What do you think?
Rate this book
Outer Banks Tennis Academy #1
Game. Set. Match.
Nestled along the North Carolina coast, the Outer Banks Tennis Academy is the world's most elite training facility. In this pressure-cooker environment, futures are forged in blood and sweat, and dreams are shattered in an instant.
Penny Harrison, a rising female star, is determined to win the French Open and beat her archrival, Zina Lutrova. But when her coach imports British bad boy Alex Russell as her new training partner, will Penny be able to keep her laser-like focus?
Tennis is all Jasmine Randazzo has ever known. The daughter of two Grand Slam champions, she's hell-bent on extending her family’s legacy and writing her own happily-ever-after...until her chosen Prince Charming gives her the just-friends speech, right before the biggest junior tournament of the year, the Outer Banks Classic.
With a powerful serve and killer forehand, newcomer Indiana Gaffney is turning heads. She’s thrilled by all of the attention, especially from Jack Harrison, Penny’s agent and hot older brother, except he keeps backing off every time things start heating up.
With so much at stake, dreams—and hearts—are bound to break.
Game. Set. Match is a fantastic entrant in the New Adult genre! I really enjoyed this sharply observed story of ambitions, friendship and love at the Outer Banks Tennis Academy. I'm definitely Team Penny - I love that she's strong but vulnerable too when it comes to her sexy British beau. Plus, we go to Paris! Ooh lala! - Lauren Blakely, NYTimes & USAToday Bestselling Author of CAUGHT UP IN US
If you like passionate girls who put it all on the line, hot guys who are hard to read, and friendship that's about more than gossip and clothes, look no further than the Outer Banks Tennis Academy. - Holly Sorensen, Executive Producer , Freeform's MAKE IT OR BREAK IT, RECOVERY ROAD and YouTube Red's STEP HIGH WATER
Penny Harrison, a rising female star, is determined to win the French Open and beat her archrival, Zina Lutrova. But when her coach imports British bad boy Alex Russell as her new training partner, will Penny be able to keep her laser-like focus?
Tennis is all Jasmine Randazzo has ever known. The daughter of two Grand Slam champions, she's hell-bent on extending her family’s legacy and writing her own happily-ever-after...until her chosen Prince Charming gives her the just-friends speech, right before the biggest junior tournament of the year, the Outer Banks Classic.
With a powerful serve and killer forehand, newcomer Indiana Gaffney is turning heads. She’s thrilled by all of the attention, especially from Jack Harrison, Penny’s agent and hot older brother, except he keeps backing off every time things start heating up.
With so much at stake, dreams—and hearts—are bound to break.
Game. Set. Match is a fantastic entrant in the New Adult genre! I really enjoyed this sharply observed story of ambitions, friendship and love at the Outer Banks Tennis Academy. I'm definitely Team Penny - I love that she's strong but vulnerable too when it comes to her sexy British beau. Plus, we go to Paris! Ooh lala! - Lauren Blakely, NYTimes & USAToday Bestselling Author of CAUGHT UP IN US
If you like passionate girls who put it all on the line, hot guys who are hard to read, and friendship that's about more than gossip and clothes, look no further than the Outer Banks Tennis Academy. - Holly Sorensen, Executive Producer , Freeform's MAKE IT OR BREAK IT, RECOVERY ROAD and YouTube Red's STEP HIGH WATER
242 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 29, 2013
69 people are currently reading
6,053 people want to read
About the author
Jennifer Iacopelli
5books540followersJennifer Iacopelli was born in New York and has no plans to leave, ever. Growing up, she read everything she could get her hands on, but her favorite authors were L.M. Montgomery and Frances Hodgson Burnett, both of whom wrote about kick-butt girls before it was cool for girls to be kick-butt. As a high school librarian, she frolics all day with her students, books and computers and writes at night while cheering on her beloved Yankees. Follow her on twitter and instagram, @jennifercarolyn.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 209 reviews
May 4, 2013
It's funny how I can not sit through any sports game and stay awake to save my life, but movies and books on the subject, I love! Game Set Match is the perfect example of why; ultimately about sports, the story is really about the characters, the dynamics between players, romances that bloom (what's better than 1 romance? 3 of them! ;), and feeling the excitement of the game by wanting these characters to win so much.
Not into Tennis? Honestly, don't let that deter you at all for one second. No one can be as clueless as me when it comes to how that game is played, but never did I feel overwhelmed, confused, or bored by it at all. On the contrary, I found myself enjoying the tennis matches the most. Jennifer makes you care about the characters so much that the matches become as intense to you as if you were the one playing. You want these girls to win so badly that I was literally holding my breath during one of the big matches. The only complaint is that I wanted to experience more of these games. Some are faded to black, and once or twice they're skipped completely and we just get the end result. This is what happens when matches are written to be so exhilarating, it leaves you disappointed when others were skimmed over. Still, I loved all the energy they radiated; even those we didn't get to see fully were bristling with so much anticipation that in one way it was fun to get treated to the result right away. My blood: it was pumping, dude! *jumps up and down ready to fight a bitch*
The matches wouldn't have been half as fun if there weren't such fantastic characters to root for. We're treated to three amazing point-of-views in this novel; these are 3 determined and confident girls who are attending tennis academy. Each one is dealing with her own difficulties towards the game, some towards other students as well--we get a hint of mean girl-ness caused by jealousy-- we also get romance entanglements, and most importantly, we get great and authentic friendships that bloom between the girls. Penny, Indie, and Jasmine, are all as incredibly likeable as they are genuine. They are the heart of this book. I enjoyed all three perspectives just as much as the other, and even now I have a hard time deciding who I would pick as a favorite--though I've been leaning towards Indy a little. Their voices never had me confused as to which POV I was reading, they're distinct with very different personalities. They're also at different stages in their lives and tennis careers so that we get to experience different degrees of accomplishments as well as the excitement that comes with them.
New Adult = same old same old? Not in this one. This is a story about 3 girls who are dead set on making it big; they are on the path to a very challenging and rewarding career, they're building new friendships, they're experiencing post high-school romance; they are new to adulthood. (Not a one with a dark past! I know, right?) To me this felt like the true meaning of New Adult, sex or no sex. That's right--no sex. These girls are in college, over 17 and independent, and there is definite talk of sex, as well as other mature content like drinking and swearing, yet it doesn't actually have any sexual content. We know they have sex, but we aren't privy of these experiences. From the New Adult I've read so far this does make it stand out in its genre, but I was completely fine with this. To be honest, it wasn't needed. NA is not just "YA with sex" like some think. And while there is romance, it's made part of the book, it doesn't overrule it (the cover might be misleading). I found it to be a perfectly balanced feel-good book, a little reminiscent of Miranda Kenneally's Catching Jordan.
Filled with vivacity, Game Set Match surprised me in the best of ways and turned out to be an absolute favorite. I was filled with pure contentment whenever I sat down to read (which was really only twice since I devoured it in mere hours). It's exactly what I needed at the time. My initial disappointment at the end feeling abrupt was quickly extinguished when I found out it's a planned series--previously thinking this was a stand-alone. There is no cliffhanger, but its made obvious there should be more to the story. My only hope is that we don't have to wait too long!
--
An advance copy was provided by the publisher for review.
For more of my reviews, visit my blog at
Not into Tennis? Honestly, don't let that deter you at all for one second. No one can be as clueless as me when it comes to how that game is played, but never did I feel overwhelmed, confused, or bored by it at all. On the contrary, I found myself enjoying the tennis matches the most. Jennifer makes you care about the characters so much that the matches become as intense to you as if you were the one playing. You want these girls to win so badly that I was literally holding my breath during one of the big matches. The only complaint is that I wanted to experience more of these games. Some are faded to black, and once or twice they're skipped completely and we just get the end result. This is what happens when matches are written to be so exhilarating, it leaves you disappointed when others were skimmed over. Still, I loved all the energy they radiated; even those we didn't get to see fully were bristling with so much anticipation that in one way it was fun to get treated to the result right away. My blood: it was pumping, dude! *jumps up and down ready to fight a bitch*
The matches wouldn't have been half as fun if there weren't such fantastic characters to root for. We're treated to three amazing point-of-views in this novel; these are 3 determined and confident girls who are attending tennis academy. Each one is dealing with her own difficulties towards the game, some towards other students as well--we get a hint of mean girl-ness caused by jealousy-- we also get romance entanglements, and most importantly, we get great and authentic friendships that bloom between the girls. Penny, Indie, and Jasmine, are all as incredibly likeable as they are genuine. They are the heart of this book. I enjoyed all three perspectives just as much as the other, and even now I have a hard time deciding who I would pick as a favorite--though I've been leaning towards Indy a little. Their voices never had me confused as to which POV I was reading, they're distinct with very different personalities. They're also at different stages in their lives and tennis careers so that we get to experience different degrees of accomplishments as well as the excitement that comes with them.
New Adult = same old same old? Not in this one. This is a story about 3 girls who are dead set on making it big; they are on the path to a very challenging and rewarding career, they're building new friendships, they're experiencing post high-school romance; they are new to adulthood. (Not a one with a dark past! I know, right?) To me this felt like the true meaning of New Adult, sex or no sex. That's right--no sex. These girls are in college, over 17 and independent, and there is definite talk of sex, as well as other mature content like drinking and swearing, yet it doesn't actually have any sexual content. We know they have sex, but we aren't privy of these experiences. From the New Adult I've read so far this does make it stand out in its genre, but I was completely fine with this. To be honest, it wasn't needed. NA is not just "YA with sex" like some think. And while there is romance, it's made part of the book, it doesn't overrule it (the cover might be misleading). I found it to be a perfectly balanced feel-good book, a little reminiscent of Miranda Kenneally's Catching Jordan.
Filled with vivacity, Game Set Match surprised me in the best of ways and turned out to be an absolute favorite. I was filled with pure contentment whenever I sat down to read (which was really only twice since I devoured it in mere hours). It's exactly what I needed at the time. My initial disappointment at the end feeling abrupt was quickly extinguished when I found out it's a planned series--previously thinking this was a stand-alone. There is no cliffhanger, but its made obvious there should be more to the story. My only hope is that we don't have to wait too long!
--
An advance copy was provided by the publisher for review.
For more of my reviews, visit my blog at
May 3, 2013
[Note: This is a New Adult book - there aren't super explicit scenes, but there's definitely some steaminess that's more than PG-rated. I would call this a 16 & up book]
Game. Set. Match reminded me a lot of one of my favourite ABC Family shows, Make It Or Break It, which was about four elite women's gymnasts who were really just teenagers trying to live with a massive amount of talent and pressure.
In GSM, there are three viewpoint characters, Indiana Gaffney, the newcomer with a killer serve; Jasmine Randazzo, a strong, steady player who struggles to live up to her parents' legacy; and Penny Harrison, fresh juniors champion and rising star. All of them are dealing with the same kind of pressure as the MIOBI girls, but the difference is, these girls are a bit older, and there are a lot less rules about who or what they do with their time.
Who is the big question here. There are some seriously hot guys around, and Jennifer Iacopelli can write lust. This is a sexy book, guys. I definitely felt tingles.
This is the kind of book where you're going to have favourites. Even though every girl character was definitely strong and sassy, I wouldn't be surprised if Indy was everyone's fave. She's not afraid to stand up for herself, and she's got a ton of potential. Jasmine, on the other hand, starts out a little bit snippy and mean-girl-ish. I predicted that she would soften, but I didn't predict how, and I do like the way things turned out for her.
My personal favourite was Penny, who was a strong, kick-arse girl determined to do right by the world. It didn't hurt that her romance was easily my favourite - Alex is SMOKIN', guys, and it's hard not to want to fall into his arms completely.
Game. Set. Match reminded me a lot of one of my favourite ABC Family shows, Make It Or Break It, which was about four elite women's gymnasts who were really just teenagers trying to live with a massive amount of talent and pressure.
In GSM, there are three viewpoint characters, Indiana Gaffney, the newcomer with a killer serve; Jasmine Randazzo, a strong, steady player who struggles to live up to her parents' legacy; and Penny Harrison, fresh juniors champion and rising star. All of them are dealing with the same kind of pressure as the MIOBI girls, but the difference is, these girls are a bit older, and there are a lot less rules about who or what they do with their time.
Who is the big question here. There are some seriously hot guys around, and Jennifer Iacopelli can write lust. This is a sexy book, guys. I definitely felt tingles.
This is the kind of book where you're going to have favourites. Even though every girl character was definitely strong and sassy, I wouldn't be surprised if Indy was everyone's fave. She's not afraid to stand up for herself, and she's got a ton of potential. Jasmine, on the other hand, starts out a little bit snippy and mean-girl-ish. I predicted that she would soften, but I didn't predict how, and I do like the way things turned out for her.
My personal favourite was Penny, who was a strong, kick-arse girl determined to do right by the world. It didn't hurt that her romance was easily my favourite - Alex is SMOKIN', guys, and it's hard not to want to fall into his arms completely.
May 1, 2013
Okay listen up people, what makes a perfect summer read... a cute romance, sport, great characters, and a bit of drama. Am I right?
Now, what does Game. Set. Match. have? Tennis (which, let's be honest, is the ultimate sport), THREE cute romances, even more great characters and a whole lot of drama. I'm telling you now, Jennifer Iacopelli pulls off this winning formula, and I for one, will be rereading this incredible, light, feel-good book every summer, especially during the Australian Open!!
The full review can be found on my blog, .
I was quite excited when I heard about Game. Set. Match. because I absolutely love tennis (a Roger Federer fan for life), and I've never read any young adult books that have centred around it. Add to that, the fact that the characters are ELITE players who live in an academy to train, and I was basically drooling while counting down the days until I'd get my hands on it.
Game. Set. Match. effortlessly centres around the three perspectives of Indiana (Indy) Gaffney - the new girl to attend at the prestigious Outer Banks Tennis Academy, Penny Harrison - the world number one junior from OBX who is making her move up the woman's ranks, and Jasmine Randazzo - the girl from tennis royalty who is fighting hard to defend her spot at OBX. Each have refreshing and unique personalities, but all of them share a passion for tennis and Game. Set. Match. is about each girl's fight for glory on the court, and for love off the court. For fellow tennis lovers, this novel has multiple passages dedicated to the imagery of the perfect serve, the right strategies, the mental game and training drills; just aspects of tennis that I absolutely relished. The competition, the stakes and the ambition were all factors that captivated me from start to finish and thank goodness this is only the first of a series because I really need more!
