A Slowburn Romance inside a Small City with Ted Lasso flavors
The Lengthy Sport
Up to date Romance, Romantic Comedy, Multicultural & Interracial Romance
Atria Books
September 5, 2023
e book, paperback, audiobook
384
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
A disgraced soccer exec reluctantly enlists the assistance of a retired soccer star in teaching a youngsters’s workforce on this small-town love story within the vein of It Occurred One Summer season—from the New York Instances bestselling writer of The Spanish Love Deception.
Adalyn Reyes has spent years perfecting her day by day routine: get up at daybreak, drive to the Miami Flames FC places of work, strive her hardest to go away a mark, go dwelling, and repeat.
However her routine is disrupted when a video of her in an altercation with the workforce’s mascot goes viral. Fairly than fireplace her, the workforce’s proprietor—who occurs to be her father—sends Adalyn to middle-of-nowhere North Carolina, the place she’s tasked with turning across the struggling native soccer workforce, the Inexperienced Warriors, as a method to redeem herself. Her plans crumble upon discovering that the gamers put on tutus to observe (impractical), maintain pet goats (messy), and are afraid of Adalyn (counterproductive), and are nine-year-old children.
To make issues worse, additionally on the town is Cameron Caldani, goalkeeping prodigy whose presence is considerably of a thriller. Cam is the proper candidate to assist Adalyn, however after one very unlucky first encounter involving a rooster, Cam’s leg, and Adalyn’s bumper, he’s additionally set on operating her out of city. However banishment will not be an possibility for Adalyn. Not once more. Serving to this ragtag youngsters’s workforce is her street to redemption, and she or he is taking part in the lengthy recreation. With or with out Cam’s assist.
“Adalyn Reyes was lovely. And he or she was additionally a sizzling mess. She was a ravishing sizzling mess of an inconvenience I needed out of my hair.” —Cameron Caldani
There’s a lot to like about this launch from Elena Armas. The Lengthy Sport combines a sports activities romance trope inside a small city, with hints of Ted Lasso, and it hits identical to my favourite grumpy sunshine romances.
The Lengthy Sport is my first by Elena Armas. Once I was informed that Elena Armas writes slowburn romances, I used to be instantly intrigued. Sports activities romance mixed with a slowburn romance instantly had my consideration. Someo of my favourite romances are sports activities primarily based and written by an writer who writes completely slowburn romances (if you understand you understand).
“I ponder who made you imagine you don’t need to be fussed over,” he mentioned so merely and truthfully that I might solely blink.
Adalyn is the daughter of the well-known Miami Soccer (Soccer, for People) Membership proprietor. Adalyn has discovered herself within the heart of the blowback from a viral clip of her attacking the workforce’s mascot. That is the place a little bit of thriller throughout the story takes the forefront of Adalyn’s journey all through The Lengthy Sport. Adalyn is tight-lipped in regards to the surrounding circumstances that leads as much as the viral video catastrophe. In the end, Adalyn is shipped on a redemption mission to a small city in North Carolina. Her objective is to make the native ladies soccer membership right into a profitable workforce.
The roadblock she encounters comes within the type of one former soccer famous person, Cameron Caldani. Not solely is Cameron (Cam) a surly coach (Coach Roy Kent—is that you just?), he’s additionally the person who owns the cat who gained’t depart her alone, and likewise occurs to stay on the identical property she’s renting for the summer season. By way of a sequence of what can solely be described as comedically unlucky occasions, Adalyn and Cam are regularly put into conditions collectively that finally thrust their bonds cast in animosity into the fires of want and find yourself hopelessly gone for one another. All of this whereas having to work collectively to get these ladies a profitable season.
“I’ll all the time offer you greater than what you ask for, love. Even whenever you don’t know what you need.”
Don’t neglect this can be a slowburn. The glances, tentative touches, and the truth that Cameron reveals affection by means of acts of service, whereas Adalyn finally wants phrases of affirmation create such scrumptious pressure and angst. The Lengthy Sport performs out till the final pages and I wouldn’t be doing my due diligence if I didn’t warn readers in regards to the twist on the finish that I didn’t see coming. This twist additionally units up the subsequent (standalone) e-book within the sequence, which I will probably be fortunately including to my very own studying record.
I actually adored The Lengthy Sport. Elena Armas writes such robust girls, males who’re so light with their actions however grumpy of their phrases, and scenes which are so humorous that I discovered myself laughing most of the time, so mainly, you should learn this e-book.
Jes is a self-proclaimed bookworm, who just lately moved from the PNW again to the Midwest. When her nostril isn’t in a e-book, she’s spending time along with her husband, two children, and her three fur infants, or exploring the globe. She additionally firmly believes that it’s best to begin the day with espresso, and finish the day in mattress with a very good e-book.
