The Perfect Game (Game, #1)

by J Sterling

He's a game she never intended to play, and she's the game changer he never knew he needed. When Cassie meets rising baseball hopeful Jack, she is determined to steer clear of him and his typical cocky attitude. But Jack has other things on his mind ... like getting Cassie to give him the time of day. Sometimes life gets ugly before it gets beautiful ...

• ISBN10: 147822553X
• ISBN13: 9781478225539
• Publish Date: 1 October 2012
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Create Space
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 396
• Language: English

Reviews

[Sam@WLABB]

I was reading this and I was waiting for the "big conflict" that always comes. I thought it was this one thing, but it wasn't. Then, I thought it was this other thing, and then it wasn't. But when it came, it was not what I expected and it went beyond the extent of WTF that I expected, and it lasted, so, painfully, long. As mad as I was, I was more sad and could not fight they tears when they came. If I can be made to feel real emotion for characters, then I obviously developed a relationship with them, so I say, "Good Job, J. Sterling". I feel in love with Cassie and Jack and all their friends. I loved reading as their relationship grew and flourished and broke and healed and how they helped each other overcome such huge issues. At one point, I was slightly overwhelmed, but I am glad I stuck with them. I will be starting the next book tonight.

[Cocktails and Books]

OMG! I loved Jack F'ing Carter. I can't believe I waited so long to read this book. Jack is the perfect cocky, somewhat broken hero. Cassie was the perfect woman to keep him in his place.

[littleread1]

I don't like baseball. At all. I think it stems from being a HUGE fan as a kid, then the strike of 1993 happened and even as a 10/11 year old kid that adults were stupid whiny babies. Which is why it took me so freaking long to read this book. I'd heard about it, and even met the author, who is cool as hell, at a book signing in Phoenix. So when I saw the book on sale once I picked it up. I like to support authors when I can.

So, enter a reading slump. Usually to get out of it I need to pick up something I KNOW I will love, or something I know nothing about and have no expectations of. So I went into The Perfect Game with no expectations. And I will be honest, I put it down for a day after reading just the first chapter, thinking, "Oh gosh, I am so not in the mood for a college baseball jerk romance," because that is what the first chapter seemed like to me.

I am SO GLAD I picked it back up a day later. I can't even tell you, I haven't been this excited to write a review for a book in a long ass time. Of course, as always, I am sure my words won't come close to conveying the love I have for this book, or this author, but I will try.

Yes, The Perfect Game starts off like most YA/NA romances - cocky guy, Jack Carter, meets girl who wants nothing to do with him, Cassie Andrews. He does some cute/annoying things and she finally agrees to go out with him. Yawn. We've read that before right? WRONG. So wrong. Sterling takes you on the ride with Jack & Cassie, two broken people learning that trust is hard, and that love may not be all you need.

And the baseball ... isn't really a focus. It is important, because Jack is a pitcher and ball affects their relationship, but it is certainly not the focus of the story. But by the end I was ready to grab a beer and a hot dog and go find a game. And oogle me some pitcher butts. Because though baseball is certainly not the center of the story, Sterling lets you into the passion Jack has for the game. Your heart races, your anxiety rises, and you can almost imagine you are there ... except you are really sitting in bed, realizing it is 2am and you just power-read the entire book, minus chapter 1, in one sitting, and you have to get up in less than 5 hours. Ok, maybe that last part was just me. Because that happened. And I don't regret a second of missed sleep.

And if you know me at all, that is a huge compliment. Because I love sleep. Bravo Sterling, bravo.

[Ashley]

Nose Graze — Young Adult book reviews

2.5 Stars

I had two pretty big problems with The Perfect Game that brought down the book for me:

#1: How quickly the relationship starts

The first few chapters of the book are all about Cassie hating Jack. She knows Jack is a playboy and he keeps flirting with her and she keeps telling him to piss off. Finally he says, "Go on one date with me, and if you don't like it then I'll leave you alone." So they go on one date, she does like it, it ends with them kissing, then the very next chapter they've already been dating for like a month. So LITERALLY she goes from hating him to being his girlfriend in one chapter.

I wanted more of a gradual romance. I wanted to see things progress between them—going on dates, getting to know each other, slowly falling for each other... but instead, it went from 0 to 60 in about 2 pages.

#2: The annoying thing that happens in the second half that I have to put in spoilers

I'm really upset that I can't discuss this properly outside of spoiler tags, because this was an even bigger problem for me than #1. But it's a pretty huge spoiler, so inside the spoiler tags it goes:

I hated that Jack cheated on Cassie. I HATED it. I've said it a hundred times: including cheating in a book is enough to make me hate it instantly. I just hated that Jack was a playboy at the beginning and promised that he'd changed... then he ended up cheating on Cassie anyway! It's like he proved himself wrong. At this point I was just starting to forgive point #1 and really get excited about the book... then this bomb was dropped and it just killed my enjoyment of the rest of the book.

There were some things I did like about the book though!

Photography!

I loved the photography aspect! It was a very small part of the book, but I still loved it. Cassie is studying photography at college and hauls her camera around everywhere. She takes photos of Jack playing baseball and, at the end, she starts pursuing photography as a career. As someone who loves photography, I just really enjoyed reading about this!

There was one weird inconsistency though. In one sentence Cassie said she wants to open up her own photography business right after graduating.. then literally one sentence later she's saying she wants to work for a company as a photo journalist. Uhhh those are two different things. (Owning your own business vs working for someone else's business..) It's not like she changed her mind, it's literally on the same page:

"I'd like to start my own business as soon as I graduate."
"That is great. What kind of photography?" Gran asked.
"Ideally, I'd like to work for a magazine that focuses on travel and human interest stories."

So she says she wants to start her own business... then she says she wants to work for an existing magazine. Well which one is it??

The romance was sweet

Despite problems #1 and #2, the romance grew on me. I loved how much Jack and Cassie adored each other. I mean, Jack kind of drove me up the wall with his cheating but he and Cassie shared some really sweet moments and I couldn't help but enjoy it sometimes.

It COULD have been a really good book

There were a lot of elements of The Perfect Game that I liked. The raw romance was sweet, the sports were interesting (even though I don't particularly like baseball), and I loved the photography... But there were just a few things that ruined it for me. Cheating is just unforgivable to me. I hate reading about it and that's enough to ruin any story for me. I was SO disappointed that this book had cheating in it... I hoped Jack would be better than that.