I came into this book as a big Elena Armas fan. I thought the Spanish Love Deception was adorable and featured so many of my favourite tropes. The American Roommate Experiment (which I read first) had me running out to buy a record player and some second hand vinyl.

Maybe my expectations were too high. Maybe I was just not in the mood for a cute romance set in the middle of nowhere North Carolina. Or maybe this book just wasn't for me.

Typically I love a story of enemies to lovers with a dash of small town quirk and throw in some sports romance elements for good measure. But my problem with Adalyn and Cam’s story was I didn’t feel the chemistry between them. Oh – there was plenty of situations set up for them to have those delicious rom-com moments. Their meet cute was adorably messy and did set the scene for just how everything would play out. But generally, I just didn’t feel the vibes between them. I felt the annoyance. And then I felt the love. But there wasn’t enough of that wonderful in between stage where you can apricate the fall as it happens.

The premise is a bit silly and unbelievable but sometimes to get the kinds of romance stories we love – you have to look beyond the set up and just enjoy the journey. There are plenty of fun small town characters to make you fall in love with the town as you follow Adalyn and her misfit band of Green Warriors. Cam feels like his character might have been created solely to capitalise on the popularity of Ted Lasso but I’m never not going to want to read about a grumpy former sports star who falls hard in love.

I found the pacing a little slow but once things got going I was all in. I did wish there was more graduality to the slow burn of the romance rather than it being more like a switched on. But overall it’s a cute story. It sets the scene up nicely for the town and I can’t wait to read The Fiance Dilemma to get to know Josie and Matthew a little better.

I really wanted to adore this book, but the pacing was painfully slow. While I appreciate a good slow burn, this felt excessively sluggish. Cameron was a standout character for me; he seemed flawless, and I adored all the playful nicknames the girls bestowed upon him (especially Mr. Chamomile). However, Adalyn didn't quite capture my interest; her numerous pop culture references didn't resonate with me. This book had all the potential to be fantastic, yet there was something elusive that prevented it from truly shining, though I can't quite pinpoint what it was.

The Long Game is a slow burn book, featuring Adalyn and Cameron
I didn't love the chemistry, and it felt a little forced in parts.
We got some good quotes such as " You are all I can see, even when I close my eyes, you’re all I see." but otherwise not something I loved. Hopefully the sequel picks up a little!

This was just fun, enjoyed the couple together and the characters separately. The kids talk was a but advanced at points making them seem older than they were supopsed to be but I liked them for the most part to. Just a fun plot and I'm excited for the Fiancé Dilemma this year!

Ive been a fan of Armas as soon as the Spanish Love Deception craze came
through, followed by American Roommate Experiment (my favourite of hers), I was pleasantly surprised that she’s done it again! Absolutely loved the characters and thought this was a great easy-read romcom!

The Long Game - Elena Armas
8/10 ⭐

✨ Grumpy X grumpy
✨ Small town
✨ Forced proximity

Okay first of all a new romance from Elena Armas - screaming crying… but a grumpy x grumpy small town romance with a BRITISH MMC - throwing up!!!

We all know miss Elena Armas is my #1 queen so I was ecstatic when I received an e-arc of her new book! I immediately started this one and best believe I fell in love HARD! I loved the setting so much! Small town, gossiping people, cats and goats! It was such a great mix!

Adalyn was a really interesting character and different from the usual FMC I found. She was a bit more on the grumpier side and could probably be seen as unlikeable by some, which of course made me love her! She was an absolute boss and was trying her best at all times. I loved seeing her character growth and her stripping away the heels and power suits.

Cameron was also a grump, but my fave type. He tried not falling for Adalyn, but watching it happen was so damn good. I was rooting for this couple the whole time and honestly just wanted the happy ending they deserved 🥹

This book was honestly so fun and a little bit different which made it even better. I loved the people of the town as well and I’m so happy to know we’ll be going back to Green Oak for Josie’s story because I loved her so much!

Elena has proven once again she’s up there with the greats and she will forever have me in a chokehold 🫠

Huge thank you to my faves at @simonschusterau for my copy of this wonderful book!