Personally, my favourite character was Indy, probably because as the new girl, she was the underdog but my favourite romance was Penny's, which had the 'feels' I know you are all hunting for! That was the great thing about this novel, each character had different strengths, and together, they covered everything you'd want for a memorable summer read.
The only fault I noticed was that the plot was a little idealistic in favour of our main characters. Indy quit tennis for a few years before attending OBX but is still immediately one of their top players while Jasmine probably had the most convincing story line. Penny only just got out of the juniors but in the opening chapter, she beats the world number one. She also has a top twenty ranked male player (Alex) for a hitting partner with whom she apparently trades long hard rallies. The cynical part of me couldn't really believe this since in reality, there is a HUGE gap in the quality of play between the male and female games, so the odds that Alex would think it beneficial to train with a female junior player in preparation for Roland Garros, in real life if he was in the least ambitious, would be close to none. However, these hiccups were incredibly easy to overlook in favour of adorable romances, fist-pumping victories and heart warming friendships which were really what I was after anyway.
Game. Set. Match. is a must-read for summer. And it's out now! Believe me, it is well worth the read! Now for the second novel... fingers crossed it will be released very, very soon.
More reviews can be found on my blog, .
Now, what does Game. Set. Match. have? Tennis (which, let's be honest, is the ultimate sport), THREE cute romances, even more great characters and a whole lot of drama. I'm telling you now, Jennifer Iacopelli pulls off this winning formula, and I for one, will be rereading this incredible, light, feel-good book every summer, especially during the Australian Open!!
The full review can be found on my blog, .
I was quite excited when I heard about Game. Set. Match. because I absolutely love tennis (a Roger Federer fan for life), and I've never read any young adult books that have centred around it. Add to that, the fact that the characters are ELITE players who live in an academy to train, and I was basically drooling while counting down the days until I'd get my hands on it.
Game. Set. Match. effortlessly centres around the three perspectives of Indiana (Indy) Gaffney - the new girl to attend at the prestigious Outer Banks Tennis Academy, Penny Harrison - the world number one junior from OBX who is making her move up the woman's ranks, and Jasmine Randazzo - the girl from tennis royalty who is fighting hard to defend her spot at OBX. Each have refreshing and unique personalities, but all of them share a passion for tennis and Game. Set. Match. is about each girl's fight for glory on the court, and for love off the court. For fellow tennis lovers, this novel has multiple passages dedicated to the imagery of the perfect serve, the right strategies, the mental game and training drills; just aspects of tennis that I absolutely relished. The competition, the stakes and the ambition were all factors that captivated me from start to finish and thank goodness this is only the first of a series because I really need more!
Personally, my favourite character was Indy, probably because as the new girl, she was the underdog but my favourite romance was Penny's, which had the 'feels' I know you are all hunting for! That was the great thing about this novel, each character had different strengths, and together, they covered everything you'd want for a memorable summer read.
The only fault I noticed was that the plot was a little idealistic in favour of our main characters. Indy quit tennis for a few years before attending OBX but is still immediately one of their top players while Jasmine probably had the most convincing story line. Penny only just got out of the juniors but in the opening chapter, she beats the world number one. She also has a top twenty ranked male player (Alex) for a hitting partner with whom she apparently trades long hard rallies. The cynical part of me couldn't really believe this since in reality, there is a HUGE gap in the quality of play between the male and female games, so the odds that Alex would think it beneficial to train with a female junior player in preparation for Roland Garros, in real life if he was in the least ambitious, would be close to none. However, these hiccups were incredibly easy to overlook in favour of adorable romances, fist-pumping victories and heart warming friendships which were really what I was after anyway.
Game. Set. Match. is a must-read for summer. And it's out now! Believe me, it is well worth the read! Now for the second novel... fingers crossed it will be released very, very soon.
More reviews can be found on my blog, .
Want to read
March 26, 2013TENNNIIIIIISSSS WUUUTTT???!!!!
May 14, 2013
*4.5 stars*
WOW! I don't even know where to start! I read the book in one sitting, it was that good! Absolutely brilliant!
As you might already know, I love the New Adult "genre", but lately I've been disappointed in so many books, I started to pick out my reads more carefully. New Adult books became sort of a popular thing, and if you watch closely, they mostly have the same theme: some deep drama, highly depressed,tattoed brooding characters, complicated romance, and drama, drama, drama (often unnecessary). A lot of NA books even lack the writing, because the authors focus more on creating drama than actually building up the characters and the story.
But who says a New Adult book has to be dark? That the characters must be depressed, shy, full of fear? That the books has to be full of 18+ scenes? I like reading New Adult because the characters are more mature in age, not because they spend the 75% of the book in bed.
If you're looking for a dark, depressive read that will bring you to tears and make you sobbing, then Game. Set. Match. is not a book for you.
Game. Set. Match. is a book full of life! This book is a fresh breeze in the New Adult genre! The characters instead of being brooding, are likeable and funny, the scenes are realistic. There is romance, friendship, love and disappointment, discipline and hard work, but also family. This book has it all! And on top of it, the book is centered around tennis!
When I read this book I had a feeling I'm not even reading, but watching a movie! The story runs on 3 threads, so we get not 1, not 2, but THREE romances!
The story takes place in North Carolina, the Outer Banks Tennis Academy (OBX), which is the world's most famous and elite training facility for tennis players.
To this Academy comes the 17-old Indiana Gaffney to learn from the best coaches how to become a professional tennis player.
She has a natural talent, so the other girls see her as a rival since the beginning. They are often mean and think of her as an easy target. They're like...
But Indy is not intimidated. She is not the type of girl who runs off and hides in the closet. She is determined to show she is the best and the other girls' viciousness just make her try harder. She soon becomes friends with the Academy's biggest star tennis player, Penny and also meets her hot big brother, Jack Harrison ... and the sparks start flying! :D
Where Indy is bold, Jack is reserved, but even he can't ignore the instant bond he feels toward her.
Penny Harrison is very disciplined and wants to become the world's best player.
Penny is preparing for the French Open to beat her biggest rival, the Russian Zina Lutrova. She gets a new training partner, the British bad-boy, Alex Russell . The two of them have a history, so Penny can't loose her focus on the game, even if Alex's presence is like a magnet and makes her feel funny. :)
Penny and Alex are such a lovely couple! I loved watching how they relationship developed! And Alex is so HOT!!!
Jasmine Randazzo tried to measure up to her parents, who were Grand Slam champions, all her life. On top of that she is hopelessly in love with his best friend, the womanizer Teddy Harrison . Jasmine is not an evil character, but she is jealous of the new girl's, Indy's success. And when they have to play against each other,.... all hell breaks loose. :)
Game. Set. Match. is a perfect summer-read! It's refreshing, and instead of crying your eyes out, some scenes will make you smile and fell in love... and melt into a puddle xD
So you could ask why I gave it 4.5 stars instead of 5. Well, because I missed the ending of the book. There wasn't much of a conclusion, it felt like someone cut the tape and suddenly "The End". I would have liked some closure even if the story will (hopefully) continue.
Anyway, I'm dying to read the second book in The Outerbanks Academy series and find out what happens with the characters! Even if you are not a big tennis fan, you will enjoy this book! So don't hesitate and pick it up asap!
****4.5 beautiful, shining stars****
WOW! I don't even know where to start! I read the book in one sitting, it was that good! Absolutely brilliant!
As you might already know, I love the New Adult "genre", but lately I've been disappointed in so many books, I started to pick out my reads more carefully. New Adult books became sort of a popular thing, and if you watch closely, they mostly have the same theme: some deep drama, highly depressed,
But who says a New Adult book has to be dark? That the characters must be depressed, shy, full of fear? That the books has to be full of 18+ scenes? I like reading New Adult because the characters are more mature in age, not because they spend the 75% of the book in bed.
If you're looking for a dark, depressive read that will bring you to tears and make you sobbing, then Game. Set. Match. is not a book for you.
Game. Set. Match. is a book full of life! This book is a fresh breeze in the New Adult genre! The characters instead of being brooding, are likeable and funny, the scenes are realistic. There is romance, friendship, love and disappointment, discipline and hard work, but also family. This book has it all! And on top of it, the book is centered around tennis!
When I read this book I had a feeling I'm not even reading, but watching a movie! The story runs on 3 threads, so we get not 1, not 2, but THREE romances!
The story takes place in North Carolina, the Outer Banks Tennis Academy (OBX), which is the world's most famous and elite training facility for tennis players.
To this Academy comes the 17-old Indiana Gaffney to learn from the best coaches how to become a professional tennis player.
She has a natural talent, so the other girls see her as a rival since the beginning. They are often mean and think of her as an easy target. They're like...
But Indy is not intimidated. She is not the type of girl who runs off and hides in the closet. She is determined to show she is the best and the other girls' viciousness just make her try harder. She soon becomes friends with the Academy's biggest star tennis player, Penny and also meets her hot big brother, Jack Harrison ... and the sparks start flying! :D
Where Indy is bold, Jack is reserved, but even he can't ignore the instant bond he feels toward her.
Penny Harrison is very disciplined and wants to become the world's best player.
Penny is preparing for the French Open to beat her biggest rival, the Russian Zina Lutrova. She gets a new training partner, the British bad-boy, Alex Russell . The two of them have a history, so Penny can't loose her focus on the game, even if Alex's presence is like a magnet and makes her feel funny. :)
Penny and Alex are such a lovely couple! I loved watching how they relationship developed! And Alex is so HOT!!!
Jasmine Randazzo tried to measure up to her parents, who were Grand Slam champions, all her life. On top of that she is hopelessly in love with his best friend, the womanizer Teddy Harrison . Jasmine is not an evil character, but she is jealous of the new girl's, Indy's success. And when they have to play against each other,.... all hell breaks loose. :)
Game. Set. Match. is a perfect summer-read! It's refreshing, and instead of crying your eyes out, some scenes will make you smile and fell in love... and melt into a puddle xD
So you could ask why I gave it 4.5 stars instead of 5. Well, because I missed the ending of the book. There wasn't much of a conclusion, it felt like someone cut the tape and suddenly "The End". I would have liked some closure even if the story will (hopefully) continue.
Anyway, I'm dying to read the second book in The Outerbanks Academy series and find out what happens with the characters! Even if you are not a big tennis fan, you will enjoy this book! So don't hesitate and pick it up asap!
****4.5 beautiful, shining stars****
May 12, 2013
What's this? A New Adult book that doesn't actually suck?!?!?! One that I... gasp... want to reread?!
Even if you know nothing about tennis (I don't - I just know who Federer and Nadal are), Game. Set. Match. won't bore you with intense tennis talk. Okay, sometimes it might, but it's the dynamics between the main characters and their love interests that really serve a volley. Oh look, I learned! I only wish it didn't end a little abruptly and we got to see more resolution or this would've been a 5-star read easily.
Even if you know nothing about tennis (I don't - I just know who Federer and Nadal are), Game. Set. Match. won't bore you with intense tennis talk. Okay, sometimes it might, but it's the dynamics between the main characters and their love interests that really serve a volley. Oh look, I learned! I only wish it didn't end a little abruptly and we got to see more resolution or this would've been a 5-star read easily.
August 10, 2015
Now I know what's the buzz are all about.
Full review to come.
Full review to come.
May 9, 2013
This review was originally posted on my blog, . You can find it, and many more reviews at the blog.
4.5 stars
I’m going to be honest: I didn’t expect to like GAME. SET. MATCH. nearly as much as I did. I added it to my TBR list on GoodReads several months ago as an entry in a giveaway, and while I thought it sounded interesting, I didn’t give it much thought beyond that. When Jennifer Iacopelli herself contacted me and asked if I’d like to be part of her Street Team and help with the cover reveal and blog tour, I thought ‘What the heck? I like supporting authors, especially debut authors who need to get their names out there�. I’ve only read a couple of sports-related books, and since I’m personally not into sports, I wasn’t sure if GAME. SET. MATCH. would really do it for me. I’m thrilled to say I misjudged this book and that I loved it!
GAME. SET. MATCH. is a well-written debut with dynamic characters, life lessons, friendship, sexual tension, and plenty of tennis-related action. We’re introduced in turn to the three main characters: Indy, Penny, and Jasmine, whose lives revolve around tennis. All three girls are very different; they have the same ultimate goal - to become the best tennis player possible - but their personalities, and how they go about reaching their goals is very different.
I always worry when there are so many points of view in a story, but Iacopelli did a fantastic job of giving each girl a distinctive voice and personality, while skillfully weaving their stories together. My favourite characters were Indy and Penny. I loved how determined Indy was, and how driven Penny was. I was happy to see them become friends, because they both really needed someone in their lives for support. I’ll admit that I hated Jasmine at first. She was the mean girl/queen bee type, but we quickly learned that it wasn’t necessarily that people really liked her, so much as they liked who she was: the daughter of famous tennis players. I began to sympathize with her when I realized the motivations behind her snarky attitude and that she was actually deeper than I first thought.
Iacopelli also did a great job with the romantic elements of the book. It was alternately sweet and sexy, and I liked all three guys: Jack (Penny’s oldest brother, and Indy’s love interest); Teddy (Penny’s other brother, and Jasmine’s love interest); and Alex (Penny’s love interest). They all had their ups and downs, and things didn’t come easy for any of the three couples, which I liked. I found myself rooting for each couple and enjoying their journeys and the sometimes-painful lessons they had to learn. My favourite boy was definitely Jack. He was confusing and gave Indy all kinds of mixed signals. He clearly liked her but was worried she was too young for him. It made him run hot (and I do mean hot!) and cold with her, which was frustrating, but I also loved the anticipation. I also really enjoyed the tension between Penny and Alex, and the unrequited love aspect of Jasmine’s interest in playboy Teddy.
