Unfortunately, I didn't love this book. Whilst I thought the concept was really interesting and I loved the community vibes, the story felt very detached. I found the writing style was very fact-based, rather than descriptive, and it could be overwritten at times. It was like I was being told the logical feelings that a person could have if certain things were said to them, rather than being brought into the characters' lives and being made to feel what they were feeling. I wish the author the best of luck with the release though!

Really enjoyed this story! Such a cute, funny book. Loved the romance between Lily and Ben, although I do think the Romance is more of a subplot. The overall plot of the book was really enjoyable. I loved the team and really routed for them throughout. It was great to see them succeed in the end. The side-characters were great. Would definitely recommend this book!

Ben surprises everyone when he shows up to coach the team of amateurs Lily and her family have pulled together after their football team moved. He's the grumpy one, the one who has to remake his reputation while Lily is optimistic. I'm not a football fan but I did enjoy Ted Lasso and this has all those vibes, with a little rom com thrown in. It's a light fun read that will have you rooting for the team and the couple.

A fantastic novel, I loved the premise of this story. Its based upon the sale of Wimbledon in the early 2000's to Milton Keynes and the birth of AFC Wimbledon. I'm a big football fan, so it was good to see the start of getting a football club off the ground. I also enjoyed the fact hat once the football club had launched, they had a rocky start not winning any games, it takes ime for a side to gel together. I also enjoyed the secret, but not so secret by the end romance of Lily and Ben, not all footballers are naughty! Thanks to Net Galley for the advanced copy

This was a cute romance with a sweet story of an underdog soccer team, set in England. I really liked the idea of the premise of fans setting up their own team and the challenges and logistics that comes with it.

The love story was ok and frankly I think detracted a little from the soccer team story, which was really the focus of the book. The writing was also juvenile at times, especially during the somewhat random romantic scenes that appeared earlier in the book (yet then not again). And the MC’s love interest did some things around the middle of the book as part of a PR stunt that somewhat got just accepted as is and never discussed again, which didn’t feel great for the MC.

Overall an easy light read.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

As a Ted Lasso fan, I really enjoyed the premise of this and seeing a footballer with a bad reputation get his redemption. The romance was sweet and done really well. Great side characters and friends/family. Love seeing the underdog team be successful!
I liked that the romance was somewhat of a subplot versus being the whole focus.

I will post a review and edit on instagram on release day @thatbookishteach

This was a fun, light and fluffy sports romance book. It was an easy read and one I read in one evening. It was cute and enjoyable, but wasn’t anything groundbreaking or new. I would recommend for a fun, summer read x

This gave me all the sweet romcom vibes, it’s was funny, light, but very enjoyable! I enjoyed the characters chemistry a ton.

With the local football team moving to a new club miles away, Lily, her father and sister decide to start a completely new team made up from enthusiastic amateur players. A story of community spirit, heightened by the interest of a premier league player with a dreadful reputation as a womaniser and dirty play. But is this the truth? A lovely, feel good story, loved it.

Rating: 4/5
Spiciness: 2/5

If you've a fan of Ted Lasso and romance, this is the perfect book for you! Lily's family football team is moving out of their city, but Lily's dad is determined to create their own team to keep the friendships and good times going. Ben is a professional footballer with a bad boy reputation who just happens to be the older brother of one of Lily's new players.

This book has great characters not just the leads. I love all the players, the friends, and the fans. This may sound shallow of me but I normally hate when a contemporary romance book goes on and on about the main character's life outside of the romance part. But I actually really enjoyed Lily's family and reading about the team's journey so I wasn't mad when I didn't meet the MMC until later. I love how easy and fun Lily and Ben's relationship was and I was about to rate this book 5 stars but sadly there was some OWD at the end and I kinda lost interest in the MMC. To be clear, there is no cheating as far as I'm concerned but I don't think Ben handle the situation properly and it gave me some apprehesion towards him. By the HEA, I was less in love with him than I had been before. Still a good book overall!

Note: Thanks to NetGalley and Avon Books UK for the advanced copy. This review is left voluntarily and is purely my own.

What a delightful book full of fun and so easy to read and enjoy and I loved the characters especially Lily and Ben following their story plus a few comedy moments.
Becky Ward brought the characters to life and you really feel for the main characters well done.
Would highly recommend.
Look forward to reading more books by this author.

This was an okay story for those that have been watching ted lasso in a continuous loop for ages. But it was lacking. We have a newly created underdog football team in England, which was about the first quarter of the book, we have a need to refine his image pro footballer, Ben, who after coming to see his younger brother practice for the newly created team, finds himself only having eyes for Lily, a just finished uni young twenty something, who helped create this team with her dad and sister. The two start hanging out, building such a wholesome friendship and then feelings. Based on the summary I was expecting a forbidden romance but it was more like a they want to keep things on the DL due to their involvement with her team and him trying to reform his image. They're heart eye moments were meltworthy and thoughtful but the romance was not the main plot of the book. Between soccer and all the side characters, there wasn't a lot of room for the reader to fall in love with the two MCs.

