This book had a lot of good things. A unique take on the marriage for connivence and sports romance and LGBT representation in a f/m romance. However this book also fell flat. It was really hard for me to stay engaged in this book and I felt bored at times. I was waiting for things to happened that never did. Also while I don’t know much about how soccer works it made no sense to me while they would be practicing in another country.

I received this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I wanted to enjoy this story but it was hard for me to get into and this became more of a chore. Slow read for me.

I am so glad I picked up this book! Scoring a Spouse is a marriage of convenience, sports romance, strangers to lovers tale between Nate and Erika. Erika is a famous soccer player and Nate is co-owner of a well-known video game/tech company (and a huge fan of Erika's soccer career). Erika has been recently diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, and has been paying for a private doctor out of pocket so her soccer team doesn't find out. Nate's grandmother is dying and her last wish was to see him married and in love. These two meet by chance in a bar, have a cute connection, and decide to get married on a whim because it just makes sense. Thus begins their journey towards falling in love.

I enjoyed everything about this story! The reason they got married made sense, and I liked that the author didn't spend much time on them debating whether they should do it. They just did it, and we got to see the story focus more on their relationship building. Erika's journey with her rheumatoid arthritis diagnosis was also eye-opening and I think the author did a great job giving this chronic illness the detail and accuracy it deserves (the author herself has arthritis). I loved how Nate wanted to take care of her from day one, making sure his home was comfortable enough from her, giving her daily massages after her practices....he was just swoon worthy. Their chemistry was evident from the moment they connected so when they became intimate it was long awaited spicy. Don't let the illustrated cover fool you, this author can write some steam.

I loved how both Erika and Nate each had a supportive friend group that was essentially a "found family" for them. Their friends knew they were in love before they did which helped them realize just how real their feelings had grown over the past few months.

This author definitely has a new fan in me! She had so many great tropes and different representation in here, that I can't wait to see what she does with the next book in this series!

TROPES: marriage of convenience; chronic illness rep (rheumatoid arthritis); sports romance (soccer); rich hero (co-owner of successful tech company); LGBTQIA+ rep (heroine is bisexual and has two moms; best friend is a lesbian); found family; cute puppy

TRIGGER WARNINGS: death of a loved one due to terminal illness (not H/h)

Thank you to NetGalley and Victory Editing for this ARC of Scoring a Spouse. While a quick read, Scoring a Spouse was a bit too cheesy for my liking. The story follows Nate & Erika- two successful individuals who seem to have it all on the exterior but each has a secret that could be covered by one thing: a marriage pact. While the characters themselves were likable and had a lot of depth, the story was somewhat predictable and felt forced at times. I think this is a good book to take on vacation, and was an easy read.

This book was well-written with plenty of spice and good friendships. I liked that the book jumped right into the story and did not waste time on setting things up. I liked the marriage of convince trope and I thought the rationale behind it was sound. Oma was the sweetest and her love of soccer was adorable. I think Nate's co-workers were the right balance of friends and didn't overtake the story but were still a nice addition. The same gos for Rose and Lauren. I liked Erika and Nate's personalities and thought they had a really good connection. I like that it didn't get too technical with video game or soccer talk, but still made it feel realistic. Overall, a really good read.

Review is currently posted on my Goodreads account and will be posted on my instagram @chemistryreads at a future, undetermined date.

I loved this book so much! I loved the plot, the characters and how they grew throughout the book, and the queer and disability rep, which is incredibly important!

I love sports romances and I love marriage of convenience tropes so when I found this book, I knew I had to read it. The main characters are a bisexual professional soccer player who’s recently been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and a workaholic businessman whose dying grandmother’s last wish is to see him married. When a chance meeting at a bar brings them together, Erika and Nate quickly realize that a marriage of convenience is the solution for both their problems and the rest is history.

