After vicariously reading the Pretty Tough series, I was in the mood for more girls in sports narratives. Again, of which there are surprisingly few series dedicated to the premise. The only other one I remembered was this. I wanted to read it when it was first coming out but I never got round to it.

Well the time has come. Despite the catchy sports phrases, it’s more romance and coming of age than sports but it’s still a great series. It’s all set in the titular Hundred Oaks, Tennessee. A small town where everyone vaguely knows each other so there are plenty of cameos of previous protagonists popping up in later books.

A really cool thing about the series is that time barrels on. It was first published in 2010 and continues on to 2017, so cute kid sisters become protagonists in later books, computers and Facebook become mainstream, acceptance of homosexuality and female sexuality become more commonplace, people become more secular. I wonder if it was a reflection of the author, or simply the switch from early 2000s to 2010s but it’s cool to see like a novel time capsule.

Anyway on to my rankings.

1. Breathe, Annie, Breathe: This was one of the more sports-centric novels where Annie Winters is training to run in her first marathon so there’s lots of focus on the sheer (in my mind) torture your body goes through. Your body changes into a lean, running machine but it involves finding the right diet for your cardio, weight training, teaching yourself stamina and distance. You learn more about how your body works and sharpens your mind into a meditative state, pushing yourself to the limit. This is especially important to Annie as she’s doing this marathon for Kyle. Her boyfriend that died. Annie is dealing with a lot of grief and isolation and running gives her a goal to reach for a future than seems so lost. Falling for adreneline-junkie, Jeremiah, isn’t the stability she thinks she needs but he makes her feel alive too. This was such a great balance between the romance, Annie reconciling her past and her future and finding life after high school and college.
2. Things I Can’t Forget: Kate has always been a good girl. She follows the rules, she listens to the Bible, her relationship with God is important. But she’s not sure if God will still forgive her after she helps her friend get an abortion. I’m not particularly religious but I found it interesting to join Kate in this summer journey as she reconciles her beliefs with those that aren’t the Bible-thumping good Christians she’s used to. Really, life is confusing. She’s following the Bible because the rules make sense to her but she’s accused of being judgemental. She likes Matt but he’s had premartial sex and is in a frat and gives her these urges but he’s also sweet, caring and good. So this was a very good book delicately exploring both sides of Christianity, the judgementalness and the comfort it brings, and learning life and tolerance aren’t always an easy road but worth the ride.
3. Defending Taylor: Taylor is the Senator’s perfect daughter in a perfect family on the road to soccer captain, straight A student and Yale candidate. Until she got kicked out of St. Andrews Prep for drugs. She was covering for her boyfriend but soon those lies blow up her life and she can’t ever reclaim it. Taylor was a sweet girl and I felt for her situation as you can understand how she feels like she’s stuck between a rock and a hard place but also hurt that no one is on her side. Everyone is holding this one mistake against her yet none lend a hand when she was going through sleepless nights to meet the pressure. I enjoyed the playful romance between her and Ezra (brother’s best friend trope for those who love it) and her journey in finding what makes her happy instead of following the family expectations.
4. Stealing Parker: Parker’s life is a mess after her mother leaves the family for another woman. Their church practically shuns them but her Denial Dad still insists on going. Her brother is dosing himself with alcohol and weed, and in trying to prove she’s not a lesbian, she quits softball and makes out with any guy she meets. This was not an easy book as Parker makes a ton of bad choices especially in going after the softball coach (though she never quite reconciles that he took advantage of her) but I liked how Parker manages to truly live the way she wants and take her own words to heart that the opinions of close-minded people don’t matter. As well as extending that grace to her mother as she realizes her shunning her mother for ruining their life without considering how hard it was on her mom leads to a sweet reunion.
5. Coming Up for Air: Maggie’s life has been dedicated to swimming since middle school. Nothing should get in the way of it with pre-Olympic trials coming up. But after a hilariously awful hook-up attempt at college, she is struck with how much social life she’s missed out on. She wants to learn how to hook up and enlists her best friend to help. This one felt the most like a romance novel with girl asking guy for sex lessons only for them to have entangled feelings. But it felt more than that as well. Like I was truly on edge that maybe Maggie and Levi wouldn’t end up together. A big part of the book was realizing the timing is everything and everyone has different paces for those social milestones, no one is losing this invisible race even though it feels like it. It’s a big lesson for Maggie to learn just as she learns to put her rival out of her head and focus on doing the best she can. I’ll admit this one felt a bit of a rehash of the first novel with the best friend romance angle but as it’s the last novel I also saw it as a full circle moment.
6. Jesse’s Girl: This one also felt a bit like a romance novel with regular teen girl, Maya Henry, meets teen musician, Jesse Scott. She’s into eighties punk, he’s country star with five Grammys. Their music tastes clash at first but in one amazingly fun day, they find they can’t forget one another. But this one was a bit more realistic as several months and lots of fights pass before they officially commit to one another. It felt more like Maya’s story as she learns to take ownership of her voice and work to improve her technique and artistry and stop hiding behind a band to believe she can go solo.
7. Racing Savannah: This book was interesting as it really explores class differences in modern times. For Savannah, college has never been a consideration especially with a new baby on the way. When she starts working at the Goodwin stables, she’s a bit prejudiced with a “rich people suck” mindset and is determined not to fall for Jack Goodwin’s charms. But Jack is not as awful as she imagined. He’s flirty, believes in her horse skills that he suggests she become a jockey and maybe actually likes her for her. But he’s the son of the Goodwins. Tenneesee royalty and therein lies the difference. He doesn’t get the circumstances of her life so suggestions about college seem stupid when she cannot afford it and him hiding her is not something she’s going to tolerate. I enjoyed how Kenneally explores classism and the courage it takes to bucks the norms as Savannah and Jack fall in love.
8. Catching Jordan: I know as I go down it seems like there should be a reason these are lower but there’s nothing wrong with these last books. It’s just that they wouldn’t be the first ones I’d reread if I returned to the series. The writing and character development remains quite consistant over the series. This one was the first book in the series and is interesting in it’s own right as Jordan is a dynamo on the football field, aggressive, crass and tough as anyone but is unsure of how to feel when she falls in love with her quarterback rival and finds out her best friend may have feelings for her all along. I’ll admit this one feels the most predictable of the series from Jordan’s anti-girl sentiment at the beginning till she finds friends of her own, the love triangle and her trying to convince her father that she can stand the physical toughness of football. It was cool that it does briefly touch on the sexualisation of female athletes and how some colleges use them as fodder for charitable endevours rather than view them as atheletes on their own rights.