I received an arc via Netgalley, and am leaving an honest review about the book. I’m thankful to the publisher and the author for giving me this wonderful opportunity!

The first book I read by Elena Armas was the The Spanish Love Deception, and I knew from there that I’d be addicted to her. I genuinely adore her writing style and the absolute, utter swoon-worthy MMCs that she writes. Although Aaron Blackford is my one and only, Cameron Caldani is number two.

First, I love the spitfire that is Adalyn (have I mentioned I love her name??). She gave so much sass to Cameron, and I loved every second of it. She was also extremely adorable, and I loved how there were so many nuances to her character. She portrayed the perfect example of a child too desperate for her parent's attention, and I related to her on so many levels. I felt frustrated for her, felt angry on her behalf, and that's proof of a well-rounded character.

And oh my god, Cameron. The MOUTH this man had. I was in love and blushed every time he spilled dirty talk. Cam was rough around the edges, but he was very caring. He definitely fit alongside Adalyn, and I feel as though they were made for each other. On occasion, an author writes a couple who end up together, but it leaves readers feeling weird because the couple doesn't fit. I didn't get that feeling from these two. Elena is so good at the way she writes love, dedication, and pining.

However, story-wise, I feel like there could have been more done? It just felt incomplete, and I didn't think there was any point or further conflict to make it work. But other than that, I really enjoyed it, so I’m giving it a four!

I’m so happy I was able to get an ARC for The Long Game, and I’m excitedly waiting for anything else I can read from her.

This book was everything to me. I had such a great time reading this, I couldn’t put it down. Immediate 5 stars for me!

The slow burn was literal perfection and I was so giddy when Cameron said anything to Adalyn. They were so freaking cute! 🤭

If you love:

♡ dual pov
♡ slow burn
♡ enemies to lovers
♡ grumpy/grumpy
♡ he falls first and hard
♡ spice

This book is for you! Another masterpiece written by Elena that I will be thinking about for a long time.

Cameron Caldani welcome to my favorite fictional boyfriend list. 💚🩷

I could never really wrap my head around the catalyst behind this (Adalyn's viral video), so every decision made based on that just sort of seemed illogical to me, and I never got fully absorbed in the story.

This is also a fairly soccer-heavy story, so I think people who enjoy sports (and especially soccer) would enjoy this more than I did.

Beyond that, the story is fairly standard, similar to Aramas's other books. Good if your in the mood for a quick read with some cute moments.

I loved this book! Such a sute enemies to lovers trope that had me laughing the whole time! The characters were lovable, and the book was full of laughs. This was not my favorite Elana Armas book, but I did really like it and I would read it again! Thanks to Elena, the publisher, and NetGalley for a copy of this ARC in exchange for my honest review!

I adored Spanish Love Deception, but the Long Game took me a long time to get through. Ada was quite annoying as a character and her annoyance by Cam meant we didn't get to know his character very well for a big chunk of the book. I didn't feel the chemistry until they connected physically-- then I enjoyed the book a bit more.

I'm honestly so sad to be writing this review. The premise of The Long Game had such potential, and parts were really cute!! But overall, the first 66% of this book fell flat. I'm all for a slow burn (I get burnt out on smut), but the first half of the book was just two annoyingly grumpy people being hard-headed for absolutely no reason?

I will try other books by this author, but this one just didn't work for me.

I wanted to like this one more than I did. I struggle with contemporaries that go too over the top, especially when it's played for laughs because it just feels forced. The book was surprisingly long but yet didn't manage to come to a satisfying ending. I really had a FMC who insists she is not like other girls because there is nothing wrong with being like other girls. I felt zero chemistry between the main characters and really struggled with their transition from hating each other to loving each other because there was no chemistry. Also gag me with the "darling" it's a major ick especially after she told him not to call her that.

3.5 stars!