GAME. SET. MATCH. drew me in and kept me captivated from beginning to end. While the tennis aspects were over my head at first and I thought I might get tired of the sports theme, I ended up getting really invested in the girls� successes and failures. This book is a perfect example of what the new adult genre should be - it has elements of sexiness to it, but it’s so much more than that. It’s about the bonds of friendship, family, love, and it has a really positive message about believing in yourself, going after your dreams, and never giving up. Iacopelli has written an incredibly strong debut, and I can’t wait to meet up with Indy, Penny, and Jasmine again and continue on with their stories.
4.5 stars
I’m going to be honest: I didn’t expect to like GAME. SET. MATCH. nearly as much as I did. I added it to my TBR list on GoodReads several months ago as an entry in a giveaway, and while I thought it sounded interesting, I didn’t give it much thought beyond that. When Jennifer Iacopelli herself contacted me and asked if I’d like to be part of her Street Team and help with the cover reveal and blog tour, I thought ‘What the heck? I like supporting authors, especially debut authors who need to get their names out there�. I’ve only read a couple of sports-related books, and since I’m personally not into sports, I wasn’t sure if GAME. SET. MATCH. would really do it for me. I’m thrilled to say I misjudged this book and that I loved it!
GAME. SET. MATCH. is a well-written debut with dynamic characters, life lessons, friendship, sexual tension, and plenty of tennis-related action. We’re introduced in turn to the three main characters: Indy, Penny, and Jasmine, whose lives revolve around tennis. All three girls are very different; they have the same ultimate goal - to become the best tennis player possible - but their personalities, and how they go about reaching their goals is very different.
I always worry when there are so many points of view in a story, but Iacopelli did a fantastic job of giving each girl a distinctive voice and personality, while skillfully weaving their stories together. My favourite characters were Indy and Penny. I loved how determined Indy was, and how driven Penny was. I was happy to see them become friends, because they both really needed someone in their lives for support. I’ll admit that I hated Jasmine at first. She was the mean girl/queen bee type, but we quickly learned that it wasn’t necessarily that people really liked her, so much as they liked who she was: the daughter of famous tennis players. I began to sympathize with her when I realized the motivations behind her snarky attitude and that she was actually deeper than I first thought.
Iacopelli also did a great job with the romantic elements of the book. It was alternately sweet and sexy, and I liked all three guys: Jack (Penny’s oldest brother, and Indy’s love interest); Teddy (Penny’s other brother, and Jasmine’s love interest); and Alex (Penny’s love interest). They all had their ups and downs, and things didn’t come easy for any of the three couples, which I liked. I found myself rooting for each couple and enjoying their journeys and the sometimes-painful lessons they had to learn. My favourite boy was definitely Jack. He was confusing and gave Indy all kinds of mixed signals. He clearly liked her but was worried she was too young for him. It made him run hot (and I do mean hot!) and cold with her, which was frustrating, but I also loved the anticipation. I also really enjoyed the tension between Penny and Alex, and the unrequited love aspect of Jasmine’s interest in playboy Teddy.
GAME. SET. MATCH. drew me in and kept me captivated from beginning to end. While the tennis aspects were over my head at first and I thought I might get tired of the sports theme, I ended up getting really invested in the girls� successes and failures. This book is a perfect example of what the new adult genre should be - it has elements of sexiness to it, but it’s so much more than that. It’s about the bonds of friendship, family, love, and it has a really positive message about believing in yourself, going after your dreams, and never giving up. Iacopelli has written an incredibly strong debut, and I can’t wait to meet up with Indy, Penny, and Jasmine again and continue on with their stories.
April 14, 2013
I beta-read a non-final revision for Iacopelli and give it in its current state 4.5. I have no doubt that once it's in final form, it will be a solid 5 for me.
GSM is a book that puts tennis front and centre. It's not used just as a backdrop that has no bearing on a romance-first story; tennis makes the three main characters who they are and drives the plot. Iacopelli's descriptions of the sport as a culture and the athletes' experiences as they are playing are authentic and inspiring, but she never provides too much detail that would drag the story down. Iocapelli keeps the pace brisk, the tension high and the dialogue snappy and authentic.
The POV switches between Indiana, Penny and Jasmine, who are all imperfect but eminently likeable in different ways. They all have issues to face but they keep on trying to move forward in their lives like real people do. These are not your Bella faux-heroines: they are assertive, confident (at times), determined and make lots of mistakes on their connected journeys. Thankfully, none of those mistakes include sitting around helpless and paralyzed, waiting for their respective love interests to come rescue them. If you like your protagonists real, flawed and in control of their own fate, you will love these teenagers.
It's simply on another level to most of the other YA-girls-in-sports books on the market. Put this is your to-read pile; you won't be disappointed!
GSM is a book that puts tennis front and centre. It's not used just as a backdrop that has no bearing on a romance-first story; tennis makes the three main characters who they are and drives the plot. Iacopelli's descriptions of the sport as a culture and the athletes' experiences as they are playing are authentic and inspiring, but she never provides too much detail that would drag the story down. Iocapelli keeps the pace brisk, the tension high and the dialogue snappy and authentic.
The POV switches between Indiana, Penny and Jasmine, who are all imperfect but eminently likeable in different ways. They all have issues to face but they keep on trying to move forward in their lives like real people do. These are not your Bella faux-heroines: they are assertive, confident (at times), determined and make lots of mistakes on their connected journeys. Thankfully, none of those mistakes include sitting around helpless and paralyzed, waiting for their respective love interests to come rescue them. If you like your protagonists real, flawed and in control of their own fate, you will love these teenagers.
It's simply on another level to most of the other YA-girls-in-sports books on the market. Put this is your to-read pile; you won't be disappointed!
February 17, 2015
Indi’s mother died last year, and with her, Indi’s dream of competing elite tennis; but when teen phenom, Penny Harrington takes on the world’s number one player and springs an upset, Indi remembers her own dream and snags a chance to train at the exact same facility as the tennis world’s new star.
Of course, Indi didn’t realize she was signing on to become a prime target for the hatred of nearly every aspiring female player at the academy. Or actual friends with Penny Harrington. Much less fall dangerously--and rather hopelessly--for Penny’s older brother, Jack.
Oh, this was way too much fun! There are actually three heroines and three romantic interests. (Not to mention lots of wonderful high school tennis flashbacks for yours truly). But what I really loved was the quick, effective pace. Sometimes I so greatly miss young adult books that get straight to the point. Of course a truly wonderful five-to-eight-hundred-page novel can make me want to sink into and live within the story, but so often I’d rather just dispense with a couple hundred pages of meandering and get to the action. There’s a LOT to be said for a great two-hundred-fifty-page YA novel!
I’ll be reading the rest of the series.
Of course, Indi didn’t realize she was signing on to become a prime target for the hatred of nearly every aspiring female player at the academy. Or actual friends with Penny Harrington. Much less fall dangerously--and rather hopelessly--for Penny’s older brother, Jack.
Oh, this was way too much fun! There are actually three heroines and three romantic interests. (Not to mention lots of wonderful high school tennis flashbacks for yours truly). But what I really loved was the quick, effective pace. Sometimes I so greatly miss young adult books that get straight to the point. Of course a truly wonderful five-to-eight-hundred-page novel can make me want to sink into and live within the story, but so often I’d rather just dispense with a couple hundred pages of meandering and get to the action. There’s a LOT to be said for a great two-hundred-fifty-page YA novel!
I’ll be reading the rest of the series.
August 31, 2022
GAME. SET. MATCH. is on sale for only $0.99!! It's for a very limited time to celebrate the cover reveal of its sequel LOSING AT LOVE, which is up for pre-order for just $2.99.
Grab them now!
Grab them now!
October 29, 2012
Loved it. And I know the revisions will make it even better. Definitely a book (series) you all should look forward to. Cannot wait to read the final version of this one -- and the next one.
May 1, 2013
Indiana Gaffney is returning to tennis after a year hiatus, following her mother’s death. She’s taking up an offer from legendary coach, Dom Kingston; US and Australian Open winner, twice over. Indiana ‘Indy� will be moving to North Carolina and boarding at the nation’s most prestigious tennis training academy (founded by the Randazzo’s themselves!) Outer Banks Tennis Academy � reverently nicknamed OBX.
Indy gets off to a bad start with her fellow junior girl OBXers . . . and then things get progressively worse. She manages to piss off OBX Queen-Bee and tennis-royalty, Jasmine Randazzo, without even trying. And while she makes fast friends with new tennis star, Penny Harrison, Indy’s instantaneous crush on Penny’s 23-year-old brother/agent, Jack, is anything but convenient.
Seventeen-year-old Jasmine Randazzo has just tanked in the first round of the Madrid Open; this is a particularly hard blow, since Jasmine is the daughter of tennis’s most famous couple and great things are predicted of her.
And to top off a bad week; Jasmine decides to profess her unrequited love to her best friend, Penny’s twin brother and OBX-Lothario; Teddy Harrison . . . only to have him shoot her down, hard. Now she has to watch as Teddy continues lusting after everything with boobs (except her, that is, because he doesn’t want to wreck their ‘friendship�). Adding salt to the wound is Teddy expressing interest in the new OBX girl, Indy.
Penny Harrison is marked as the new golden-girl of US tennis. She’s just beat the World #1 in the Madrid Open, and now the scene is set for an explosive French Open showdown. Penny is willing to do whatever it takes to win, but when Coach Kingston suggests a new training partner in Alex Russell, Penny is more than a little hesitant. . .
Alex Russell is the British bad boy of tennis. At 17 he was the first British man to win Wimbledon since 1936 and the youngest man to do it, ever. But as easy as his climb up the tennis ranks was, his fall down was even grander � marked by alcohol-fuelled nights, paparazzi snaps with supermodels, a knee injury from a motorcycle accident and the loss of all his sponsorship deals. But that’s not what’s making Penny pause � rather, it’s the fact that she and Alex had a heated one-night-stand at the Australian Open, and haven’t talked since.
The Outer Banks Tennis Academy is a cut-throat environment; everyone wants to be the best and beat the best. But these up and coming star players are quickly coming to realize that tennis is as much a physical sport as it is a mental game � and, sometimes, life and love get in the way of a good match.
‘Game. Set. Match� is the first book in a new contemporary young adult/new adult sport series from debut author Jennifer Iacopelli.
I used to play tennis � from age seven to 17 � and I'd like to think I wasn’t too shabby at it. I had a killer backhand, passable serve but I'd always choke in my smash . . . still, I played smart and would make the other player work for me; I was great at strategic placement and consistent-hits. I still love tennis, and occasionally have a hit when the mood takes me. I love watching the Australian Open, and I’ll forever think that it’s the most interesting sport to watch live. So when I got wind of this new young adult sport series based at a tennis training academy � I got crazy excited. This made perfect sense to me. Tennis, like most sports, is one of those industries that churns out young protégées who have to be dedicated to the game throughout their teens if they hope to win Grand Slams. And, tennis has produced some fine-looking young players over the years (Marat Safin, Andy Roddick, Anna Kournikova and Ana Ivanovic. . . to name a very few). A tennis young adult/new adult series just struck me as fertile ground for competitive melodrama in a pressure-cooker environment and featuring attractive young players. I had high-hopes for this series going in, based purely on my belief that tennis is fascinating on the court, so it must likewise be on the page . . . and, luckily, Jennifer Iacopelli has proven me right.
First off, much as I looked forward to reading a sports series that laid the ground-work for competitive friendships and heated courtships, I wouldn’t have been interested if it didn’t deliver on the sports front (as some novels have disappointed me in the past). This is especially important since three female protagonists are carrying this series � and I'd have hated to read only about their romantic entanglements, with tennis being a convenient plot backdrop to the boy-drama in their life. I'd have had no interest in such a series, so I was relieved to read Penny Harrison smashing it at the Madrid Open within the first few pages. And within a few paragraphs, Iacopelli showed that tennis would most certainly be a serious focus in this book. She writes some great, tight and punchy paragraphs detailing the games being played, and as a tennis fan I have to say she nailed the adrenaline information;
One bounce, then two, three and four in perfect rhythm. Her body weight shifted forward and then back, arms up, racket ready, the ball suspended above her head. She pushed into the ground then sprung up and out, racket face hammering a clean stroke, skimming it off the white chalk T in the centre of the court.
As the story progresses the girl’s heads get clogged with real-life worries that they can’t help but bring onto the court. Iacopelli does a really good job of clouding the commentary and bringing life metaphors into the game;
There was no way to predict how a player would respond to the pressure of an important match. Some players, like Penny, were immune to it. Others battled with the nerves until they learned how to deal with them, and some players, no matter how talented, never overcame the fear of the big moment.
All three girls are in it to win it. Penny, Jasmine and Indy are all competitive and egotistical about their game (as they should be!) these are real tough sportswomen and I loved that Iacopelli gave them serious ambitions coupled with guts and determination. Sure, the boy-drama is there. . .
Long before there were sponsorships and British bad boys, there had just been tennis and her simple love for the sport. She still loved it, of course, but everything was just so complicated now.
. . . But I never once thought that any of the girls were sacrificing their careers for their love lives, and that made them stellar heroines, and turned this into one of the best sports series I've read in a long time.
Now, as to the girls � Jasmine was my favourite, for a number of reasons. I feel like when the book opens, Jasmine is on very unsteady ground and her status as OBX queen-bee and royalty is in question. When we first meet Jasmine she’s presented as this underdog � home after bombing out in the Madrid Open, turned down by the boy she has been crushing on for ages, and pitted against the new girl at the academy. Funny thing though, is that we then learn she’s the daughter of the two most famous tennis players � the Randazzo name being reverential in the tennis world. We get the impression that prior to all this upheaval, Jasmine had it pretty sweet and easy. I loves me an underdog, but an unconventional underdog is even better. And I appreciated the fact that the Randazzo name hangs over Jasmine’s head � I sympathised that, while she loves tennis and trains her heart out, the natural talent is just not there and she has to work twice as hard. Jasmine just fascinated me from the beginning � her famous name and losing streak, the boy who turned her down and the love she still has for him. I’m definitely Team Jasmine.
