The Perfect Game by J. Sterling

About the book

The Perfect Game is the first book in the new adult series of the same name by J. Sterling. The book was published by Lake Union Publishing on 25^th June 2013 and it is 310 pages long.

Synopsis

College junior and promising baseball player Jack Carter has a reputation and the girls know it. That’s why Cassie Andrews vows to stay as far away from him as possible. Jack has other ideas though and is determined to get Cassie to pay attention to him. He doesn’t do girlfriends but Cassie may be the one to change all of that… if Cassie can look past his player reputation long enough to give him a chance.

What I thought

One thing that I really like about new adult novels is that they’re mostly set in college or focus on older teenagers. Most of the time, I can connect with the characters more than I can in young adult books but unfortunately, this book did not have characters who I could connect to.

To start with, I did really like Cassie. While other girls were throwing themselves at Jack, she wasn’t having any of it. She was determined to stay away from him and called him out for being a player. She seemed strong and tough and with a mind of her own. She also tells him that she will not stand for cheating and if that happens, she’s gone. It all went quickly downhill though.

Jack has a very split personality. One minute he’s trying to be a completely gentleman to impress Cassie but then next he is the biggest arsehole ever imaginable. He openly admits to never sleeping with the same girl twice; not dating the same girl twice, sleeping with. What a horrible thing to do and admit to. There were times when Jack was really nice towards Cassie but then he did something utterly stupid to mess it all up. I won’t go into specifics so I don’t ruin the book for anyone who wants to read it but this guy needs a hard smack to the head for being so stupid.

Not too long into the book, it becomes clear that Cassie actually isn’t tough and she really doesn’t have a mind of her own. She falls for Jack’s charm and lies for too easily and quickly hangs off of every word he says. Then, when he messes up completely, several times, she takes him back and forgives him. She goes back on her word several times and simple put, is a mug. If my husband did even one of the things that Jack did, he would be out of the door in a second.

Due to the character’s silly attitudes and juvenile actions, I couldn’t really get into the plot. The beginning was okay but the rest of the book wound me up far too much. The characters became extremely unlikable and the plot just really wasn’t exciting or interesting. I had quite high hopes for this book but it is mostly about bad relationships and people that should never have gotten together in the first place.