I loved these character so so much! Erika is an incredibly strong, hardworking woman; she’s a badass! It was inspiring to see her fight for her dream, especially because of how hard it must have been for her to deal with so much pain. It would have been so easy for her to give up on her career and move on to something else but she refused to do that I loved her for that!
And Nate… what can I say about this amazing man? Honestly, could he be any more perfect? I swear, he was the whole package. Not only was he sexy, he was also incredibly caring and always so supportive. It was impossible to not fall in love with him.
Seeing Nate and Erika’s relationship grow was heartwarming. I loved the way they loved each other! The attraction between them was clear from the very first moment and I loved seeing their relationship evolve and their feelings grow. They were both very mature and I love how they were actually able to talk and communicate their feelings instead of letting misunderstandings get in the way. I feel like that can be hard to find in romance novels so it was particularly great to see it.

There was also a bunch of amazing side characters you couldn’t help but love. From Nate’s god Donut, to Nate and Erika’s friends and family, all the side characters played a role in this story and I loved it!

I loved this book from the very beginning. The pace was great and I was hooked from the very first chapters. Meeting all these awesome characters and following Nate and Erika’s journey to the HAE was amazing.
It seems like this is the first book in the Milwaukee Wolfpack Series and I cannot wait to find out more about the next one.

Overall this was a really cute romance that will give you all the feels. If you like marriage of convenience, forced proximity, sports romance lovers, make sure to check this one out!

★ 5/5 ★

A huge thank you to Victory Editing Netgalley Co-op for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Victory Editing Co-Op for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was the best book I read in a while.

This book is about Erika a professional soccer player and Nate a COO of his own company who designs video games.
Erika got the diagnoses of rheumatic’s arthritis. Because of her carrier no one can know. That’s the reason she doesn’t use her health insurance. Now she needs money.
Nates grandmothers last wish is to see him in love. Married and happy with the woman of his dreams. They both enter a marriage of convenience.

First, I really like the cover of this book the art style is perfect.
Scoring a spouse is a perfect sports romcom.
The characters are well developed, the main characters but also the side characters.
Nate is a husband material. He is caring, loving, selfless and just perfect. He helps Erika with so much but doesn’t want anything in return. I find it great that he has a female best friend but there is no jealousy from Erika and there are really just friends. I find it also great that there are more women on the team that are queer.
Erika, the FMC, is bi and I love bi characters in a straight relationship.
I love that Erika’s moms were also queer.
The main characters connect really well with the side characters. I love the friendship between Nate and his friend, and Erika and her teammates.
The disability rep is really great.
The beginning of the story feels a little but rushed. It happens too fast for my liking.
The chemistry between Erika and Nate is everything. The pining is so well written, and the spicy scenes are perfect. The have an instant attraction but they don’t act an on it. Nate doesn’t have time for a relationship and Erika is too busy with her soccer career and doesn’t do casual. The pacing and the development of their relationship is good. Their problems are solved by communication. They have a healthy relationship.

This is a fun and perfect beach read. There isn’t much drama, which I ‘m grateful for. No other women/ men conflict. I liked that the conflict at the end was about Erika and her struggles, which are solved with communication and help from her friends.

This was a DNF for me which is really unfortunate because I loved the cover and the synopsis really drew me in. Usually I love reading marriage of convenience and sports romances but I just felt the story line was rushed and I couldn't get into it. I didn't love the fact that not even 24 hours after they met was when they married because there was no real build up or details just we're now married and live together. Also at the start of the first chapter when Erika was describing Nates did anyone else get the impression that she thought he was unattractive and she wasn't attracted to him or was it just me?
To anybody who finished this book is it worth picking up and trying again or not?

Really enjoyed this one! A great sports romance

A professional soccer player. An overworked executive. A marriage of convenience. And too many secrets. The first in a brand new series from Liz Lincoln.

Erika Parker-Ward is living the dream--her professional soccer career is on the rise, and she's got her sights set on making the World Cup team for the US. But all of that could be over in a blink now that Erika's been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis.

Her plan? Keep the diagnosis hush hush by paying for private medical care, but the cost is threatening to bury her alive.