Indy and Penny, on the other hand, I thought were verging a bit on Mary-Sue at times . . . these are the two girls who Coach Kingston thinks have the most natural talent. These are also the two girls who seemed to have only minor-hiccups in their boy-dramas and who are repeatedly referred to as gorgeous, beautiful and basically, are a sponsors� wet dream. But I admit � that was only my first impressions, and my opinion changed towards the end of the book. Penny’s boy drama ratcheted up a notch with Alex Russel (who’s basically Andy Murray, only; better looking, not Scottish and he didn’t choke at Wimbledon).
I will say that Penny’s love life didn’t gel with Indy and Jasmine’s romantic trials � Penny talks about great sex and an intense love affair, but Jasmine admits to not having kissed many boys and Indy is all about longing looks and shy advances . . . Penny is definitely where the ‘new adult� aspect comes into it, but Jasmine and Indy’s story felt young adult and that was a clash for me (sometimes I even wondered if Penny’s story was needed in this first book - or if we could have just focussed on Indy and Jasmine?)
Only in the last few chapters does Iacopelli hammer home the fact that Indy recently lost her mother, and is all but estranged from her father. This is actually kinda a big deal and if I'd felt Indy struggle with this more throughout the book, I probably would have warmed to her character quicker � but Iacopelli leaves explorations into Indy’s sad history for the end, and it came a little late for me.
I raced to finish this book, because I was so engulfed in the game, the dramas and the girls� respective sagas. I’m definitely excited to read Outerbanks Tennis Academy #2 and I’m making an early declaration that Jennifer Iacopelli’s YA sports series is one of the best out there � with tough girls who have their eye on the ball and boys at their beck and call � I’m definitely coming back for more.
Indy gets off to a bad start with her fellow junior girl OBXers . . . and then things get progressively worse. She manages to piss off OBX Queen-Bee and tennis-royalty, Jasmine Randazzo, without even trying. And while she makes fast friends with new tennis star, Penny Harrison, Indy’s instantaneous crush on Penny’s 23-year-old brother/agent, Jack, is anything but convenient.
Seventeen-year-old Jasmine Randazzo has just tanked in the first round of the Madrid Open; this is a particularly hard blow, since Jasmine is the daughter of tennis’s most famous couple and great things are predicted of her.
And to top off a bad week; Jasmine decides to profess her unrequited love to her best friend, Penny’s twin brother and OBX-Lothario; Teddy Harrison . . . only to have him shoot her down, hard. Now she has to watch as Teddy continues lusting after everything with boobs (except her, that is, because he doesn’t want to wreck their ‘friendship�). Adding salt to the wound is Teddy expressing interest in the new OBX girl, Indy.
Penny Harrison is marked as the new golden-girl of US tennis. She’s just beat the World #1 in the Madrid Open, and now the scene is set for an explosive French Open showdown. Penny is willing to do whatever it takes to win, but when Coach Kingston suggests a new training partner in Alex Russell, Penny is more than a little hesitant. . .
Alex Russell is the British bad boy of tennis. At 17 he was the first British man to win Wimbledon since 1936 and the youngest man to do it, ever. But as easy as his climb up the tennis ranks was, his fall down was even grander � marked by alcohol-fuelled nights, paparazzi snaps with supermodels, a knee injury from a motorcycle accident and the loss of all his sponsorship deals. But that’s not what’s making Penny pause � rather, it’s the fact that she and Alex had a heated one-night-stand at the Australian Open, and haven’t talked since.
The Outer Banks Tennis Academy is a cut-throat environment; everyone wants to be the best and beat the best. But these up and coming star players are quickly coming to realize that tennis is as much a physical sport as it is a mental game � and, sometimes, life and love get in the way of a good match.
‘Game. Set. Match� is the first book in a new contemporary young adult/new adult sport series from debut author Jennifer Iacopelli.
I used to play tennis � from age seven to 17 � and I'd like to think I wasn’t too shabby at it. I had a killer backhand, passable serve but I'd always choke in my smash . . . still, I played smart and would make the other player work for me; I was great at strategic placement and consistent-hits. I still love tennis, and occasionally have a hit when the mood takes me. I love watching the Australian Open, and I’ll forever think that it’s the most interesting sport to watch live. So when I got wind of this new young adult sport series based at a tennis training academy � I got crazy excited. This made perfect sense to me. Tennis, like most sports, is one of those industries that churns out young protégées who have to be dedicated to the game throughout their teens if they hope to win Grand Slams. And, tennis has produced some fine-looking young players over the years (Marat Safin, Andy Roddick, Anna Kournikova and Ana Ivanovic. . . to name a very few). A tennis young adult/new adult series just struck me as fertile ground for competitive melodrama in a pressure-cooker environment and featuring attractive young players. I had high-hopes for this series going in, based purely on my belief that tennis is fascinating on the court, so it must likewise be on the page . . . and, luckily, Jennifer Iacopelli has proven me right.
First off, much as I looked forward to reading a sports series that laid the ground-work for competitive friendships and heated courtships, I wouldn’t have been interested if it didn’t deliver on the sports front (as some novels have disappointed me in the past). This is especially important since three female protagonists are carrying this series � and I'd have hated to read only about their romantic entanglements, with tennis being a convenient plot backdrop to the boy-drama in their life. I'd have had no interest in such a series, so I was relieved to read Penny Harrison smashing it at the Madrid Open within the first few pages. And within a few paragraphs, Iacopelli showed that tennis would most certainly be a serious focus in this book. She writes some great, tight and punchy paragraphs detailing the games being played, and as a tennis fan I have to say she nailed the adrenaline information;
One bounce, then two, three and four in perfect rhythm. Her body weight shifted forward and then back, arms up, racket ready, the ball suspended above her head. She pushed into the ground then sprung up and out, racket face hammering a clean stroke, skimming it off the white chalk T in the centre of the court.
As the story progresses the girl’s heads get clogged with real-life worries that they can’t help but bring onto the court. Iacopelli does a really good job of clouding the commentary and bringing life metaphors into the game;
There was no way to predict how a player would respond to the pressure of an important match. Some players, like Penny, were immune to it. Others battled with the nerves until they learned how to deal with them, and some players, no matter how talented, never overcame the fear of the big moment.
All three girls are in it to win it. Penny, Jasmine and Indy are all competitive and egotistical about their game (as they should be!) these are real tough sportswomen and I loved that Iacopelli gave them serious ambitions coupled with guts and determination. Sure, the boy-drama is there. . .
Long before there were sponsorships and British bad boys, there had just been tennis and her simple love for the sport. She still loved it, of course, but everything was just so complicated now.
. . . But I never once thought that any of the girls were sacrificing their careers for their love lives, and that made them stellar heroines, and turned this into one of the best sports series I've read in a long time.
Now, as to the girls � Jasmine was my favourite, for a number of reasons. I feel like when the book opens, Jasmine is on very unsteady ground and her status as OBX queen-bee and royalty is in question. When we first meet Jasmine she’s presented as this underdog � home after bombing out in the Madrid Open, turned down by the boy she has been crushing on for ages, and pitted against the new girl at the academy. Funny thing though, is that we then learn she’s the daughter of the two most famous tennis players � the Randazzo name being reverential in the tennis world. We get the impression that prior to all this upheaval, Jasmine had it pretty sweet and easy. I loves me an underdog, but an unconventional underdog is even better. And I appreciated the fact that the Randazzo name hangs over Jasmine’s head � I sympathised that, while she loves tennis and trains her heart out, the natural talent is just not there and she has to work twice as hard. Jasmine just fascinated me from the beginning � her famous name and losing streak, the boy who turned her down and the love she still has for him. I’m definitely Team Jasmine.
Indy and Penny, on the other hand, I thought were verging a bit on Mary-Sue at times . . . these are the two girls who Coach Kingston thinks have the most natural talent. These are also the two girls who seemed to have only minor-hiccups in their boy-dramas and who are repeatedly referred to as gorgeous, beautiful and basically, are a sponsors� wet dream. But I admit � that was only my first impressions, and my opinion changed towards the end of the book. Penny’s boy drama ratcheted up a notch with Alex Russel (who’s basically Andy Murray, only; better looking, not Scottish and he didn’t choke at Wimbledon).
I will say that Penny’s love life didn’t gel with Indy and Jasmine’s romantic trials � Penny talks about great sex and an intense love affair, but Jasmine admits to not having kissed many boys and Indy is all about longing looks and shy advances . . . Penny is definitely where the ‘new adult� aspect comes into it, but Jasmine and Indy’s story felt young adult and that was a clash for me (sometimes I even wondered if Penny’s story was needed in this first book - or if we could have just focussed on Indy and Jasmine?)
Only in the last few chapters does Iacopelli hammer home the fact that Indy recently lost her mother, and is all but estranged from her father. This is actually kinda a big deal and if I'd felt Indy struggle with this more throughout the book, I probably would have warmed to her character quicker � but Iacopelli leaves explorations into Indy’s sad history for the end, and it came a little late for me.
I raced to finish this book, because I was so engulfed in the game, the dramas and the girls� respective sagas. I’m definitely excited to read Outerbanks Tennis Academy #2 and I’m making an early declaration that Jennifer Iacopelli’s YA sports series is one of the best out there � with tough girls who have their eye on the ball and boys at their beck and call � I’m definitely coming back for more.
November 27, 2017
Big shout out to my Kindle Unlimited for having this available and for recommending it to me. Also, I feel like I should mention that I probably would have never known about this book ever existing until I did a reading challenge for this month.
So, Game. Set. Match. is a book about Tennis. Now this isn't my first tennis Ya sport book and it probably wont be last. The main character of this book is Indiana Gaffney and it starts off with her returning to her favorite sport, Tennis, after a year hiatus due to her mother's death. Now I loved everything about Indi and everyone else in this book. And once she started having a major crush on Jack, I was instantly hooked and totally began shipping the ship out of those two.
Now this book isn't just about Indi and her "romance" interest Jack. Oh no, there's Penny and Jasmine there as well. Penny is Jack's sister and he's also her agent. Jasmine, who was the Queen bitch of the Tennis team, is trying to prove that she can totally own the Tennis court all on her own. Not because of her famous dad. These three girls are completely competitive and it definitely made the book so much better.
I loved everything about these girls: Penny, Jasmine, and Indi - because of how well this book was written. I love how they grow throughout the book and how they don't end up liking the same guy. Which would be super weird since Indi likes Penny's brother Jack (and now I'm cringing while I just typed that out). I seriously can't wait to read the next book in this series. I already miss everyone.
So, Game. Set. Match. is a book about Tennis. Now this isn't my first tennis Ya sport book and it probably wont be last. The main character of this book is Indiana Gaffney and it starts off with her returning to her favorite sport, Tennis, after a year hiatus due to her mother's death. Now I loved everything about Indi and everyone else in this book. And once she started having a major crush on Jack, I was instantly hooked and totally began shipping the ship out of those two.
Now this book isn't just about Indi and her "romance" interest Jack. Oh no, there's Penny and Jasmine there as well. Penny is Jack's sister and he's also her agent. Jasmine, who was the Queen bitch of the Tennis team, is trying to prove that she can totally own the Tennis court all on her own. Not because of her famous dad. These three girls are completely competitive and it definitely made the book so much better.
I loved everything about these girls: Penny, Jasmine, and Indi - because of how well this book was written. I love how they grow throughout the book and how they don't end up liking the same guy. Which would be super weird since Indi likes Penny's brother Jack (and now I'm cringing while I just typed that out). I seriously can't wait to read the next book in this series. I already miss everyone.
Want to read
May 4, 2013I've been playing tennis for over ten years. Combine my all-time favorite sport with YA/NA...yeah -- pretty excited for this one!
May 7, 2013
Once you have her down, you can't let her up again. Never give an opponent hope.
The match, win or lose, would be the greatest moment of her life and she was going to enjoy it.
Tennis. I love it!!! I am in fact an absolute sports freak. Whenever I read a book it is more often than not that I picture tennis players as the characters. I'm not sure why or how that started, but I suppose it simply came from my love of the game.
Game. Set. Match is set mostly at OBX Tennis Academy and on the courts of the tennis tour and is told from the perspective of our three main leading females, Penny, Jasmine and Indy, and is a book bursting with the competitiveness of sport, the richness of friendships and the possibilites of not just one romance but three.
I have to say that I'm having a really hard time choosing whose team I'm on. All three girls are awesome!! At first I really had no like for Jasmine at all. She is abrupt and quite full of her own self importance and I just didn't connect with her at all. But as the story progressed I began to get her more and more and by the time I had finished reading I loved her. Penny is just sweet and caring. She was a great friend. And then there is Indy who tells it like it is. I think with Indy you always know where you stand with her. And she was just so down to earth. If I was really pressed to choose a team, I think I would sway towards Indy. I think her journey was the one that I connected to the most.
Indy's mouth went dry at finally being noticed. Friggin' Penny Harrison said hello to her.
He wore a pair of long tennis shorts, but nothing else, the waistband just below his well defined abs, the blue ink of a tattoo, words in a fancy script etched across his left ribcage. He was definitely hotter in person than he was on TV.
As for our male interests, the two that stood out for me were Jack and Alex. For almost all of the book I was Team Alex. British, tattooed and perceived as a bad boy. That right there is my perfect book boyfriend. I was drawn to him from the get go. But he is so much deeper than what we first think. He is just perfect.
No one called her Indiana except her dad and it grated on her nerves whenever he did, but the way Jack said it, his voice soft and deep, she wanted to hear him say her name all day long.
And then on the other side of the net is Jack. He was withdrawn and distant for most of the book. But he has his reasons. Once he decided to let go he was OMG swoony!!! So, can I be incredibly greedy and just have both Alex and Jack because it would just be cruel to make me give up one of them... No? Oh, okay... then I'm going to give my heart to Alex. But I definitely want to spend more time getting to know Jack.
Stepping out of the car, the sounds of the game she loved filled her ears from over the high fence surrounding the forty five court complex, the solid thwack of balls hitting racket strings, sharp instruction from coaches, the pounding of feet on the hard court.
