Onside Play Review — Is It Worth Reading?

Updated on October 8, 2026

Verdict: A World Cup-set second-chance sapphic sports romance with real match-day detail and a beloved supporting cast, undercut by a rekindled romance that a lot of readers don’t buy.

Best for: Readers who want a light, low-angst second-chance romance built around real soccer detail, and who don’t need the reconciliation itself to be the strongest part of the book.

Heat level: ★★★★☆ (4/5 — romance.io’s “Explicit open door” band)

Rating: ★★★☆☆ (3.4/5 — a 3.71 Goodreads average pulled down by a recurring complaint about Christine’s inconsistent characterization and an under-earned back-third reconciliation)

Tropes: Second-chance romance, sports romance, dual timeline, rivals-to-lovers undertone, forced reunion on tour, opposites attract, low-angst, found-family friend group, standalone.

Onside Play by Liz Rain is a contemporary sapphic sports romance and a second-chance romance from Ylva Publishing, a standalone set against the real backdrop of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, in which Australian defender Keeley McGee and American striker Christine Delacourt — college teammates and lovers who broke up badly years before the book opens — are thrown back into each other’s orbit as international rivals, with a tournament, a locker room, and an unfinished relationship all live at once.

It has a 3.71 average across 426 Goodreads ratings and 101 written reviews, a NetGalley score that runs noticeably warmer at 4.1 from advance readers, and a review section that argues hard about one specific thing: whether Christine earns the reunion the book gives her. Both halves of that split are worth understanding before you start.

What Is Onside Play About?

Onside Play is contemporary sports romance built on a real sporting calendar rather than an invented league, which means the tension comes from an actual tournament structure — group stage, knockout rounds, a trophy on a fixed date — rather than a season an author can bend to suit the plot. It is also unmistakably second-chance: this is not two strangers meeting under pressure, it is two exes who already know exactly how to hurt each other, reunited by a sport that puts them on opposing teams and, eventually, the same pitch.

Keeley McGee is introduced through what she lost: a college relationship that ended without explanation, replayed for years afterward from the losing side. Christine Delacourt is introduced through what she has built since: a starting position on the U.S. national team, a public profile, and an explanation for the breakup she has never given anyone. The book alternates between their 2019 college relationship and the 2023 tournament, so the reader gets the wound and the aftermath side by side — a structure several reviewers say pays off unevenly.

What Makes This Sapphic Sports Romance Work

The soccer itself: Readers who follow the sport consistently say Rain gets it right — match tactics, tournament structure, and the texture of playing for a national team read as authentic rather than decorative.
The friend group: Keeley’s circle, especially Viv and Fletch, is named again and again as one of the best parts of the book, and multiple readers say the supporting cast is more consistently written than the central couple.
Keeley as a lead: Described as goofy, warm, and easy to root for, and the character readers trust most to carry the emotional throughline.
The World Cup setting: Set during the real 2023 tournament, which gives the book a timeliness and specificity most sports romances have to invent instead of borrow.
The heat: Rated 4/5, “explicit open door,” by romance.io, and at least one reader singles the intimate scenes out as some of the best-written passages in the book.

Book Synopsis

Keeley McGee has spent four years not talking about the girl who left. In 2019, she and Christine Delacourt were teammates on the same college side and, for a while, each other’s whole world — until Christine ended it without warning, right before a Christmas Keeley had built plans around, and disappeared into her own career. Keeley has built a life since: a starting spot for the Matildas, a close circle of friends who know better than to bring up the past, and a rule about never falling for a teammate again.

Christine Delacourt has built something too — a starting role for the U.S. national team, a public profile that comes with being one of the most visible players in the tournament, and a version of the breakup story she has never corrected. When the draw puts Australia and the United States in the same group at the 2023 World Cup, Christine is suddenly across a hotel lobby, a mixed zone, a locker corridor from the one person she has spent years not explaining herself to.

Neither of them planned for this. The tournament does not care that they have unfinished business; it puts them on opposing teams, in front of cameras, with a result on the line every time they meet. What starts as forced professional courtesy slides, match by match, into something neither of them agreed to feel again — and Christine is running out of tournament before she has to say the thing she never said the first time.

My Review

What Onside Play gets right, and gets right immediately, is the soccer. Liz Rain writes the 2023 World Cup like someone who has actually watched a lot of women’s international football — the pacing of a group-stage match, the exhaustion of a knockout round, the strange enforced intimacy of a mixed zone interview — and that specificity sells the setting more than the romance plot manages on its own.

