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.