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.

Unfortunately I struggled to connect with this one. There was just too much football talk for me. If you’re a big football fan, you’d probably enjoy this. The romance was sweet but overall it just didn’t hit for me.

If you enjoy sports romances, I’d still recommend giving this a go because it may work for you!

DNF I wanted to like this one so bad because I love soccer/football romances but unfortunately the beginning of this book moved too slow for me. The world building/development of the club distracted from the story and romance, and, as a reader, made me lose interest.

I would still recommend this book to people who enjoy soccer romances, though.

I’ve gone backwards and forwards on my rating for this book. There were aspects I really enjoyed but others that I really struggled with.

I think unless you are a diehard football fan (which I’m not) you’ll struggle to get in to this. There was a lot of background in the first few chapters and as someone without a huge interest in the sport I found it tough to get through. Once we got to the start of the romance story line the book did pick up but I just didn’t buy into the MCs as much as I’d have liked.

The romance was sweet and there was sections that I powered through but overall it fell a little flat for me.

The authors writing style was really enjoyable though so I’m keen to try one of her books that isn’t related to football to see if I enjoy that.

This book gives you major Ted Lasso vibes. This book can be slow to get through and sport talk can be in depth. When the romance came it was good but i was waiting around for it

I .hate givinga a books a little stars rating, but what can I say I just didn't feel this one.
I didn't connect to the MCs, to the storyline.
It was cute, but not for me.3 stars

Thank you to NetGalley, Avon books and Becky Ward for the e-arc
I’m not sure if it’s the fact I’m seriously missing football now the season is over but the football storyline felt quite nostalgic and filled that hole attending home games has left. That part of the story felt well fleshed out, whereas the romance seemed more of an afterthought.
The ending of the sorry felt less fleshed out and was rushed. Overall though if you’re a football fan and don’t mind some romance you should enjoy the story!

Could Lily and Ben actually have a public relationship?

Lily Crawford had been raised attending Hamcott Park football club matches with her father and sister. Their traditions changed when the owners of the team decided to move the team. But their response was to start a new team from scratch with amateur players resulting in Crawford United.

But everything changes when Millford City striker Ben Pryce shows up at a practice even though he’s been suspended from his team for six weeks. Ben needs an image change and maybe helping Crawford United would help? But there is something about Lily but she doesn’t want anybody to know especially her family.

I liked the beginning of Playing the Field and the end but the middle fell flat between Lilly and Ben. I would have given it 3 ½ stars if I could.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book from the author and NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Very good. Loved the characters, felt they were very relatable. The story was just a perfect love story. Well written and the writing just flowed and I was surprised to have found myself at the end of the book.

I don't usually like to give low ratings but this book failed to hook me from the very start. Suffice to say I got to 20% of the book and the characters only talked about how to set up a new football team, how to get sponsorship and stuff like this. It felt more like an how-to book than a romcom.

When we got the romantic portion of the books - very, very little romantic portion - I didn't care for it. It didn't sweep me off my feet, it was not the centre of the book.

I hate third act break up trope, but this one was really stupid and pretty avoidable with a simple conversation.

I don't think this book should be compared to Icebreaker, The Cheat Sheet and Ted Lasso. The first two focused on the romance portion a lot, and Ted Lasso was funny end enjoyable. Everything this book is not.

Still, thank you NetGalley and Avon Books UK for the ARC, sorry it wasn't my cup of tea

This was such a cute and quick read. I really enjoyed the aspect of them creating a football team. It was a different story line I haven't read before and it captured my attention. Ben and Lily had wonderful chemistry and banter. The grumpy/sunshine trope was done really well and I enjoyed Ben's character. I always love a grumpy MMC. Also, the side characters added depth to the story that made it more enjoyable as a whole.

Thank you Becky Ward and, Netgalley, and Avon for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Unfortunately, I didn't fall in love with this book but I did find the romance between Lily and Ben really cute. I did like the sense of community that it gave but I did find the writing style a little hard to follow at times, so it did take me awhile to read and I did have to keep retrying and going back to it.

After going back and forth on ratings, I decided on 2 stars.

Just starting the book was boring. There was too much information being thrown at you that I couldn't enjoy the story properly. I get that the book centers around this small family, creating their own team after their home team moved locations away from the fans. It just felt off with all the info being thrown in your face.

While the steam and spice were ok, I felt like the romance between the MMC and the FMC was so so. The book, in general, felt like a sports movie where the little guy wins but had a small secondary storyline of a romantic interest that he kisses at the end. My point with that analogy is that I would definitely not classify the book as a romance, and would I definitely not compare this book to Icebreaker!

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon Books UK for an ARC!