As a fan of Elena Armas, this book feel a little flat. The characters read as more grumpy/grumpy and it made it hard for me to root for them.

I found Armas's third contemporary romance to be my least favorite of hers so far, and also the least fun to read. It's heavier in subject matter, which I don't usually mind, but the two main characters were both pretty joyless people and that made reading about their romance less entertaining. It was pitched as grumpy/grumpy rather than grumpy/sunshine, but the two came across as more rude and immature than anything else, so much so that I wasn't sure I was rooting for them to get together. There are moments of cuteness and levity; I liked the parts about the girls' soccer team, and the small town's mayor seems like she could be an interesting main character in a spinoff novel, but it was overall a bit too solemn for what I was looking for in a romance. I received an eARC of The Long Game from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I love Elena Armas! With this said, this was not my favorite of hers. I missed the undeniable tension that she usually provides within her MC.
Overall great and enjoyable read!

I feel like this book started with potential but then it turned into male donineering porn- no thanks. The focus was all on physical no emotional and hard to skip the things I was not comfortable reading. I made it 3/4 of the way and honestly I should have DNF earlier. This is not my cup of tea

The Long Game by Elena Armas is the story of Adalyn and Cameron. I enjoyed the characters and the soccer background and yet it was just ok for me. Might have just been me though.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. The Long Game is available now.

2.5 stars

The Long Game is a book I'm a little conflicted about. I'm a fan of enemies to lovers and slow burn romances, but this one didn't work as well for me as I expected. The small town vibes were so much fun and the side characters made this book fun. I would love to live in this quirky town with the baby goats.

Adalyn has always hoped to take over the soccer team her father owns. She's worked hard and given her all, but when something goes viral she's sent off to do some charity work until things calm down. For me Adalyn was a complicated character. If I'm honest, there were a lot of times I really didn't like her. After we find out more about her, I definitely understood where she was coming from, but she definitely wasn't treated fair.

Cameron started off as a grump, but he still made me laugh. And how can you not melt, when the MMC has two furry kids and talks with them throughout the book, haha. He was protective and was searching for his own way after his career ended.

Then we get to the complicated part for me. I'm all for a slow burn, but this was very slow. For me it also felt unclear when we went from enemies to lovers. I missed a connection with these characters together. Don't get me wrong, I loved seeing Adalyn realize she should be loved and not have to fight for it. Also, Cameron finding peace and figuring out what he wants. Also, I find it weird that while we saw the girls' soccer team often, not much was told about what Adalyn was working on. The same with all of the drama behind why she was sent away in the first place. It felt rushed.

Thankfully there were a lot of fun moments with Josie, baby goats, and the girls' soccer team. They were so sweet and I was hoping they would get their win.

This book sounded good from the blurb that I read but in reality, it was super hard for me to get into.
It drew out wayyy too long and I didn't feel like I could relate to the characters. Maybe relate is the wrong word I guess I just couldn't get into them or even like them.
This book was not a good fit for me.
Now don't go and read this and think that you are not gonna like it bc I bet there are lots of people unlike me who will like this book, so you just have to give it a try yourself.

I was given the opportunity to read this book thanks to the publisher and Net Galley. The above was my own opinion, its honest and voluntary.

I feel like this one really checked all the boxes. We had your enemies to lovers, we had your slow burn, we had your grumpy sunshine action, we had small town vibes..... even that single parent trope was kinda touched on with all the kiddies running around, even if they weren't theirs. This was very much the comps people put it to! Ted Lasso meets It Happened One Summer? Am I supposed to not like this? Unlikely.

I love a good banter and these guys had in from the start. I found myself smiling through so much of my read it was making my cheeks hurt. Cameron and Adelyn had such great chemistry and were so fun to follow from beginning to end. I wish I could reread this for the first time again.

This was a cute and quick soccer romance read from Elena Armas.

