

Adalyn Reyes is sent to NC by her father after a video of her beheading the MLS Miami Flames' mascot goes viral. She finds retired soccer goalie Cameron Caldani in the same small town coaching the girls U10 soccer team she's been told to manage to help get her back to her father's good graces. The two butt heads while also noting some underlying attraction. While dealing with their own ghosts, they manage to form a truce and even show their softer sides to one another. But Adalyn is only there temporarily, so no matter how good it feels to be called Darling by the hunky goalie, she needs to keep her focus on her ultimate goal of eventually taking over the team.

A cute romance.

A small town, enemies to lovers, slow burn romance from Elena Armas…what’s not to love?!

Adalyn Reyes is sent to middle of nowhere North Carolina on a good will mission after an unfortunate PR blunder. Cameron Caldani, former soccer star, is also in town and is set on keeping his status as a former star unknown. The two are forced to work together to turn around a struggling little league soccer team and with Adalyn’s management skills and Cameron’s aptitude for soccer, they do just that all while falling for one another.

Cameron Caldani is going to be your new favorite book boyfriend! He’s athletic, British, and tattooed. I fell in love with the way he takes care of Adalyn.

I particularly enjoyed the slow reveal of the event that caused Adalyn to be sent to North Carolina in the first place.

Thank you NetGalley and Atria Books for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

In my opinion, people will really like it. I personally finished it, but I didn’t really care about any of the characters.

An absolute delight from Elena Armas. A perfect rom com fluff. Absolutely loved every page. The main characters were so endearing and i loved knowing them and their lives.

2.75 * Unfortunately I did not love this. The romance between Cam and Addy had some cute moments but overall the characters were dull and lacked substance especially Cam. The only thing I got from the book was that he had green eyes, tattoos and a British accent. I also felt like the chapters did not flow well together.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

Tropes
Small town
Grump/grump
Forced proximity
Sports romance

In the long game Adalyn has gone viral but not in a good way. After an emotional outburst was filmed and circulated on the internet her father the owner of the Miami Flames banishes her to a small town in North Carolina. As things aren’t going well for her another hiccup happens when she finds out the cabin she is supposed to be renting is occupied by a grumpy former professional soccer player.

This book was really fun to read, I always like a small town romance they have such a quirk to them. Between brandy the blind goat and Josie the meddling mayor it was a very enjoyable read. There was good character development between the main characters. The chemistry between them was fire especially in the pottery scene.

This novel has the enemies to lovers, slow burn and full of angst tropes everyone needs.

It definitely has the slow burn build up to the relationship and a tie in to hopefully the next book.

Elena did a wonderful job of sculpting the story with a few twist or turns. Definitely didn't see that major one coming.

I just love Adalyn.

What a fun, entertaining, and steamy soccer romance! The Long Game gave me everything I wanted and more after I read the blurb. With hints of Tessa Bailey and Mariana Zapata, The Long Game has fun small town vibes set against the backdrop of a little league soccer team.

I loved watching Adalyn and Cameron fall in love, despite all their attempts not to. Cameron gave me Roy Kent vibes, which my Ted Lasso loving heart very happy. While their love story was a tad slow for me at first, once it finally turned steamy, I was all in. The forced proximity helped develop the pair's love deeper.

What stole the show for me was the great set of supporting characters, including all the crazy animals that graced the pages. The kids were hilarious, but little Maria was my favorite part of the entire book. All her nicknames for Cameron, coupled with her fierce protective nature over Adalyn, made me love her even more. She was the star of every page she was on.

Adalyn Reyes works for an organization she loves, even if her father is distant and overly demanding. But when one mistake threatens to ruin everything she's worked for and her future at the club she loves, she will do whatever it takes to make amends. Including managing a youth girls' soccer team in the middle of nowhere. And find a way to get along with the grumpy ex-professional goalie now soccer coach. But why does he seem to bring out the absolute worst in Adalyn? And why does hearing him call her Ada make her feel like this?

