Thank you Kit Rosewater, Random House Children’s, and NetGalley for the ARC.

This definitely reads YA especially for the third act break up due to miscommunication. I unfortunately didn't feel much chemistry between the two FMC.

This is a book depicted for 12+ anyone who may be reading this review and wondering if it's right for your preteen, there is detailed sexual scenes between these two minors.

Evelyn, a senior in high school, is hyper-focused on field hockey and getting a slot on the team at Duke University. This is what her mother did, and Evelyn made a promise right before her mother died to follow in her footsteps. All of this gets thrown off when Evelyn goes off her game and loses to her school's rival team because she becomes fascinated by Rosa, their newest player. What started out as a rivalry becomes a friendship and then more, leaving Evelyn at a crossroads between Rosa, her team and the shared dreams of her mother.

This book is well written and well plotted. Rosa's Chicana heritage is portrayed with good details and not swept under the rug. For some reason, I'm seeing more YA books with deceased parents and the fallout from this kind of tragedy. It definitely adds tension and conflict, but I hope it doesn't become unrealistically popular.

I'm going with 4 stars instead of 5 based on the final chapter before the epilogue. I found the snowy day metaphor and the interactions of the two MCs a bit contrived where previously their relationship felt realistic.

I was provided an ARC by the publisher via NetGalley.

All’s Fair in Love and Field Hockey by Kit Rosewater was a very enjoyable read. The book focuses on Evelyn, whose whole life is wrapped up in field hockey and living up to the memory of her deceased mother by attending the same college and becoming a professional field hockey player. That’s a lot of pressure for anyone, but especially a high schooler. Evelyn’s clearly laid out path meets a stumbling block in the form of Rosa a soccer player turned field hockey star from an opposing high school. Evelyn is captivated by Rosa and has to consider what that means for who she thought she was and who she is going to be.

I really enjoyed the character growth and maturity in this book. Evelyn wasn’t perfect and there were several missteps made by her throughout the book but by the end she was taking ownership over her feelings and actions and that’s always great to read about.

I do wish that there has been more scenes with Evelyn and Rosa where we could see them connecting. It did feel like time jumped ahead and their feelings were stronger than I would be expected given what we’d already read.

Overall, I really liked this book. It captured a lot of the feelings of trying to figure out who you are and for anyone who’s felt like you’re carrying other people’s expectations this will hit home.

Thank you Kit Rosewater, Random House Children’s, and NetGalley for the ARC.

Thanks so much to Random House Children’s and Netgalley for providing me with an e-ARC of this book. All thoughts are my own.

I really enjoyed this rivals to lovers romance. The tension was palpable right from the start. I liked that this didn’t really have the enemies vibe these kinds of books often have. They were rivals AND lovers, and they also had so much else going on outside of their secret relationship.

Evelyn‘s journey over the course of this book was so emotional. Dealing with her grief, the pressure she put on herself and that has been put on her, the way she didn’t even really know who she was outside of field hockey and living her mum’s dream. All of it was so heavy and palpable.

I loved her and Rosa together. I loved that Rosa challenged her to view things differently, to really think about what she wanted.

I also really loved her brother, Seth, and the relationship they had.

This book felt really hopeful by the end and I really hope it helps some scared, uncertain kids who pick it up.

DNF because there is a line in an early chapter that the player from the other school shoots lefty.

Guys, you can't shoot lefty in field hockey. The sticks are right handed. If you are a lefty you learn to play with the right handed stick. It's a whole thing.

This is embarrassing.

DNF at 35%. I like the idea here, but this book feels woefully mismarketed and executed. I’m all for exploring sex in YA in a sensitive way, but was taken off guard by what can only be described as a “spicy” scene between minors. It’s not the most detailed or even erotic, but it toed the line to being really awkward.

This one just wasn’t for me.

I did appreciate the coverage of the pressure on teen athletes and the over all diversity, including a trans secondary character.

I didn’t appreciate the slut shaming, biphobia/lesbophobia, or just general hyper-sexualization of teens.. I’m definitely a sex positive person but this one was just too much. If they had been college aged I would’ve found it more appropriate. It’s also marketed as YA but personally this was way more sexualized than any other YA romance I’ve read..

