I love a romcom with a misunderstood, bad boy. Not that we particularly know what it is that Ben's done so wrong, just that there's been something.
When the Crawford family set up a local football team, you quickly started to root for an underdog cause, and I could totally picture everything. It was so small-town, family fantastic.
Of course Ben and Lily quickly fall for each other, and when Ben goes back to Milwall, you'd be forgiven for wanting to give him a slap round the back of the head and telling him to wise up. Lily, luckily, has Phoebs and Crawfors United to keep her spirits up. But there's a happy ending all round, so I was overjoyed with that.
It's a fun, fast read, perfect for fans of romcoms with a bit of added spice.

He might be a player but she will teach him some new moves...

Lily and her family decide to start a new football club when their favorite club moves too far away.

Ben Is a "bad boy" football player who receives a suspension due to an interaction with a fan. His brother is selected for the new football club, so he offers to help coach during his suspension.

When this book was compared to Icebreaker I could not wait to get my hands on it. However, the main story line in this book was how to start a new football club. It read like a "how to" book. At about 20% we start to get a little romance but even then, it is overshadowed by the creation of the new team.

Things really picked up around 80% and then quickly you get distracted by the team issues.

I really liked Ben and Lily. I thought they were both good characters, I just wanted more of them and their romance and less of the team building. Overall, I thought the writing was good, I feel like I could start a football team, I was just expecting a romance and that is not really what the author delivered.

Thank you NetGalley and Avon Books UK for this title. This is my honest review.

I enjoyed reading Playing the Field. Ben was sweet and Lily was a strong female lead. I didn't like the fake relationship with Georgie at all and Lily's feelings were 100% justified and Ben should have been more understanding. Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy.

This was a simple, fun, easy and quick read. The perfect type of book for your holiday, beach, pool kind of read. This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and I would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

Playing the field is a sweet football romance. Felt the focus was more on the new team than the characters romance how ever was a nice easy read.

Really enjoyed this story and all it brought to me, the main characters were well written and easy to like.

I have reduced the review by one star as I found some of the sex scenes slightly more graphic then the rest of the book called for but that is personal opinion.

I loved this book will definitely be reading again. I had never read anything by this author before but will definitely be reading more of there work

This was cute, but it was a little bit long and there was way more information than was needed about setting the new club up.

Also I feel like the synopsis was super misleading. It makes it seem like there’s a rule at the club that they’re not allowed to date and that was not the case at all, they just decided to keep the secret there was never anybody that said dating the players was off limits.

3.5/5 stars

Lily is a massive football fan after her team has to moved miles away her dad and her sister decides to create their own. They gather the community to join together to set up a team. Ben is a football player who has been suspended from his premier league team his brother joins the team. This book is an easy and enjoyable read. The book includes forbidden romance. . It definitely isn’t my favourite sports romance but it was definitely enjoyable. Thank to Becky Ward and Net Galley for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review.

Lily and her family start their own football club after their home team moves away, despite having little experience. They meet Ben Pyrce, a Premier League player suspended for bad behavior, who offers to advise them. A secret romance blooms between Lily and Ben, but complications arise when Ben returns to his team and must fake a relationship for publicity, leading to their breakup. The story explores the challenges of their relationship, though the execution of character development and the third act breakup could have been improved. Despite enjoying the overall story, the characters felt underdeveloped.

"Playing the Field" by Becky Ward is a contemporary sports-themed romance novel story that follows Lily, a football enthusiast, who, after her local club relocates, teams up with her Dad and her sister to establish a new football club, Crawford United. The plot thickens when the arrival of Ben Pryce, a Premier League striker with a notorious reputation who has been suspended, makes an offer to help coach the new team in order to improve his tainted public reputation.

The chemistry between Lily and Ben is immediate and electrifying, leading to a classic "will-they-won't-they" dynamic that drives the story. Lily's steadfast rule against mixing business with pleasure is tested as she navigates her growing attraction to Ben, who, despite his bad-boy exterior, shows depth and potential for change.

I enjoyed the humour, the build of their romance, and the spice. With its mix of grumpy/sunshine trope, forbidden romance, and secret dating, the novel successfully combines elements that romance readers love​​.

"Playing the Field" is recommended for those looking for a fun and heartfelt romance with a sporty twist.

I'm a big fan of soccer/football romances and this one was a new-to-me author so I was excited to meet these new characters! Unfortunately the book's plot was not as cohesive as it could've been and the romance didn't flow well with the sports storyline. I needed to see more development and characters needed to be more fleshed out. The romance was fast-paced and I think that choice might've hurt the relationship development for these characters. While I enjoyed their background and the sports aspect of building a football team, I just wanted to see more! Fun book but needs more development.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon Books UK for the advance reader copy.

I found this a hard book to get into it. There is a lot of exposition in the beginning and the story feels like it’s more about the football than the romance.

There’s a few tropes I don’t personally like included in the story and that played a large part in my rating of the book.

Unfortunately, the layout foe this book was totally wonky and I wasn't able to finish it. The premise is great, and I'm excited to see this book as an actual physical.book, or an ebook with better formatting.

