First of all, I just want to address how much I liked the idea of this book plot. I loved this strong, independent female main character, Judith, that started off so strong in the book. BUT as I progressed further and further into the book she became very unlikeable. Again, nothing wrong with standing up for yourself, but frankly she was very rude, hypocritical and most of the time it is uncalled for.
She was constantly snapping at boys for no reason, pointing fingers and never admitting when she was wrong, bullying/punching middle schoolers, calling people squirt (when it’s established that she is short herself), training an inhumane amount (literally like 8 hours a day!!) and being confused why others don’t.
Not to mention she’s 17 and doesn’t understand the basic concept of a date. When she gets asked out for the first time, she actually gets in a fight at a cafe when the guy tries to pay for her drink... It was just really hard to relate to her character.
I also hard a time time picturing her BFF Ava. She was VERY over-centric, dramatic and just loud in general. I liked their grumpy/sunshine dynamic, but I feel nobody would be as obnoxious and scream like Ava apparently did every time she sees Judy. They seemed like mildly popular girls, and their place in the school hierarchy just didn't match with their attitudes.
Next, the random launch of boys in Judy’s life… she goes from never speaking to a boy before, to them practically tripping over themselves to talk to her. She has no idea what flirting is and while it’s fun watching her try to piece boys brains together, she is almost ignorant to social cues and blindly acting like she has no idea what they are saying when they speak to her. We also haven’t addressed the fact that one of Judy’s love interest is Travis who is 21 years old. Which is not really technically legal since she’s only 17.
Lastly, there were several noticeable grammar mistakes throughout the entire book. I noticed incomplete sentences, missing quotation marks and straight up misuse of words. The author also heavily used the R-word which I personally dislike.
Overall I thought the idea of this book was fantastic. A motivational, inspiring, sports romance (and yes the girl is the athlete) novel with a surprise ending that made me consider giving it another star. I think if it had been a little shorter (this book sat at about 870 pages) and was edited a little more thoroughly this would be the cutest book. I love the author and appreciate her being so kind in letting me get a free copy of her book for this review. Not a bad read by any means, but could use a couple of tweaks.
Book Rating: 2/5
Spice Rating: 1/5
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