Review: The Striker - Book #1 Gods of the Game Series - Ana Huang - October 2024 I'll be honest with you Ana Huang and I have had quite the complicated relationship. Her books have been a bit of a mixed bag for me over the years, landing anywhere from absolute favourites to DNFs (did-not-finishes, for those not deep in the bookish rabbit hole). So when I packed my bags for our Readers Retreat in Taupō last week, I finally decided it was time to give The Striker a proper chance. It had been sitting on my shelf since release, quietly judging me every time I walked past. You know that feeling. We've all been there. And oh my goodness  how did it take me this long? I'm so glad I finally cracked the spine on this one, because The Striker completely won me over. At its heart, it's a football romance and when I say football, I do mean soccer, just so we're all on the same page! Our hero, Asher Donovan, is an absolute dreamboat of a soccer champion who has just switched ...

  Review: Dethroning Crown - Lila Felix - October 2014 Crown Sterling is a soccer god. He has the world at his fingertips or so he thought. One wrong move on the field and everything unravels in an instant. An injury sidelines him, and just like that, the contracts are withdrawn, the sponsors disappear, and the money dries up. Crown finds himself in the middle of nowhere, living in his Uncle's apartment building , an Uncle he hasn't laid eyes on since childhood. Enter Lyra, his next-door neighbour. A model who has survived the nightmare of being stalked, she carries the weight of a scandal that sent ripples through her small town and changed the course of her life. Her relationship with her own reflection is complicated when your privacy can be violated at any moment, learning to feel safe in your own skin becomes its own battle. What unfolds is a story about two people on the edges of their own lives, finding each other and, in doing so, finding themselves. Can Crown and Lyr...

Against the Run of Play Kiru Taye (Viva City FC Books, #2) Publication date: May 28th 2024 Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance, Sports Step into the thrilling world of professional footballers in the Viva City FC Books series! Soccer player and reformed bad boy, Asher Uzodimma, is struggling through a challenging season. Due to a string of injuries, he finds himself relegated to the bench during crucial games as his team battles for promotion into the league’s top division. Frustrated, he falls back on some old habits and escapes to find solace where he encounters the vibrant Vivi. She has zero interest in celebrities. Yet, spending only two days with her brings a sense of calm and stability back into his life. She possesses all the qualities he never realised he desired in a woman, and his yearning to be in her presence grows stronger with each passing day. Nevertheless, when he finally learns her full identity, she quickly becomes the last woman anyone wants for him. Viva...

Review: The Long Game - Book #1 Long Game Series - Elena Armas - September 2023 Adalyn Reyes has always tried to be cool, calm, and collected but when she snaps and ends up assaulting the team Mascot and the video goes viral, her dad isn't happy and it looks like extreme damage control is needed. So he is sending her to the middle of nowhere to coach a children's soccer team. The thing though is that when Adalyn gets there, hiding out in the middle of nowhere is retired soccer champion Cameron Caldani. The pair clash of course at first but then you see sparks flying and then eventually the pair do get together through some ups and downs and bumps and twists along the road. The book was a good sports romance but then now comes the downside of The Long Game, it was so slow burn that it felt like the book went on forever. Elena Armas, bless her heart and some readers love slow-burn romances - she is the Queen of them. I need to have my books a bit more fast-paced otherwise my m...