e-Audio, 10:28:37
Narrated by: Marisol Ramirez
Release Date: May 9, 2023
Published by: Recorded Books, Inc.
Read from: May 24-26, 2023
Stand-alone
Source: Library’s Libby
TW: off-page maternal death by breast cancer, maternal grief, mentions of underage drinking, racism, depictions of paternal emotional abuse, depictions of anxiety/panic attacks, discussions and depictions of sports-related injuries (primarily a sprained wrist), condemned homophobia, condemned xenophobia, off-page teenage cancer patient, condemned mention of exclusionary transphobia in sports
For Readers Interested In: Romance, Realistic Fiction, Sports (Soccer), Contemporary Romance, Enemies to Lovers, LGBTQ+ (Ace & Bi), YAA queer YA romance about rival soccer players from author Racquel Marie, perfect for fans of She Drives Me Crazy .
Valentina “Vale” Castillo-Green’s life revolves around soccer. Her friends, her future, and her father’s intense expectations are all wrapped up in the beautiful game. But after she incites a fight during playoffs with her long-time rival, Leticia Ortiz, everything she’s been working toward seems to disappear.
Embarrassed and desperate to be anywhere but home, Vale escapes to her beloved childhood soccer camp for a summer of relaxation and redemption…only to find out that she and the endlessly aggravating Leticia will be co-captaining a team that could play in front of college scouts. But the competition might be stiffer than expected, so unless they can get their rookie team’s act together, this second chance―and any hope of playing college soccer―will slip through Vale’s fingers. When the growing pressure, friendship friction, and her overbearing father push Vale to turn to Leticia for help, what starts off as a shaky alliance of necessity begins to blossom into something more through a shared love of soccer. . . and maybe each other.
Sharp, romantic, and deeply emotional, You Don’t Have a Shot is a rivals-to-lovers romance about rediscovering your love of the game and yourself, from the author of Ophelia After All .
*MY THOUGHTS*
This is the first in the two books about sapphic soccer players that come out this year that I was hella excited about. The second one is adult and not out yet, so we won’t talk about it. But please know, I hope i like it better than this one. After the masterpiece that was Ophelia After All, I just knew I was going to add this to my list of faves this year. Unfortunately even though I liked it, I spent a lot of my time reading it while I rolled my eyes.
So I guess we’ll jump right into it then. Although I really liked the romance, the main character was not it. I get what Marie was trying to do, but Lordt it was a miss for me. Yes she was doing everyone the way her dad did her, but what troubled me was why was she doing that? She didn’t like it when her dad was doing it to her, so why was she doing it to them? She was a grade a botch and I was glad that she had things taken away from her. Maybe if it had happened sooner, it could have taught both her and her parent a lesson. And as a someone who also played on team sports, she was out there acting like Kobe and not passing the ball, trying to be the whole team and not passing the ball. You can’t do that in team sports. You have to trust your teammates. If you can’t, go run track or something that you do by yourself. (For the most part) I think that’s what annoyed me the most. She acted as if she was the star of everything but hunny hadn’t even gotten anyone from colleges to talk to her yet. It made her seem like she was better than everyone and it made me hate her.
The romance was cute tho. I really liked Leticia tho. It was like she mellowed Vale out, which she needed. Did I think Leticia deserved better? Yes. BUT did I end up liking the Valed that she became when she was with Leticia? Also yes. Idk it’s complicated. But I also thought it was weird. We always say don’t change for anyone. Be who you are always, but to be honest, I only liked them when they were together. They changed to be with each other, and I liked that. Especially since I don’t think I could have dealt with it otherwise.
If you’re not a sports fan, be careful with this one. It’s heavy on the soccer lingo. But I think it was done in a good enough way. I’ve never played soccer a day in my life, but I knew what the terms were and once I Googled the terms I didn’t know (like the positions) and it was cool. But if you’re someone who skips over those types of things, please know this one is heavy with it and you’d be skipping a lot.
Although i wasn’t a huge fan of the main characters, I still enjoyed “going to the camp” and meeting the other characters. Some of them were terrible, but the others were pretty cute. I especially liked her teammates. They all had their own personalities. It was really cute. The camp itself was pretty cool too. I liked the structure and the way they ran the games and the way everyone there had so much fun. Is this what summer sports camps were really like? I was sad I’d never been to one as a teen lol
The setting was good, the love interest was great, but I just couldn’t get behind the main character. I think she overdid it on the unlikeable part for an unlikeable heroine. It was just too much and put me off of her. The plot was a little slow, but it’s a romance. Nearly all romances these days are a slow burn. It took forever for them to get it together. But that made the plot stall a bit. But it was ok. I still liked and will still recommend it, but just know Ophelia is still my favorite!
Overall, I give this