A fun read yes, but ultimately I wanted more from this story.

Thank you Netgalley and Avon Books UK
for the ARC in exchange for my review!

Playing the field was such a fun read! I feel like it's rare to read romances that also touch on the theme of family and community as well as this one did.

The pacing felt really good, the only exception was I felt a bit of a drop in momentum once everything had been established plot wise in the middle of the book. But I loved how it felt like we followed Crawford United from it's initial stage all the way through and that moved at a really good speed. I also love how the Crawford United was also a mechanism that helped introduce the reader to the family and get to know Lily's world better. A family run football team felt really refreshing for a sports romance.

There are a couple of plot points that felt a little bit confusing, which is the only reason this book isn't getting a solid 4-5 star rating. Firstly, Lily's boyfriend is only sprinkled in the beginning so I feel like we join her at an almost awkward time because their relationship occurs so early on in the book that I didn't really feel any kind of way or emotion towards that part of the plot. Similarly, Lily being a student feels a little confusing. We gather that she's at uni, but it feels like a part of her story that is so distant from everything else going on that her academic success similarly didn't make me feel anything.

I loved Ben & Lily they were really fun characters. Ben is so quick, witty and the scene where he gives the kid a haribo is beyond adorable. He has such a heart of gold but I liked that he wasn't 100% perfect the whole time it made his character feel more realistic. The banter between Lily and Ben was immaculate. Don't get me started on the dinner date scene in the vineyard where the scene is full to the brim with sexual chemistry and such good light banter - it was my personal highlight of the whole book.

A great cosy romance that has such a wonderful focus on community! I loved the specific references to the O2 arena and the jubilee line, once again this felt really realistic to me. I would've loved some more character descriptions as I didn't have any super memorable images of Ben or Lily in my head but other than that it was great.

I really loved this book. The romance was so cute and I enjoyed the banter. The story line was very good and the setting was amazing.

This was a fun time with lots of slow burn banter which I love in a romance
I loved the two main characters and the family dynamic in the book

Would recommend

3 stars

I have recently been enjoying sports romances and when i saw this as a request I had to read it and ahead of time.

This was good, it wasnt the best romance I have read and the writing style and banter was very simplistic. I loved however the slow burn with the two main characters, i loved the family dynamic and the way the community came together and helped out etc

Would recommend

3 stars

A cute, albeit predictable, rom com going from friends to lovers and kind of enemies as well to start with really. I liked the sense of camaraderie within the book, especially the idea of building a football team from the ground up and the true perseverance and determination it takes to do that, let alone solely with your family! When Ben appears, he's refreshing, and he's got that bad boy status, but he takes time to prove himself until the going gets tough. It does very much become a romance you want to work out and you expect to, but it's written in such a way that you're not entirely sure if it will or not!

Thank you to NetGalley, Avon Books Becky Ward for the e-ARC.

I thought this was a well written story especially the football element; the romance, however, did feel secondary to the plot.

Lily and her family decide to start their own football club, after their home team announces that they're moving away. With very little, to none experience of how a football club works, it's literally building a team from the ground up; there is a lot of info dumping and world building with how it's led as a sports narrative, for the first half of the book. There, she meets Ben Pyrce, who has landed himself in the headlines recently, for brutish behaviour that has resulted to him being suspended from the team he plays for.

With the newfound time that he now has available, he offers to be an advisor, as someone who has experience with being in the Premier League, and how the ins and out work within a team. From there, the budding romance between him and Lily starts. They're instantly smitten with one another and date in secret, as they don't want to draw more attention to him (with how the media already portray him) nor affect how early things are starting out for the club.

As expected, Ben is soon returning to Millford, the team he plays for, and one of the agreements set by his management, is that he's get a girlfriend, someone whom they already have in mind for the role. It led to an inevitable third act break up, and understandably so, insecurities on Lily's part. I really wasn't a fan of those turn of events; I think the plot was strong enough to survive a third act break up; they could have just done the long-distance thing, which was already a contributing factor for them, as a narrative. I just cannot even begin to imagine how it would feel; to pretend to be ok with seeing your partner date someone else, for publicity. I get why Lily agreed to it, but I was also frustrated because of it.

While I enjoyed the story for the most part for what it was, I didn't really connect with the characters much. I feel like things could have been executed a bit better, in terms of the character development, which I think would have enhanced the plot and narrative more.

Typical ro!ance but I ate it,very fluffy beautifully written and I'm obsessed with Lily shows him who's boss

I just wanted to hug all the characters in this one. They just needed it. I really enjoyed Lily and Ben as our protagonist. They were really fantastic and I loved seeing them grow throughout the book.