The Playmaker by Jordan Ford

NOTE: this book isn’t available for preorder, but will be out on March 22nd.  If you sign up for this author’s newsletter, there is a special offer to purchase this book for 99 cents for newsletter subscribers only.  Find more information on her website: http://jordanfordbooks.com/

Synopsis:
This is it—Tori Lomax’s senior year.
Her last chance to leave Nelson High without a bucketload of regrets.
Number one priority—get Colt Burgess to fall in love with her. So what if he’s the Raider’s number one playmaker? So what if he’s so far out of her league, the idea of them together would rupture the school’s social order?
She has to try, before it’s too late.
She’s come up with the perfect set of plays. All Colt has to do now is buy into them.

Colt Burgess wants one thing: to play football after high school. But his grades are tanking and his dreams of playing college ball are fading…fast. He shouldn’t waste time on Tori Lomax. However, she was a friend back in middle school, and he can’t really ignore her small request for a favor. How hard can it be to get the guy she’s lusting after to notice her?
He’ll help her out, and then he’ll focus on what’s really important: football.
Assuming he can stop thinking about her…

     

My Review:
4.5 stars — Well I started this book at bedtime, and stayed up til 6am finishing it.  I was so in the mood for a great YA romance, and this book sucked me right in.  It was everything I was looking for in this moment, and I was so glad I had the ARC in my greedy little hands.  (which I guess I should say — I received an ARC of this book from the author)

This was one of those books where you both love and cringe for the characters — both Tori and Colt.  They had such endearing qualities, but they were both suffering from the insecurities of high school and sometimes I just wanted to slap them.

Tori was such a unique and crazy girl, but it was heartbreaking to watch her try to change herself to fit in and win the boy.  It took her longer to learn that lesson than I was expecting — I was surprised by her tenacity in sticking to her goal.  She would get kicked down and I would have been running for the hills, but she would just pick herself up and try even harder.  Seriously, heartbreaking and occasionally cringe-worthy.  And normally that might turn me off a character, but I still found her really endearing, and I guess I just really felt for her and wanted her to get to the end unscathed.

And Colt was just so insecure and worried about his place in the social ladder — but you do get to see why he is the way he is.  He was kind of a hard character to love b/c of his fear of being an outcast again, but I still did.  He just disappointed me occasionally.  But it felt really real you know?  Like I could totally see how he became who he is and why he clung so hard to his beliefs.  And my heart just broke for how he saw himself as being dumb.  I know my brother always saw himself in the same way, and it’s so hard to watch them just accept something that isn’t true.  I was epically disappointed in his parents for not dealing with his dyslexia in an appropriate way.  I kind of wish that had been addressed more in the end, and that he’d accepted help to learn to deal with his disability…it’s almost enough to make me want to round down instead of up, but I was just so engaged with the story as a whole that I’m going to let it slide.

I sometimes wish I had seen more of the romance connection between Tori and Colt, but at the same time their kissing scenes (and one almost kissing scene) were totally butterfly inducing.  So I’m not entirely sure what I’m trying to say…I guess they were so good I kind of wish we had a bit more.  They had a pretty solid friendship connection, though at times it felt like something was missing there too (to extend it past football).  Hmmm…maybe I should round down.  I hate analyzing books afterwards, sometimes I just want to go with my gut.  I guess we’ll see what I finally decide on.

Loved the secondary characters — Finn was definitely my favourite.  I sincerely hope he gets his own book, b/c he is just adorable and a half.  I was even intrigued by Mack, b/c while he could be such a typical boy, there was depth there.

On a totally selfish side note — a character in the book had my name!!!  OK, so it was only mentioned once, and was an extremely minor character, but still…it’s exciting for me.

So all in all it was a winner for me.  I’ve been in the mood for a sweet YA romance, and this one definitely fit the bill.  Definitely looking forward to the next book in the series.