I loved this book!
Lily is at university and is devastated when her local football club relocates, The very football club that provided a solid base for family days out as she was growing op with her dad and sister.
So much devastation was felt by all that Lily's dad decides to set up his own team. This battle of the underdog book is headed by Lilly and Ben, a misunderstood assumed playboy footballer. Both main characters were extremely likeable and I found myself notably cheering for Crawford United, the newly set up team, but also for Ben and Lily's relationship.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

This was a sweet read. I took a while to get into out but I did end up enjoying it and found it more of a page turner once Lily and Ben got together. I definitely think it was better than the author’s debut!

What to expect:

- sports romance
- secret romance
- open door

When Lily's local football team relocates to a town 50 miles away, she and everyone in her hometown are devasted. Wanting to keep their communities football spirit alive Lily and her family decide to start their own football team with dreams of making it big. When notorious professional player Ben Pryce shows up after being suspended from his Premier league team after an altercation with a fan everyone is shocked but Ben's looking to revamp his image and show everyone he's not the bad boy he's been made out to be. Ben and Lily's attraction is almost instant but everyone knows not to mix business with pleasure will they both make it out unscathed?

I really enjoyed the beginning of this watching the team form, the found family aspect and the romance between Ben and Lily play out but then the author decided to turn Ben into a completely different person around 60% of the way through and I struggled to get on board with it. I feel the third act conflict wasnt needed and couldve been done differently. This book also throws a lot of football information at you so if you're not a fan you probably won't enjoy this very much as a good chunk of this is watching the players. I really wish I'd loved this more but I'll still be checking out the authors other works to see if they're a better fit.

A sports rom com that focused on soccer which the rest of the world refers to as football. I loved the banter between Lily and Ben. Not to mention dealing a sport that I actually know a little bit about it.

3⭐️⭐️⭐️



✨ sport romance, cozy and light.
✨ 🌶️ level


✨ the plot was okay. Not as I hope for as I felt like I read similar plots already with different authors.
The styling was not -it- . But I think the author can do more as she written this okay.


✨ spice level as one a safe side not too dramatic.
I think if you are into light romance with abit of sporty theme this is for you:)


✨ Thankyou for the opportunity to read this book for a honest review.



❤️ shaye.reads

dnf at 41%
unfortunately this just wasn’t for me, I thought i would love this as I love football and the fact it’s based in the UK felt right up my alley but it fell flat.
I don’t go into books looking for realistic scenarios but I was a bit like ??? with them setting up their own football club. It was the focal point up until about 18% and then the romance started but I didn’t buy it. I’m not a fan of insta love and it felt like that is what this was.
In no means is this a bad book it just wasn’t for me

This didn’t work for me, unfortunately.

I love sports romance and I’ve been looking for romances specifically about football for so long; this seemed perfect!

We follow Lily as she, her dad and her sister set up a new football club in their town as their local team is moving to a ground elsewhere. Our love interest Ben ends up being a coach for this new team, so I thought the forced proximity, kind of forbidden romance would work for me.

The main issue I had was Ben not being introduced early enough, his name is mentioned occasionally, but we don’t meet him until far too late in the novel. For me, I need there to have been some kind of interaction between the characters within the first 10% to give me something to go on. The fact it was almost 20% through the book when we meet Ben left me slightly bored and I considered putting this book down.

The writing was fine, but I felt some of the dialogue to be unnatural. A big pet peeve of mine is reading dialogue that people in real life just wouldn’t say out loud, I find it really off-putting and awkward.

Overall, this didn’t work for me as a romance. I think if I’d gone into this expecting a cute contemporary story, I’d have perhaps enjoyed it more, but it unfortunately ended up being a bit lacklustre, in my opinion.

Great romance book by a great author. Loved the story and plot line. The cover is beautiful and will definitely read from this author again

I thought this was very good and I will have to add this to the shop shelves. Thank you for the chance for us to review.

Cutesy rom-com, also nice to have a sports romance that isn’t centered around ice hockey!! Ben and Lily have such chemistry and I loved the found family aspect of the team 🤍

I thought this was really cute! I loved the family dynamics and seeing a community come together to rally behind the team, I know nothing about football but found I got really into how they started a new team and got it going. Ben and Lily were really cute and I enjoyed their chemistry, I just didn't enjoy the third act breakup but that's nothing new, it's my least favorite trope!

This is the first book I’ve read by this author

A light hearted easy read with a sports theme which is a little different from other books like this I’ve read

Enjoyable and fun

A story filled with laughter, love and a great family bond.
The characters were very likeable and relatable.
I enjoy a good sports romance and this one has solidified that fact for me.
The main characters were very sweet.
A great romance.

A fun sports romance. Filed with drama and fast-paced! If you like romcoms and sports themed then this is fun!

I really liked this book at first, but unfortunately I had to DNF it about halfway through. The plot went 0 to 100 too quickly too much, and I felt that there wasn't enough conflict/dynamics in the storyline to keep me engaged. I was very unconnected and just felt I couldn't continue reading. Thank you so much for the eARC!

The beginning was so promising for this book but it ended up very lackluster.

Strangely the most promising part of this story was the goal and buildup of creating a new FC football club. While VERY not realistic, it was a fun hallmark-ish work itself out plot.

Our MMC was very distant in my opinion, due to the narrator/writing style of the story. We were so completely in Lily’s head, being told things and never shown that it really kept the romance at arm’s length. There was a disconnect and in a book that is marketed as romance that isn’t a good thing. This was more football storyline than romance.

It was an easy read and I can see a few people enjoying this but I was not one.

Could not get into this book. Hated the main male character and couldn’t not root for them to be together which in turn make me dislike lily as well. In the end, had to force myself to finish it.

I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher, via NetGalley. This in no way impacted on my view.

For Lily and her family, the news that their local football team's home ground is being moved 50 miles away, with no thought given to the fans, they decide to form their own team. It's not going to be easy, but somehow Crawford United is born, and Lily is ready to use her marketing skills to make the team the best it can be. However, when notorious professional player Ben Pryce turns up at practice, and wants to help the team, Lily is torn between letting him, and wanting him as far away from the team as possible. Especially when she starts to develop feelings for him.

I'm going to say that while this isn't my favourite football sports romance, it definitely was something special. The idea of a homegrown, local team, being founded and run by a family, with all the successes and failures inherent in football, was new and fantastic. I really enjoyed the family dynamic between the Crawford's, and then the team when they were formed. That was truly the best part of the story. However, though the romance was fine, I didn't like the lying and really bad miscommunication between Ben and Lily. The third act breakup was hard, and I wasn't invested that much that I was desperate to know what came next.

Thank you NetGalley, Avon Books UK, and Becky Ward for the early access copy of Playing the Field.

Playing the Field follows Lily and Ben in a forbidden love story. When Lily’s football team is relocated 50 miles away, Lily, her father, and coach sister take matters in their own hands, and start a new club. Ben is a professional footballer, who needs to change his image after a bad interaction with a fan that landed him suspended. When Ben begins to help coach at the new club, sparks fly between Lily and Ben. But, what happens when the new clubs number one rule is not to mix business and pleasure?

Playing the Field is a great fit for those who love football, forbidden love stories, and great chemistry.