I love second chance stories, and if they’re matched with a sports romance, much better. Natalie and Quinn broke up eight years ago, and didn’t get any closure. Natalie just up and left, and next day sent a two sentence email breaking up with Quinn. Quinn went on to professional football and lost his career due to addictions, both pills and booze. Painfully, he clawed his way out of his addictions, trained hard to get into NFL conditions again, and found a team that took a chance on a recovering alcoholic.

I loved this part of the story, the fact that a football team signed up a former pro athlete who went down and fought to get in playing form again. I admired Quinn’s character for the fortitude and ambition that he showed by working harder than anybody in his team, and working with a counsellor to exorcise his demons and develop a support system. This is a guy who broke down under several situations: his parents behavior, his father’s hostile attitude and constant criticism towards him, and the loneliness he lived in.

Natalie loved Quinn when she broke up with him. She feels they have no closure because they never discussed their situation. She’s had other relations but no other man measures up to Quinn. Now she’s working as the press agent for their team and they have to work together. There’s tension and hostility and guilt, and above all, chemistry, yearning, and desire.

I loved the story once Quinn and Natalie started talking. From the beginning to approximately 40% of the story, the story felt like it was zigzagging. Quinn and Natalie were sometimes cordial, other hostile, they were dithering about their feelings, they wanted to talk, they wanted to ignore each other. Natalie was paralyzed by indecision and guilt, and they kept on dithering for a while. The writing also felt a little choppy. Once they started talking and developing a friendship of sorts, connecting through their mutual love of working with cars, the story took off and the writing got smoother. And very much entertaining! I liked their positive attitudes, their desire to connect and be friends. There are secondary characters who, like always, add a lot of warmth to the story because they are like family. Overall, a good read!

I really struggled to get into this book, it just seemed like it took forever to get going. Maybe it is just me, but this second chance didn't seem like it was ever going to happen. While the characters were good, the football talk was on point, the car talk was perfect, the speed at which things progressed was not there. I loved the previous 2 books in this series and really wanted to love this one, but it is just a like for me.

This is a second chance love story. Natalie and Quinn met in college and fell in love, but she broke up with him as he abused pills and alcohol.

Fast forward to today: Natalie is a sports writer and Quinn has clawed his way back to professional football after battling his demons. They need to see each other constantly as she covers his team for the newspaper and it's awkward as they're not sure how to act around each other. Sometimes, just as they're starting to enjoy each other's company, a light goes on in their head that they shouldn't be friends and it gets awkward again.

The story starts off slow and I almost gave up on for about the first 40-50%, but it did get better once they started talking about the past and finding a way to get past what happened. Natalie and Quinn are both flawed and realistic characters that make you want to cheer them on.

This was a story that I enjoyed right from the start. I cannot believe that I have not read this author before. Now I know what I will be reading in the future. I am a huge lover of sport romances so this story had it all for me!

This is a funny and sad book that not only faces serious issues like addiction and divorce but also birth defects. All of the above seated neatly into a football romance

Natalie and Quinn are the quintessential second chance romance. They have many hurdles to work through but decide being together is worth it. The sports tie in was important to the story, but you’d be able to enjoy it even if you are not a football fan.

I really enjoyed reading this third book in the Milwaukee Dragons series. Liz Lincoln writes great sports related romances which are my favorites. I will say this one added a bit of reality by adding the some of the downfalls of that lifestyle. This was a great weekend read.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley for my open honest review.

I am kicking myself that I haven't read anything by Liz Lincoln before this book. I am just blown away by how well written this book is. Her writing style had me invested in the story right from the very start.
Sports romance novels are my favourite genre. I usually tend to go for hockey books, but football does fall a very close second. There is a little bit of on field action throughout the story, more like background noise. But towards the end when Quinn's team are in the playoffs the way the on field action was written made me feel like I was actually there. It was outstanding.
Natalie and Quinn's romance is a second chance at love. Their breakup and what Natalie did years later was almost of epic proportions. But I think what Natalie did ended up by being Quinn's saving grace.
Such a wonderful story and I would definitely love to read more from Liz in the future. I voluntarily reviewed an advanced readers copy of this book.

The good storyline and the interesting characters grabbed my attention from the very beginning and kept me totally glued to my kindle until the turn of the very last page!

First of all, as a woman working in a male-dominated career field, I have to say that I absolutely love that the heroines in this series thus far have been smart, kind of nerdy (in a good way), and working in roles that aren't considered "typically female" (in this case, Natalie is a female sports writer).

Sometimes second-chance romances can be overly angsty, but despite the circumstances of Natalie and Quinn's breakup years ago, I didn't find that to be the case and I liked how they came back together again this time around. I also felt that the topic of addiction was dealt with very well (I.e. respectfully) but not at all in a preachy manner.

Here’s hoping we get Matt's story soon!

*Advance copy provided by NetGalley. All opinions are my own.*

Home Field Advantage is the third book in the Milwaukee Dragons series but could definitely be read as a stand-alone.

Natalie and Quinn dated seriously in college - until she left him in the middle of the night with no explanation and sent an email the next day breaking up with him. Now it’s 9 years later and they are being thrown together for work - he’s on the Milwaukee Dragons and she’s the sport magazine reporter who has the most access to the team.

This was an enjoyable read but my least favorite so far in the series. I get frustrated when conflict is caused by one person not communicating. There were multiple times I was really frustrated with that in this story. I also didn’t feel as connected to Natalie and Quinn as I felt to the characters in the earlier books.

I’m glad I read this and will definitely be in line for the author’s next book - but if you haven’t read any yet, I really suggest starting with On The Line.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance review copy.

