Book Review: The Long Game
Elena Armas is the writer of the fabulous Spanish Love Deception and a lover of slow-burn romance. She is good, made fabulously famous on TikTok, and adored by BookTokkers worldwide. What sets her books apart is that they have substance. Clearly, there has been some research into character styles, and thankfully, there is always character development, which is not always the case with books made popular on the platform. ‘The Long Game’ is her third book, set in the cutthroat world of football - or as they call it in America, “Soccer”. It is also a book that rngs with relevance today - everyone has a mobile phone that takes high-quality video, it takes one mistake and you can go viral for all the wrong reasons, which is exactly what happens to our heroine Adalyn.
The plot is funny: Adalyn gets exiled by her father to the middle of nowhere North Carolina to help with a philanthropic endeavour sponsored by the team her father owns to save face and hide her face, really, until the video and the scandal blow over. What she doesn't expect is to run into the former darling of the Premier League ‘Cameron’ or “just coach Cam” in this middle of nowhere North Carolina. I mean, it's not hard to see where this is going. I could practically write the plot myself when they met. And no, dear reader, it was not a charming ‘meet-cute’. But that added to the fun of it all. I will say that the idea is original and plays well with today’s society’s themes. I will also say that this book is playing to the writer's international readers. The largest sport outside of the United States is football. The Premier League has an estimated audience of 4.7 billion worldwide, and, well… in the US, soccer isn't as prevalent as the Super Bowl. Therefore, a story which is based on the soccer world works well here, relatable for readers outside of the US and relevant to the US sports systems. I am also a sucker for a pun, which is what the title is; referencing how teams need to play the game right to win, but also how some play the game of love. It’s super cute.
In terms of structure, it is a slow-burn read which is reflective of real-life - people do not just fall in love over the space of a weekend when they have never met before. But the slow burn does attest to character development and allows time for the characters of Adalyn and Cameron to get to know each other properly. Otherwise, the structure is fine. You get a dual pov, which is fun, and you can see the character's respective thoughts, feelings and views on various situations, gauge their headspace and the way they interpret their environments. However, in terms of overarching structure, it is fine. It is very similar to what Armas and other romance writers have done before. That isn't to say I didn't enjoy the book - I did, it's a fun read. It will not win the Nobel Prize for literature, and it wasn't as good as her first book, but it was enjoyable all the same.