Elena Armas's "The Long Game" is a slow, slow, slow-burning enemies-to-lovers, small-town soccer romance that hits almost all of the right notes for me. It's mostly enjoyable, though there are a few notable things that irked me. I liked the mutual hatred-turned-love between the main characters, Adalyn and Cameron. Adalyn is from a big city, has a tense relationship with her boss/father, is very type-A, and keeps herself wound tight. Cameron is hiding out in a small town in North Carolina living his grumpiest former soccer player life. He hates her impractical shoes, she hates his cabin-and-nature-heavy lifestyle. The perfect pair topped off with fantastic banter with conflict that feels pointless! I loved how Adalyn and Cameron have to work together to solve not only their differences but also help out a soccer team full of little girls who are absolutely adorable. My biggest gripe is that there isn't a lot of pining between the two of them, even in their hatred of one another. They simply go from enemies to "I'm in love with them" in the span of a few moments, which is shocking considering how long this book is (and it does feel a little too long). The ending wraps up way too quickly for such a long novel. The romance is sort of bogged down by all of the other plot points going on here, and there are a lot of moving parts. There's the entire subplot about how she was fired from her job for something that should have been the other person's fault with no oversight in a company run by her own father, which, no? I get that it's the catalyst for her being sent away to North Carolina, but her life is basically destroyed because of something terrible someone else did! Is there no HR department to help her?! There's Adalyn's best friend, Matthew, who is a huge soccer fan and is obviously only in this book so an interconnected sequel can be written about him...there's a lot more stuff that doesn't feel integral to the story. This book is slightly better than I expected and does have its moments of zaniness and fun.

Thank you to NetGalley, Elena Armas, and Atria Books for the complimentary ARC of this book. All opinions are my own. I was not compensated for my review.

This was my first Armas book
I know I know, I STILL haven’t read SLD or TARE
*hands up* I surrender

My TBR is killing me okay?
HOWEVER! I scored this one on audio and it was just everything I needed.
I loved the reason behind the to MC’s being forever to work together, and the ETL trope was fully thrilling, believable, AND intense!
This book came together so well
Pacing was perfect
Banter PFF THE CHARTS
Romance woven into nearly every interaction!
I’m a die hard Armas Fan now!!
And hey, since I own the other two books, I guess this is my sign to PICK. THEM. UP!
♥️♥️♥️

I tried so hard to like this and I just could not get into this. Something about the general energy between the characters just wasn’t believable and I don’t really like either of them enough to keep going.

"The Long Game" by Elena Armas is a cute small-town romance with a soccer-themed twist, and it left me with mixed feelings that landed it at a three-star rating. While the romance and content were enjoyable, I found that the story dragged on at times, making it a bit challenging to stay fully engaged. I was initially captivated by our British male lead and our spunky main character, and while their initial meeting and budding romance was electric, it eventually started to slowly fizzle.

On a brighter note, I absolutely loved the summer camp setting. The small-town atmosphere added a unique and cozy backdrop to the developing romance, which made the story all the more endearing. The standout elements in the book were the young girls on the soccer team. Their chaotic energy and their enthusiastic support for the love interests added a delightful and heartwarming aspect to the story. They brought a sense of innocence and fun, balancing the more serious parts of the plot.

If you're a fan of sweet romances with unique settings, I definitely still think it's worth giving this book a try! It all may just come down to your preferences as a reader.

This one was good, but not great. I love enemies-to-lovers but pair that with a slow slow burn and it just dragged a bit for me. Overall though, it was an entertaining read

Reading The Long Game has solidified that Elena Armas is not for me. I am one of the few who didn't care for The Spanish Love Deception. I found the female lead obnoxious, immature, and rude. Here, the female lead suffers from the same disagreeable nature as the lead in SLD. It ruined the entire romance for me. From the start, I couldn't root for them, making it hard to care about the story. I did like the pets and the kids.

I also found the book to be too long. The ending was unsatisfying as well.

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

I think this story was really cute. It was compared to Ted Lasso and It Happened One Summer vibes and I would say that’s fairly accurate. I think this gave more Roy Kent for Cameron and but Adalyn wasn’t very ditzy or Alexis from Schitt’s Creek. She wasn’t banished because she was spoiled, she was banished because her dad sucked. I think this story was about 75 pages too long but otherwise I really enjoyed it.

This was a new to me author but I had heard about her previous books so I was excited to get this ARC. It was a slow burn, enemies to lovers with great chemistry and a bit of sports thrown in. I enjoyed this book and look forward to reading other Elena Armas books in the future.

I have been a fan of Elena's since she was on Kindle Unlimited. I have enjoyed all of her books and this was no exception. I really enjoyed this story!