I am so sorry but this book wasn't for me, I have loved all other books from this author but this one in particular I found I did not like the main characters.

I absolutely loved The Spanish Love Deception so I was excited to read Elena Armas’s new release!

We follow Adalyn Reyes who has been sent to a small town after a video of her goes viral and Cameron Caldani an ex goalkeeper and it’s instant hate at first sight for both of them. But it’s soon enemies to lovers and I was totally there for it!!!

A sports romance, grumpy characters and a slow burn. What more can you want in a romance!!!!

Adalyn Reyes has always tried to be cool, calm, and collected but when she snaps and ends up assaulting the team Mascot and the video goes viral, her dad isn't happy and it looks like extreme damage control is needed. So he is sending her to the middle of nowhere to coach a children's soccer team. The thing though is that when Adalyn gets there, hiding out in the middle of nowhere is retired soccer champion Cameron Caldani. The pair clash of course at first but then you see sparks flying and then eventually the pair do get together through some ups and downs and bumps and twists along the road. The book was a good sports romance but then now comes the downside of The Long Game, it was so slow burn that it felt like the book went on forever. Elena Armas, bless her heart and some readers love slow-burn romances - she is the Queen of them. I need to have my books a bit more fast-paced otherwise my mind wanders and I feel like I am slogging my way through the book just as Adalyn did when she came to the bush of North Carolina. If you love slow-burn romances, which I did a poll on Instagram and found the majority of readers do and you love your Soccer reads or as the English call it "Football", then you will enjoy Elena Armas's new read The Long Game. Get your cleats on and as the old Yoplait ad went you just gotta: "kick the ball, like I tell ya" and curl up and read The Long Game.

Sometimes you’ve just got the play the long game if you want to get what you want…

After a viral altercation with the Miami Flames mascot, Adalyn Reyes is sent off-the-grid in North Carolina by the team’s owner, who just so happens to be her father. To redeem herself, and by extension the team, Adalyn is tasked with helping the local soccer team, the Green Warriors, turn things around. The last thing she’s expecting is for the team to be a bunch of nine-year-olds and their current coach to be former player Cameron Caldani, who recently fell of the grid after retiring before most were expecting. Things go from bad to worse when the pair get off on the wrong foot and can’t seem to work together. But if Adalyn is going to redeem herself and get back home to Miami, she knows she can’t give up, no matter how difficult Cameron is determined to make things for her.

I do love me a sports romance! Although, this one was definitely more romance than sports since the focus is on coaching kids than it is Cameron actually playing. But even so, it still had all the fun and swoon of a sports romances with a bigger sports focus.

Adalyn and Cam had a really great chemistry, even with their initial dislike and slight animosity towards one another, and it was enjoyable to watch their relationship grow and flourish throughout the book. It was a juicy slow burn with a few road-bumps along the way before these two finally realised they were meant to be together.

I really enjoyed the focus on the kids football team, which was made up of a bunch of really fun characters with great little personalities. They really balanced out the tension and drama with Cam and Adalyn, and I only wish they had had a bit more of a focus as it was easy to confuse who the characters were.

Throughout the book, I did struggle a little to connect with Adalyn as she was so damn stubborn, but thanks to how easy it was to fall in love with Cameron, I did eventually warm up to her. I had a lot of expectations going into this book, and I feel like not being able to connect with Adalyn so easily impacted on those expectations.

If you’re a lover of sports romances and don’t mind a bit of a slow burn, this is definitely a book that needs to be on your TBR!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC. I’ve been feeling very guilty that it is taking me so long to get through books. Life has gotten very busy - my apologies to the publisher.

I’m sorry to say that this book didn’t really work for me. I felt that it was too long for the relatively simple plot, and I was getting frustrated with what felt like word padding.

I felt that the lead female character was too self centred to be relatable, and I didn’t understand why the leads were “enemies”. When they switched to romancing each other it felt like it came out of nowhere. I didn’t feel the biting tension or chemistry that is the core part of enemies-lovers.

I am also not a fan of use of pet names like darling/love, especially when the lead asks not to be called those names.