Natalie has been given the chance of a lifetime. She’s a sports journalist that is given exclusive access to the Milwaukee Dragons. The thing is, her college boyfriend has just been given the chance to play for them. Natalie & Quinn’s breakup was not pretty & it coincided with his fall from football. It’s going to be awkward to be around him. Why couldn’t she shut off her feelings for him?

Quinn can’t believe he has another chance. After seeking treatment for his addiction & regaining his form, he should be on top of the world. Instead, his unresolved feelings for Natalie & his fears of relapsing keep him distracted. In college, he was upset about her article about his addiction & fall from grace even though she was kinder than other reporters were. Should he forgive Natalie & give them another chance?

This was a an excellent second chance romance. Natalie’s dad was an alcoholic & she couldn’t deal with Quinn going down the same path. She continued to blame herself for what happened to him even though the article she wrote was compassionate & allowed everyone to see he was human. When they came back into contact, Quinn couldn’t forgive her for the article & he didn’t trust her to not do it again. Quinn has to man up & realize it was his problem & results. Natalie just did her job. I really enjoyed reading of their second chance.

DNF @ 42%

I wasn't really feeling the relationship between Natalie and Quinn. The first half of this felt like a slog. There was nothing wrong with it, the writing was fine, the characters were fine. Overall, the story was fine.

But I just wasn't feeling it. I think this is something I will come back to, and finish at another date when I'm more prepared for something that moves a little slower.

What I liked about this book was the depth of writing and the character building, but more than that it was the way Quinn's very real life problem was portrayed with finesse and compassion. This is a very strong book that is enjoyable and has the ability to surprise in all the right places. Natalie's problems are also real world and handled very well throughout the story.

Cute book and it was a nice change of pace to have them fight their attraction to each other for a significant portion of the book. I appreciated it tackled a sensitive and serious subject of substance abuse and the impact on others.

Natalie and Quinn were college sweethearts and she studied journalism while Quinn was a wide receiver destined for the NFL. There was no denying the chemistry and love between them but because of her past she was unable to handle his drinking so she ended their relationship with no explanation or further contact. She went on to write an expose about his addiction which jumpstarted her career and ended his and Quinn was left feeling betrayed.

Years later Quinn is in recovery from his addiction and has received a second chance at his football career. The only drawback is that Natalie is the reporter for team which requires them to not only work together but spend time together as well. Their relationship evolves from enemies to friends and then into something much deeper but will her career destroy their relationship for the second time?

Although both Quinn and Natalie have made mistakes in the past they have learnt from them and are no longer the same people and are willing to put their needs in second place to each other.

After each book in this series, I become more of a fan of the Dragons and can't wait for the next story to come out.

This book checks all my boxes: friends to lovers, second chance, sports romance. These are three of my favorite tropes so I love that this is all three rolled into one. I loved how Natalie and Quinn gave glimpses into their previous relationship from their perspectives. I enjoyed the slow build up to these two getting together, all while trying to overcome their history.

I can be a bit of a snob with addiction storylines because that's where I live my every day life. For the most part, I thought Quinn's alcoholism was treated respectfully and Natalie accessing her own support was an amazing addition. I did wonder why Quinn didn't go to anything other than therapy since this probably wouldn't be something that would be suggested by his treatment team but I still loved how honestly this topic was dealt with.

I need Matt's story in my life so I really hope his book will be on the horizon. This Dragons fan wants all the players to get their HEA!!

I'm sorry to say that I really had a hard time getting into this book. It wasn't really the characters, because I did like them. I love sports romance. I LOVE second chance.

It was really just the pace of the book and the storyline for me. It was a tough start for me and it really took a while before we knew why these two were in the positions they were in. It was just a little too much ugh... I want him/her but I can't believe he/she did that to me! WHAT WAS IT! LOL

Like I said I did like the characters and eventually, we got to the real heart of the story, but it just took too long for me and didn't grab me from the beginning. So for me it was a 3.5 Stars. I will definitely check out the other books in the series though.

I'm a sucker for second chances and sports romances, so I was a little disappointed with this one. The story starts out okay, but the first half was a lot slower than I cared for. Quinn and Natalie's back and forth, 'I want you, but I don't want to want you' grew tiresome. Once we're finally given the whole backstory, and that took a while, I understood why they felt that way, but it, like a lot of other things in the story, was repetitive. Once they finally get together, the pace did pick up, but we went from the push and pull between these characters to marathon sex sessions. I'm talking page after page, and considering this pair isn't all that adventurous, there was only so much ground to cover. I ended up skimming a lot of that in the second half of the book to get back to where this relationship was going. As far as the romance, Home Field Advantage runs the usual formula, and the bit of angst to test the relationship was glaringly easy to see coming. Looking back over it, I think I enjoyed the football talk more than the relationship with this book. I didn't hate the story, but I didn't love it either, and it's not one I'll think of in terms of books I would read again.

Home Field Advantage is a book about second chances. Liz Lincoln offers this third book in the Milwaukee Dragons series that can stand alone no problem. Though I found the primary couple interesting, I thought the initial chapters dealing with their "second chances" dragged a bit. Once Ms Lincoln moved the characters into present day, and had them confront their issues, the story started to move more quickly and the read became easier. There are some tough topics addressed including alcoholism and addiction, but done respectfully. The happily ever after is satisfactory. The sports references seem accurate. The dialogue seems appropriate to both character and situation. All in all, I'd say Home Field Advantage was an enjoyable read (though I definitely enjoyed the second half more than the first). 3.5
I received my copy through NetGalley under no obligation.