The other consistent strength is the supporting cast. Viv and Fletch, Keeley’s closest friends, get real personality rather than functioning as exposition delivery, and multiple reviewers say the friend-group scenes are where the book is most alive — which matters, since a light, low-angst romance lives or dies on whether the world around the couple feels populated. It does here.

Where it struggles is Christine. This is not one disappointed reader’s gripe — it is the complaint running through the Goodreads critical reviews and independent blog coverage alike: Christine is written as hot-and-cold and, in places, selfish, and the book asks readers to accept her reconciliation with Keeley without fully earning it. The dual timeline that alternates 2019 and 2023 is meant to build sympathy by showing the pressure she was under; several readers say it does the opposite, slowing present-day momentum and summarizing exactly the scenes — the breakup, the reunion’s emotional turn — that needed to be shown rather than told.

A second gap is worth naming, from a single but detailed source rather than a chorus: blogger Lou Morgan flags that Christine, coded in the text as autistic and written as a hypervisible Black athlete, never experiences on the page the racism or online abuse documented in women’s professional soccer — and that a line describing her emotional remove reads, to that reviewer, as an uncomfortable framing of autistic traits. No second reviewer raises either point independently, so treat it as one considered read rather than consensus — but it belongs in the record before you decide how much the book’s “low-drama” premise is doing.

My honest note: A well-researched sports romance with a genuinely strong friend group, let down by a second lead the text asks you to forgive faster than it earns. If you read second-chance romance for the reconciliation itself, this one may not land; if you’re here for the tournament and the found family around it, it delivers.

Element	In Onside Play
Central relationship	Keeley McGee & Christine Delacourt — Australian defender and American striker, second-chance college exes turned international rivals
Core tropes	Second-chance romance, sports romance, dual timeline, rivals-to-lovers undertone, forced reunion, low-angst
Setting	The real 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup — hotels, mixed zones, and opposing national teams
Heat level	4/5 — explicit open door
Series	Standalone; a cameo tied to the author’s debut, Perks of Office, is the only crossover
Content notes	Explicit sexual content, a prior breakup depicted as emotionally abandoning, one reviewer’s concerns about race and autism representation, a non-binary supporting character

How Spicy Is Onside Play?

romance.io bands Onside Play at 4/5, “explicit open door” — one tier below its top band, meaning the scenes are graphic and on the page rather than faded to black. Reader reports back this up: one Goodreads reviewer calls an intimate scene “HOTT hot” without qualification, and blogger Lou Morgan singles out the book’s spicy scenes as “raw, visceral” and among its best-written passages. The heat here is a genuine draw, not an afterthought bolted onto a sports plot.

The one thing worth flagging in advance is a scene one Goodreads reviewer questions on realism grounds — an encounter on the team bus during the tournament itself — which reads as a plausibility complaint rather than a content or consent concern. Nobody I found flags anything darker than that. If you want this heat level in another sapphic sports romance, Gold sits in the same band; for the same “explicit open door” heat in a second-chance sports structure specifically, Rewind It Back is the closer match.

Who Should Read This Book?

You’ll likely love it if: you want a low-angst, low-drama second-chance romance, you follow women’s soccer and want a book that gets the sport right, you read for a strong friend-group ensemble as much as the central couple, and you’re fine with explicit heat that arrives fairly early.

You may want to skip it if: you need a second lead’s redemption fully earned on the page rather than implied through flashback, you dislike dual-timeline structures that interrupt present-day momentum, you want a slow burn rather than a reunion resolved inside one tournament, or race and neurodivergence representation matters enough that a single flagged gap would bother you.

In short: a soccer romance that nails the sport and the friends around it, and asks you to take the central reconciliation a little more on faith than some readers are willing to give.

What Readers Are Actually Saying (October 2026)

There is no viral moment behind Onside Play, and the tools available for this review could not fully settle whether one exists — the only TikTok presence found was a secondhand paperback resale listing rather than organic discussion, and Reddit’s search was outside what this review could check directly, so treat that absence as unconfirmed rather than established. What is confirmed is quieter and more typical of a small-press sports romance: a steady 426 Goodreads ratings at 3.71 built up since its July 2023 release, a warmer 4.1 from 78 NetGalley advance readers around that same release, and an audiobook narrated by Cat Gould that reviewers single out for keeping the energy up. The book found its first readers around the real World Cup it’s set during, and the audiobook looks like the thing extending its shelf life now.