Nate Simmons owes all his success as a wealthy tech exec to the grandmother who took him in when he was orphaned at two. So when she wants to see him married before she dies of heart failure, he is ready to move mountains to give his beloved Oma her dying wish.

A chance meeting on the road brings these two desperate strangers together, and an evening of commiserating makes a potentially terrible plan seem pretty perfect: A marriage-of-convenience will give them both what they need.

It's strictly business, and everybody knows you should never mix business with pleasure..

Erika and Nate have plenty of secrets to keep--from the press, and from each other--but the biggest secret of all might be their true feelings.

It was very cute, I definetly loved the characters and the romance and the spice were very well written. I personally think it’s one of the best sport-romances I’ve ever read.

You can find my complete review on my Goodreads and you can access from the link below.

Thank you NetGalley and Victory Editing for sending me this amazing book.

Thank you to NetGalley, Liz Lincoln, and Victory Editing Co-Op for providing this e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Growing up in sports, I always love a good sports rom-com, especially when the female is the one playing the sports. Having a business marriage where both of the characters are extremely attracted to each other was quite a twist. There was so much sexual tension between Nate and Erika. Nate did not think he was husband material, but he took such tender loving care of Erika that it was hard to think he was anything but husband material. Their connection, support, and growth throughout the story warmed my heart. It was a fun, light read.

The only part I didn’t like was that I had hoped for the wedding to be more detailed than it was. I felt as if Liz Lincoln just breezed through it like it was no big deal, and maybe it isn’t a big deal to other readers, but I had hoped for more from that part of the story. The rest of the storyline made up for that missing piece though.

I would 10/10 recommend this book to anyone who is/was a female athlete who also loves a good romance story. Can’t wait to read it again!

This review will be posted to my Goodreads and Amazon accounts immediately and to my instagram account @ginganinja333 upon publication on 8/16/2022.

This was a sweet rom-com that I enjoyed reading! a good sports romance as well, with Erika being an amazing soccer player. It has that whole “everyone knows you’re in love with the other person except you” type of feel, which I wholeheartedly love. The friendships in this book are also worth mentioning. It gives me the “found family” type of vibe, and sometimes those are even better than romantic relationships (though Nate and Erika are a great match too).

I did feel that the beginning and the end felt a bit rushed. It took next to nothing for the both of them to instantly *click*, which is normally great, but it felt a bit too good to be true (if that makes sense?). And then the ultimate conflict just felt a bit exaggerated. Through all of the plot and character developments that occur throughout the book, the conflict takes those developments multiple steps back.

When I downloaded Scoring a Spouse, I wasn't 100% sold by the book blurb, but it was good enough to make me want to read the book. Well, the fact that it was 3:00 a.m. when I finished the book tells you that it more than met my expectations! Erika is a professional soccer player and Nate is a very successful businessman. For most of the book, Nate doesn't believe he is husband material, but he so was. The way he takes care of Erika is so very sweet. I wish I could say that Erika keeping her diagnosis a secret from her coach was unnecessary drama just for the book, but I 100% believe that her fears of telling are legit fears for real life. If I am gushing about this book, it is on purpose. I loved it. Thanks NetGalley for an advanced copy!

This book was so freaking good! I love how dedicated erika was to her job/passion. I loved how they met and were able to come to an agreement so quickly, although i wish the wedding had been detailed. i couldn't stop myself and read the book without putting it down! One of my favorite things was that the female main character was the one who was playing sports instead of the typical man. 10/10 i will be recommending this book to my friends who love sports romances!!

Thank you, Victory Editing Netgalley Co-op, for sending me an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Erika is a professional soccer player, trying to deal with a recently discovered diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis, something she has to hide from the world in order to save her spot as a National Team and Wolfpack starter player. Also, because of the need to keep things very private, paying professionals to take care of her disease is making it hard for her to help her mom’s, who are struggling with their business finances. Nate is a workaholic and a very rich guy, who’s grandma is dying slowly and, in order to make her last wish come true, he needs to find a wife. When the both of them meet at a bar and share parts of their secrets with each other, it seems logical to get married. The thing is: would a business marriage work when there is so much sexual tension involved and so much to lose?