This is by far my favorite Elena Armas story. The characters are funny, witty, a little annoying in the best possible way, and they have big emotions that scare them sometimes. In other words, they feel like real people. I love anything to do with soccer, and I think this is a new take on a classic romance trope. The team kids add an adorable and at times hilarious undercurrent to the story. The saga with the run-down shed is the best of Hallmark movie magic. It's an easy, fun, end-of-summer read! The male lead gives me Roy Kent vibes, for any fellow Ted Lasso fans out there.

Tropes: famous athlete, family baggage, surprise sibling, annoyance to lovers, small-town romance, corporate woman.

I enjoyed this contemporary sports romance by Elena Armas. I enjoyed the small town community and all of the side characters that come along with it. I felt like I needed more between the two main character. I felt that their issues and relationship skimmed the surface and it left me wanting more. Overall it was a good story, but I found myself enjoying the authors previous books more.

A lot of readers have been hyping up Elena Armas’ work and I was hoping this would be the book that clicked for me. Unfortunately, this book fell in the “meh” category. Don’t get me wrong, there were some elements of this story that I enjoyed. The soccer players and small-town shenanigans were my favorite aspects of this book. I even laughed out loud during one of the soccer matches. What made The Long Game a “meh” book was the writing style and length of the book. There were multiple instances where I had to stop and re-read a passage because of the writing style. It felt super choppy at points. By the time I got to the end of the book (~384 pages), I lost interest. I think this story would have been stronger if it were shorter. This was my first completed book (DNF The Spanish Love Deception) by Elena Armas and most likely my last one by her. Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC.

Jesus Christ. First of all thank you Atria publishing for this amazing arc. I’ll be honest when I first heard at Miss Armas, was S
straying away from the Spanish Love
Deception world, I was slightly deflated I’m typically not a fan of sports romance and wasn’t sure how this would play out. But let me tell you!! This book is easily one of my favorites of the year. Elena Armas is the QUEEN of satisfying slow burns, and I should have never doubted the genre because this is truly a masterpiece. I honestly think it couldn’t have gotten hotter than Aaron, but Cameron?!! Lord. This book is one of the best grumpy sunshine‘s out there it’s healing, it’s authentic with a sense of classic romance that had me swooning. I can’t wait for people to know how great this is.

The Long Game is cute. Goats, sassy little girls, and high heels in the "wilderness" are just sprinkles on the happily ever after cake. You can take the girl out of Miami but getting her to leave her heels behind takes more than a zip code change.

Cam is swoony and wonderful. This grumpy guy is worth yhe timenit takes to crack his shell. He's dreamy and swoony not to mention completely smitten. Listen to what little people tell you. Love is everything. Maybe even Matthew will learn that too...

Ah The Long Game…

I was looking forward to this one because I’ve really enjoyed her other books, but this one didn’t hit for me.

Cam and Adalyn are brought together under interesting circumstances when she is basically banished from her MLS job after a PR problem in Miami. Cam is grumpy and begrudgingly agrees to work with Adalyn in managing a youth soccer team.

I didn’t feel any real likability for either of these characters for much of the book and the chemistry between them didn’t hit until very late in the book.

I did enjoy many of the side characters, like Josie, Matthew, Maricela, and María. And truthfully, I think I would be more interested in a story involving some of those side characters.

I just felt like there was more potential and to compare it to Ted Lasso and It Happened One Summer is not accurate in my opinion.

Thank you NetGalley & Atria Books for this advanced copy!

The long game by Elena Armas was by far my favorite romcom from her so far!!! It gives major Ted Lasso vibes and I’m living for it. It also includes all my favorite trips like enemies to lovers, grumpy hero, small town vibes, self discovery.