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC in exchange for my honest review!!

Kit is such a nice person and I enjoyed this book! I’m a big nerd for a sports romance so this was a fun read. Probably better for older teens because of the sex topics, but teens do get involved with each other so it’s not surprising. I love a good rivals to lovers plot as well. Awesome debut and I’m excited for more!

I absolutely loved this book! From start to finish I was completely invested, and could not put it down! The main character is flawed and makes mistakes, but it’s easy to figure out where she’s coming from and I was still rooting for her the entire time. The dialogue felt very natural, and the relationship progression between Evelyn and Rosa wasn’t too rushed or too dragged out.

This was such a heartwarming story! Yes, you have a sort of third-act breakup due to communication issues, but I feel like the story as a whole was so relatable and sweet. Evelyn is a high school senior who is getting to a point in life where she has to figure out what she wants her life to be instead of going solely on her late mother's wishes. This was written so beautifully. She had lots to learn, and really only two people, her brother and her rival of all people, to get through this with. Amidst coming to terms with coming out as LGBTQ+, minus a label, this was a well written coming of age story that I would highly recommend.

All's Fair in Love and Field Hockey is not the most original title, but still aptly named. The story follows our protagonist, Evelyn, whose whole life revolves around her place as a goalie on the school's field hockey team. Her mom, who tragically passed away a few years prior, had laid out the path perfectly for Evelyn, who strives to follow through. The problem ends up being that the one person in the way of her goal happens to be the main player, Rosa, on their biggest rival team. Chaos ensues when Evelyn and Rosa end up spending more time together . . .

I found this story to be very sweet. I think the little childish moments played out well, in a way that wasn't annoying like you sometimes find in these kinds of YA books. The story tackled many touching themes like family, survivor's guilt, balancing academics, planning for the future, and handling stress. There were almost too many themes, and I think sometimes that detracted from a more focused story, but I'm not going to hold that too much against the story.

The characters are all pretty real and human in their own way. Their youth also shows in their rash decisions and the way they may speak first and regret later. The way the characters learned and grew from their actions was mostly quite a natural progression, and I enjoyed the story in that sense. The whole "secret relationship" kind of vibe to the story also gave it quite a thrilling element, which I also enjoyed.

One gripe I did have though, was that at some pivotal intense moments, the youth suddenly talked the adults—using big words and language that felt a little bit too sophisticated for the level of thoughts I was expecting from the characters. May this is me just reading a little bit too much into it, but ultimately it did take away a bit from the intensity of the moment when it feels like lines are out of character. Ultimately, this didn't happen too many times though, so not something I minded too much.

Overall the story arc was quite satisfying, and I found it easy to read through it. The story was nothing crazy unique, but I felt that it was pretty well executed and I had a good time reading it. The romantic element was as expected, and I think was tackled well. The relationship felt realistic, and I think the interactions were fairly genuine and suitable for the characters. This definitely made the story feel more genuine, which I enjoyed.

4.25 stars

I really like queer sports books, and this was pretty fun to read, given I know nothing about field hockey. I enjoyed the writing style and the rivals to lovers progression. I really liked Evelyn's character growth regarding her grief journey about her mom. I think I'd have enjoyed this a little more if the characters had been aged up a little, though it would have needed some reworking since a lot of the story revolves around college prospects.

I did not enjoy the LUG/BUG conversation. I get that teenagers will say some out of pocket things (and be loudly wrong), but it felt really out of place and mean-spirited. I wish there had been a little more depth to Rosa and Evelyn's relationship beyond both being athletes. This is a solid read for 16+ due to the slightly graphic sex scene between teenagers.

Thank you to NetGalley and publisher for the opportunity to read and review.

I wanted to love this book so bad, I love lgbt representation and this book is full of it.

Don’t get me wrong this Author is a good writer I just have some personal issues with this book that main one being the descriptive sexual scenes between minors .

