Publisher: Simon and Schuster Canada, September 5, 2023

Format: ebook

Pages: 384

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

Summary (Goodreads):

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.

My review:

Read if you like: enemies to lovers, small town romance
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Adalyn loves working for the Miami Flames but after an unfortunate PR scandal, she is sent to the middle of nowhere to help out a struggling soccer team. There she meets Cameron, the coach and a former soccer star. The two butt heads, but the more they get to know each other, the more like spending time in each other’s company.
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This book was really fun. I loved the tension between Adalyn and Cameron and I thought the enemies to lovers was done well! I kept wanting to scream at Adalyn that her father sucks and she needs to get away from him, and Cameron was the perfect supporter!
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Thank you Simon and Schuster Canada for the copy of this book.