The Long Game by Elena Armas (ARC Review)

Title: The Long Game
Author: Elena Armas
Type: Fiction
Genre: Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Publisher: Atria Books (Simon & Schuster)
Date published: September 5, 2023

A complimentary digital copy of this book was kindly provided by Simon & Schuster Canada in exchange for an honest review.

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.

⤖ My Review ⬻

My experience with The Long Game by Elena Armas was a bit of an interesting one. And truth be told, I encountered some hurdles along the way that dampened my excitement, especially considering my anticipation since the buzz around The Spanish Love Deception. Two main factors contributed to my struggle—the female lead, Adalyn, and the pacing, which I found a tad slow for my taste. But bear with me, as I’ll go over what I liked as well!

Adalyn’s personality and decision-making didn’t quite click with me, creating a disconnect that affected my engagement with the story. Additionally, the pacing, although deliberate, made my progress through the book slower than is typical for me with contemporary romance novels. However, amidst these challenges, there were elements that managed to hold my interest, preventing me from entirely putting the book down.

One of the saving graces was the male lead, Cameron, who I found rather likable and wanted to learn more about and spend more time with. The cast of side characters—including the kids and also animals—injected vitality into the narrative, keeping me invested and intrigued despite my struggles with certain aspects. Despite my difficulties, the book’s overall storyline did have its charms, especially toward the conclusion where everything came together. I do wonder, since I read an uncorrected proof, if some things that didn’t click for me—particularly regarding Adalyn—were changed by the time The Long Game made it to print. I will have to look into that if I get my hands on a finished copy.

And I will say that some of her struggles I did click with, and did end up rooting for her—I don’t even know if I could say that I disliked her, but rather that I didn’t like her enough? While my experience with The Long Game wasn’t seamless or as positive as I’d anticipated (having heard nothing but praise for Armas’ books thus far), I still hold interest in exploring the author’s other works including The Spanish Love Deception and The American Roommate Experiment both of which I bought for myself, as well as the sequel in the Long Game series, The Short List which I just added to my Goodreads TBR (even though it doesn’t yet have a description).

⤖ About the Author ⬻

Elena is a Spanish writer, a self confessed hopeless romantic and a proud book hoarder. Now, she’s also the author of International bestseller and soon to be adapted to film The Spanish Love Deception; and instant New York Times bestsellers The American Roommate Experiment and The Long Game. Her books are being translated to over 30 languages–which is bananas, if you ask her. She hopes her stories make your heart skip a beat or two, your palms a little sweaty, and your cheeks flush in that rosy pink that makes other people want to peek at the page you are reading.