Book Notes — AT THE HEART OF THE GAME
Haunted by her missing father and wishing her family would treat her like an adult, seventeen-year-old softball pitcher River Harte is most alive when she’s zipping the ball past opposing batters. She’s thrilled when she earns a scholarship to play for her dream coach, but after arriving at college, she’s flustered when her math tutor turns out to be the hot guy she kissed over the summer. Battling to keep her grades up and deal with a jealous rival pitcher, River has to dig deep to excel against the elite-level competition. But when tragedy strikes, and a suspension she doesn’t deserve fractures the squad, she turns to her enigmatic tutor and discovers a secret that might be exactly what she needs to get back on the mound.
Book Notes
Wow, I don’t think that summary does the book justice, because it’s about sooo much more than that: the characters and their relationships and situations are deep and complex and not really at all about a “hot guy” and the secret they uncover.
I loved that most of the book's scenes are actually sports scenes that show readers the sport's culture, which created a truly immersive experience into the softball player's lifestyle. It felt like it was written by someone who has lived this life (and it was written by a softball mom!). So many sports books, especially ones about women, have an athlete protagonist whose life is informed by sport, but the reader rarely gets to see her in action, or by someone who has never played and hasn't done deep research on the culture and mindset of an athlete. That is not this book. We see River and her teammates in depth at practices, scrimmages, games, and tournaments, and hear about some of the aftermath of those events: broken toes and fingers, dirt, sweat, fatigue, hunger…
And, like all good sports stories, this book is also about much more than just softball. River, the protagonist, navigates evolving friendships, love interests, school struggles, a father who's MIA, challenges among teammates and coaches, and more. But at the heart of the story is softball (so, I think the book’s title, although borderline cliché, is quite apt). The final few games had my heart racing.
This does not perfectly fit into the category of books we typically review at Sport Stories Press because it’s about a college athlete and we like to focus on stories about adult athletes; however, we made an exception for this because the quality of the sports writing is high, the book has crossover appeal for young adults and adult readers, and the characters deal with adult-level complexities throughout the story.
I 100% recommend this book. I even sent a copy to my softball-playing niece. Get your copy here.
