A review by anaraeofbooks
The Long Game by Elena Armas

lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I wanted to like this book more than I did. I had heard a lot of good things about The Spanish Love Deception but hadn't read it yet. I had just finished a sports romance and wanted another to follow it up. It didn't have as much on-page sports as I would have liked but I would have been able to overlook that if the relationship had been a little more believable. Overall it's an easy, mildly enjoyable, and bingeable read but don't expect a lot of sports centric action or fully developed characters.

Mild spoilers ahead:

Throughout the book, you never get a reason for why the FMC loves her job working for a soccer team as much as she does. She's so determined to work for the pro soccer team her dad owns even though he tells her more than once that she can work anywhere else. That lack of reason behind her motivation makes a lot of the book fall flat for me. Why does she put up with all the shit that happens to her for a job that we don't even know why she's fighting so hard for it? Which leads me to the MMC, although I liked him for the most part, I wish he had been better balanced between knight in shinning armor and letting Adalyn stand on her own two feet.

Honestly one of my favorite parts of this book is when Adalyn mentions her and Cameron are both going to therapy because god do they need it.