In short: I think people will enjoy the sports setting and cute kids team, and some might enjoy this kind of romance, but for me it lacked spark and didn’t hit the right parts of the trope.

Sadly this one was not for me. I liked the beginning and the banter between the characters, loved the kids, but towards the middle it all just fizzled out. I feel like I missed the part where they fell in love and just wasn’t interested in them as a couple.

Read if you like:
- Sports romance
- Slow burn
- Grump and grumpier
- Dislike to love
- Forced proximity
- Dual POV
- MMC is a cat dad

This was so fun and I absolutely adored it. I LOVED Adalyn and Cam with the green warriors it was SO CUTE and wholesome. Loved the friends, the banter and the vibes of the small town. Though rather unlikeable, I came to really enjoy following Adalyn’s development. I also found her clumsiness quite relatable and funny. Utterly obsessed with Cam. He has this tough exterior but he’s actually so sweet and protective. The slow burn was so well-paced, there was so much tension and it was so steamy.

Armas wrote this story so well, and I absolutely recommend following along with the audiobook!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this one!!!

This book I have to say had such potential. It’s enemies to lovers and for about the first 150 pages it had me. As in, REALLY had me. This was despite there being no real reason for the two main characters to be enemies they just were. Apart from the car incident but that was an accident ... it didn't really inspire THAT depth of feeling.

Adalyn is punted from her father’s MLS team where she works in an executive role for assaulting the mascot and it goes viral for all the wrong reasons. We don’t find out why until later. As penance, she’s relegated to the boondocks to help an ailing soccer team as part of the father’s club outreach program.

The coach of the said soccer team Cameron is a grumpy bear of a man recently retired from an MLS, but is wanting to remain incognito. We find out why later. But immediately Adalyn knows who he is and threatens to expose him.

When these two come together they are clearly enemies - I mean, he had every right to be cross with her - she did run him over. So they continued fighting until oila one day they weren’t, and I can’t figure out for the life of me what was the catalyst for the shift. Sadly, this is one of the times when the becoming lovers just felt like everything fizzled. And darn I was sad about it. What was absent for me was the tension, the chemistry and attraction.

Adalyn was also really hard to like, which I also get, but she didn’t soften as such or have this powerful growth - just wore different clothes? I had a brief head snap where out of the blue we got some bedroom bossy vibes from Cam but I think his dialogue generally was trying too hard in its Britishness and just missed the mark.

What made this book super fun was the team. Because, I haven’t said it already - all this hullabaloo is about an under 10s girls’ team. Yep. Kids. Now I’m a soccer mum but really? I digress because the personalities on this team, the found family of the town, and one of Adalyn’s friendships made this worth finishing. And the animals. They helped as well.

So liked not loved by me but tropes of :-
⚽️ sports romances
🔥 slow burns
😡 grump and grumpier
⛺️ forced proximity
🐐 🐈
🐉 a protective alpha who wants to slay dragons for his love

Thanks netgalley for the copy to read. It was a good one to read poolside on a recent holiday jaunt and I do think other readers will likely enjoy the different aspects of this book.

3.5 stars

"You're all I see. Even when I close my eyes, you're all I see."

- Small town
- Workplace-ish: working together on an U10 girl's soccer team.
- Dislike to love
- British retired pro goalie MMC
- Slow burn
- Forced proximity (kinda roommates for a hot second 😅)
- Dual POV

When Adalyn has an altercation with her soccer team’s mascot, she’s exiled to North Carolina… to help a team of U10 girls. The coach? Cam, a former pro goalie. The pair do not get off on the best foot. I mean she accidentally hits him with her car, after all. But they have more in common than they realise – both hiding out and both exuding black cat energy.

The good
- I mean, they’re working with a team of cute girls, so you know there’s going to be fun-filled moments and one-liners.
- The small-town vibes.
- Cam was a grumpy softie and we all know how I feel about them 🫠. He was such a protective caretaker toward Adalyn. Even when she constantly pushed him away, he made her feel so safe and cherished. He deserved so much love.
- Shane East narrating Cam. The "loves" and "darlings" in a deep British accent? I could listen on repeat!