Adalyn and Cameron were absolutely perfect together in my unbiased opinion ☺️. They may have started off on the wrong foot but the tension and relationship development from there on out was absolutely amazing! There was times were I was like “JUST KISS ALREADY” because the chemistry was so thick you couldn’t slice it with a knife. I honestly just adored everything abt this book but some of my favorites without majorly spoiling are the blind goat, little Maria, Cameron’s cats and ofc the hilarious banter between the main 2 characters. This book is an absolute must read and I can’t talk for y’all to enjoy it!!!!!

Thank u sm to Atria Books for sending me this arc via Netgalley!!

Official synopsis

Adalyn Reyes has spent years perfecting her daily routine: wake up at dawn, drive to the Miami Flames FC offices, try her hardest to leave a mark, go home, and repeat.

But her routine is disrupted when a video of her in an altercation with the team’s mascot goes viral. Rather than fire her, the team’s owner—who happens to be her father—sends Adalyn to middle-of-nowhere North Carolina, where she’s tasked with turning around the struggling local soccer team, the Green Warriors, as a way to redeem herself. Her plans crumble upon discovering that the players wear tutus to practice (impractical), keep pet goats (messy), and are terrified of Adalyn (counterproductive), and are nine-year-old kids.

To make things worse, also in town is Cameron Caldani, goalkeeping prodigy whose presence is somewhat of a mystery. Cam is the perfect candidate to help Adalyn, but after one very unfortunate first encounter involving a rooster, Cam’s leg, and Adalyn’s bumper, he’s also set on running her out of town. But banishment is not an option for Adalyn. Not again. Helping this ragtag children’s team is her road to redemption, and she is playing the long game. With or without Cam’s help

I wish I could give this book more than 5 stars, all the stars!! Elena Armas is one of my favorite authors for a reason and this book just reminded me of that in a big way! City girl in a small town, grumpy x grumpy and the baby goats? All perfect elements to a fantastic slow burn that had me sweating once it got to burning. Cameron Caldani and all his grumpiness made themselves at home in my heart, along with the Green Warriors. I could go on and on but would probably spoiler the entire book, so if you like soccer, small towns and a fantastic slow burn this is the book for you! I started reading this a day before being unexpectedly hospitalized and this was my read while being scared and in pain, huge thank you to Elena for building such a wonderful world for me to get sucked into when my own was less than great for a bit there.

3.75 ⭐️

This is my first read from this author. I’ve heard so much about her other books that I was super excited for this one!

Adalyn and Cameron are both genuinely realistic characters. I can appreciate that they’re not made to be perfect for the purpose of immediately winning the audience over. I loved them and their flaws because they made them so relatable. (Also, Cameron is British so…extra points!) Regarding them as a couple, I’m a huge fan of enemies to lovers. I just thought that they were too harsh on each other in the beginning (given the circumstances of them being “enemies”). With that being said, once they began to understand each other, I really started to love them together. There were a couple moments where I thought they both acted immature BUT the subtle ways that they showed they cared and their communication later in the book pretty much made it up for me.

It took me a few chapters to get into this story. There was just a drag at the beginning for me. It started to feel too long. However, it definitely did pick up and once it did, the pacing felt right. I loved the small town setting and the circumstances that it brought for both characters. I really liked the side characters, especially the soccer team (María was so cute!). I honestly would have loved to see even more of them working together with it. This was definitely a slower burn, but it didn’t get boring for me because of the way the author built them up. I loved how they went from two individuals who felt like they had to do everything alone to trusting each other. The third act conflict between them felt a bit forced, just because it was really just slight miscommunication and I’m not the biggest fan of that. With that being said, their eventual confrontation with the conflict and their ending were everything.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. It’s one of those that I definitely saw myself in. It was comforting because of this, along with funny and emotional. I’m excited to look back at the other books by this author and her future works!

MINI PLAYLIST ⚽️👠⭐️
London Boy - Taylor Swift
This Town - Niall Horan
Begin Again (Taylor’s Version) - Taylor Swift

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review! :)

I Love Elena Armas. Her writing style. It is a great story. The Characters are awesome. Elena writes realistic settings