Boy oh boy I didn't like this writing style. Maybe will work for others but i'm just going to bow out with a three star "not for me" review.

I probably was not the target audience for this, given how little I seem to have the ability to get invested in high school sports.
I had a hard time relating to Jade and Franny as the main characters and while there was some level of character development, you had to look reallyyyyy hard to find it.
It was a small town, sapphic enemies to lovers story between two queer BIPOC teachers who are both shooting for the same high school football coaching job.

However, the narration was solid and I'm sure there is an audience for this somewhere.

Thanks to netgalley for the audio arc.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the Audio ARC of Ready to Score.

2.5 rounded up.

First, the narrator did a great job. The audio was a fun experience.

Though, the premise of the story wasn't exactly what I was expecting; in some parts that was a pleasant surprise and in others it wasn't what I am into at all.

The writing was really well done. I loved the diversity and how each character was explored, but the story as a whole just didn't grab me and keep me engaged.

However, even though individually I liked the characters enough, I didn't not enjoy this coupling.

Over all, this story was just okay. Not great. Not terrible. I have not read the other books in this series as I believed it was a fully stand alone book before hand, so I can not personally compare it to the others.

I was excited to receive this audio arc and listen to an enemies to lovers sapphic teacher romance. However this book just felt flat and parts of it didn't make sense.

For example, I didn't really understand in the beginning why they didn't like each other. Another part that didn't make sense was that Jade was gifted a decent sum of money that she used to donate anonymously to the school. However she didn't use it on better tech for her classes and was mad she didn't get a grant for it when another teacher did? It just seemed a little odd.

Also I love a good enemies to lovers but their pranks just seemed mean and off. The bingo scene especially made me cringe and feel a bit embarrassed.

I wanted to love this book and overall I just felt meh at best towards it.

I was SO excited for this book but ultimately couldn't get into it. I like enemies to lovers, but Jade's hatred for Francesca Lim felt very overblown—I couldn't figure out why she was SO against the other woman, especially since she hated her before the football stuff became an issue. I am also down for sapphic spice, but I felt like the issues between them weren't resolved enough for me to be on board with it once they started kissing. I think I needed more interiority from the characters—it felt like I was told Jade hated Francesca, then that they were both attracted to each other, but I never really *felt* the attraction.

I can definitely see why some of the other reviewers liked it, but at the end of the day I wasn't rooting for the two to end up together, which I need to in a Romance.

I did like Esme Ramos's narration and I think that helped me stick with the story for longer than I would have if I'd been eyeball reading.

Jodie Slaughter has been on my TBR longer than I’d like to admit, but I am but a simple lesbian so it took a sapphic romance to fully crack the seal lol. I really enjoyed this book, and the antagonist between Jade and Franny was delightful. I loved Jade’s journey in particular as she learns how to open herself up to support instead of trying to be a one-woman force of nature. I’m already planning to read more of Slaughter’s romances because I really loved the emotional pacing and the story. The audiobook was really good and Esme Ramos does an excellent job, giving each of the characters a distinct voice.

I am not sure how I feel about this book. The bare bones are great. However, I feel like the enemies part of the storytelling was too long and Jude was upright mean a lot of the times. It didn't make me feel so happy about the two do them talking it out and getting together. However, I did really like their amition and drive, especially as non white women in male dominated fields. So I would've liked it better if some of that rivalry time would've been used to show us more of that, their struggles. That could've also been used as a bridge to showing us that the two of them aren't that different from another.

Another thing I would've loved a little more is their culture, taking they are both not white, but from different backgrounds. Merging the two could be interesting, or at least a bit more of Francesca's family towards the end. We saw them regularly in the first half, but suddenly not much more.

The narration of the audiobook was done beautifully!

I think if you like football and saphic romances, you could give this one a try. I don't think I will re-read it in the future though.

This is an honest review in exchange for an ALC. Thank you to Dreamscape Media, Jodie Slaughter and NetGalley for the ALC

A Sapphic football romance. That's all you need to know, right? This book combines small-town politics, the importance of adult mentors in sports, and building a career as a person whose identity is underestimated in that space.

