I am a huge fan of the Soccer Sisters books and think that author Andrea Montalbano does well at writing about soccer for 8-12-year-olds. While you often find books in this sport written with boys in mind, this one takes a different approach and celebrates girls in this sport.

I'm not sure how much this adds to the sports genre, but it's cool to see more books with sporty girls.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I just ADORE books with soccer/voetbal, especially when it features a group of girls. And this one also features a camp setting! *squee*

I liked Chloe from the start. It is quite a delight when we have a girl who can have practically everything and can do all sorts of amazing stuff, but doesn't brag about it or tell anyone. Ah, such a delight. I also loved that our girl was good in two sports, dancing and soccer! And she was so friendly with everyone, tried her best, tried to help out people, and other things. Even though she didn't always have fun due to Skylar, she still tried to smile and go for it. Ignore as much as she can.
Plus her retaliation at the ending? Haha, absolute brilliance! Good job girl! You sure showed her.

Makena and Val? I just adored these two friends and how dedicated they were to soccer and how good they were at playing.

I loved that these girls are soccer sisters. Yep, their friendship goes beyond and above.

The training and activities at the camp were just such a delight. They did all sorts of things from practising to be more fit to doing all sorts of techniques to making teams and having competitions. I would love to go to this camp, though I pretty much suck at soccer. :P

Why do so many books have to have a mean girl? Can we for once just have a camp without bitches? Sorry, but I am getting real tired of it. Especially since those mean girls almost never get any punishment, it is as if they just walk away without ever getting a word about it. Like in this one, it takes until an event at the end before the coaches seem to realise that this is one very bad apple they have in their midst. Sure, just forget about the times she was aggressive on the field (and not only physical) and outside of it. Or hey, the food fight thing where she and her friends just walked away without getting in any problems. I would just love to have one book where a mean girl does crap and that people just send them away or give them proper punishment. Not wussy out and just leave her around.

Since this is book 3 in the series I didn't know what to make of Jessie. I guess maybe I could have sympathised with her more if I had read the other books or get even more pissed off at her dumb attitude, but at this moment I know that the events of this book will colour my image of Jessie as I will be reading book 1 and 2 soon.

Flavia? She was pretty kick-ass and I quite liked her at times but I didn't really get her going on and on and on and on about her past and her precious hand-sewn shoes. And she was pretty mean, like Chloe had personally offended her in some way. So, Chloe gets new shoes all the time? Is that a crime these days? She was involved with a food fight (though she didn't do anything)? Does that make her bad? Sorry, the whole relationship between these two could have been so much better without all the crap and it would have made me like Flavia even more. OK, I didn't mind it when she first talked about her past as it connected her with Chloe, but the rest? Sorry. No. I just felt sorry for Chloe at points as she was utterly confused to why Flavia was so angry at her.

The mom/parents/brother. Well I definitely didn't like the mom, at least at first. With how the story was told and the obvious stuff happening it was quickly visible that we would like the mom later. Which I found a bit of a shame. I guess it also doesn't help that I haven't read the first books, and so it seems a bit forced. Maybe if I read the other books and saw more of the mom in action I would have seen that she changed already and this was just another step.
The dad was my favourite, he was quite laid back while also being super-busy but you saw that he cared deeply about his family, or should I say the kitty. :P
Andrew was quite the fun one, I loved his relationship with his sister, it is not often that you saw siblings be together so nicely.

Oh, and then there is the foodfight. I get that it is a big no-no, but I found the reaction of the counsellors/coaches a bit too overkill. Cleaning up, sure, emailing parents, eh, but doing sprints when it is bloody hot outside is just ridiculous and might even cause actual harm to the kids.

The last competition was just too much fun to read and I was rooting for our camp to kick some serious butt! I had a laugh when Chloe's mom just popped up the field and tried to cheer for her daughter and her friends. :P Mom, please.

All in all, I sped through this book and had so much fun reading it. I definitely need to find the other books as I want to read more about these girls and their friendship/sisterhood.