And if all of that wasn't enough then there is the tennis. I loved every bit of that!! The practices, the training, the matches, the competition between the players. It was a prominent part of the story but never overpowered all the other aspects. So even if you are not a keen tennis fan you will still fall in love with the characters and the story.
Everything fit and blended together perfectly and seamlessly throughout the story. One thing didn't overpower the other. The tennis, the romance, the angst and the fantastic writing of Jennifer Iacopelli make Game. Set. Match. a must read.
The match, win or lose, would be the greatest moment of her life and she was going to enjoy it.
Tennis. I love it!!! I am in fact an absolute sports freak. Whenever I read a book it is more often than not that I picture tennis players as the characters. I'm not sure why or how that started, but I suppose it simply came from my love of the game.
Game. Set. Match is set mostly at OBX Tennis Academy and on the courts of the tennis tour and is told from the perspective of our three main leading females, Penny, Jasmine and Indy, and is a book bursting with the competitiveness of sport, the richness of friendships and the possibilites of not just one romance but three.
I have to say that I'm having a really hard time choosing whose team I'm on. All three girls are awesome!! At first I really had no like for Jasmine at all. She is abrupt and quite full of her own self importance and I just didn't connect with her at all. But as the story progressed I began to get her more and more and by the time I had finished reading I loved her. Penny is just sweet and caring. She was a great friend. And then there is Indy who tells it like it is. I think with Indy you always know where you stand with her. And she was just so down to earth. If I was really pressed to choose a team, I think I would sway towards Indy. I think her journey was the one that I connected to the most.
Indy's mouth went dry at finally being noticed. Friggin' Penny Harrison said hello to her.
He wore a pair of long tennis shorts, but nothing else, the waistband just below his well defined abs, the blue ink of a tattoo, words in a fancy script etched across his left ribcage. He was definitely hotter in person than he was on TV.
As for our male interests, the two that stood out for me were Jack and Alex. For almost all of the book I was Team Alex. British, tattooed and perceived as a bad boy. That right there is my perfect book boyfriend. I was drawn to him from the get go. But he is so much deeper than what we first think. He is just perfect.
No one called her Indiana except her dad and it grated on her nerves whenever he did, but the way Jack said it, his voice soft and deep, she wanted to hear him say her name all day long.
And then on the other side of the net is Jack. He was withdrawn and distant for most of the book. But he has his reasons. Once he decided to let go he was OMG swoony!!! So, can I be incredibly greedy and just have both Alex and Jack because it would just be cruel to make me give up one of them... No? Oh, okay... then I'm going to give my heart to Alex. But I definitely want to spend more time getting to know Jack.
Stepping out of the car, the sounds of the game she loved filled her ears from over the high fence surrounding the forty five court complex, the solid thwack of balls hitting racket strings, sharp instruction from coaches, the pounding of feet on the hard court.
And if all of that wasn't enough then there is the tennis. I loved every bit of that!! The practices, the training, the matches, the competition between the players. It was a prominent part of the story but never overpowered all the other aspects. So even if you are not a keen tennis fan you will still fall in love with the characters and the story.
Everything fit and blended together perfectly and seamlessly throughout the story. One thing didn't overpower the other. The tennis, the romance, the angst and the fantastic writing of Jennifer Iacopelli make Game. Set. Match. a must read.
May 4, 2013
I have been looking forward to Game. Set. Match. for a long time. I absolutely love tennis, so when I saw that this book would be set around the sport, I was instantly hooked and knew I had to read it. I was super excited to be chosen as part of the book blitz/blog tour, because I was so anxious to read the book that I didn't want to wait for its release. I am happy to report that everything I wanted this book to include - three strong female characters, three swoon-worthy boys, and lots and LOTS of tennis - was brought into existence by the author and I was pretty much instantly enamored with the story, characters and setting.
This book is told via three alternating points of view. We have Penny, who is the established player (although still young herself), Jasmine, whose parents were tennis superstars, and Indy, whose mom just passed away. Out of the three, I think I connected the most with Indy, as her journey to OBX (which is the nickname for the tennis academy) seemed the most realistic. She has a lot to deal with throughout the book, and I just found her extremely sympathetic. However, I also had a fondness for Penny, mostly because of her scenes with her male counterpart, Alex. There was a lot of chemistry between the two of them, and I liked the way Penny had to navigate her feelings for him while still staying focused on her training. Really, though, all three girls were very strong characters, and each were developed in a way that the reader really comes to care about all three of them.
Considering that this is labeled New Adult, I was very happy to see that some of the typical NA tropes weren't used. There's no sex, first of all; it's mentioned, but isn't explicitly written into the text. There's a bit of a bad boy - Alex - in this book, but you don't get the usual situations that seem to go hand in hand with a character of this sort. All of the romances were sweet, and the boys equally deserving of fanfare. My favorite overall relationship was Alex and Penny, simply because of the steps they had to take to get together, but I also really enjoyed Indy's journey to get together with her beau of choice. This is the relationship I'm most curious about, simply because there are some issues between the two of them that will have to be resolved.
Considering that this is technically a tennis book, I would be remiss if I failed to mention the sport in this review. The tennis in this book is amazing. I was eating up all of the practice scenes, as well as the match play. I loved the look inside the girls' heads as they were competing; it's the mental aspect that I personally find so compelling in the matches I watch, so to get to experience that through this book was especially interesting to me personally. The tennis scenes were easily my favorites in the entire book.
Game. Set. Match. is an extremely well done debut novel. If you like sports, you should definitely pick it up, but even if you're uncertain about the tennis aspect, the girls and the romances should be enough of a draw to keep you engaged. I know that I, for one, shall be eagerly awaiting any future installments!
An e-galley was provided by the author for blog tour purposes.
***
To see more of my reviews, please visit me @ !
This book is told via three alternating points of view. We have Penny, who is the established player (although still young herself), Jasmine, whose parents were tennis superstars, and Indy, whose mom just passed away. Out of the three, I think I connected the most with Indy, as her journey to OBX (which is the nickname for the tennis academy) seemed the most realistic. She has a lot to deal with throughout the book, and I just found her extremely sympathetic. However, I also had a fondness for Penny, mostly because of her scenes with her male counterpart, Alex. There was a lot of chemistry between the two of them, and I liked the way Penny had to navigate her feelings for him while still staying focused on her training. Really, though, all three girls were very strong characters, and each were developed in a way that the reader really comes to care about all three of them.
Considering that this is labeled New Adult, I was very happy to see that some of the typical NA tropes weren't used. There's no sex, first of all; it's mentioned, but isn't explicitly written into the text. There's a bit of a bad boy - Alex - in this book, but you don't get the usual situations that seem to go hand in hand with a character of this sort. All of the romances were sweet, and the boys equally deserving of fanfare. My favorite overall relationship was Alex and Penny, simply because of the steps they had to take to get together, but I also really enjoyed Indy's journey to get together with her beau of choice. This is the relationship I'm most curious about, simply because there are some issues between the two of them that will have to be resolved.
Considering that this is technically a tennis book, I would be remiss if I failed to mention the sport in this review. The tennis in this book is amazing. I was eating up all of the practice scenes, as well as the match play. I loved the look inside the girls' heads as they were competing; it's the mental aspect that I personally find so compelling in the matches I watch, so to get to experience that through this book was especially interesting to me personally. The tennis scenes were easily my favorites in the entire book.
Game. Set. Match. is an extremely well done debut novel. If you like sports, you should definitely pick it up, but even if you're uncertain about the tennis aspect, the girls and the romances should be enough of a draw to keep you engaged. I know that I, for one, shall be eagerly awaiting any future installments!
An e-galley was provided by the author for blog tour purposes.
***
To see more of my reviews, please visit me @ !
April 29, 2013
3.5 stars!
I'm going to be straight with all of you out there... I don't know a single thing about tennis... well, that's not completely true, I mean... I used to watch it when Andre Agassi was around. Both pre and post haircut. But to be honest I wasn't watching for the game if you know what I mean.
That confession aside, this book really is focused around tennis... not so much the game itself though, so if you're not a big tennis watcher/player don't let that worry you. Instead, you get the big picture... matches, practices, training - and of course the drama of it all.
Game. Set. Match. revolves around the lives of 3 different tennis pro's, all at different stages in their game. Penny is the rising star, determined to win the big matches and have everyone know who she is. Jasmine is the daughter of two of the sports biggest stars and she struggles to make her own identity and then there is Indiana... the 'new girl' fighting her way into a world that she's always wanted to be a part of.
Like I said, their lives revolve around tennis, but the story really focuses on the things happening in the girls lives and how that impacts their lives on the court. But be warned there is a lot of tennis talk. Not in a bad way, instead, it really shows the stress that these girls are putting on themselves to become this image they have in their heads.
Penny had one night with the tennis bad boy and she let it impact a tournament appearance and has sworn never again to let that happen. Jasmine, while a wonderful tennis player struggles to find her own identity aside from being the daughter of two famous players and Indiana is making a name for herself seemingly coming out of nowhere to make her mark on the tennis scene.
While I enjoyed the story and I enjoyed getting to know each of the girls, I struggled to stay immersed in the story jumping from story line to story line in this first book. Where we got three different intertwined stories, I would have liked to see this first book focus in on one story instead of jumping around. I found that once I would get my groove and start getting involved in one of the girls, we were jumping to another part of the story involving someone else. While I think we do get the most information about Penny and Alex here, I would have liked to see more focus on them or even another couple. I simply found myself not getting invested enough in each of the characters with all the back and forth.
I have to say though, that I'm most interested in Indy and Jack's story. I'm not sure why that is because I found Indy a bit irritating at times, but Jack had me hooked from his first appearance. The build-up of the attraction between them was believable to me and I kinda want to play tennis with him. LOL
If you're looking for something in the NA genre that is well-written with some great characters then you definitely will want to check out Game. Set. Match. I'm looking forward to the future books to see what Iacopelli does to expand these characters and their stories.
Thank you to the author and Coliloquy for the advance copy for an honest review!
This review can be found on my blog, Fic Fare:
I'm going to be straight with all of you out there... I don't know a single thing about tennis... well, that's not completely true, I mean... I used to watch it when Andre Agassi was around. Both pre and post haircut. But to be honest I wasn't watching for the game if you know what I mean.
That confession aside, this book really is focused around tennis... not so much the game itself though, so if you're not a big tennis watcher/player don't let that worry you. Instead, you get the big picture... matches, practices, training - and of course the drama of it all.
Game. Set. Match. revolves around the lives of 3 different tennis pro's, all at different stages in their game. Penny is the rising star, determined to win the big matches and have everyone know who she is. Jasmine is the daughter of two of the sports biggest stars and she struggles to make her own identity and then there is Indiana... the 'new girl' fighting her way into a world that she's always wanted to be a part of.
Like I said, their lives revolve around tennis, but the story really focuses on the things happening in the girls lives and how that impacts their lives on the court. But be warned there is a lot of tennis talk. Not in a bad way, instead, it really shows the stress that these girls are putting on themselves to become this image they have in their heads.
Penny had one night with the tennis bad boy and she let it impact a tournament appearance and has sworn never again to let that happen. Jasmine, while a wonderful tennis player struggles to find her own identity aside from being the daughter of two famous players and Indiana is making a name for herself seemingly coming out of nowhere to make her mark on the tennis scene.
While I enjoyed the story and I enjoyed getting to know each of the girls, I struggled to stay immersed in the story jumping from story line to story line in this first book. Where we got three different intertwined stories, I would have liked to see this first book focus in on one story instead of jumping around. I found that once I would get my groove and start getting involved in one of the girls, we were jumping to another part of the story involving someone else. While I think we do get the most information about Penny and Alex here, I would have liked to see more focus on them or even another couple. I simply found myself not getting invested enough in each of the characters with all the back and forth.
I have to say though, that I'm most interested in Indy and Jack's story. I'm not sure why that is because I found Indy a bit irritating at times, but Jack had me hooked from his first appearance. The build-up of the attraction between them was believable to me and I kinda want to play tennis with him. LOL
If you're looking for something in the NA genre that is well-written with some great characters then you definitely will want to check out Game. Set. Match. I'm looking forward to the future books to see what Iacopelli does to expand these characters and their stories.
Thank you to the author and Coliloquy for the advance copy for an honest review!
This review can be found on my blog, Fic Fare:
May 3, 2013
I don't know a whole lot about tennis, nor am I a big fan of the game, mostly because I don't know what the heck is going on with it. I mean, I'm not an idiot, I get the basics but honestly, that is about it. I don't even understand the whole “love� bit. But that was okay. I really didn't need to love the game or completely understand it to enjoy this read..thankfully, and don't get me wrong, I was a little nervous starting this knowing that I didn't have a love for the game or a deep understanding of it.
Really this story is about three girls, Indy, Jasmine, and Penny and I must say, it was hard to pick a favorite but, from the very beginning I loved Indy. She just seemed innocent and kind and I knew with the heartbreak of her mom dying and putting her tennis career on hold, there was a great story there to be told and I wanted to discover it.
I also couldn't wait to get more of Penny's story after reading the prologue. I had a feeling that I would really like her as well. I, unfortunately, can't say I ever really loved Jasmine. From the very beginning I had a feeling she was going to be a bit stuck up, rude, and not someone I would ever associate with. I knew there had to be a reason for the attitude, I just wasn't sure if I really wanted to spend the time to find out why. I know that sounds harsh but, there you have it.
At any rate, I am glad I didn't give up on her and that I did read her story because you know what? By the end of the book, I actually liked her..a little bit. Okay, more than a little bit but I still don't love her, not yet, but I can imagine myself loving her by the end of the series.
The great thing about this book isn't just Indy, Jasmine, and Penny, it is also the awesome guys that are a part of their lives too. Jack, Teddy and Alex are equally just as great and I really loved their differing personalities and role in the girls' lives. It really added something to the storyline that I think would have been severely missing if they weren't in it. I do wish once in a awhile we would have gotten their POV as well but I can understand why the author didn't go there. It would be a lot to write that many POVs and still be able to make the story a smooth one for the reader.