I enjoyed the nuance of the side characters in this book. There was a lot of depth of relationships and character development of many characters.

The narrator had a soothing voice that was enjoyable to listen to and well produced.

Genre: Sports Romance
Age: Adult
Tropes: Rivals to lovers
Spice: Multiple scenes that were well written and relatable. Fairly vanilla.
Themes: Building a career, women in sports, competing vs community
Representation: Black Main Character, Asian Main Character, women in sports
Read For: Netgalley
Obtained From: Thanks to Dreamscape Media and Netgalley for the Advanced Listening Copy of this Audiobook.
Song Recommendation for the vibe: Get'cha Head in the Game from High School Musical
Hashtags: #readytoscore #netgalley #sapphicbooks #sportsromance

Full disclosure I was not convinced at the start of this read. The context of enemies to lovers in FF with a backdrop of high school was giving a small trigger moment for me of the way women are pitted against each other all too often.

HOWEVER, Jodie brought it around and potentially healed a few of those feelings. By the end, I had a bit of fun with this ALC.

If you like a sporty contemporary feel, come this way. I appreciated the conversation and the self-assessment our main characters went through and ultimately have no regrets seeing this through.

We are of the age where many romances gay or straight become so mainstream that it’s hard in the romance genre to not be generic. Two competitive teachers appear to be fighting for better opportunities, but in actuality they’re too stubborn to tell each other that they have romantic feelings for each other. Nothing was inherently wrong off the bat but I struggled to connect to the characters and root for them.

Two years ago, I enjoyed Jodie Slaughter’s romance, Play to Win, so I was excited to read more from her. Her newest book is Ready to Score, a rivals-to-lovers romance between two women aiming for the same head coach position at the high school where they work. Though both books (and Bet on It) are set in the same world, Ready to Score works as a standalone.

What I Liked:
- Representation in a male-dominated field. American football, including the high school variety, is very much a men’s club. I liked seeing two queer women of color working in high school football and aiming to become head coach. Both have to navigate misogyny, but they’re passionate enough about the sport to persevere.
- The characters feel real. Both Jade and Francesca are complex characters who jump off the page. Jade, in particular, has a lot of growing to do, and I appreciated her arc and learning from her mistakes.
- The story is engaging. Despite its shortcomings (detailed below), I did find the world and characters easy to immerse myself in. It helps that I read the previous book in the series (though not the first one yet).

What Didn’t Work for Me:
- Jade is too mean. For most of the book, Jade isn’t just acting like Francesca’s professional rival; she’s acting like she truly hates her. Even before they were aiming for the same coaching position, Jade was always dismissive of or cruel to Franny. I don’t understand why?? And for some reason Franny has a crush on Jade the whole time anyway? Girl, find someone nicer.
- Their romance doesn’t really work. Because the enemies aspect goes too far here, I found it impossible to root for Jade and Francesca as a couple. They just shouldn’t have been together. If the novel had taken them on a different journey, maybe to teaming up or at least just becoming friends, it would have helped. But as it is, they just don’t have chemistry.

Audiobook:
Esme Ramos does a great job of narrating Ready to Score. This is the second book I’ve heard her narrate (the other being Ms. V’s Hot Girl Summer by A. H. Cunningham), and both times I’ve enjoyed her gentle tone of voice and skilled characterization. Here, she provides a Southern accent to several characters, helping to bring the setting to life. She allows the book to shine with her subtle narration.

Final Thoughts
Though I wanted to like Ready to Score, and although I enjoyed the previous book in the series, this one fell a bit flat for me. It’s well-written and engaging, but I just couldn’t see the two main characters ever having a good relationship. They needed something more to connect the dots between mean rivals and women in love.

While I didn’t like this one so much, I do still want to go back and read the first book in this series, Bet on It, and I’ll try out more books from Jodie Slaughter.

This had the potential to be a great book because the storyline was current and interesting, but it had lots of graphic and detailed spiciness that I felt detracted from the story. It was all I could do to get through it and finish it.

