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horrorbutch 's review for:
Defensive Mindset
by Wendy Temple
Disclaimer: I received an e-copy of this book on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Jessie can't believe that her coach hired Fran. Of all players that annoyed her on the field, he has to pick the one who managed to get on her nerves so badly, that Jessie lost her temper on the field and was suspended. And even now, when they are on the same team, Jessie is not sure if she can stand Fran.
Jessie is a hardworking woman, who wants to excel in football and in her personal life. Her opinion about romance is shattered, when her parents split up after nearly 30 years or marriage. And whatever weird thing she has going on with Fran makes everything even more complicated.
Fran is the silent type. She smokes and she sleeps and she deals with her past addiction as well as struggling to keep her grandfather's bar up and running. Most of the time she's distant and silent, but she also has her softer moments.
Jessie was pretty easy to love most of the time. Personally, I thought she overreacted a lot to the news of her parent's divorce, she's a grown up after all and doesn't depend on them and I found it really weird to read about her going on and on how it was the worst thing to happen to her. I can't imagine that it would change that much for a grown up child whose not living with their parents anymore.
I had a few problems with Fran. I really wanted to like her and I normally do like the Troubled Girl, but she lacked Depth. Now she has a tragic backstory and she has a lot of stuff going on in her life, but I never really felt like I could connect with her. She has all these things going on, but she kind of lacks the emotional depth. I also have a hard time imagining how a hard-core smoker and a generally not very healthy lifestyle, is supposed to have the condition to become a top-notch football player.
Generally, there was a lot of telling in this book and very little showing, so I already had a hard time connection to most of the characters and sadly this didn't change throughout the book.
I did however really enjoy the parts where Fran talked about her addiction. I can't say how truthful it was, but it felt very heartbreaking. Some of her descriptions were hard to read, but it was definitely a very interesting point of view that she had.
All in all, I have to say I liked this book, but it was not groundbreaking, and I still have some problems with it as detailed above. But it was still a nice read.
Jessie can't believe that her coach hired Fran. Of all players that annoyed her on the field, he has to pick the one who managed to get on her nerves so badly, that Jessie lost her temper on the field and was suspended. And even now, when they are on the same team, Jessie is not sure if she can stand Fran.
Jessie is a hardworking woman, who wants to excel in football and in her personal life. Her opinion about romance is shattered, when her parents split up after nearly 30 years or marriage. And whatever weird thing she has going on with Fran makes everything even more complicated.
Fran is the silent type. She smokes and she sleeps and she deals with her past addiction as well as struggling to keep her grandfather's bar up and running. Most of the time she's distant and silent, but she also has her softer moments.
Jessie was pretty easy to love most of the time. Personally, I thought she overreacted a lot to the news of her parent's divorce, she's a grown up after all and doesn't depend on them and I found it really weird to read about her going on and on how it was the worst thing to happen to her. I can't imagine that it would change that much for a grown up child whose not living with their parents anymore.
I had a few problems with Fran. I really wanted to like her and I normally do like the Troubled Girl, but she lacked Depth. Now she has a tragic backstory and she has a lot of stuff going on in her life, but I never really felt like I could connect with her. She has all these things going on, but she kind of lacks the emotional depth. I also have a hard time imagining how a hard-core smoker and a generally not very healthy lifestyle, is supposed to have the condition to become a top-notch football player.
Generally, there was a lot of telling in this book and very little showing, so I already had a hard time connection to most of the characters and sadly this didn't change throughout the book.
I did however really enjoy the parts where Fran talked about her addiction. I can't say how truthful it was, but it felt very heartbreaking. Some of her descriptions were hard to read, but it was definitely a very interesting point of view that she had.
All in all, I have to say I liked this book, but it was not groundbreaking, and I still have some problems with it as detailed above. But it was still a nice read.