The Long Game by Elena Armas is the first novel in the Long Game series. The novel follows the downfall of Adalvn Reves -a Miami Flames executive and Cameron Caldani- a former superstar soccer goalie.
Set in a small town in North Carolina, Adalyn is shipped off to assist a little league girls soccer team named the Green Warriors after a terrible viral video of her is leaked to the press. Adalyn and Cameron both reluctantly work together to help the little Green Warriors and slowly turn from enemies to something more. Elena Armas does a wonderful job of connecting readers to her characters and keep readers engaged in the storyline. The Long Game by Elena Armas is a brilliant romance filled with humor, secrets, and shenanigans.

Adalyn has one shot to prove herself to her father and boss after her extraordinary public scandal! He sends to off to manage an unknown team to success. She quickly learns that not only is her new short term home in the middle of nowhere, the team she's managing is a children's soccer team. And she manages to get on the wrong side of Cam, the grumpy secretive coach, almost immediately. And while she's arguing with him every step of the way, she and Cam begin to realize that there may be some sparks flying along side their jabs.

I ended up loving this one. I'm a sucker for adults helping a rag tag bunch of youth athletes and having the more glamorous Adalyn interacting with the grumpy soccer player coach was really sweet. I really like Cam's character a lot and I grew to like Adalyn. The story wraps up in a nice little bow. I did feel like the villain in the story was just such a stereotype, which detracted a bit from the story for me. But the cute small town vibes and sweet romance got me like a hallmark movie. So if you love hallmark movies, this one is for you sans holiday.

Thank you to Netgalley and Atria Books for the gifted copy!

Adalyn is an executive with the Miami Flames and she’s sent to a rural town after she’s caught acting unprofessionally on a viral video involving their mascot. The team’s owner (and Adalyn’s father) thinks she would benefit from some time away working on some outreach for the club. She’s sent to the mounts of Green Oak and she’s here to help an under 10 yr old girl’s soccer team. Their coach is a grumpy former professional goalie from England named Cameron. He has tried to live his life out of the spotlight since retiring, but Adalyn knows exactly who he is.

They don’t get along at all. Adalyn is a tightly-wound city executive and doesn’t like the small town charm or their rugged terrain. But she and Coach Cam have to get past their dislikes and work together especially in front of the young girls. They were by far my favorite part! Maria and her trusty goat BFF, Brandy steal the show! Anyone who has worked with young kids knows it’s like putting cats in a bag so I found this so funny.

The two get closer as the book goes on and it’s definitely a very, very slow burn until they finally kiss. I would have expected this a little sooner.
Elena is a good writer, but she is wordy. I think I tended to skip over a bit of the added detail. I think the dialogue could have a little sharper. That being said, it was very entertaining. The book ends on a little cliff hanger and now I’m excited for book two!

Thank you @atriabooks for my netgalley copy.

I have been hearing about Elena Armas since she released The Spanish Love Deception in 2021. Yet I have somehow managed to go two whole years without reading any of her books. Well, that ends today!

The Long Game, is her third book. It follows disgraced soccer executive, Adalyn, and retired soccer star, Cameron. After both undergoing traumatic events, they find themselves living in a small town (North Carolina) co-coaching a young girls soccer team. Being throw together time and time again, they forge an unlikely connection that leads to their path of healing.

I knew I would love this book as soon as I read it described as, ‘in the vein of Ted Lasso’. To say I am obsessed with that show would be an understatement. The writing is phenomenal and the acting is superb.

Not only did Armas deliver on the Ted Lasso promise, she elevated it. The story is very reminiscent of Roy Kent and Keeley Jones relationship but if they were both total grumps. In the beginning, the two were often at odds with one another due to their palpable chemistry. However, once they got together, they were like a fire that could not be tamed.

While the chemistry was off the charts, it wasn’t my favorite aspect of the book. I loved how empowering Armas wrote the book. Although Adalyn craved having someone to look after her, it ultimately came down to herself to stand up for what she wanted and needed. There was no Prince Charming riding in on a horse to save the day. She was her own hero. But, Cameron was there to hand her the sword and watched her slay the dragon!

Special thanks to Netgalley, Elena Armas, and Atria books for allowing me to read this book in exchange for my honest review.