After a momentary blackout that causes a PR nightmare, Adalyn is exiled to do some charity work for a little league girls' soccer team. Little does she know that the town is full of secrets including a retired soccer star.
This is an enemies-to-lover tale where you aren't sure how it's going to work out, but I was satisfied with the ending.

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an arc for an honest review.

Very cute story. I started out annoyed with Adalyn but she grew on me. The side characters are great, especially Maria, the cats, and the goats. I found the family reveal at the end to be weird and out of place. Overall, a sweet story with a little bit of spice.

Thank you to NetGalley, Atria Books, and Elena Armas for the eARC.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for this eARC in exchange for an honest review. I absolutely adored The Spanish Love Deception (Aaron Blackford is still goals) and enjoyed The American Roommate experiment (albeit less), but I had trouble with this one . For one, the plot made no sense--even at the end when the Adalyn's connection to the small town is revealed, what are the odds that she *and* Cam both ended up there at the same time for the same reason? Also, they treat each other like crap for no real reason aside from getting off on the wrong foot, yet Cam still calls her "darling" all the time even though she told him not to. I really like small town tropes, sports romance, *and* enemies to lovers, but this one just didn't work for me. I was, however, very surprised that it ended on a cliffhanger, so maybe I will give the next one a try (especially if it involves Josie, who I did like as a supporting character, even though I did NOT expect that twist and thought Josie was much older for some reason).

3 stars

I think this is my favorite from the few Elena Armas reads? They’re always sweet and a lil spicy, hit the ground running, and seem to be a little too much cheese (or cringe?) for me. I really liked the premise, but again her female MCs are independent while also very stubborn which leads to “wait, have I met this character before?” thoughts. Would recommend to readers who are romance lovers who also loved Ted Lasso or MLS/soccer fans!

This wasn't my favorite of Elena's books but still such fun! If you enjoyed TED LASSO this is so up your alley. And so funny!

I loved this sweet rom com about a fallen exec and an “in hiding” former pro soccer player. This was a sweet story by the author of The Spanish Love Deception.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC.

I loved Cam and Adalyn so much! Went into this book not knowing anything at all about it and was so pleasantly surprised. This reminded me a lot of Marina Zapata books and I really enjoyed!

So I almost didn't ask for this because I hated The Spanish Love deception. But I wanted to give her another chance. This was a better set up and the love interest gave me Roy Kent vibes that I very much enjoyed. Although not my favorite I can def recommend this to patrons. I did like the character growth of the two of them and how many healthy discussions there were.

A big thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book!
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I was really excited about this book when I saw it pop up on NetGalley, and requested it right away. I haven’t read Armas’ other books yet, but I know that I will be adding them to my library list asap. I enjoyed both Adalyn and Cam’s characters; they were fully fleshed out and neither was perfect. Their romance was cute, and I really loved the little girls that made up the soccer team.
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The plot itself definitely dragged in the middle and the final twist felt a little over the top in comparison to the rest of the book. Given that the entire novel was a slow burn, I can’t complain too much that it took forever for Adalyn and Cam to get together, but they were almost immediately ripped apart again by their own walls. I wish we had spent some of the time learning more of Cam’s background, and I want to know so much more about Adalyn’s best friend, Matthew. I’d definitely give this one a try if you haven’t yet.

This was a cute and quick soccer romance read. After a momentary blackout that causes a PR nightmare Adalyn is exiled to do some charity work for a little league girls soccer team. Little does she know that the town is full of secrets including a retired soccer star. An enemies to lover tale where you really aren't sure how it's going to work out but I'm glad I stuck around for the ending.

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an arc for an honest review.

I loved this book! This is my first Elena Armas and I am now an instant fan. Adalyn and Cameron were hot and cold throughout the book but you could see they belonged together!

The Long Game is sorta sports, sorta grumpy/sunshine romance with a very slow burn. It was a little bit on the long side or maybe it just seemed a little dragged out, but once it got to the romance it was really good. I do think the complications with the family seemed a little more tacked on than integral to the story especially the reveal. The standouts are the children particularly Maria and the funny goats.