The Foxhole Court: Volume 1 (All for the Game)

THE FOXHOLE COURT by Nora Sakavic is the first book in the All For The Game trilogy. It tells the story of Neil Josten the latest addition to the Palmetto State University Exy team. But Neil has secrets, chief of which is that he is the son of a crime lord known as The Butcher. Signing with the PSU Foxes puts his life in danger especially when playing with them means meeting a face from his past. I ended up reading this book in a matter of hours. It was that good! I started reading it before family came over, and I struggled to put it down. When I got back to it, I read it straight through to the end and it just blew me away. The story sucked me in. The characters were interesting, and believable. The plot was interesting and kept my attention. THE FOXHOLE COURT was everything I wanted from the first book in a series. Sakavic did a good job setting up the world and the characters; the premise of the book felt believable, and I think Sakavic did a brilliant job with Neil. I am planning on devouring the second and third books in this trilogy as quickly as I can get my hands on them! The main plot of the book focuses on the question of whether Neil will follow his dreams and play for the PSU Foxes, and if he does will his secrets be uncovered? Sakavic does a fantastic job at keeping the tension about possible discovery through the whole book; it’s what kept me turning the pages. I also really enjoyed the fact that Sakavic crossed the worlds of competitive sport and the mob, and all both worlds entail. I found the meshing of the worlds worked really well, and I thought the sport of Exy sounded interesting – it’s sort of a cross between ice hockey and lacrosse on a football pitch (though I’m don’t know if that’s American Football or football/soccer, and even if there’s a difference in pitch size). It’s super competitive both on and off the pitch. Neil Josten is the main character, and I thought he was an interesting choice. Going into THE FOXHOLE COURT you know he has secrets, and I think Sakavic plays with that aspect of his character well. I found it easy to trust him, and I thought his point of view was interesting. Sakavic does a brilliant job with his teammates, and they all feel real and believable. There’s also an interesting team dynamic, which makes for some pretty entertaining reading at times. Overall I think THE FOXHOLE COURT serves as a brilliant introduction to the All For The Game trilogy. Sakavic does a brilliant job of setting up the world and the characters, which I’m looking forward to seeing more of in future books. If you’re looking for a contemporary novel that doesn’t have a lot of romance in it, and you’re okay reading books that are sport based then you may want to consider picking this book up. I’m not sure if the little romance will hold up for future books in the trilogy, but for this book in particular there is very little of it at all. But having said that, as there’s a mob aspect to the book there’s also some references to pretty nasty violence – I cannot remember seeing any of it actually happen on page – and there’s also some substance abuse – some of which takes place without characters consent – so if that is not your thing then this may not be the book for you. Having said that, I don’t think any of the things I warned about are used gratuitously and I thought they added to the tension of the book. Review originally published on TheFlutterbyRoom.com

The Foxhole Court begins with Neil being given the opportunity to play the (fictional) sport of Exy for the Palmetto Foxes at Palmetto University. Think a cross of lacrosse and very violent hockey. The Foxes are a team of talented misfits on the verge of dropping out of their league. I use the word team loosely, as the Foxes are hardly what you would call a united group at the beginning. They all have a past, however, Neil has secrets of his own. He has been on the run from his crime boss father for years and has recently lost his mother. Where it gets interesting is that Neil recognizes one of the Foxes, former champion Kevin, from a time in his past, but does Kevin realise who Neil really is? For someone who's always been looking over his shoulder, the story sees Neil struggling with the choice of fight or flight, finding somewhere he could belong for the first time and something worth caring about. His arrival has an effect on all of the Foxes and the team. By the end of the book you'll be going straight on to book two, you only have to read reviews on Amazon to see I wasn't the only one that stayed up all night binge reading! At first, I wondered where all of these characters were going to fit, and who was who, but their personalities come through and make it easy to distinguish. Each one is important to the development in one way or another. By the second book I cared about each one to some degree. Whilst the writing in this isn't completely polished, what the author has achieved in making me feel made up for it. I will say it right here, I'm not a sports fan. You do not need to be to enjoy this story. If you are into sports however, you are going to be interested in the team dynamic and the match scenes. The Exy match scenes held my interest, and I liked how not every match was written about in great detail, just the important ones. These action scenes were done in a way that made me feel like I was watching from the side, and as it's a fictional sport, it didn't matter that I don't understand every sports term. Team spirit is catching. What I liked most was how the reader was drip-fed information about the different characters pasts throughout the book. It keeps you reading as you are intrigued to find out what's going on and why they are behaving the way they do, in particular with Neil. It's written in a way where you're not confused with what's going on, but you are still sort of in the dark about some motives and needing to know more. I also loved the characters, and what kept me reading was trying to find out if any of them had any redeemable qualities. Stick with me here; the Foxes are a messed up bunch, and from the start do not seem the nicest of folks, but as the book goes on, they seem more human. As they grow on Neil, they grow on the reader. I would recommend this book to those who like character driven novels, who enjoy a cat-and-mouse mystery and secrets, and to those who like finding out what makes people tick. This book is raw. It's not sunshine and rainbows. This is not for those that can't handle troubled and at times unlikeable characters. This story isn't for those that are overly critical of plot points, the plot with Neil's family back story can seem far-fetched at first, but if you were to continue with the series you would see how it falls into place. The first in the series is currently free on Amazon, and the others are low priced. They are not particularly long books either, so with that I think you should all take a chance on the Foxes.

