Basketballs and Mistletoe Author: Julie L. Spencer
Series: All's Fair in Love and Sports
Genres: YA Romance
Format: eBook
Pages: 83
Date: November 17, 2019
Publisher: Indie
Too many basketballs and not enough kissing.
All Matt Bailey wants is to focus on his position as starting point guard for the varsity basketball team. When an epic kiss and a social media scandal forces him into the arms of the beautiful and spunky Trina Wynter, he finds himself in a fake relationship with a girl just crazy enough to think she can take on the world.
When Trina gets cut from the girls’ basketball team, she thinks her senior year is wasted, until a closetful of basketballs and two hundred sprigs of mistletoe bring every athlete in Grand Haven High School together for a good cause, and a great excuse for more kissing.
[shareaholic app=”share_buttons” id=”304462″]
About Julie L. Spencer
Julie L. Spencer is a bestselling multi-genre author who uses real social issues to incorporate valuable lessons into fictional stories. As an author and publisher, she’s mentored other authors using techniques she’s developed over 30+ books and publications. Her stories include snarky, flawed characters, and romantic twists and turns. Julie believes we can change the world one story at a time.
This book wasn’t really my cup of tea. I usually avoid teen romance books for that reason but I love audio books and was really in the mood for a Christmas book so the title won out. Unfortunately, it was all about the teen romance and zero about Christmas. The mistletoe is just another excuse for teens to make out at the holiday ball. For my own enjoyment I’d rate it two stars but since I know that other people will enjoy the story I added a star.
Things I liked: I liked that Matt is more interested in Trina as a person that he is in what she looks like. However, since he thinks she is beautiful that might not be saying much. I liked that the story handled Trina’s eating disorder with delicacy but also that it is something serious that needs to be taken seriously. I liked that parents were able to have frank discussions with the kids. I liked that the kids were willing to take on a service project.
Things I didn’t like: I hated pretty much anything that was of a sexual nature in the book. There is a lot of making out, talk about sex, social media exploding over the course of an hour from a kiss in the hall to rumors of her being pregnant. Kids telling each other good job for having sex. I also felt like the author underplayed the magnitude of taking on the service project in such a short time period. That seems pretty unrealistic.
So, while this wasn’t my kind of book, I know there are many who will love it. And the narration was pretty good.
Sex: making out, talk about sex, kids cheering each other on when they think they’ve had sex, but no actual sex on the page. (One teen couple in the background are pregnant and engaged).
Language: no
Violence: no
*I received a complimentary audio-book and voluntarily chose to review it.