With the local football team moving to a new club miles away, Lily, her father and sister decide to start a completely new team made up from enthusiastic amateur players. A story of community spirit, heightened by the interest of a premier league player with a dreadful reputation as a womaniser and dirty play. But is this the truth? A lovely, feel good story, loved it.

Rating: 4/5
Spiciness: 2/5

If you've a fan of Ted Lasso and romance, this is the perfect book for you! Lily's family football team is moving out of their city, but Lily's dad is determined to create their own team to keep the friendships and good times going. Ben is a professional footballer with a bad boy reputation who just happens to be the older brother of one of Lily's new players.

This book has great characters not just the leads. I love all the players, the friends, and the fans. This may sound shallow of me but I normally hate when a contemporary romance book goes on and on about the main character's life outside of the romance part. But I actually really enjoyed Lily's family and reading about the team's journey so I wasn't mad when I didn't meet the MMC until later. I love how easy and fun Lily and Ben's relationship was and I was about to rate this book 5 stars but sadly there was some OWD at the end and I kinda lost interest in the MMC. To be clear, there is no cheating as far as I'm concerned but I don't think Ben handle the situation properly and it gave me some apprehesion towards him. By the HEA, I was less in love with him than I had been before. Still a good book overall!

Note: Thanks to NetGalley and Avon Books UK for the advanced copy. This review is left voluntarily and is purely my own.

What a delightful book full of fun and so easy to read and enjoy and I loved the characters especially Lily and Ben following their story plus a few comedy moments.
Becky Ward brought the characters to life and you really feel for the main characters well done.
Would highly recommend.
Look forward to reading more books by this author.

This was an okay story for those that have been watching ted lasso in a continuous loop for ages. But it was lacking. We have a newly created underdog football team in England, which was about the first quarter of the book, we have a need to refine his image pro footballer, Ben, who after coming to see his younger brother practice for the newly created team, finds himself only having eyes for Lily, a just finished uni young twenty something, who helped create this team with her dad and sister. The two start hanging out, building such a wholesome friendship and then feelings. Based on the summary I was expecting a forbidden romance but it was more like a they want to keep things on the DL due to their involvement with her team and him trying to reform his image. They're heart eye moments were meltworthy and thoughtful but the romance was not the main plot of the book. Between soccer and all the side characters, there wasn't a lot of room for the reader to fall in love with the two MCs.

A fun read yes, but ultimately I wanted more from this story.

Thank you Netgalley and Avon Books UK
for the ARC in exchange for my review!

Playing the field was such a fun read! I feel like it's rare to read romances that also touch on the theme of family and community as well as this one did.

The pacing felt really good, the only exception was I felt a bit of a drop in momentum once everything had been established plot wise in the middle of the book. But I loved how it felt like we followed Crawford United from it's initial stage all the way through and that moved at a really good speed. I also love how the Crawford United was also a mechanism that helped introduce the reader to the family and get to know Lily's world better. A family run football team felt really refreshing for a sports romance.

There are a couple of plot points that felt a little bit confusing, which is the only reason this book isn't getting a solid 4-5 star rating. Firstly, Lily's boyfriend is only sprinkled in the beginning so I feel like we join her at an almost awkward time because their relationship occurs so early on in the book that I didn't really feel any kind of way or emotion towards that part of the plot. Similarly, Lily being a student feels a little confusing. We gather that she's at uni, but it feels like a part of her story that is so distant from everything else going on that her academic success similarly didn't make me feel anything.

I loved Ben & Lily they were really fun characters. Ben is so quick, witty and the scene where he gives the kid a haribo is beyond adorable. He has such a heart of gold but I liked that he wasn't 100% perfect the whole time it made his character feel more realistic. The banter between Lily and Ben was immaculate. Don't get me started on the dinner date scene in the vineyard where the scene is full to the brim with sexual chemistry and such good light banter - it was my personal highlight of the whole book.

A great cosy romance that has such a wonderful focus on community! I loved the specific references to the O2 arena and the jubilee line, once again this felt really realistic to me. I would've loved some more character descriptions as I didn't have any super memorable images of Ben or Lily in my head but other than that it was great.

I really loved this book. The romance was so cute and I enjoyed the banter. The story line was very good and the setting was amazing.

This was a fun time with lots of slow burn banter which I love in a romance
I loved the two main characters and the family dynamic in the book

Would recommend

3 stars

I have recently been enjoying sports romances and when i saw this as a request I had to read it and ahead of time.

This was good, it wasnt the best romance I have read and the writing style and banter was very simplistic. I loved however the slow burn with the two main characters, i loved the family dynamic and the way the community came together and helped out etc

Would recommend

3 stars

A cute, albeit predictable, rom com going from friends to lovers and kind of enemies as well to start with really. I liked the sense of camaraderie within the book, especially the idea of building a football team from the ground up and the true perseverance and determination it takes to do that, let alone solely with your family! When Ben appears, he's refreshing, and he's got that bad boy status, but he takes time to prove himself until the going gets tough. It does very much become a romance you want to work out and you expect to, but it's written in such a way that you're not entirely sure if it will or not!