Overall I really enjoyed this read and will definitely be continuing with the series. I need to find out what happens!!
Really this story is about three girls, Indy, Jasmine, and Penny and I must say, it was hard to pick a favorite but, from the very beginning I loved Indy. She just seemed innocent and kind and I knew with the heartbreak of her mom dying and putting her tennis career on hold, there was a great story there to be told and I wanted to discover it.
I also couldn't wait to get more of Penny's story after reading the prologue. I had a feeling that I would really like her as well. I, unfortunately, can't say I ever really loved Jasmine. From the very beginning I had a feeling she was going to be a bit stuck up, rude, and not someone I would ever associate with. I knew there had to be a reason for the attitude, I just wasn't sure if I really wanted to spend the time to find out why. I know that sounds harsh but, there you have it.
At any rate, I am glad I didn't give up on her and that I did read her story because you know what? By the end of the book, I actually liked her..a little bit. Okay, more than a little bit but I still don't love her, not yet, but I can imagine myself loving her by the end of the series.
The great thing about this book isn't just Indy, Jasmine, and Penny, it is also the awesome guys that are a part of their lives too. Jack, Teddy and Alex are equally just as great and I really loved their differing personalities and role in the girls' lives. It really added something to the storyline that I think would have been severely missing if they weren't in it. I do wish once in a awhile we would have gotten their POV as well but I can understand why the author didn't go there. It would be a lot to write that many POVs and still be able to make the story a smooth one for the reader.
Overall I really enjoyed this read and will definitely be continuing with the series. I need to find out what happens!!
May 16, 2013
2.5/5
I don’t see it. Why all the fuss over this one? Is it because we’ve got three couples in one book this time around? If that’s the case the fact that there are three competing story lines to pay attention had me feeling slightly ‘that’s it?� for all of them. Is it because of the tennis? Because tennis-speak is so not my thing. Game-speak of any sort for that matter. I confess to skimming each face off, zeroing in on who actually won/ lost. (Lazy, that’s me lately.)
So three girls, threeboys men and then tennis, does all this make for a good romance? Mmmaybe? One could get a kick out of the fact things felt very Nora Roberts� family saga with each couple having party one of the Harrisons. I certainly did. Here it is Penny Harrison that’s in focus, with brief glances into the drama of the other girls of course. Any who, for Penny, we see tennis stars and love matches (see what I did there?) For Jasmine, there’s family drama of expectations and disappointments and an unrequited something that amped things up. For Indy, it’s being new girl, YOUNG new girl specifically that set things up.
What I liked: they’re each their own person, each with their own drama. I also like that it’s not as simply the romantic drama that spurred their stories on (though the same is a big part of everything). When it lost me: this really isn’t that new. Because bottom line? This is a romance and got cute then hot when it was supposed to be.
I don’t see it. Why all the fuss over this one? Is it because we’ve got three couples in one book this time around? If that’s the case the fact that there are three competing story lines to pay attention had me feeling slightly ‘that’s it?� for all of them. Is it because of the tennis? Because tennis-speak is so not my thing. Game-speak of any sort for that matter. I confess to skimming each face off, zeroing in on who actually won/ lost. (Lazy, that’s me lately.)
So three girls, three
What I liked: they’re each their own person, each with their own drama. I also like that it’s not as simply the romantic drama that spurred their stories on (though the same is a big part of everything). When it lost me: this really isn’t that new. Because bottom line? This is a romance and got cute then hot when it was supposed to be.
Want to read
May 12, 2013*update* The author did contact me and is saying that as soon as she was made aware of the spam that she took measures to try and stop it. Her only intention was to post the info on her review and that she did not give the go ahead to spam other people's reviews.
I'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt and will go ahead and take this off my spam shelf and re-shelve this as to-read.
*original comment in section below*
I'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt and will go ahead and take this off my spam shelf and re-shelve this as to-read.
*original comment in section below*
March 7, 2013
Soooo good! Longer review to come nearer to release, but the story sucked me in and I'm still thinking about the characters weeks later! Definitely unputdownable.
Want to read
February 20, 2020🎁 Books 1 & 2 in the series are FREE on Amazon today (2/20/2020)! 🎁
May 15, 2013
Originally published at .
When her mother died, rising junior star Indiana Gaffney stopped playing tennis. But even she couldn’t stay away from the game completely. After watching up-and-coming American player Penny Harrison win the Madrid Open, Indy decides to accept the invitation from coach Dom Kingston to train at the Outer Banks Academy (OBX), an elite, world-renowned tennis facility in North Carolina. Soon enough she’s outranking more experienced players, gaining enemies, and catching the eye of Penny’s older brother, agent Jack Harrison.
Penny Harrison is on cloud nine. She just beat the number one player in the world at the Madrid Open. Now it’s time to gear up for Paris and the French Open. Everything is going smoothly until her coach teams her up to train with bad boy Alex Russell, the first British man to win Wimbledon since 1936, and someone with whom she had a recent fling. Can she handle the tension between them without letting it undo her?
Jasmine Randazzo is the child of two former Grand Slam champions and Olympic gold medalists. With her parent’s beach front estate only a walk down from Outer Banks, Jas has practically grown up at the academy. Her budding tennis career looks promising until Indy arrives and takes over as the new junior tour ‘it� girl. To complicate the already intense expectations she shoulders, Jasmine’s in love with her best friend, Penny’s twin Teddy, who’s also a player on the pro tour. Neither Indy, Penny, or Jasmine can win both on and off the court, but they sure won’t want for drama, or romance, at OBX.
I had never heard of this new adult ebook until I received a review request from someone at its publisher, Coliloquy. If I hadn’t already fallen for the instantly recognizable tennis title and the neon and black-and-white cover, all I needed to hear was the word ‘tennis� and I was in. I started playing tennis in elementary school and played throughout grade school at the local club as well as on the high school tennis team. With a few exceptions, I find sports movies boring, and I’d never read fiction that features a sport prominently, let alone my favorite sport, so I couldn’t help myself. But I never worried about how Game. Set. Match. and I would get on. I wasn’t expecting a deep, character-driven novel, though Indy, Penny, and Jasmine are well-rounded characters. I wanted tennis matches and rivalry and a little romance and that is exactly what ’s debut novel delivers.
Game. Set. Match. strikes the perfect chord between fun and light but not overly light. There is substance in the characterization, the relationships, and the tennis action scenes. The first thing I didn’t anticipate was the prominence of the romances in Game. Set. Match. With the current trends in ebook new adult publishing, I think of it being tamer contemporary romance for the older YA or college-aged reader. The romances take more of a back seat to the tennis in Iacopelli’s novel, which I liked. There is some drinking and a few steamy moments, though not more graphic than some of the mature YA contemps I’ve read (i.e. Jennifer Echols and John Green) that are often placed in the adult fiction collections of public libraries rather than the young adult section. So smexy readers, don’t fret! But as this is the first book in the Outer Banks Academy series, beware of some unresolved relationships and tournaments.
The second aspect of Game. Set. Match. which caught me off guard was its strengths. There are a handful of important tennis matches played by each of the girls that had unpredictable outcomes. My biggest complaint with sports films is the predictability in your team winning the decisive game at the end of the film. It was thrilling to read about matches in which either opponent could end up winning . Even better, I knew I wouldn’t be disappointed in the outcome because the tennis was always written with suspense and with each girl’s individual technique and mental game in mind. I was also pleased by the unexpected nuance in the mean girl style rivalry between Indy and Jasmine. I love when the initially one-note mean girl defies stereotype in YA contemps (see Courtney Summers). Jasmine and Indy’s hate relationship develops into a complicated friendship by the conclusion, and I enjoyed how they came to support each other in each other’s love life and tennis career. As can be expected with rotating perspectives, you’ll have character(s) you prefer. While it took the longest for me to genuinely sympathize with Jasmine’s character and I would’ve loved to be closer to the male leads, I’m happy that this is a series and Iacopelli can give Indy, Penny, and Jasmine the further attention and development they deserve in future installments. It can be a fine line for me between preferring a debut novel to be a stand alone or the first of a series but in this case I’m delighted at the thought of spending more time with Indy, Penny, and Jasmine at OBX in the near future.
When her mother died, rising junior star Indiana Gaffney stopped playing tennis. But even she couldn’t stay away from the game completely. After watching up-and-coming American player Penny Harrison win the Madrid Open, Indy decides to accept the invitation from coach Dom Kingston to train at the Outer Banks Academy (OBX), an elite, world-renowned tennis facility in North Carolina. Soon enough she’s outranking more experienced players, gaining enemies, and catching the eye of Penny’s older brother, agent Jack Harrison.
Penny Harrison is on cloud nine. She just beat the number one player in the world at the Madrid Open. Now it’s time to gear up for Paris and the French Open. Everything is going smoothly until her coach teams her up to train with bad boy Alex Russell, the first British man to win Wimbledon since 1936, and someone with whom she had a recent fling. Can she handle the tension between them without letting it undo her?
Jasmine Randazzo is the child of two former Grand Slam champions and Olympic gold medalists. With her parent’s beach front estate only a walk down from Outer Banks, Jas has practically grown up at the academy. Her budding tennis career looks promising until Indy arrives and takes over as the new junior tour ‘it� girl. To complicate the already intense expectations she shoulders, Jasmine’s in love with her best friend, Penny’s twin Teddy, who’s also a player on the pro tour. Neither Indy, Penny, or Jasmine can win both on and off the court, but they sure won’t want for drama, or romance, at OBX.
I had never heard of this new adult ebook until I received a review request from someone at its publisher, Coliloquy. If I hadn’t already fallen for the instantly recognizable tennis title and the neon and black-and-white cover, all I needed to hear was the word ‘tennis� and I was in. I started playing tennis in elementary school and played throughout grade school at the local club as well as on the high school tennis team. With a few exceptions, I find sports movies boring, and I’d never read fiction that features a sport prominently, let alone my favorite sport, so I couldn’t help myself. But I never worried about how Game. Set. Match. and I would get on. I wasn’t expecting a deep, character-driven novel, though Indy, Penny, and Jasmine are well-rounded characters. I wanted tennis matches and rivalry and a little romance and that is exactly what ’s debut novel delivers.
Game. Set. Match. strikes the perfect chord between fun and light but not overly light. There is substance in the characterization, the relationships, and the tennis action scenes. The first thing I didn’t anticipate was the prominence of the romances in Game. Set. Match. With the current trends in ebook new adult publishing, I think of it being tamer contemporary romance for the older YA or college-aged reader. The romances take more of a back seat to the tennis in Iacopelli’s novel, which I liked. There is some drinking and a few steamy moments, though not more graphic than some of the mature YA contemps I’ve read (i.e. Jennifer Echols and John Green) that are often placed in the adult fiction collections of public libraries rather than the young adult section. So smexy readers, don’t fret! But as this is the first book in the Outer Banks Academy series, beware of some unresolved relationships and tournaments.
The second aspect of Game. Set. Match. which caught me off guard was its strengths. There are a handful of important tennis matches played by each of the girls that had unpredictable outcomes. My biggest complaint with sports films is the predictability in your team winning the decisive game at the end of the film. It was thrilling to read about matches in which either opponent could end up winning . Even better, I knew I wouldn’t be disappointed in the outcome because the tennis was always written with suspense and with each girl’s individual technique and mental game in mind. I was also pleased by the unexpected nuance in the mean girl style rivalry between Indy and Jasmine. I love when the initially one-note mean girl defies stereotype in YA contemps (see Courtney Summers). Jasmine and Indy’s hate relationship develops into a complicated friendship by the conclusion, and I enjoyed how they came to support each other in each other’s love life and tennis career. As can be expected with rotating perspectives, you’ll have character(s) you prefer. While it took the longest for me to genuinely sympathize with Jasmine’s character and I would’ve loved to be closer to the male leads, I’m happy that this is a series and Iacopelli can give Indy, Penny, and Jasmine the further attention and development they deserve in future installments. It can be a fine line for me between preferring a debut novel to be a stand alone or the first of a series but in this case I’m delighted at the thought of spending more time with Indy, Penny, and Jasmine at OBX in the near future.
May 1, 2013
** A 3.5 Review **
I am a hardass.
Or at least that’s what I like to tell myself.
The truth is…I’m a Sap. (With a capital S.) I swoon over fluffy kittens, I lose all comprehension of the English language around babies, and though I tell my husband our DVR is full of ABC Family melodramas simply to torture him, the fact is, I just freaking love them.
Let’s be honest for a second shall we? There is nothing more compelling than a gaggle of perfectly coifed uber rich socialites. The Princess. The Underdog. The Mean Girl (insert meow.) they are (in a sense) immaculately scripted reality TV body doubles. And while we KNOW we shouldn’t watch them (like we know we shouldn’t watch a dog chase it’s tail for an hour) we just can’t help ourselves. It’s too damn entertaining not to.
Game. Set. Match. is an ABC Family drama in the form of a book. Full of pretty people. Jamb packed with angst filled kissing. Totally cliche. And UNDENIABLY absorbing. (Even if your only interest in Tennis is Paul Bettany via Wimbledon from way back in 2004.)
Nestled along the North Carolina coast, the Outer Banks Tennis Academy is the world’s most elite training facility. In this pressure-cooker environment, futures are forged in blood and sweat, and dreams are shattered in an instant.
Penny Harrison, a rising female star, is determined to win the French Open and beat her archrival, Zina Lutrova. But when her coach imports British bad boy Alex Russell as her new training partner, will Penny be able to keep her laser-like focus?
Tennis is all Jasmine Randazzo has ever known. The daughter of two Grand Slam champions, she’s hell-bent on extending her family’s legacy and writing her own happily-ever-after…until her chosen Prince Charming gives her the just-friends speech, right before the biggest junior tournament of the year, the Outer Banks Classic.
With a powerful serve and killer forehand, newcomer Indiana Gaffney is turning heads. She’s thrilled by all of the attention, especially from Jack Harrison, Penny’s agent and hot older brother, except he keeps backing off every time things start heating up.
With so much at stake, dreams—and hearts—are bound to break.
The most interesting thing about GSM is that it comes at you from every angle.
