Review

Soccer-mad Sadie is in first year uni, but she’s all about the football. Her dad, now suffering from dementia, used to play for Scotland, and she’s determined to be scouted for a professional team before he’s too affected by cognitive disease to know or understand. She’s captain of her university team, and they’re on track to win their third premiership in a row.

Their men’s team is not so good. In fact, they’re in danger of relegation. But a new American player, Arlo, has just joined them. He’s good — brilliant sometimes — but undisciplined and lacking technique. Sadie’s coach decides that she and Arlo would both benefit from her coaching him. He could learn from her discipline, strategy and technique; she could learn from his spontaneity and willingness to take risks.

Sadie’s not so keen: Arlo’s hot, sure, but he’s an arrogant joker, and they’ve already clashed at a bar. But as they train together, they get to know each other and, although Sadie’s still recovering from heartbreak after a short but intense fling with teammate Hayley, an attraction starts to grow between the American and the Scot.

Could it be something more? Can Sadie trust him? And can she afford this distraction in the most important season of her life?

*

This is a short and uncomplicated first person read, solely from Sadie’s perspective, with plenty of soccer for sports fans. Bailey gets straight into the action and keeps it moving briskly along. While it has the usual romantic elements, it lacks the page-turning romantic tension of Grumpy Darling, which is definitely a better written example of the sports romance genre (albeit with more romance than sport). However, it’s competent and mildly enjoyable, and would be great for a student who’s put off by any narrative difficulty. I’m always on the lookout for mainstream sporty YA because (a) it’s very big right now in New Adult books (e.g. Icebreaker and Wildfire) that we can’t stock in the school collection; and (b) it often appeals to students who can’t be reached by anything else.

Unfortunately, although Playing the Field could be categorised as a ‘sweet’ aka not spicy romance (see content info), it’s awash with alcohol, which is the deciding factor for why it’s in our senior fiction section — year 10 & up.

Nice and short at 320 pages.

> Click here for content info — spoilers, enter at own risk!

Characters are university age and hooking up — implied only, no details or descriptions; some kissing; Arlo and Sadie have sex on one occasion, but we don’t see any of it — closed door, no details; fairly mild sexual innuendo; Sadie’s dad has dementia, and we see how it saddens her when he doesn’t remember her; Arlo’s twin sister died in a car crash caused by a drunk driver; Arlo smokes a cigarette when he’s stressed; characters drink heavily and frequently — plenty of details about liquor choices, shots, rounds, drunkenness, hangovers, etc. — & their social lives seem to revolve around it; some f-words, especially in the first chapter or so, but then settles down a bit. Main romance is mlw; minor romances are wlw and mlw. Sadie is bisexual.

*

Bailey, I. (2024). Playing the field. Simon & Schuster.

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