Cover Image: Home Field Advantage

Home Field Advantage

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Natalie Griffith is working her dream job at Sports and Leisure News Today (SLNT) as a sports beat writer under her idol, Ellen Blake. She has been assigned to follow the Milwaukee Dragons' football team for the season. What Natalie didn't expect was that Quinn Lowry, her ex, would now be on that team. She may be still feeling a little guilty for the article she wrote on him a few years ago.

Quinn cannot believe he is seeing Natalie in person again after all these years. She broke his heart when she left him, and then again when she wrote her article. Now he just wants to concentrate on making the team and doing a good job.

The more Natalie and Quinn see each other it becomes obvious that they both still are attracted to each other so they agree to one night together to get it out of their systems. So much for well thought out plans! LOL These two realize that one night is just not enough and quickly things start to escalate. Pretty soon they both find themselves falling hard but are both afraid to voice their feelings. As these two both take a long look at their lives they realize that they both need to make some changes if they ever want to find their happy ending.

I enjoyed this story. Both of these characters had demons from their past stopping them from having their one true love happy ending. They both needed to really dig deep down and come to terms with a few things in order for that to happen but when they finally did it was all worth it! I loved how they liked to work on old cars....that was fun and interesting to read. Overall a fun addition to this series.

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This was a fun, cute read about old lovers finding a second chance when they have to work close together. Throw in a little sports with a complicated past and it was a cute book. Could be read as a standalone, but am curious about some of the other football players now!
*arc provided by netgally for honest review

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For this Wisconsin reader, the Milwaukee Dragons are a dream come true! I adore this series and all of the players and their love interests. This is the most emotionally vulnerable and feminist football team on earth 😍 This particular story is a whole lot of should I, shouldn’t I, and it wrapped up a bit quickly but it was so satisfying and I can’t wait for more in the series!

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"Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy of this book, in exchange for an honest review."

Loved this book very much. It had just enough sweet, sexy romance and the storyline was great! I highly recommend!

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I enjoy second chance romances. I also enjoy a character that has issues (be it an addiction or otherwise). So when I read the blurb for Home Field Advantage, I wanted to read it. I am glad that I did because this book was a great read.

When I first started reading Home Field Advantage, I didn’t get a good vibe from it. Natalie was too focused on Quinn for me to get any sense of who she was. Quinn came across as a bitter jerk who was aloof when it came to his teammates. But, as I continued to read the book, a miracle happened. The characters that I thought I had pegged changed. I loved it!!

The author did a fantastic job of showing how hard it was for Quinn to stay sober. Instead of glossing it over and making his recovery easy, the author threw obstacles in his way. I also liked that his recovery was linked with therapy. He could discuss what was happening that week with his therapist and feel better about it.

I wasn’t a fan of Natalie at the beginning of the book. But as I continued to read the book, I started to understand her. I understood why she ghosted Quinn after being together a year. She was terrified of being with someone like her father. It doesn’t excuse the article, though. I thought that was low. I also didn’t understand why she didn’t tell her boss to take a flying leap earlier in the book. It would have saved a whole lot of heartache and misunderstanding.

I liked Quinn. He captured my heart right from the get-go. His pain and anger at Natalie weren’t an over exaggeration. He had every right to be upset with her. He was slow to trust her, which again, I didn’t blame him for. I also didn’t blame him for flipping out when he saw her email. If I had the background that those two did, I would have done the same thing.

The romance angle of the book was right on. Quinn and Natalie’s feelings for each other never went away. That became clear when they started hanging out together. Their feelings went to a whole different level, the more connected they became.

Quinn and Natalie also had insane sexual tension. It radiated off them whenever they were near each other. That tension grew and grew until it exploded into one of the hottest sex scenes I have read to date. What impressed me was that the author was able to keep that sexual tension present throughout the rest of the book.

The end of Home Field Advantage was typical for this genre. Everyone got their HEA. I am wondering who the next book will be about? Matt and Cee? Oh man, I hope so because my heart was broken for both of them in this book!!!

I would give Home Field Advantage an Adult rating. There is sex. There is language. There is violence. I would recommend that no one under the age of 21 read this book.

I reread Home Field Advantage. I recommend it to family and friends.

**I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book**

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From the very first chapter, I knew this book was going to be a fun read. I was not disappointed. Quinn and Natalie are characters well fleshed out and you get invested in them very quickly. You can't help but to love them more when get to know their back story. Watch these two try to figure out how to (re)ignite fire between them. Beware that the pages in this book might combust when you read them!