Whatever do you mean Misty?
Well, unlike the books that are traditionally published in this genre (which is a weird mix of YA and NA) we are not limited to one perspective.
All three girls (Penny, Jas and Indiana) have a voice. Normally this wouldn’t be something I touch on. Multiple POV is not at all uncommon in literature. But Iacopelli’s choice to write her characters this way, in this particular genre, gave her an edge.
We get to see behind the curtain. Meet the wizard and make assumption based on ALL of the information, not just pieces of it.
Is the Princess (Penny) in the story really as untouchable as her peers view her? According to the Underdog (Indiana) no. The Mean girl? (Jas) Yes! Finding out why through their different narratives (both externally and internally) is the hook that won’t let you go.
The Underdog…does she really deserve to be the target of the Mean girl?
Is Mean Girl actually mean? Or is she just misunderstood?
The complex choice in storytelling allowed for a complex range of emotions, ultimately making the characters approachable. (Despite their unconventional tennis star upbringing.) And in the end, they morphed into something that can almost be misconstrued as “likeable.�
As for the plot…it was formulaic But in a good way. (Hey..simmer down, it’s possible!) I knew what was coming roughly 10 pages before it happened, but I still wanted to know exactly how it would play out. The NEED to know trumps predictable any day of the week. (Why do you think Hallmark movies are so successful?)
When it’s all said and done, I think the biggest compliment I can give Game. Set. Match is that there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. (Which coming from my over analytical and judgy mind is like handing out an Oscar.) It’s fun. It’s quirky. And incredibly easy to read. (1 day max.) Perfect for those of you stocking your kindle for the summer.
Happy Reading my fellow Kindle-ites and remember: sometimes its ok to be a little sappy.
I am a hardass.
Or at least that’s what I like to tell myself.
The truth is…I’m a Sap. (With a capital S.) I swoon over fluffy kittens, I lose all comprehension of the English language around babies, and though I tell my husband our DVR is full of ABC Family melodramas simply to torture him, the fact is, I just freaking love them.
Let’s be honest for a second shall we? There is nothing more compelling than a gaggle of perfectly coifed uber rich socialites. The Princess. The Underdog. The Mean Girl (insert meow.) they are (in a sense) immaculately scripted reality TV body doubles. And while we KNOW we shouldn’t watch them (like we know we shouldn’t watch a dog chase it’s tail for an hour) we just can’t help ourselves. It’s too damn entertaining not to.
Game. Set. Match. is an ABC Family drama in the form of a book. Full of pretty people. Jamb packed with angst filled kissing. Totally cliche. And UNDENIABLY absorbing. (Even if your only interest in Tennis is Paul Bettany via Wimbledon from way back in 2004.)
Nestled along the North Carolina coast, the Outer Banks Tennis Academy is the world’s most elite training facility. In this pressure-cooker environment, futures are forged in blood and sweat, and dreams are shattered in an instant.
Penny Harrison, a rising female star, is determined to win the French Open and beat her archrival, Zina Lutrova. But when her coach imports British bad boy Alex Russell as her new training partner, will Penny be able to keep her laser-like focus?
Tennis is all Jasmine Randazzo has ever known. The daughter of two Grand Slam champions, she’s hell-bent on extending her family’s legacy and writing her own happily-ever-after…until her chosen Prince Charming gives her the just-friends speech, right before the biggest junior tournament of the year, the Outer Banks Classic.
With a powerful serve and killer forehand, newcomer Indiana Gaffney is turning heads. She’s thrilled by all of the attention, especially from Jack Harrison, Penny’s agent and hot older brother, except he keeps backing off every time things start heating up.
With so much at stake, dreams—and hearts—are bound to break.
The most interesting thing about GSM is that it comes at you from every angle.
Whatever do you mean Misty?
Well, unlike the books that are traditionally published in this genre (which is a weird mix of YA and NA) we are not limited to one perspective.
All three girls (Penny, Jas and Indiana) have a voice. Normally this wouldn’t be something I touch on. Multiple POV is not at all uncommon in literature. But Iacopelli’s choice to write her characters this way, in this particular genre, gave her an edge.
We get to see behind the curtain. Meet the wizard and make assumption based on ALL of the information, not just pieces of it.
Is the Princess (Penny) in the story really as untouchable as her peers view her? According to the Underdog (Indiana) no. The Mean girl? (Jas) Yes! Finding out why through their different narratives (both externally and internally) is the hook that won’t let you go.
The Underdog…does she really deserve to be the target of the Mean girl?
Is Mean Girl actually mean? Or is she just misunderstood?
The complex choice in storytelling allowed for a complex range of emotions, ultimately making the characters approachable. (Despite their unconventional tennis star upbringing.) And in the end, they morphed into something that can almost be misconstrued as “likeable.�
As for the plot…it was formulaic But in a good way. (Hey..simmer down, it’s possible!) I knew what was coming roughly 10 pages before it happened, but I still wanted to know exactly how it would play out. The NEED to know trumps predictable any day of the week. (Why do you think Hallmark movies are so successful?)
When it’s all said and done, I think the biggest compliment I can give Game. Set. Match is that there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. (Which coming from my over analytical and judgy mind is like handing out an Oscar.) It’s fun. It’s quirky. And incredibly easy to read. (1 day max.) Perfect for those of you stocking your kindle for the summer.
Happy Reading my fellow Kindle-ites and remember: sometimes its ok to be a little sappy.
May 11, 2021
tw/cw: injuries, physical fight, death of a parent due to cancer
Game. Set. Match. was a lovely surprise: with three main characters at different point in their lives and career, their voices felt very distinct. Indy is the new girl, she had to remove herself from competition to take care of her mother who sadly passed away. The book opens with her in a regular high school, trying to discretely watch a tennis match. That match forces her to think of her dream: she decides to call Dom, a tennis coach who wanted to sign her a year ago.
There is Penny, she recently won against the number one champion but she still has a long road ahead of her. She has to train for Roland Garros if she wants to show people that it was not only one victory: she is ready to be a champion.
And then there is Jasmine who had to leave the competition early one. Her parents are two tennis stars and she feels pressured to meet everyone's expectations of her. I liked that her parents are never the ones to pressure her, instead they are very supportive. But it does not stop Penny from losing herself and wondering if she can really be a champion.
Indy and Penny were interesting and I liked their personalities but i also felt like they could be more developed. For me, Jasmine has the more convincing narrative arc. I loved her growth, the times when she lost herself and wondered if the press was right when they fought she was nothing. It does not excuse her attitude, but i liked that she realizes what she did. And it was more convincing than Indiy, who left the tennis world a year ago but in a day she is ranked fourth for the competition?? she does not have the stamina, and they describe her footwork as weak but she still was better than others. I mean, maybe it's possible, but the way it was written felt too easy for me.
The pacing was good most of the time, but i think i would have liked a stronger climax towards the end, but it was still satisfying. I also wish Dom could have been more present: as their coach it was as if he was never present.
My biggest problem was the three romances: i understand why the girls are 17 / 18 yo because they are juniors and if they lose, they won't be able to become pro but the love interests could have been younger...it was so uncomfortable to read.
- Teddy / Jasmine
they kissed in the firs or second chapter and it destroyed their dynamic. They try to make their friendship works again but Jas still has feelings for Teddy and it's hard for her. They were cute and if i'm not wrong, they were the same age.
- Alex / Penny
Alex is a 21yo champion. He had an accident that lead to a knee injury and a lot of rumors because he was with a model when it happened. and the night before he was with Penny. Their romance didn't work for me but it was interesting to see a sort of lovers to hate to friends to lovers kind of situation? I just don't like Alex as a LI
the age gap was not bad but the power dynamic was strange sometimes
- Jack / Indy
now that's when it becomes illegal. Jack is 23yo, he is Penny's brother and agent. While Indy is 17. Idk it felt more like lust / physical attraction than a romantic interest in each other and idk if it's worst or not. And the thing is several characters called Indy out, telling her he was too old for her and it was wrong but then they changed their minds. When Jasmine gave her speech comparing the situation to her parents' it was not the best. Yes maybe the age gap worked for her parents but it does not mean it has to work for Jack and Indy. And they barely talked because most of the time Jack was uncomfortable and knew it was wrong. Anyways i don't know what's going to happen to them in the second book but i'm scared.
edit: i also had a problem with the french. Sometimes it was natural and sometimes it didn't make sense. It was confusing
While it's not the best book, and i had no idea what they were doing during their training and the competition, it was a strong story with three strong characters trying to achieve their dreams.
Game. Set. Match. was a lovely surprise: with three main characters at different point in their lives and career, their voices felt very distinct. Indy is the new girl, she had to remove herself from competition to take care of her mother who sadly passed away. The book opens with her in a regular high school, trying to discretely watch a tennis match. That match forces her to think of her dream: she decides to call Dom, a tennis coach who wanted to sign her a year ago.
There is Penny, she recently won against the number one champion but she still has a long road ahead of her. She has to train for Roland Garros if she wants to show people that it was not only one victory: she is ready to be a champion.
And then there is Jasmine who had to leave the competition early one. Her parents are two tennis stars and she feels pressured to meet everyone's expectations of her. I liked that her parents are never the ones to pressure her, instead they are very supportive. But it does not stop Penny from losing herself and wondering if she can really be a champion.
Indy and Penny were interesting and I liked their personalities but i also felt like they could be more developed. For me, Jasmine has the more convincing narrative arc. I loved her growth, the times when she lost herself and wondered if the press was right when they fought she was nothing. It does not excuse her attitude, but i liked that she realizes what she did. And it was more convincing than Indiy, who left the tennis world a year ago but in a day she is ranked fourth for the competition?? she does not have the stamina, and they describe her footwork as weak but she still was better than others. I mean, maybe it's possible, but the way it was written felt too easy for me.
The pacing was good most of the time, but i think i would have liked a stronger climax towards the end, but it was still satisfying. I also wish Dom could have been more present: as their coach it was as if he was never present.
My biggest problem was the three romances: i understand why the girls are 17 / 18 yo because they are juniors and if they lose, they won't be able to become pro but the love interests could have been younger...it was so uncomfortable to read.
- Teddy / Jasmine
they kissed in the firs or second chapter and it destroyed their dynamic. They try to make their friendship works again but Jas still has feelings for Teddy and it's hard for her. They were cute and if i'm not wrong, they were the same age.
- Alex / Penny
Alex is a 21yo champion. He had an accident that lead to a knee injury and a lot of rumors because he was with a model when it happened. and the night before he was with Penny. Their romance didn't work for me but it was interesting to see a sort of lovers to hate to friends to lovers kind of situation? I just don't like Alex as a LI
the age gap was not bad but the power dynamic was strange sometimes
- Jack / Indy
now that's when it becomes illegal. Jack is 23yo, he is Penny's brother and agent. While Indy is 17. Idk it felt more like lust / physical attraction than a romantic interest in each other and idk if it's worst or not. And the thing is several characters called Indy out, telling her he was too old for her and it was wrong but then they changed their minds. When Jasmine gave her speech comparing the situation to her parents' it was not the best. Yes maybe the age gap worked for her parents but it does not mean it has to work for Jack and Indy. And they barely talked because most of the time Jack was uncomfortable and knew it was wrong. Anyways i don't know what's going to happen to them in the second book but i'm scared.
edit: i also had a problem with the french. Sometimes it was natural and sometimes it didn't make sense. It was confusing
While it's not the best book, and i had no idea what they were doing during their training and the competition, it was a strong story with three strong characters trying to achieve their dreams.
May 10, 2013
GAME. SET. MATCH. was exactly what I needed. I fell hard for the characters and became consumed by the story. As a former athlete, I remember what it's like to search for that win, the score, the ultimate victory. These girls and their guys, show determination, strength of character, and definitely resilience. I enjoyed getting to know each girl, but found myself getting attached to two in particular. So, I've decided to write my review in the same way the book was written. Each chapter is told from either, Penny, Indy, or Jasmine's POV, so I'll break down my thoughts in the same way.
I'll start with Penny. Penny is the most successful player at the Academy at this point in the story. She's moving into pro-level status and is set on continuing to win. She trains hard and plays the game hard. I liked her almost immediately. What made me love her even more was seeing her more vulnerable side with fellow star, Alex. Alex is known as the bad boy in tennis, but he certainly is a great match for Penny. Alex is flirty, sexy, competitive, and made me laugh repeatedly. I liked getting the back story on how they met and what happened between them. Watching them develop a relationship was not only steamy at times, but also very sweet.
Next up for me was Indy. Indy actually starts off the book. She's taken a break from tennis after her mom had passed away, but after watching Penny win a tournament, she feels like she's ready to get back on track. She's the new girl at the Academy and isn't really liked right away. Indy is seen as a threat. Despite some really shady moments, Indy continues to carry on and train hard. She really wants to go pro and is willing to work hard to get there. Along the way she meets Jack. Jack is Penny's older brother and Agent. Jack is a few years older than Indy, so even though they are attracted to each other, Jack is reluctant to get involved. I have to say...I adored Jack. I think he's my favorite guy so far. He's certainly guarded, but in those moments we see him...he left me flustered.
Last up, Jasmine. Her parents are tennis legends, so she feels pressure to uphold the family tradition and be great. Honestly, I have some mixed feelings about Jas. She's the character I felt the least connected to. She was rude to Indy at first and that just made me mad right off the bat. She's also the snottiest of the three in my opinion. All that said...I did understand and appreciate the kind of pressure that she felt. Jas is completely dedicated to the sport, but questions whether or not she really has what it takes to go pro. I also felt a bit bad for her in regards to her love life. Poor Jas. She's in love with her best friend, who also happens to be Penny's other brother, Teddy. I adore Teddy, but he better get off the pot in the next book. I assume the next book will possibly show us more of their relationship OR friendship. I felt like their relationship was a bit unfinished, but I was ok with that knowing there would be another book.
Overall, I really loved this book. I was so involved in the story, that I flew through it. I'd like to point out that I don't feel like you have to understand or even like tennis to appreciate this book-there is a romantic element to the story. I do happen to like tennis, so it certainly made the book more enjoyable for me. If you are a fan of NA Contemporary Romance or even Sport Romances, check this one out. I'm already anxious to see where Iacopelli takes the series from here!