Thank you to NetGalley, Avon Books Becky Ward for the e-ARC.

I thought this was a well written story especially the football element; the romance, however, did feel secondary to the plot.

Lily and her family decide to start their own football club, after their home team announces that they're moving away. With very little, to none experience of how a football club works, it's literally building a team from the ground up; there is a lot of info dumping and world building with how it's led as a sports narrative, for the first half of the book. There, she meets Ben Pyrce, who has landed himself in the headlines recently, for brutish behaviour that has resulted to him being suspended from the team he plays for.

With the newfound time that he now has available, he offers to be an advisor, as someone who has experience with being in the Premier League, and how the ins and out work within a team. From there, the budding romance between him and Lily starts. They're instantly smitten with one another and date in secret, as they don't want to draw more attention to him (with how the media already portray him) nor affect how early things are starting out for the club.

As expected, Ben is soon returning to Millford, the team he plays for, and one of the agreements set by his management, is that he's get a girlfriend, someone whom they already have in mind for the role. It led to an inevitable third act break up, and understandably so, insecurities on Lily's part. I really wasn't a fan of those turn of events; I think the plot was strong enough to survive a third act break up; they could have just done the long-distance thing, which was already a contributing factor for them, as a narrative. I just cannot even begin to imagine how it would feel; to pretend to be ok with seeing your partner date someone else, for publicity. I get why Lily agreed to it, but I was also frustrated because of it.

While I enjoyed the story for the most part for what it was, I didn't really connect with the characters much. I feel like things could have been executed a bit better, in terms of the character development, which I think would have enhanced the plot and narrative more.

Typical ro!ance but I ate it,very fluffy beautifully written and I'm obsessed with Lily shows him who's boss

I just wanted to hug all the characters in this one. They just needed it. I really enjoyed Lily and Ben as our protagonist. They were really fantastic and I loved seeing them grow throughout the book.

I could not get into this writing style. The first few chapters didn’t hook me and I wasn’t into the whole family aspect buying the football team.

This book definitely wasn’t ‘grumpy/sunshine’ but I’ll let it slide because I really did love it. I’ve always loved sports romances so finding this book was definitely a win. I loved seeing how a small community came together to create a new football team after being left behind by their previous one. Throughout the creation of Crawford, the support and love it rallied was so heartwarming and inspiring, and I can’t imagine a better way to keep the community alive. Having Ben come down to help out—simply because he loved what Lily and her family was doing—was something that could have been nothing, but turned out to be everything. As his relationship with Lily grew, I came to love them together more and more. But when it came time for him to leave, Ben definitely didn’t handle things as well as he should’ve. Though I’m all for a bit of angst. Towards the end, he wasn’t always aware of how his actions would affect Lily, and I felt really bad for her. But things were resolved and I’d love to see how their story plays out in the future!

4.5 stars ⭐️

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Avon Books for the early e-arc of this book. I loved every minute of this book as it reminded me of Ted Lasso! The chemistry between the two characters was amazing. I've never read a football romance before and it was written so beautifully as well.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6498111243
My thanks to The Publisher Avon Books UK | Avon , The Author Becky Ward & NetGalley for an advanced reader copy (Release Date: June , 5th, 2024).

Lily is a 24 year old business student finishing her degree while working with her father and sister to build a club soccer team from scratch after their home team chooses to relocate. Lily deals with the stressors of working with her family to create a new team for their hometown while finishing her last set of exams before receiving her degree and, also, falling in love. From start to finish, this is a story about working hard and earnestly even if there is uncertainty in what may come; no efforts are wasted so long as you try your best.

I enjoyed this family/chosen family story a lot. It was wholesome and very community focused. There were fully realized characters outside of the main character and her love interest, which made the book more immersive. I loved how integral soccer was to this book as well. Overall, this was a cozy, relaxing read.

I had to DNF this book. I read 200 pages. I liked the concept of this book. A professional athlete is helping other athletes. There is a bit of forbidden love. I just couldn’t get into the storyline. I appreciate the chance to read this book. It just wasn’t for me.

I'm a sucker for sports romances, and Playing the Field was pretty freaking cute. I really liked Lily and Ben's chemistry and dynamic, but hated their third act breakup. It was messy and honestly pointless.

In this book I felt I was both rooting for the romance and for the team! I enjoyed the ride of both! I loved being in the world of Britain throughout the book and loved the journey the author took us on. Definitely would recommend this book to others. Feel good story!

If you love an underdog story, this one's for you!
Lily and her family start their own football club after the one they've supported for years moves, they have a vision and passion as well as a desire to succeed that's really endearing in this story. Lily meets premier league player Ben and the attraction is instant. There are so many obstacles in their way, how will they make their romance work?
I'm really into the sports romance trope that's hugely popular right now, that and being a football fan made this a really enjoyable read.