When I first started this book, I got a little confused and was worried I'd missed a prequel or earlier series, because there are quite a few allusions to things that happened before now. However, that was just world-building and setting up what was coming later on. The book is extremely well-written, the characters and story keep you wanting to know more, and I just couldn't put it down, to the extent of losing sleep. I've since also bought the next 3 books in the series and devoured them all. It doesn't matter or spoil any of the excitement if you're like me and have absolutely no knowledge of or interest in the sport that takes part on some of the pages, the book is about people, not a game, which I always think is a good thing. Be warned, though, that this story is dark. There are darker out there, but check the warnings before diving in. The first 3 books in the series are Neil's story. If you like it half as much as I do, I would strongly advise buying and reading all 3 in quick succession as you will want to know where things go. There is a lot that happens and it would be also easy to get confused if you leave too long between each one. The 4th book concentrates on another character, briefly introduced in the first trilogy, and I am desperate for the rest of his story to be published so I can find out what happens to him. I really recommend this whole series to anyone, and will be following this new-to-me author with great interest.

Having just finished this, I must say that I'm sort of speechless. I'm not exactly sure what to say about this book. However, it's been a long time since I've felt the desire to stick with a story in one go and even longer since I've finished a book this long (82k+) in only a day. With that said, there are a lot of warnings that should come with this book. For one, there is no romance in this one. In fact, I'd be hard pressed to even call it a gay novel because the main character is more asexual than anything. There are 'suggestions' and 'impressions' that this could turn into a gay romance but that could also be taken as the MCs just getting violent. But to those readers thinking they're picking up a young adult, new adult, whatever you want to call it, romance, you'll be sadly disappointed. That out of the way, I'm extremely glad I read this. It might not be romance or m/m but I adored the characters and the journey I took with them. They're intense to say the least, psychotic and likely to fly off the handle bars but there was something about them that made me want to continue reading and find out where things were going. While I wouldn't say there's a huge cast of characters, there are more than the typical couple and a few side characters. The main contenders here are three guys: Neil, Andrew and Kevin. Neil is an asexual (kinda) who just wants to play Exy (which is like a sport that mixes lacrosse and ice hockey). He's a frightened kid but knows how crucial it is to lie low for fear of his father discovering where he is. Kevin is difficult to explain. He's mean and criticizes everything about Neil but at the same time, he's this lost soul who's been dealt just as crappy a hand as Neil has. Andrew is... psychotic. It's the only way to describe him. I don't understand how he became this way but he's got nothing to lose and he acts on that. He's five foot nothing but he's not afraid of staring down giants. He's amazing but scary and willing to keep everyone who he deems 'family' safe and right now that is Kevin. The story follows Neil along as he gets accustomed to living in such an open place and playing the sport he loves. Immediately he has issues with Andrew and his gang (who are Neil's teammates) that makes his life difficult but he loves Exy enough to put up with the hostility from everyone. It's about the trials that Neil has to go through, the panic and fear he always has about being found out and being hunted again and the consequences he has to deal with when he makes his decisions regarding whether to stay or to run. The only thing I didn't like about this book (aside from the lack of m/m romance, of course!) was how confused I was at times. The beginning will be hard to get through for some people because you're left wondering what is going on. You don't get the full back story for Neil or Kevin or even Andrew that really makes sense until well into the book so you're left wondering and probably saying WTF multiple times. I feel that I should warn readers that this isn't exactly about the mafia either. While there's an undertone of it and even the threat of a yakuza pride descending on Neil and Kevin, it's not actually shown or very prominent in the story. Given that, I didn't much mind this because I felt like the whole book was focusing on second chances and Neil finally living a life, finding a home and standing up to his past. To do that, he needs Andrew and Andrew is willing to help him because of Kevin. It sort of seems like a love triangle but, like I said, this isn't romance. It is more of a bonding between these characters over a common issue. To be honest, it's hard to explain this whole book because so much happens and is revealed that would spoiler the whole story if told. So, I'm going to leave it here. I enjoyed the novel. It has its issues but I found the whole thing fascinating and couldn't put the book down once I started. I liked that it wasn't saturated in sex but focused on such broken, and in Andrew's case, frightening characters. These characters are misfits, pure and simple and their attitudes and aggressions show that. It's a book of deceit, loyalty, dangerous situations and trust. It's not your traditional story but a gripping tale nonetheless and I'm really looking forward to seeing where the series goes from here and seriously how there's some m/m romance in the near future for Neil and Andrew!!

Wow this book is so absorbing!!! It's so good that I wanted to ignore everything else to keep reading. XD Damn, Andrew is such a fascinating character. I grew to like him near the end. Kevin is...I still dislike him, but I sympathize with him. Neil is a sympathetic character too, but like with Andrew, I took quite a while to warm up to him. I felt fine towards Matt, but didn't feel very strongly about him. As for Allison, Seth, Renee, Abby, David, Aaron, Nicky, I have conflicted feelings towards them. The only person I can say that I like with no reservations, is their team captain, Dan (Danielle). She's so tough but also kind at the same time. 😁 The slow-burn romance is really getting me, in a good way. The suspense, tension, and uncertainty are wonderful! I like that the romance is not that obvious, either, especially as I found the blurb a bit misleading. But since most of the popular highlights on my Kindle were about a certain character, there's no doubt about who the love interest is anymore, haha. The popular highlights function was a fun extra dimension of experience to the book.

A rollercoaster ride to read this story!

The book hooked me from the first pages. Hell, from the pitch. I never read contemporary books, less alone sports ones with (kind of) young chacarters. But it's not a sport book. It a beautiful story about broken characters and twisted past, and it will play with your feelings and make you feel like you're in a roller-coaster. I don't know how many times I had to close the book or read a passage 10 times because I was shocked (in a good and terrible way). I mean, just read it.

Excelente producto, a pesar d este usado está en excelentes condiciones, muchas gracias