As someone who love football (soccer) I was so excited to receive Playing the Field as an ARC for an honest review. Now as someone who loves romance I do believe that the romance came second to the sports aspect of this book but I personally did not mind since I do love soccer. The story is about Lily who is in her final year of uni for a business degree who starts a soccer club with her dad and sister after their home team decides to leave. Then premier league legend Ben Pryce comes around and starts helping out after he is suspended from his team for anger issues. The entire story is a feel good rom com with a sports aspect to it. I kind of wish the romance between Lily and Ben was more of a slow burn but over all I did enjoy this book. Any person that enjoys soccer or knows soccer will enjoy it.

I liked the concepts in this book individually but as a whole it didn’t flow well for me. I felt like the romance was secondary to the sports aspect and even though their relationship was sweet, I personally am not into the insta love.

I did enjoy the relationships between Lily and her family. It was fun to see them bring their idea of a football team to life and all the support they got from their community. Definitely gave Ted Lasso vibes!

I liked the concept of this book. It had a nice cozy family feel. The idea of starting a football club was super cute. I did not love the romance as much as I thought I would but it was still sweet. Overall, I would recommend this book for fans of sports romance!

As a massive football fan who recently binged Ted Lasso, I couldn’t resist picking up Playing the Field by Becky! This story follows Lily, a uni student working on her business degree, and Premier League bad boy Ben Pryce. When Lily’s home town football club, Hamcott Park, decides to sell their ground and move away, it hits her family hard. Growing up with her single dad taking her and her sister Cassie to games, the club was a huge part of their lives. Determined not to lose that, Lily’s dad starts a new team, Crawford United, with Cassie as head coach, himself as director, and Lily handling club finances and fundraising.

Ben, suspended for an altercation with a fan, volunteers to help out, and sparks fly between him and Lily. Watching their story unfold was such a joy! I loved the strong sense of community as the family rallied together to create the new team, with local support funding their efforts. Despite his bad-boy image in the media, Ben turns out to be kind and understanding, reminding us that press portrayals aren’t always accurate. Ben and Lily’s relationship really is adorable, and their support for each other is heart-warming.

Personally I feel this book is definitely a new adult romance and in my early 20s, I would have eaten this up, but at 35, the insta-love and Ben’s PR rehab storyline felt a bit less believable at times. Some parts of the plot also dragged a bit, with a lot of detail about football and club creation that could have been condensed. However I did really enjoy the relationships in the story, such as Lily and her family, the boys in the team and the supporters.

Overall, Playing the Field is a charming read with a lovely romance and a great message about community and support

This wasn’t the book for me. The opening of the book is very exposition heavy and some of the writing felt a bit clunky and the dialogue wasn’t always natural. The plot took a while to get going and this is where I hit my main issue with the book overall, which was the romance. This has been marketed as a romance book but I didn’t personally feel that it was, the romance felt like an afterthought and the MMC isn’t actually introduced on-page till 19% of the way through, which for me personally felt far too late for a romance.

Anyway, the romance itself is perfectly nice. They had decent chemistry and some cute scenes together. The love scenes didn’t entirely work for me, but overall the romance was fine, even if it didn’t blow me away. I really didn’t like the main conflict between them though – this felt very forced and his decisions didn’t make a lot of sense to me. I sort of understood what this part of the plot was going for but I didn’t get why as a grown adult Ben didn’t put his foot down about it, considering how much hurt it was causing. It didn’t make sense to me.

The main focus of this book, in my opinion, was the external plot of setting up the football club. By necessity this plotline was quite complicated and it required a lot of set up. Whilst I understood this I didn’t find it very fun to read and the writing was very much telling, not showing.

It wasn’t that it was a bad book – it’s a very gentle, easy read and I think if you’re a fan of Ted Lasso then this could work for you. It has a lot of similar themes to that show, such as the underdog story and some of the characters felt similar in tone. But it didn’t really work for me unfortunately. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing a free copy of this book.

Content Notes: References to violence (off-page), homophobia (off-page), on-page sex, divorce (FMC’s parents, in past).

First I would like to thank Avon Books UK for providing an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This is the story of Lily, university student, who starts a local football (soccer) team with her dad and sister to replace the higher league team who abandoned the town. As the new team, Crawford United, starts to develop in walks Ben Pryce, Premiere League striker and brother to a teammate, who volunteers to help the team in whatever way he can. As Lily and Ben start spending more time together they start a secret relationship as they don't want to distract from getting the team ready to play. When Ben goes back to his Premiere League team, him and Lily have to decide what is best for them, a long distance relationship or is it to hard to be so far apart.

What I Loved:
- Crawford United, its a team that was developed after frustration with the business of "big football" and it was a family affair throughout always thinking about the town
- Lily, she is in charge of the business of starting a new club before she even finished her business degree I was really impressed by her ability and just her overall desire to do everything right with the club even when it affected her personally
- The team, the group of guys they bring together to make up the team are a rag tag group of lads who really do love the sport and want to make the town proud, they also step up to help when needed and just want what is best for each other
- Secret Romance, when Ben and Lily decide to officially date they want to keep it on the DL to make sure it doesn't distract from the team but I love when have the people can tell right away and this was definitely one of those situations

Overall as a huge football/soccer fan I really enjoyed this book. There were parts specifically when Ben goes back to his Prem team that got me pretty frustrated since the situation was kind of absurd. Other than that I just loved the story of development of the team, business and even the town's support. If you are a person who likes Welcome to Wrexham or any underdog story with a side of romance then I would absolutely recommend you pick this up and then want to watch all of the soccer/football games you can.