I don't typically care for the third-person pov writing format, but this one moved and flowed exceptionally well and was more seamless than other author's style. The story moved along very well, and there weren't any unnecessary droning descriptions of people, places or things that made me want to skim and move on. It had the right amount of fun, right amount of drama, right amount of steam, and it never hurts to have a happy ending.

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Home Field Advantage is part of the Milwaukee Dragons series but can be read as a standalone. Sports journalist Natalie Griffith and football player Quinn Lowry were madly in love in college until Natalie abruptly ended things with no explanation. Five years later, Natalie wrote an article about Quinn and how his alcoholism ruined his football career. Fast forward three more years, and a now-sober Quinn is playing for Natalie's hometown team, and she is assigned to do a profile on his teammate and roommate Matt, bringing them back into each other's orbits.

As always, Lincoln writes beautiful depictions of the moment when good sex becomes lovemaking. While sports provides the setting for the book, it is not the central plot and is still accessible to a non-sports person like me, and I love that a bullet journal played such an important role in Natalie's life.

I had a difficult time understanding the root of Natalie and Quinn's conflict. Quinn and Natalie both believe her expose ended his career, but both also believe that his career was already over and that all the information in her article was public knowledge (making it not an expose). To me, she either did something irredeemable, and I can't buy his forgiveness of her, or she didn't do anything that bad, and I can't buy that it's a conflict. This might be because the exact nature of the article was vague, so I couldn't fully understand if she really betrayed him or not.

I also had trouble with how long it took for Natalie to reveal why she left Quinn in college--both in their story and in the pacing of the book. I wish I could have had that context earlier in the story.

I actually found myself more invested in the bare bones of a secondary plot involving the roommate Matt and his estranged wife Celia, who we last saw happily in love and about to have twins at the end of Swagger. I combed the book for any breadcrumbs explaining how they came to be separated so suddenly. I also wish we had seen more of previous main characters, but I understand it's a fine line to walk between including too much from previous stories or too little. I guess I miss Seth, who will always be one of favorite main characters.

This is 3.5 star book for me. I liked it, I'll definitely read the next book because I love Liz's writing (especially if it's about Matt and Celia), but it's not my favorite in the series.

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This is the first book I have read by Liz Lincoln. The story was ok it just seemed to spin around and around with innuendos, it didn’t have a lot of depth I was expecting from the blurb. With that said I think the premise behind the book was good , you have Quinn and Natalie who dated in college. One is fresh out of rehab and the other a reporter , will these two re kindle what they had ?
I did enjoy the secondary characters I will definitely be looking in to the first two books of this series .
Thank you Netgalley for my advance reading copy

I received an advanced copy for an honest review.

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Liz Lincoln is a new author to me and I was excited to read this sports romance. Quinn is a football player who is given a second chance to play in the NFL after he screwed up due to his addiction to alcohol. Natalie is a professional sports reporter and she finally has landed her dream job under the best female boss of her dreams so she thinks. Natalie is going to be following the Dragons exclusively and writing about the players and their lives and the games. Quinn just signed to the Dragons and his ex girlfriend, the one who wrote an article destroying his career and life is now going to be exclusively with his team. Can Quinn remain sober and stay away from her? Quinn is going through a hard time being sober and dealing with the woman who broke his heart. Natalie is also taking it well when she finds out about Quinn. Can these two make it work while spending a lot of time near each other in often times close quarters due to traveling and where they are at? If you like second chance romances and sport romances, this is will definitely be a great book for you to read. The characters are all relatable especially with so many addiction issues nowadays and the struggles loved ones have to deal with as well. The character diversity is unique in this story because they have children with disabilities, ball players with addiction, and they speak about traumatic brain injuries within the sports community as well. I really enjoyed the conversations on difficult topics this book brought up and how it dealt with them. Excellent work of fiction with varying topics discussed and I can’t wait to read more from this author and I hope to see many more books in this series with the other characters.

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This is the first book that I have read by Ms.Lincoln and I enjoyed it. This book is about Quinn and Natalie who dated in college. Quinn is an NFL football player making a come back from a 2 year hiatus due to rehab. Natalie is a reporter who works closely with Quinn new team.

This is a sweet book about 2 people trying to overcome their past with each other and themselves. The supporting characters are great as well. I enjoyed this book.

I received an advanced copy for an honest review.

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Once upon a time, Quinn and Natalie were in love. He was a successful football player with a long career ahead of him, and she was a reporter trying to make a name for herself. But things went south between them, and each blames the other for breaking their heart. Now 8 years later, Quinn has gotten himself through rehab and back onto a team after 2 years out of the league, and the last thing he expects to see after his first day of practice is Natalie. They're forced back into each other's orbits after so many years apart. The feelings are still there, but will all the pain from the past get in the way of them finding a happily ever after?

