The Long Game (24 in 2024 #6)

 

Author: Elena Armas
Title: The Long Game
Publisher: Atria
Date Published: 09/05/2023

Read Dates: 03/18/2024- 03/21/2024
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Long Game is a dual-POV enemies-to-lovers romance. It’s the story of Adalyn Reyes, the daughter of the Miami Flames soccer team’s owner, who sends her to Green Oaks NC after a PR disaster goes viral. There she gets involved with a children’s soccer team, and their reluctant coach, retired soccer player Cameron Caldani. The two butt heads immediately but keep getting thrown together and forced to work as a team.

I loved this book, it might be my new favorite Elena Armas story! I love how independent Adalyn is, and how she learns to rely on others without giving up on herself. I loved how fiercely Cam takes care of her, supports her and encourages her to slay her own dragons. And apparently I have a thing for praise and nicknames, which Cameron delivers! 🔥

A disgraced soccer exec reluctantly enlists the help of a retired soccer star in coaching a children’s team in this smalltown love story in the vein of Ted Lasso and It Happened One Summer —from the New York Times bestselling author of The Spanish Love Deception.

Adalyn Reyes has spent years perfecting her daily routine: wake up at dawn, drive to the Miami Flames FC offices, try her hardest to leave a mark, go home, and repeat.

But her routine is disrupted when a video of her in an altercation with the team’s mascot goes viral. Rather than fire her, the team’s owner—who happens to be her father—sends Adalyn to middle-of-nowhere North Carolina, where she’s tasked with turning around the struggling local soccer team, the Green Warriors, as a way to redeem herself. Her plans crumble upon discovering that the players wear tutus to practice (impractical), keep pet goats (messy), and are terrified of Adalyn (counterproductive), and are nine-year-old kids.

To make things worse, also in town is Cameron Caldani, goalkeeping prodigy whose presence is somewhat of a mystery. Cam is the perfect candidate to help Adalyn, but after one very unfortunate first encounter involving a rooster, Cam’s leg, and Adalyn’s bumper, he’s also set on running her out of town. But banishment is not an option for Adalyn. Not again. Helping this ragtag children’s team is her road to redemption, and she is playing the long game. With or without Cam’s help.