Play On by Michelle Smith
Genre: YA Realistic Fiction
Blurb (on back of book):
In the small town of Lewis Creek, baseball is everything.
Especially for all-star pitcher Austin Braxton, who has a one-way ticket out of town with his scholarship to a top university. All that stands between him and a new start is one final season. But when Austin starts flunking Chemistry, his picture-perfect future is in jeopardy. A failing grade means zero playing time, and zero playing time means no scholarship.
Enter Marisa Marlowe, the new girl in town who gets a job at his momma’s flower shop. Not only is Marisa some home-schooled super-genius, she’s also a baseball fanatic and more than willing to help Austin study. As the two grow closer, there’s something about Marisa that makes Austin want more than just baseball and out of Lewis Creek—he wants a future with her. But Marisa has a past that still haunts her, one that she ran all the way to South Carolina to escape.
As Austin starts to peel back the layers of Marisa’s pain, it forces him to look beyond the facade of himself and everyone he thought he knew in his town. What he sees instead is that in a small town like Lewis Creek, maybe baseball isn’t everything—maybe it is just the thing that ties them all together.
MY OPINION: ***
Short review!
I really enjoyed reading this book. I thought for such a light read, it combined a lot of serious topics into a small book that actually educated readers. It dealt with a lot of controversial things in a serious way, which I liked.
My one complaint was the amount of baseball in this book. I KNOW it's about baseball and that's the whole premise but I was hoping for more about Austin's dad and friends and girlfriend rather than just all of the games that they play and win and lose.
The font of this book seemed wholly unprofessional and I realize that this has nothing to do with the author and really anything at all but I found it made it hard to read so there may have been some parts that just didn't compute in my brain.
Austin was a lovable character who was easy to understand. He was confused about a lot of things and he never really solves all of his problems by the end but he realizes and grows a lot as the book progresses. He realizes that there are other important things besides baseball. He learns that he should forgive people and take the time that you have.
Marisa, on the other hand, was so annoying. I hated her character so much. She was always just there and half the time, she seemed to be in the way. I did not ship her with Austin at all. She was also really depressed half the time and I understand that this is an important thing but the way it was written did not make it seem half as serious as it really was.
I don't want to criticize this book because, hey, I read it and I actually liked a lot of it.
AWW JAY AND BRETT WERE SO CUTE! I love the couples in this book that were ACTUALLY shippable (is that even a word?). I love how both of them finally got the confidence that they needed and it truly saddens me to see how some people can be so mean to others just because they think they are "different" in any way.
The writing style of this book was overall good but some points just got on my nerves. For one, they seem to swear a lot for no reason at all. They also use a lot of slang and Austin has to comment on EVERY SINGLE LITTLE THING POSSIBLE.
I would recommend this book to readers who are looking for something shorter but also serious.
Main Character: Austin
Sidekick(s): Marisa, Jay, Brett, Eric, etc
Villain(s): Misunderstanding, etc
Realistic Fiction Elements: All of this was very real to life.
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