This isn’t a horrible book, but there’s really nothing special about it either.
I found this book after having read Player Manager, which is a fantastic series about soccer and I highly recommend it. I had hoped that this book would be able to capture at least some of the same magic that Player Manager had, but was disappointed in the end.
The narration is fairly flat and uninspired for most of the characters, there’s no obvious passion on display and nothing stood out about the performance, in any good way at least. Jeff Hays is normally a great narrator, but I found his portrayal of Sin to be rather obnoxious instead of endearing, though he is working with what he’s got.
The main character is uninspired and his whole motivation, at least to start, is because he’s trying to date a girl he saw once and was told by a total stranger that she only dates guys on the tennis team and the main character is too big of an idiot to even question that. None of the characters feel especially real and the interactions seem forced and unnatural. Example: MC is hit by a truck, but instead of people showing concern like normal human beings they brush it off or ignore it entirely. He’s back at school and practicing tennis two days after being hit…by a truck…that almost killed him…
There just wasn’t anything especially good to say about the book, too many notifications, boring and unnatural characters, boring motivation, uninspired plot. You won’t miss anything by skipping this one.