Review: The Game Can't Love You Back by Karole Cozzo

The Game Can't Love You Back by Karole Cozzo
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received this eARC novel from NetGalley. This is my honest review.
This book will be published May 2018.

Being the only girl on the baseball team, Eve is looking forward to her senior year to win the Cy Trophy. But when her school has an unexpected catastrophe happen, her entire school is forced to join the other high school in her town. Which means that the entire class has to join together, and all of the sports now have to be changed from 2 teams to 1, losing half of the team.

Eve wanted the school to host both teams as separate teams and keep her Bulldog status, but she was disappointed when the schoolboard told her that they will only have one team and it will be the Pirates.

But Eve loses the game of baseball, so she is willing to play as a Pirate to enjoy her last year in baseball. Because she knows that she is not going to be able to play after high school. She may be getting a lot of publicity for being amazing at baseball, but no one is going to sign her on professionally and she is also starting to get a woman's body, which is hard to play the game with the boys.

Jamie is the pitcher for the Pirates, so he's not excited at all that Eve is coming over as a rival in his place, because he is going to win that Cy Trophy again for the second year in a row. He has to in order to get a scholarship to be able to go to college.

At first, Jamie and Eve hate each other. They don't talk to each other, they aren't civil with each other, and they wish the other would stop playing.

But then things change. They start to get to know each other. They start to see the person behind the rival, the enemy, of their trophy. And they see how their home lives are and what they are wanting in life. Soon, they start to like one another, but things are not that easy. Feelings are jumping around and indecision is high in the air.

Soon, a decision has to be made between baseball and life, and Eve and Jamie are right in the middle of it all.

This was a cute novel. I really loved how dedicated Eve was - especially with the "hazing" part that the original Pirates did. She didn't let anything faze her and she was determined to keep her place because was dedicated and passionate about it. She took so much crap for being on the baseball team when they have a softball team, but her mother was hardcore and told Eve that she was only allowed to do baseball, because she wasn't going to go to 4 different sports in the springtime with all of her siblings.

Jamie was an okay character. He was popular and acted like an ass most of the time, but he was actually struggling at home. I think he should major in drama and acting, because he sure knew how to fool his friends into thinking he was a completely different person.

The way that Eve and Jamie were together was a bummer for me. I wish they were brave enough to tell everyone around them that they liked one another instead of keeping it a secret. Because then things blew up in their face and they had to face the consequences of their actions.

I really enjoy YA sport theme books, and this was another one that I really enjoyed! I think fans of sport romances and fans of this author will really like this novel when it's published.

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