For the Win (Perfect Play, #1)

by Sara Rider

What happens when you fall for your biggest competition? Sara Rider scores with this charming romance about soccer stars battling their tough opponents and playing the field of love.

Lainey Lukas has sacrificed everything—sleep, family, carbs, a life—to earn her spot as the top player and captain of the Seattle Falcons women’s soccer team. She’s determined to lead her team to a national championship and finally earn the sport the respect it deserves—and nothing will throw her off her game. When Lainey’s hero Gabe Havelak, star of the Seattle Surge, crashes her team’s first press conference—making the Falcons look like a joke to the local media and humiliating Lainey in the process—she’s hell-bent on revenge.

Charming, confident Gabe is practically a god to Seattle soccer fans, but he doesn’t mind a little friendly competition from tough-as-nails Lainey, with her top-notch athletic skills, her mile-long legs, and her girl-next-door freckles. But when he learns the Falcons are booting the Surge from their coveted practice space to the notoriously cursed Cricket Field, those warm feelings give way to crippling superstition. With his contract up for renewal and his thirty-fourth birthday just weeks away, Gabe will risk anything to protect his position with the Surge.

The rivals agree to settle their differences in a Battle of the Sexes competition—a test of skills, fitness, and willpower. At first the situation seems win-win: Gabe gets the chance to earn back the Surge’s practice space, and Lainey’s team will finally get some much-deserved media attention. But as the friction between them becomes hot enough to spark and smolder, Lainey and Gabe are entering new territory—and with both of their careers on the line, love might just be the toughest opponent of all.

• ISBN10: 1501132806
• ISBN13: 9781501132803
• Publish Date: 6 June 2016
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Imprint: Pocket Star
• Format: eBook (EPUB)
• Pages: 336
• Language: English

Reviews

[Sam@WLABB]

I checked out this audiobook on a whim, and I am happy I did. I am a lover of sports romances, and was excited that both the hero and the heroine were sportastic stars in For the Win. This book was like a good cup of coffee - hot, steamy, light, and sweet. The conflict was a so-called "battle of the sexes" as the men's and women's soccer teams completed various challenges in order to claim the title and bragging rights. Lainey and Gabe were the captains leading this battle, and thus we had our enemies to lovers story. These two were quite adorable together. I really, really loved Gabe. He loved his family, his sport, his hometown. He gave back through charitable organizations and a local sports camp. He had so many endearing qualities. His pursuit of Lainey was so charming and fun. And, well, Lainey was all girl power awesome. She was amazing without knowing it, and that made her even more likable. If I wasn't already onboard at that point, there was no way I could resist that epilogue. I am an epilogue-ho. I love them. I need them. They must give me some sort of closure or I end up in a desperate depression. This one was perfect. It was the culmination of all the sweet and awesome that was already running rampant in this book. I got the ending I wanted and a good peek into the future. Plus the grand gestures presented by Gabe made me swoon.

Overall: fun and entertaining read. I am looking forward to more of this series.

[EBookObsessed]

I loved the energy in this book. Lainey’s excitement and dedication for the game rejuvenated Gabe’s love for it and Gabe showed Lainey how she could enjoy life as well as be dedicated.

I kept seeing promos for this one. I kept looking at it and finally grabbed an audiobook copy when it was offered to me for review. While it is a simple and sweet romance, I enjoyed the energy of the story as well as the characters.

Lainey Lukas is team captain of the Seattle Falcons, part of the newly established Women’s Soccer League in the U.S. It was Lainey’s goal that won the world cup for Team USA but Lainey never got to celebrate with her team. A collision with a member of the other team left Lainey with a severe head injury and she had to be carried off the field and hospitalized for several weeks.

Lainey will do whatever she must to make sure that the WSL is a success this time around. Soccer isn’t as popular as other sports in the U.S. and women’s soccer isn’t guaranteed to succeed unless they can fill some seats.

Gabe Havelak is Seattle’s hometown hero but at age 33, he is nearing the end of his professional career. When he sees that spunky Lainey Lukas having a problem with the press, he tries to step in but every time he attempts to help Lainey, it comes off looking like he is making fun of her. This leads to a challenge between Havelak and Lukas of who has the better team which unfortunately was captured on video and posted on the internet. Now in a put-up-or-shut-up battle of the sexes, the Falcons and the Surge will need to compete and the winner will get to play on the better field.

The heated competition is the most fun Gabe has had in a long time and being around Lainey Lukas and her determine to succeed is having quite the effect on Gabe. He is trying everything he can to keep the competition friendly because while he might want to make sure that his team doesn’t play on the cursed Cricket field, he is starting to want Lainey Lukas more.

THOUGHTS:
Although we don’t delve too much into the secondary characters in this story, the budding relationship between Gabe and Lainey is quite enjoyable. Gabe knows his years of playing are coming to an end and he doesn’t want to risk an injury and forced retirement from playing on the AstroTurf at Cricket field. Things get heated after his failed attempt to help Lainey who is very awkward with the press, but he really isn’t trying to hurt the Falcons. Lainey’s unyielding dedication to soccer rejuvenates Gabe’s excitement for the sport and Lainey’s cute, girl-next-door look doesn’t hurt his interest either.

Lainey has a list of things that she will accomplish after she wins the World Cup, which she did but she didn’t get to celebrate. The only thing is that it is a bucket list of boring things like get a haircut and eat some ice cream. Lainey is so focused on soccer and her training, she doesn’t to anything else. This makes it hard for her team mates to bond with her. Sadly Lainey has no friends. She was never been able to make time for that and it is not until she spends time with Gabe and learns to relax a little, that her team mates make the effort to bond with Lainey.

I thought it was interesting that the author presented the fact that while Havelak and the male soccer team had salary caps and endorsements, the women’s team mostly had second jobs and were supplying their own gear. One of the side bets between Lainey and Gabe was that if the women won, he would pull strings with his endorsements and get them some real gear.

This was a fun, lighthearted story. The players kept the competition in the fun zone and no one gets nasty with it. There is the usual “Gabe is a player and this will end and he’ll break my heart” drama, but besides that silliness and Gabe’s obsession with things that will cause bad luck, it was a sweet, enjoyable romance.

Narrator Elizabeth Hart did a nice job with the voices and bringing the characters to life.

[Rowena]

Full review to come but this was a cute read. There were moments in the beginning when the attitude of both the hero and the heroine made me want to kick them in the junk but they got better as the book wore on. I enjoyed this one.