This book is marketed towards younger teens which makes me feel like this book isn’t really appropriate, I also wish that if the author was determined to be so descriptive with the sexual scenes that they would of made the characters 18 or older.

Once again don’t get me wrong I love a good spicy scene just not between minors . Please please please add some trigger warnings to your book for stuff like underage sexual stuff .

Thank you Netgalley and Random House Children's | Delacorte Romance for the arc

This was a fun, cute read! I know nothing about field hockey, so it was really cool to read about it from an outside perspective. The characters were also very fun, and I enjoyed it immensely!

Thank you so much for allowing me to read the ARC.

Rosewater has created a beautiful story of learning how to be your own person and how to shy away from expectations. Evelyn and Rosa were so real and I loved learning about them. The issues of queerness and trans athletes were well touched and very important in this day and age. A perfect debut!

This was a cute sapphic sports romance! I like how there was actually a lot of the sport in it, and that it touched on such heavy topics in a sensitive way. However, I just never really got invested in the relationship between the two FMCs.

Thanks to Random House for the ARC through NetGalley.

God, this was both adorable and a gut punch. It manages to balance such a sweet romance, with themes of finding yourself, with the devastating pressure of trying to be who you think you should be. Plus, it is so unapologetic in its love of sports, and it makes a point to include trans people in that love, which only made me like it all the more.

This was overall fun! I struggled a bit with some of the decisions made by the characters, so it won't be a new favorite but it was still cute.

I was hoping for a cozy sapphic YA sports romance and I feel like a few content warnings are called for in this book.

There's biphobia, slut shaming and lesbophobia, at least called out eventually, but kids aren't perfect and say problematic things, so I didn't have an issue with the way that was handled, though the way it was called out sounded like a college gender studies textbook. There's a main character processing grief after losing her mother to cancer. It's also spicy for a YA book but I thought the open-door sex scenes and makeout sessions were fairly tame. Teens do have sex. She's got a trans brother who was a side character and I liked how her mom was shown to be imperfect by not accepting him coming out to her.

This book is marketed as to age 12 and up but because of the spiciness and heavy themes it's better suited for older teens.

I was just disappointed because this book had heavier themes than I wanted from it and for over half the book Evelyn was with a boyfriend and I wanted the focus to be on the queer romance. The boyfriend wasn't a shitty guy, just a boring football quarterback and she wasn't interested in him. That's the main reason I'm rating this book low. I'm tired of queer girls being with boring boyfriends for most of the romance to show that they're bi/pan.

That and I didn't really see the chemistry between Rosa and Evelyn; they went straight from rivals (and Evelyn was so self-absorbed and unlikable, I had a hard time rooting for her), to messy and stupid misunderstandings, to soulmates, it was all kind of abrupt. I felt like Evelyn should have stood up for her more and her friends weren't a very good support group for her. They fought over petty, shallow things.

I liked the way her queer awakening was handled though I was cringing the whole way through. But again, teenagers are problematic and I think it's important to show that in YA. I also liked how she struggled to find a label that fit and wasn't sure if queer, pan or bi worked for her; it's good to show on page questioning. A lot of queer people feel like that and feel boxed in by fixed categorization. I think it's good for teen readers to see that inclusivity.

I also liked the elements of field hockey and women's sports. I know nothing about field hockey and I was intrigued by the culture around a sport that doesn't get much attention or prestige. And I liked how Evelyn's grief was handled and her single-minded focus on getting into Duke as a way of being close to her mom. Teens do need to read about tough topics. But they also need coziness just like us adults.

This book has made me wonder if I'm not as ready for contemporary romance as I thought I was. When you're bored by the romance, annoyed by the stupid misunderstandings and forced drama, and think the main love interests work better as friends... meh. I do love contemporary romance when it makes me swoon right with the characters and this wasn't that for me. This was just cringe most of the way through. It would have been a stronger book as YA without the romance.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance review copy. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

thank you netgalley for the arc! this is perfectly fine, a queer YA but the miscommunication is stupid and it might have been better as a college novel? the love interest is barely an evolved character and the friendships are not great