This book was only ok for me. I couldn't really connect with any of the characters, and the plot got bogged down with a lot of side stories (her evil boss, his sessions with his therapist) which should have been interesting but just weren't. They were SLOW, and I wanted to get past them to the actual meat of the story. There was no sense of humor here between any of the characters, no teasing, no banter, and I think that's often what keeps these romance stories going and makes the characters seem more likable than just cardboard placeholders. My favorite part of this book was actually Quinn's friend Matt and his twin baby daughters (one of who has Cerebral Palsy). All of the characters came more alive around them.

I've never read any Liz Lincoln books before, and I'm not super inclined to search out more after this one...unless maybe Matt gets his own? :)

***Thanks to NetGalley, Random House and LoveSwept for an ARC in exchange for my honest review!***

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I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Home Field Advantage is the third book in this football series but it is a complete stand-alone and can be read by itself. For those of us that have followed the series, this to me is more of the same we've seen before. The characters were well written, had depth, and felt very real. The chemistry between Quinn and Natalie was hot and steamy. However, the book is not well paced and at times I found myself skipping full pages of meaningless and unnecessary detail. There were many times were the internal rants were redundant and the characters circled around each until FINALLY the book picked up and the story found a great rhythm. Sadly the end was cut abruptly, just when you were starting to see Quinn and Natalie finding their new love for each other. This story needed less in the front and more in the back, for these reasons, I'm giving it three chilli peppers of hotness.

Thanks NetGalley and LoveSwept for the ARC!

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So this is book 3 in this series. It can be read on its own. I really enjoyed the first two stories in this series.
This one, not so much.
I couldn’t get into it.
I gave up at chapter. Then skipped around. Read the last chapter.
Nope.
Not the book for me.
Not sure why.

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Natalie has home field advantage I think in this book. I love that she does her best not to use gossip and put a great spin on the things that she reports on. It makes her more trust worthy.
Not only does Quinn admit is has a problem and does something about it. He continues to get help weekly, knowing that he still has a problem and that it works. Most men see therapy as a show of weakness. Not Quinn, how awesome is that!

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2 stars
I really thought Was going to love this one, but I stopped and stated it so much. I couldn't really get into it. I love sports romance, and I thought for sure I was going to love this one.

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I must confess that I could not care less for football. I just thought I would read the book for the love story and ignore the the football backdrop. Well, football is an integral part of the story but I ended up loving it this way. I also loved that this is the second time around for Natalie and Quinn - no meet cute, no getting to know each other, no first time tentative kisses here. Instead, you get a fully developed, well rounded story of second chances and how to go for them.

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3.5 stars

Really enjoyed the concept here: mistakes made, struggling to regain what was lost, lots of “self-work” to get back to where one can be truly happy with themselves, etc., but...it just seemed a little too redundant. At times, the points being made by both main characters seemed too drawn out.

Not that it didn’t have enjoyable moments. Their chemistry was off the charts. It was their connections outside of that where things seemed to falter.

I really enjoyed the supporting characters (Matt and Annie) - they gave Quinn and Natalie the advice they needed (without sugarcoating it!) which was both funny and poignant.

Kudos for highlighting Quinn’s therapy visits too! Although this is fiction, highlighting how Quinn worked at dealing with his issues using therapy, positive hobbies (auto restoration), etc., shows how much Quinn wanted to stay on track.


Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing - Loveswept for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

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This is the first book I have read by this author and I really enjoyed it. The main characters were both likable and pretty well fleshed out. I’m pretty sure this book said unedited, but I didn’t notice any glaring problems with editing. The story was also different than the cookie cutter love stories out there. Only complaint is that I would have liked an epilogue. Thanks for letting me preview it.

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I loved Quinn and Natalie! Great sports romance. I'm definitely a fan of this author and can't wait for more books!
Thanks Netgalley & publisher for the Arc

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Liz Lincoln has another outstanding, well written sport romance novel. Quinn and Natalie are the perfect couple gone bad. Quinn was a alcoholic NFL wide receiver and Natalie was a new sports reporter who needed a story to get the job she craved. He blamed her story for his downfall from football. She felt guilty despite having written the truth without using anything she learned from him personally. Several years later they are thrown back together when he joins Milwaukee Dragon's, where she's one of the sports reporters. This is their story. Trials and tribulations, emotions and guilt, thru the backdrop of the football season, highlights this book. They have a common interest in redoing old cars. That helps bringing them on common ground to change emotions, and build new. I highly recommend this well written fast moving, emotional novel. You'll need to find out if love can conquer all. I can't wait for her next book. I know it will be a fun loving, sports dictated romance with a lesson of life hidden within.

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