One thing leads to another around here, and that’s how this book ended up in my hands. An author friend wanted to introduce me to her author friend and thus, I ended up reading two Jennifer Iacopelli books in a short amount of time.
Game, Set, Match [Buy Bookshop Amazon LibroFM] was a new book to me, but not a new book in general. It’s actually the first one Iacopelli wrote and published more than a decade ago, but due to publishing being publishing, it ended up not getting much attention at all. Now, it’s getting a re-release with some updates to the story and a brand new cover.
Game, Set, Match follows three young women who are breaking into the pro tennis scene. Penny Harrison is our main of the three mains for this story. She just won her first grand slam, but a hookup at the tournament is haunting her in a big way. Alex is back at the training facility after an injury hours after the hookup, and they are assigned to train together to prepare for the French Open, but Penny doesn’t want to look at him, much less practice with him.
Meanwhile, there are two other girls getting into a bit of a tiff. Indie is brand new at the facility and promptly ticks off the queen bee and daughter of the owners, Jasmine. Jasmine’s parents were both champions and now she carries everyone’s expecations to be great as well. Jasmine is into Penny’s twin brother Teddy and thinks Indie is as well, but Indie is actually interested in Penny’s older brother and agent, Jack. It’s all kinds of a mess.
This book has a lot more of the sport than most sports romances do, which I enjoyed. I don’t follow tennis or know much about it, but Jennifer writes about the games in a way that’s easy to follow and understand. It gives an added layer of tension that I think a lot of other sports romances could benefit from, but you have to do it well and truly know the sport to pull it off.
The thing that stuck with me the most is how this kinda breaks normal story structure. Usually, you get the perspective of just the people in the relationship, whether that be one or both of them. This book shifts between our main romance heroine’s POV and two other girls. I know that it’s a setup for the other two to get their own stories, but normally we don’t get those perspectives until their books and they are side characters until their turn. It felt like maybe there wasn’t enough to the main couple’s story and it had to be supplemented, but since all three girls POVs continue into the next book, I guess we’ll see how that plays out. Not bad, just different.
At least we won’t have to wait too long for the sequel, Wildcard which will be re-released in June, and fingers crossed for the third book to get the green light.
Literary Hypewoman 
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