I never expected to give a low rating to an installment of this series cause so far I had thoroughly enjoyed it. I was glad to be back in Greenbelt, South Carolina, it was nice seeing old friends even if I wished for some more action for Miriam and Aja. I still like the small town feel and the secondary characters, I enjoyed the heroines’ families, they were unique and funny. However the relationship didn’t work for me and I’ll try to break down why without spoilers.

First of all, Jade is a complex female character so if you don’t like those this book is not for you. I didn’t actively dislike her but I struggled to understand her actions and their motivations at time. As for Frannie she was cute but I thought it weird she let Jade treat her like that. I understood she had a crush, but things gor too far for me even if she stood up for herself at the end. It was too early in the story when they kissed for the first time, things were not mature. Personally I needed them to move from “rivalry” to friendship before sex and romantic notions. I liked some of their character development like when Francesca told Jade “Don’t accept your fears as truth”.
The football parts were long but I could also see the MCs’ character development so I didn’t hate them. There’s a strap-on scene which is a plus but at that point I was disconnected from the story.

In the end this didn’t come together for me. I didn’t find this relationship romantic. Things that has been huge impediments until the 70% was then just solved without any further pushback. I appreciated Jade’s growth but it didn’t feel real.

I listened to the ALC and the audiobook helped me finish the book. The narrator was okay but I didn’t like all of the voices they did.

I received an Advance Listening copies from NetGalley and Dreamscape media.

The premise of this book (two queer women vying for the head coaching job of a southern high school's football team) sounded really promising to me but unfortunately fell flat. My biggest issue was that the main character, Jade, was mean and cruel to her potential love interest, Frannie, in a way that I couldn't get past in order to get on board with their romance.

I thought the narrator of the audiobook did a great job.

🧡🏈👟💖🎨

Yeah so this was nottttt my favorite 😬 I liked the diversity and the concept of women coaching high school football. I didn’t like the main characters tearing each other down and only seeing the other as competition for a majority of the book, it felt yucky. Maybe all the hatred towards each other was part of their kink, or maybe they were just toxic lesbians who needed to grow up. And why did it take them to the end to realize BOTH of them could coach?? Clearly they were both successful women who shared a passion for the same game, I wish they would have teamed up from the very beginning. In my opinion, it would have been far more interesting if the plot focused more on the two of them breaking down barriers as minority women working in a male-dominated field in a small town, but that’s just my take.

While this wasn’t a score for me, I did learn more about football, so I’ll take that small win!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!!!

Unfortunately I did not finish reading this book. I wanted to like it because it has an interracial Black/Asian couple at it's core and I don't see much of that, but this book was not for me. The biggest problem I had was the lack of chemistry between the leads. They hate each other at the beginning and maybe about 20% in they're fantasizing about each other and entering into a sexual relationship. There wasn't enough build up for me to enjoy them getting together because it seemed like it was happening to fast. I did enjoy the culture we see in this book and the writing was okay, but the characters and plot could have been more engaging.

This book is a perfect read for pride month! It was such a fun story. I appreciated that the book highlighted how challenging it can be for women to find careers in sports, especially in the southern part of the United States. I loved the diverse voices in this book and I highly recommend it!

Enemies to lovers fans, sports romance fans, and spicy sapphic romance fans, this book is your next favorite read!

Thank you to NetGalley, DreamScape Media, St. Martin's Press & Jodie Slaughter for the chance to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

If sapphic sports romance is your jam- this is for you! Female identifying coaches making their place on the field and the community. This novel takes us back to Greenbelt, South Carolina- where both Bet on It (Aja) and Play To Win (Miriam) took place. In this book we get to the third bestie's love story, Jade. You can absolutely read these as standalone but it is fun to be back in Greenbelt and all that is familiar there! Like the previous stories, you can expect some bingo and a lot of Minnie's cobbler.

Narration added to the reading experience. I would definitely seek this narrator out again!

A super fun, sapphic, sports romance with a TON of spice. Jodie brings the spice, but also hits some heavy topics!