Why readers love it (according to the discourse): The soccer authenticity comes first and most consistently — reviewers who follow the sport say Rain “knows her stuff,” and the match scenes are repeatedly named as the book’s strongest writing. The friend group is next: Viv and Fletch draw specific, repeated praise, with more than one reviewer saying the supporting cast is better developed than the central couple. Keeley gets warm, consistent praise as “layered, flawed, and so easy to root for.” The heat is named as a genuine draw, and the alternating-chapter structure gets credit from some readers for building tension — even though, as below, roughly as many blame that same structure for slowing things down.

What readers argue about and complain about: Christine, above everything. Reviewers describe her as hot-and-cold and, in the back half, selfish in ways the text doesn’t fully reckon with; “inconsistent” is the recurring word. Second: the dual-timeline structure itself. The same alternating chapters some readers credit for tension, others blame for interrupting the present-day reconciliation and for summarizing key emotional beats — the breakup, the turn toward getting back together — rather than showing them. Third, and connected to both: whether Christine’s public declaration near the end is genuine or manipulative given what came before; opinions split hard, and neither side reads as a small minority. Beyond that, blogger Lou Morgan raises a more specific concern no other reviewer in this sweep echoes: that Christine’s experience as a Black athlete is written without the racism or online abuse documented in women’s professional soccer, and that a line coding her as emotionally remote reads uncomfortably close to autistic-trait stereotyping. One considered voice, not a chorus, but a substantive one.

The standalone question worth asking first: Onside Play resolves. It’s a standalone with a confirmed HEA, no cliffhanger, and no sequel obligations — the only crossover is a brief cameo tied to Rain’s debut, Perks of Office, which stands fully apart in its own right. If you finish this one and want more from the author, Perks of Office is a workplace-set political rom-com rather than a sports romance, so go in expecting a tonal shift rather than a sequel.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Onside Play end on a cliffhanger?

No. Onside Play is a standalone with a complete arc and a confirmed happily-ever-after for Keeley and Christine. There is no sequel and no unresolved plot thread carried forward.

How spicy is Onside Play?

A 4/5. romance.io bands it “explicit open door,” and readers confirm the scenes are graphic and on the page rather than faded to black.

Is Onside Play part of a series?

No. It’s a standalone novel from Ylva Publishing, though it includes a brief cameo tied to Liz Rain’s debut, Perks of Office, which is a separate story with its own cast and setting.

Is there an audiobook of Onside Play?

Yes. It’s narrated by Cat Gould, produced for Ylva Publishing, and runs about 6 hours and 6 minutes. Reviewers describe the narration as energetic and well-matched to the book’s tone.

Does Onside Play handle race and representation carefully?

Mostly unaddressed rather than actively mishandled, per the one detailed critique available: reviewer Lou Morgan notes that Christine, a Black national-team athlete, isn’t shown experiencing the racism or online abuse well documented in women’s professional soccer, and flags a line describing her emotional remove as uncomfortable for autistic representation. No second reviewer echoes this, so treat it as one informed perspective rather than settled consensus.

If You Loved Onside Play, Read These Next

Readers who want the same “explicit open door” heat in another sapphic sports romance land most often on Gold, which trades soccer for competitive skiing and swaps the second-chance engine for an age-gap, hurt/comfort one. For the same second-chance structure with a different sport underneath it, Rewind It Back runs a near-identical reunion-after-years arc against hockey rather than soccer. And for a second-chance romance built on a comparably long gap without the sports framing at all, Midnight Rain gives you thirteen years of accumulated wanting instead of four.

For more in this register, browse our complete Sapphic Sports Romance guide or the full Book Reviews collection.

All 25 verified soccer romances, including the six-book Girls of Summer series, are in our Sapphic Soccer Romance Books guide.

The Bottom Line

Onside Play gets its setting exactly right and its central relationship only partway there. The 2023 World Cup backdrop is specific and well-researched, the friend group around Keeley is one of the most consistently praised elements of any sports romance on this site, and the heat delivers exactly what its 4/5 band promises. What it doesn’t fully deliver is Christine — a second lead whose reconciliation with Keeley more readers argue about than accept outright, propped up by a dual-timeline structure that as often interrupts the present-day story as it explains her. Whether that trade works for you depends on how much you need a reunion earned scene-by-scene rather than gestured at — but readers who come for the tournament and the found family around it get a complete, low-angst standalone with nothing left hanging. Check Onside Play on Amazon →

The Eikna Overall Ranking

On the Eikna scale, Onside Play ranks as a competent, research-forward sapphic sports romance — strong on setting and supporting cast, held back by an unevenly written second lead, and best approached for the World Cup detail and the friend group rather than the central reconciliation.