Sophie Reads YA

November

Stacking the Shelves: November 2nd 2024

10:00

monthly summary

October Summary

11:00

3 Stars

ARC Review: Playing the Field by Becky Ward

10:00

Playing the Field
Series: None
Author: Becky Ward
Published June 5th 2024 by Avon

Goodreads Synopsis
Fun, sexy and full of heart, Playing the Field is perfect for fans of Icebreaker and The Cheat Sheet as well as shows like Welcome to Wrexham and Ted Lasso.

When business student Lily’s local football club relocates to a city fifty miles away, she’s just as devastated as everyone else in her town. Determined to keep the community’s love of football alive, Lily, along with her dad and football coach sister, set up a brand-new club, Crawford United, with the dream of making it big.

When notorious professional player Ben Pryce shows up out of the blue to help coach their new team, everyone is shocked. Despite being a top Premier League striker, he's been temporarily suspended from his team for an altercation with a fan. Ben’s here to revamp his image, and the attraction between him and Lily is as deep as it is instant.

But rule number one of Crawford strictly no mixing business with pleasure.

Despite his bad-boy reputation, Lily’s convinced there’s more to Ben than meets the eye. Embarking on a secret whirlwind romance, she soon finds out that this player has a heart of gold.

But will everyone else be convinced?
Goodreads

Review
I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher, via NetGalley. This in no way impacted on my view.

For Lily and her family, the news that their local football team's home ground is being moved 50 miles away, with no thought given to the fans, they decide to form their own team. It's not going to be easy, but somehow Crawford United is born, and Lily is ready to use her marketing skills to make the team the best it can be. However, when notorious professional player Ben Pryce turns up at practice, and wants to help the team, Lily is torn between letting him, and wanting him as far away from the team as possible. Especially when she starts to develop feelings for him.

I'm going to say that while this isn't my favourite football sports romance, it definitely was something special. The idea of a homegrown, local team, being founded and run by a family, with all the successes and failures inherent in football, was new and fantastic. I really enjoyed the family dynamic between the Crawford's, and then the team when they were formed. That was truly the best part of the story. However, though the romance was fine, I didn't like the lying and really bad miscommunication between Ben and Lily. The third act breakup was hard, and I wasn't invested that much that I was desperate to know what came next.

Dates Read:
August 14-18, 2024

Rating
3 Stars