I'll start with Penny. Penny is the most successful player at the Academy at this point in the story. She's moving into pro-level status and is set on continuing to win. She trains hard and plays the game hard. I liked her almost immediately. What made me love her even more was seeing her more vulnerable side with fellow star, Alex. Alex is known as the bad boy in tennis, but he certainly is a great match for Penny. Alex is flirty, sexy, competitive, and made me laugh repeatedly. I liked getting the back story on how they met and what happened between them. Watching them develop a relationship was not only steamy at times, but also very sweet.
Next up for me was Indy. Indy actually starts off the book. She's taken a break from tennis after her mom had passed away, but after watching Penny win a tournament, she feels like she's ready to get back on track. She's the new girl at the Academy and isn't really liked right away. Indy is seen as a threat. Despite some really shady moments, Indy continues to carry on and train hard. She really wants to go pro and is willing to work hard to get there. Along the way she meets Jack. Jack is Penny's older brother and Agent. Jack is a few years older than Indy, so even though they are attracted to each other, Jack is reluctant to get involved. I have to say...I adored Jack. I think he's my favorite guy so far. He's certainly guarded, but in those moments we see him...he left me flustered.
Last up, Jasmine. Her parents are tennis legends, so she feels pressure to uphold the family tradition and be great. Honestly, I have some mixed feelings about Jas. She's the character I felt the least connected to. She was rude to Indy at first and that just made me mad right off the bat. She's also the snottiest of the three in my opinion. All that said...I did understand and appreciate the kind of pressure that she felt. Jas is completely dedicated to the sport, but questions whether or not she really has what it takes to go pro. I also felt a bit bad for her in regards to her love life. Poor Jas. She's in love with her best friend, who also happens to be Penny's other brother, Teddy. I adore Teddy, but he better get off the pot in the next book. I assume the next book will possibly show us more of their relationship OR friendship. I felt like their relationship was a bit unfinished, but I was ok with that knowing there would be another book.
Overall, I really loved this book. I was so involved in the story, that I flew through it. I'd like to point out that I don't feel like you have to understand or even like tennis to appreciate this book-there is a romantic element to the story. I do happen to like tennis, so it certainly made the book more enjoyable for me. If you are a fan of NA Contemporary Romance or even Sport Romances, check this one out. I'm already anxious to see where Iacopelli takes the series from here!
May 9, 2013
Oh my gosh, I so didn’t want this book to end. I’ve been reading as much as I could every day, inching towards the finale, but hoping upon hope it would never end.
*sigh*
I think I’m in love with about three characters in this book…Alex…Jack…even Dom. Game, Set, Match oozes sexiness. I don’t know how the author managed it, but she wooed me with this amazing book and her superb writing. Even the girls were hot, okay? Is it possible to be in love with a book, cause I think I am.
OK, swoon session over. I loved this book from the first chapter and the more I was drawn into the story, the more I adored these characters. Penny is undoubtedly my favorite and I’m so happy things between her and bad boy Alex developed the way it did, but then it ended the way it ended, and I’m just so confused. Are they on or are they off? I guess I’ll have to wait for the next book. Indy is a great character and I liked her from the word go. She brings that positive, happy-go-lucky sort of vibe to the story. Jasmine took some getting used to, but even with her surliness I couldn’t help but like her, especially nearer towards the end. Honestly, I loved all the main characters. They grew throughout the story and I was incredibly sad to say goodbye to them at the end. I take comfort in the fact that this is only the first book in the series and I’ll soon meet up with them again.
The world building in this book is done beautifully. OBX didn’t feel like a fictional tennis academy from a book, but more like a place I’ve been to in real life. Plus, it’s right next to the ocean, so it was even easier for me to imagine being there with all these extraordinary characters. The story is simply fantastic. Filled with romance, drama, excitement and nailbiting suspense whenever a tennis match was in progress, Game, Set, Match kept me riveted to the edge of my seat. Lately I’m into sports novels and I’m not a big fan of romance. This novel has both, but the author effortlessly keeps both these elements balanced in such a way that tennis fans and romance junkies will enjoy this book to its fullest extent (I’m neither, but this book took my enjoyment level to new heights). Oh, and you don’t need to actually know the ins and outs of tennis to enjoy this story. I don’t know a thing about tennis, but the author keeps it simple and now I know a lot more about this game than I did before I read this book.
I can’t express enough how much I enjoyed this book. It’s definitely going on my favorites shelf. I loved absolutely everything about it, including the ending, and I can’t wait to read the next installment in this mindblowing series! I enjoy books with strong, self-assured female protagonists and this novel reminded me of Georgetown Academy by Jessica Koosed Etting and Alyssa Embree Schwartz; another series with similar strong and self-assured female leads. Game, Set, Match is an absolute must-read!
*sigh*
I think I’m in love with about three characters in this book…Alex…Jack…even Dom. Game, Set, Match oozes sexiness. I don’t know how the author managed it, but she wooed me with this amazing book and her superb writing. Even the girls were hot, okay? Is it possible to be in love with a book, cause I think I am.
OK, swoon session over. I loved this book from the first chapter and the more I was drawn into the story, the more I adored these characters. Penny is undoubtedly my favorite and I’m so happy things between her and bad boy Alex developed the way it did, but then it ended the way it ended, and I’m just so confused. Are they on or are they off? I guess I’ll have to wait for the next book. Indy is a great character and I liked her from the word go. She brings that positive, happy-go-lucky sort of vibe to the story. Jasmine took some getting used to, but even with her surliness I couldn’t help but like her, especially nearer towards the end. Honestly, I loved all the main characters. They grew throughout the story and I was incredibly sad to say goodbye to them at the end. I take comfort in the fact that this is only the first book in the series and I’ll soon meet up with them again.
The world building in this book is done beautifully. OBX didn’t feel like a fictional tennis academy from a book, but more like a place I’ve been to in real life. Plus, it’s right next to the ocean, so it was even easier for me to imagine being there with all these extraordinary characters. The story is simply fantastic. Filled with romance, drama, excitement and nailbiting suspense whenever a tennis match was in progress, Game, Set, Match kept me riveted to the edge of my seat. Lately I’m into sports novels and I’m not a big fan of romance. This novel has both, but the author effortlessly keeps both these elements balanced in such a way that tennis fans and romance junkies will enjoy this book to its fullest extent (I’m neither, but this book took my enjoyment level to new heights). Oh, and you don’t need to actually know the ins and outs of tennis to enjoy this story. I don’t know a thing about tennis, but the author keeps it simple and now I know a lot more about this game than I did before I read this book.
I can’t express enough how much I enjoyed this book. It’s definitely going on my favorites shelf. I loved absolutely everything about it, including the ending, and I can’t wait to read the next installment in this mindblowing series! I enjoy books with strong, self-assured female protagonists and this novel reminded me of Georgetown Academy by Jessica Koosed Etting and Alyssa Embree Schwartz; another series with similar strong and self-assured female leads. Game, Set, Match is an absolute must-read!
May 13, 2013
I don't play a lot of sports, but I do enjoy watching them sometimes (not always though :P), and I absolutely love sports romances. Game. Set. Match. isn't like the other sports books I've read though. It's a New Adult for one thing, and the girls happen to be athletes themselves...as are their love interests, but really, the tennis is pretty much all about the girls...and I absolutely loved that! So many romances involving sports focus on the male as the athlete, so it's really refreshing to get to have the female leads as athletes! :D
I guess a lot of readers have been declaring their "teams" based on their favourite characters and such in their reviews, but I have a hard time choosing! Game. Set. Match. features three lovely ladies: Indy, Jasmine and Penny...and I loved Indy and Penny right from the start ! Jas took a while to grow on me, but by the end, I loved her, too. :D They're all such vibrant characters, and they're so driven that it's hard not to admire them. I also adored their love interests...and was so relieved that their weren't any love triangles!!! It's really nice to get to see all three girls interested in different guys (I'm not going to name them because I think you'll enjoy getting to meet the girls' love interests more if I don't tell you)....plus, it would've been weird to read both their points of view if they did like the same one. :P
So, I loved the characters, and I loved the tennis, and I really enjoyed how the story was set up. At times you would get multiple characters' points of view on one day, but at others, it focused on just one, and I thought that Jennifer Iacopelli did a fantastic job at balancing out each girl's portion of the story. :D I loved the competition between the girls and the budding friendships. I also adored the developing romances, and the drama involved was definitely fitting to their situations...and left me just as frustrated as the characters themselves were. :P
Overall, I loved Game. Set. Match. and I can't wait to read the next book in this series! :D I'd recommend it to fans of stories with great characters, and I think that even if you aren't into sports, or tennis specifically, that you'll still enjoy this one. The characters are so real, and I think that each girl is appealing in their own way, and together they create one amazing story! I definitely can't wait for the sequel because I NEED more...more Indy, more Jasmine, more Penny, more boys...just more of this story because it was fantastic!! I always wanted to learn how to play tennis when I was younger...and after reading this, I may just have to actually try it out. ;) Seriously though, give this one a shot, I think it's one that a lot of readers will enjoy. :D
I guess a lot of readers have been declaring their "teams" based on their favourite characters and such in their reviews, but I have a hard time choosing! Game. Set. Match. features three lovely ladies: Indy, Jasmine and Penny...and I loved Indy and Penny right from the start ! Jas took a while to grow on me, but by the end, I loved her, too. :D They're all such vibrant characters, and they're so driven that it's hard not to admire them. I also adored their love interests...and was so relieved that their weren't any love triangles!!! It's really nice to get to see all three girls interested in different guys (I'm not going to name them because I think you'll enjoy getting to meet the girls' love interests more if I don't tell you)....plus, it would've been weird to read both their points of view if they did like the same one. :P
So, I loved the characters, and I loved the tennis, and I really enjoyed how the story was set up. At times you would get multiple characters' points of view on one day, but at others, it focused on just one, and I thought that Jennifer Iacopelli did a fantastic job at balancing out each girl's portion of the story. :D I loved the competition between the girls and the budding friendships. I also adored the developing romances, and the drama involved was definitely fitting to their situations...and left me just as frustrated as the characters themselves were. :P
Overall, I loved Game. Set. Match. and I can't wait to read the next book in this series! :D I'd recommend it to fans of stories with great characters, and I think that even if you aren't into sports, or tennis specifically, that you'll still enjoy this one. The characters are so real, and I think that each girl is appealing in their own way, and together they create one amazing story! I definitely can't wait for the sequel because I NEED more...more Indy, more Jasmine, more Penny, more boys...just more of this story because it was fantastic!! I always wanted to learn how to play tennis when I was younger...and after reading this, I may just have to actually try it out. ;) Seriously though, give this one a shot, I think it's one that a lot of readers will enjoy. :D
October 1, 2013
I've been waiting for Game. Set. Match. for a couple of months now--anxiously. Just about as soon as I got it in my hot little hands, I cracked it open. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I hoped for good things.
It was very sporty at first, and as someone who's never played or taken a particular interest in tennis, I was kind of put off by that, but once I got through the first little bit, I was tuned-in. Even though as I said before I know nothing about tennis, to me, Iacopelli did a great job of showing the pressure, skill and talent required to do what these girls do. I found myself invested in their matches and practices, and pulling for them to win.
Sadly, I also found myself frustrated...
This novel alternates between three points of view: Indy, Penny and Jasmine. Which is fine, don't get me wrong, I was just really annoyed with the fact that I didn't care for Jasmine (or about her) at all. Her love interest, Teddy, also held absolutely no appeal for me. He had no defining qualities that made me want to know anything more about him. And Penny was okay... I especially loved her match at the end, but to be completely honest, I really only wanted to read about Indy and Jack. I found myself wanting to skim everything but Indy's point of view. I loved her, and I loved him. The tortured older brother who was trying to do the right thing. My feels were working overtime!!! And I'm so very sad now that it's over and we didn't get to see more into what's going on with them. I would have been a whole lot happier if Iacopelli had given us an entire book just about the two of them and had saved Jasmine and Penny for future books in the series.
Overall, though, I liked this one. It was well written, and mostly without editing issues (which as we all know is a huge problem in new adult books). For tennis lovers or sports fans in general, this book will be a huge hit with you. So if you're in the mood for something very sporty and a little bit sweet, give this one a chance.
Sidenote: I know the author has her own Jack picked out, but his picture didn't do the Jack in my head justice. So I picked my own because, well, I like him better:
It was very sporty at first, and as someone who's never played or taken a particular interest in tennis, I was kind of put off by that, but once I got through the first little bit, I was tuned-in. Even though as I said before I know nothing about tennis, to me, Iacopelli did a great job of showing the pressure, skill and talent required to do what these girls do. I found myself invested in their matches and practices, and pulling for them to win.
Sadly, I also found myself frustrated...
This novel alternates between three points of view: Indy, Penny and Jasmine. Which is fine, don't get me wrong, I was just really annoyed with the fact that I didn't care for Jasmine (or about her) at all. Her love interest, Teddy, also held absolutely no appeal for me. He had no defining qualities that made me want to know anything more about him. And Penny was okay... I especially loved her match at the end, but to be completely honest, I really only wanted to read about Indy and Jack. I found myself wanting to skim everything but Indy's point of view. I loved her, and I loved him. The tortured older brother who was trying to do the right thing. My feels were working overtime!!! And I'm so very sad now that it's over and we didn't get to see more into what's going on with them. I would have been a whole lot happier if Iacopelli had given us an entire book just about the two of them and had saved Jasmine and Penny for future books in the series.
Overall, though, I liked this one. It was well written, and mostly without editing issues (which as we all know is a huge problem in new adult books). For tennis lovers or sports fans in general, this book will be a huge hit with you. So if you're in the mood for something very sporty and a little bit sweet, give this one a chance.
Sidenote: I know the author has her own Jack picked out, but his picture didn't do the Jack in my head justice. So I picked my own because, well, I like him better:
Displaying 1 - 30 of 209 reviews
Can't find what you're looking for?
Get help and learn more about the design.