This book was definitely outside the box of what I normally read. But sometimes it’s good to get up and stretch your legs.
Title: A Game Like Ours
Series: Suncastle College #1
Author: Marissa J. Gramoll
Publisher: Self Published
Release Date: March 30, 2021
Heat Level: 4/5
Pairing: M/F
Length: 422 pages
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Tags: Bisexual, Pansexual, Baseball, College, Eating Disorders, Mental Health, Family Drama, Religion, Homophobia, Biphobia
Content Warnings: Death of a Secondary Character, Bulimia-Anorexia, Explicit Depictions of Sex
Blurb:
To the outside world, Bobby Anderson is an attractive, charismatic baseball star.
But inside, Bobby holds secrets—including his closeted sexuality—and each secret alone has the power to destroy his carefully-constructed life.
When his best friend Cody dies, Bobby is thrown into the unwitting role of supporter for Cody’s grieving fiancée, Lexie. The issue? Bobby has long-harbored feelings for her that he never allowed to surface.
Torn between his growing attraction for Lexie and devotion to his deceased friend, Bobby is forced to re-examine his life and concern about divulging his sexual identity. Another secret spoken by Cody during his final moments eats away at Bobby’s conscience, driving the wedge of Cody’s death deeper.
Once these secrets come to light, will Lexie ever be able to forgive them? Can she accept Bobby for who he is? Will she ever want anything to do with him again?
My Review:
The bases are loaded, we’re at the bottom of the ninth, and we’re two strikes in on the last batter. (Did I get that right?)
Please don’t make me ever write another sports analogy again – but, hopefully that conveys how this book was for me: loaded.
In other words – there is a lot to unpack from A Game Like Ours. I’ll start off by saying that after the first third of the book, I wasn’t sure this was a story for me. It’s so outside the realm of what I normally like to read, and then after I found my stride, I was invested, and needed to see how the tale ended.
First of all, sports in not my thing. Like, at all. And this book completely revolves around collegiate baseball. It’s the driving force behind the story. Secondly, this is very much a contemporary romance, and at times I found the themes daunting, heavy, pervasive, and difficult to get through…I like my Urban Fantasy books where I find the stories are generally more accessible. But like I said at the beginning of this review – getting out of your comfort zone and reading different things is good for the ole brain. Pushing yourself into uncomfortable or uncharted waters means you’re learning new things, or looking at life in a different way.
Our main character is Bobby. Bobby is bisexual, although from what I read in the book, I would have probably placed him as pansexual – but hey – how someone identifies is their choice, not mine – so let’s leave it at bisexual. But I will say this – Gramoll has done an OUTSTANDING job in depicting a character who is sexually attracted to different genders, but the current love interest would suggest he was straight. This comes up in the book, and I give Gramoll all the credit for ensuring there is no bi-erasure. Top notch job!
The secondary issue – and another dominant theme in the story is bulimia. Bobby has an eating disorder, and it ends up affecting everything in his life. Again, Gramoll did a stunning job in showing us what it’s like for the character – the need to purge – the fight to not purge – what triggers Bobby to want to purge, and then of course, the ramifications of his eating disorder on his emotional and physical well being. This was an interesting aspect of the book. It’s far more common to associate eating disorders with women, than with men – although let’s not kid ourselves – men have just as many issues with body image, food, and public expectations on how we look- we just haven’t been talking about it. A Game Like Ours is bringing this issue to the forefront. Again, well done!
But as much as the story centers around baseball, Bobby’s sexual orientation and eating disorders, the whole reason this story is playing out is because of the recent death of Bobby’s best friend, and fellow baseball player, Cody. There’s another whole bucket of emotions to sort through here – from survivor’s guilt, to honoring a friend’s last wishes – to keeping secrets…and there are some big secrets.
Lexie is the love interest. The book bounces back and forth between Bobby and Lexie’s points of view, and Lexie has just as many issues she is trying to resolve. Lexie was engaged to Cody, and although they were going to be married, there were issues in their relationship that were heavy enough she now feels guilty for feeling ‘free’ where society tells her she should be grieving the loss of her fiancée.
Lexie has family drama. Can’t tell you what that is, as it’s a good plot twist and I don’t want to give it all away, but it adds to her own inner battles. Lexie is also set to graduate from Medical Sports Therapy – a profession that she enjoys, and makes her family happy, but is not her passion in life and not what she ultimately wants to do.
There are so many different pulls and twists that each person is struggling with, it often seems too much to grapple with. After all, a romance of any kind is supposed to transport me away and take me on a feel good ride, right?
Add in a smattering of socioeconomic disparity, religious upbringings, troubling relationships with parental figures, alcoholism and abuse, homophobia and we have a bases loaded scenario – where any one of these issues could be the tipping point for a character in other books, all of these come into play.
Gramoll uses the ‘torture your main characters’ quite literally, but through these compounded issues, we get to a chance to see how complicated the characters lives are, and I think that mimics our own situations. Life is always complicated and we’re never dealing with a single issue. Gramoll gives us a chance to wade through all the thoughts and emotions, and the inner thought processes we all go through on a daily basis.
It’s completely overwhelming.
It’s not pints of beer, hot dogs, and popcorn at a baseball game.
In fact, it’s not a game at all – it’s life. And life is complicated and messy.
In the end, things work out. Maybe not how you expect – but despite the turmoil and strife, we can be happy – we just have to work hard to get there.
The one thing I was truly disappointed with in this book was the fact that Baseball (as an entity for the entirety of the sports arena), got full points for dealing with, accepting, and getting Bobby assistance with his mental health and eating disorder – but remained silent on the sex and sexuality front. The fact that Bobby still couldn’t come out to his team, or the institution regarding his sexuality left me at odds. I really, really wish there had been a resolution on this front – and a happy one – one that showed how the sports world can be accepting of gender expression and sexual orientation, because that is a battlefront faced by many LGBTQIA+ folks who are involved in sports. We need good representation in literature on this front.
A Game Like Ours is a good reminder that life is hard, but it has its rewards. Get your cleats on for this book. You’re gonna wanna be able to dig in deep while running from base to base.
My Rating:
Purchase Links:
Meet the Author:
Lover of stories since before she could walk, Marissa has always had a passion for creating characters and worlds. Learning to read was a challenge, so she learned words by writing them–taking her notebook everywhere and asking total strangers how to spell. Since then, a laptop has replaced her trusty notebook and her stories have evolved into novels.
Marissa lives in Texas with her husband, two children and an endless collection of David Bowie hats. She enjoys reading in the sunshine, with a big bottle of chocolate milk and music playing in the background.
J.P. Jackson 
Reblogged this on MARISSA J. GRAMOLL and commented:
I am so thankful for this post!!