The not-so-good
- I personally found it hard to fall in love with Adalyn. It took me a long time to warm up to her and by then I kind of thought Cam deserved better 🫣.
- The ending felt very rushed and I would have liked a chance for Adalyn and a certain someone to bond over a certain bit of news (IYKYK).

If Ted Lasso having a baby with like It Happened One Summer intrigues you, check out The Long Game, especially on audio.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and Elena Armas for providing me with an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

I wanted to love this but it just fell short! I loved that Cameron was a cat dad but wish there was a bit more to that!

Overall it was an okay book but it wasn’t fantastic. This is the second book I’ve read by Elena and haven’t loved either of them so maybe her writing style just isn’t for me

I love a fish out of water, city mouse goes country story. And I really wanted to love The Long Game.

It was ok, but for me it fell quite flat.

It felt like the author was trying to give us some Roy Kent/Keeley Jones vibes with Cameron and Adalyn, but instead it came fo as two completely selfish people out for themselves and no one else.

Which was a shame.

I liked some of the side characters (who are under 10 years old!) better than I liked our leading pair most of the time.

I don't know, this is just a me thing probably.

So, yeah, it was OK but I would not go back and read it again.

I unfortunately had to dnf The Long Game at 20 percent. It just didn't capture my interest and it began to annoy me. I wish I could give this book a better review.

I was so excited to read this book because I had rated both previous books by this author 4.5⭐️ and 5⭐️! Unfortunately, I think it just wasn’t the book for me 🤷🏼‍♀️

I didn’t like the FMC, Adalyn. She really annoyed me and would do things that seemed unrealistic in real life. She reminded me a lot of Kelsie from So Not Meant to Be which I also didn’t like.

I also didn’t really care for the big city girl exiled to a small town trope which was similar to It Happened One Summer which is another book I didn’t like 🫣

However, if you loved So Not Meant to Be by Meghan Quinn or It Happened One Summer by Tessa Bailey I think you would love this book!

I did enjoy that the main characters were coach and manager of a little league sports team which was different from other sports romances I’ve read. The children were also very sweet 🥰

Read if you like:
- Sports romance
- Big city girl exiled
- Sports celebrity
- Small town
- Kids sports team
- Dual POV
- Slow burn

Let me be honest upfront: I was not a huge fan of Armas’ first book, and did not read her second. I went into The Long game hoping to be impressed with her third outing and was pleasantly surprised. I really enjoyed this cute small town romance about a disgraced media manager sent to purgatory and a retired professional soccer player in hiding.

Adalyn has spent her life trying to prove herself to her soocer-team owning father, but one small display of temper involving their mascot goes viral and she is banished out of sight to help with an Under 10 girl’s team in the boonies. There she unexpectedly finds a famous goalkeeper, who has retired from the big leagues, coaching the girls. There’s a mix-up with her accomodation, heaps of arguing, lots of excuses for being close to each other and all the usual wonderful ingredients for a good love story. This one also happens to have a blind goat with anxiety named Brandy, who was my personal favourite.

I really think Armas’ writing has improved, mainly in the area of characterisation. I didn’t find either of the main characters as frustrating and insufferable as in The Spanish Love Deception, and I enjoyed Cam’s POV in particular. There are many cute moments between him and Adalyn that really up the ante of their sexual tension and somehow she always ends up in his arms. It kind of broke my heart how she had never really been given much comfort in her life by her family, even when she was scared and hurt. The way Cam recognised that almost immediately and wanted to be the one to be there for her was so sweet.

The main gripe I had with this book however were the unfinished scenes. Multiple times we are in the middle of some action and we are told something important is happening - but then the moment ends abruptly. The next chapter starts and there’s often a time jump too - and the discombobulated reader is left wondering what happened. There isn’t even any good reason for this that I can tell - it’s almost like Armas literally forgot to finish writing what was happening.

Despite this I still thoroughly enjoyed this book and its sexy grumpy goalkeeper with intriguing tattoos.