I’ve read a lot of marriage of convenience books in the past few years. Usually authors use the formula of enemies to lovers or unriquered love to make the experience interesting (which I really love and enjoy). This one is different. I was really interested from the beginning because both of the characters are so attracted to each other that I was curious about what was going to happen. The pacing of the story was pretty good for me and it was a heartwarming experience to read about their relationship being developed. It was very nice to see not only their passion and sexual tension growing, but also trust and respect becoming more solid between them, as well as the small things they do to show how much affectioned and caring they are when it comes to each other.

All of the characters are very well developed, the side characters are also amazing and the way they connect with the MCs adds a lot to the story. I just love books that not only tell the love story, but also approaches people’s struggles and their perspectives about themselves. In this book, the MCs deal with grief, loss, chronic disease, people’s expectations, self forgiveness and a lot more. All of those things bring the reader closer to the story in a way they are able to relate with the characters.

Nate is a dream. He’s caring, supportive, sexy, he’s always making sure to be by Erika’s side no matter what and he’s committed to relieve her pain as much as he can and he puts a lot of effort into making his beloved ones happy. Erika is so badass and strong, she deals with a lot of pain and responsibility on her own and she continues to be loveable, caring and kind. It was also really nice to read about a bissexual female main character in a m/f relationship, I think that should be more explored in romcoms in general.

The one thing I didn’t enjoy so much was the beginning. Everything happened so fast I was like: “wait, what?”. But the rest makes it up for that.

Overall, it was a really fun and light story to read. The spice whas reeeeally great, there isn’t much drama in their relationship and I love that they can work through their problems by communicating. Very healthy. I also loved that the final conflict was way more about Erika’s inner struggles then about their relationship and I enjoyed how it was solved. Didn’t seem rushed to me.

The book comes out on August 16th and I hope everyone likes it as much as I did.

This story is masterful in the world building and the character development. The romance scenes are more than enough and I truly recommend giving this a try! Such an excellent novel by an even better author!.

I don’t know why, because I grew up only watching baseball and football, but I just love a good soccer story! And this one did not disappoint!

A sports romance + a marriage of convenience = a really great storyline. Yes, the initial lead up to the marriage was VERY quick, but I was ok with that because Nate and Erika had great chemistry from the start. It was fun seeing them build a relationship. I also really enjoyed the secondary characters, and I’m excited for more books in the series.

I have really mixed feelings about this story. On the one hand - the meet-cute was really well done. I was charmed by Nate's fascination with Erica and his attempts to play it cool. I really liked him right away, and enjoyed the easy way they came together.

It seemed to go off the rails for me a bit after that, holding my attention in fits and starts and never quite engaging my heart the way I was hoping it would. Things moved VERY quickly. And I felt like feelings and emotions were told to me rather than shown to me. I also had some trouble connecting with Erica - I felt like we were maybe too much in her head, and she came off as a little cold to me.

In the end, it was a cute story - and I really did love Nate - but I didn't FEEL it the way I wanted to.

This was a sweet rom-com that I enjoyed reading! A good sports romance as well, with Erika being an amazing soccer player. It has the whole “everyone knows you’re in love with the other person except you” type of feel, which I wholeheartedly love. The friendships in this book are also worth mentioning. It gives me the “found family” type of vibe and sometimes those are even better than romantic relationships (though Nate and Erika are a great match too).

I did feel that the beginning and the end felt a bit rushed. It took next to nothing for the both of them to instantly *click* which is normally great but it felt a bit too good to be true (if that makes sense?). And then the ultimate conflict just felt a bit exaggerated. Through all of the plot and character developments that occur throughout the book, the conflict takes those developments multiple steps back.

Erika and Nate were very cute together. I enjoyed their connection and how swoony Nate was. Overall I thought this was a low-angst, fun read! 3.5 stars!

I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book for an honest review.