Review: YA, girl-power, underdog, sports story
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 04 6, 2013
For eleven years of her life, Whitney and her best friend Jason played football with their fathers in the park until the day her father died of a heart attack. After that, Whitney lost not only her father, but her best friend. Jason just never came around again. During the following two years, he became a star on their high school football team as quarterback, but Whitney stopped playing. Then suddenly, in the fall of her junior year, she decides she's ready to play again, but her position is quarterback, the same as Jason's, and Jason is none too happy to have to go up against his extremely talented ex-friend in the tryouts for the team.UnlikeCinderella in Skatesby the same author, the central focus here is not a romance. Instead, the main plot is a girl-power, underdog, sports story, and the subplot is more chicklit than romance, because over the course of the book Whitney is interested in multiple boys.It is a tribute to the author's great skill at writing about football that I, who have never understood or been a fan of football, had no trouble following the many football scenes and found them quite interesting.Whitney is a fascinating character with a multifaceted journey, including the emotional journey of recovering from her grief for her father, rediscovering her love of--and great talent for--football, and experiencing herself as an attractive and fascinating young women to whom many good-looking, dynamic young men are very drawn.I purchased this book in a Kindle edition. It is well formatted and edited, making it easy to read.I rate this book as follows:Heroine: 4 starsSubcharacters: 4 starsWriting: 4 starsFootball Plot: 4 starsChick-Lit Plot: 4 starsOverall: 4 stars