The Foxhole Court: Volume 1 (All for the Game) Paperback – 31 Mar. 2016

THE FOXHOLE COURT by Nora Sakavic is the first book in the All For The Game trilogy. It tells the story of Neil Josten the latest addition to the Palmetto State University Exy team. But Neil has secrets, chief of which is that he is the son of a crime lord known as The Butcher. Signing with the PSU Foxes puts his life in danger especially when playing with them means meeting a face from his past.I ended up reading this book in a matter of hours. It was that good! I started reading it before family came over, and I struggled to put it down. When I got back to it, I read it straight through to the end and it just blew me away. The story sucked me in. The characters were interesting, and believable. The plot was interesting and kept my attention. THE FOXHOLE COURT was everything I wanted from the first book in a series. Sakavic did a good job setting up the world and the characters; the premise of the book felt believable, and I think Sakavic did a brilliant job with Neil. I am planning on devouring the second and third books in this trilogy as quickly as I can get my hands on them!The main plot of the book focuses on the question of whether Neil will follow his dreams and play for the PSU Foxes, and if he does will his secrets be uncovered? Sakavic does a fantastic job at keeping the tension about possible discovery through the whole book; it’s what kept me turning the pages. I also really enjoyed the fact that Sakavic crossed the worlds of competitive sport and the mob, and all both worlds entail. I found the meshing of the worlds worked really well, and I thought the sport of Exy sounded interesting – it’s sort of a cross between ice hockey and lacrosse on a football pitch (though I’m don’t know if that’s American Football or football/soccer, and even if there’s a difference in pitch size). It’s super competitive both on and off the pitch.Neil Josten is the main character, and I thought he was an interesting choice. Going into THE FOXHOLE COURT you know he has secrets, and I think Sakavic plays with that aspect of his character well. I found it easy to trust him, and I thought his point of view was interesting. Sakavic does a brilliant job with his teammates, and they all feel real and believable. There’s also an interesting team dynamic, which makes for some pretty entertaining reading at times.Overall I think THE FOXHOLE COURT serves as a brilliant introduction to the All For The Game trilogy. Sakavic does a brilliant job of setting up the world and the characters, which I’m looking forward to seeing more of in future books. If you’re looking for a contemporary novel that doesn’t have a lot of romance in it, and you’re okay reading books that are sport based then you may want to consider picking this book up. I’m not sure if the little romance will hold up for future books in the trilogy, but for this book in particular there is very little of it at all. But having said that, as there’s a mob aspect to the book there’s also some references to pretty nasty violence – I cannot remember seeing any of it actually happen on page – and there’s also some substance abuse – some of which takes place without characters consent – so if that is not your thing then this may not be the book for you. Having said that, I don’t think any of the things I warned about are used gratuitously and I thought they added to the tension of the book.Review originally published on TheFlutterbyRoom.com

The Foxhole Court begins with Neil being given the opportunity to play the (fictional) sport of Exy for the Palmetto Foxes at Palmetto University. Think a cross of lacrosse and very violent hockey. The Foxes are a team of talented misfits on the verge of dropping out of their league. I use the word team loosely, as the Foxes are hardly what you would call a united group at the beginning. They all have a past, however, Neil has secrets of his own. He has been on the run from his crime boss father for years and has recently lost his mother. Where it gets interesting is that Neil recognizes one of the Foxes, former champion Kevin, from a time in his past, but does Kevin realise who Neil really is? For someone who's always been looking over his shoulder, the story sees Neil struggling with the choice of fight or flight, finding somewhere he could belong for the first time and something worth caring about. His arrival has an effect on all of the Foxes and the team. By the end of the book you'll be going straight on to book two, you only have to read reviews on Amazon to see I wasn't the only one that stayed up all night binge reading!At first, I wondered where all of these characters were going to fit, and who was who, but their personalities come through and make it easy to distinguish. Each one is important to the development in one way or another. By the second book I cared about each one to some degree. Whilst the writing in this isn't completely polished, what the author has achieved in making me feel made up for it.I will say it right here, I'm not a sports fan. You do not need to be to enjoy this story. If you are into sports however, you are going to be interested in the team dynamic and the match scenes. The Exy match scenes held my interest, and I liked how not every match was written about in great detail, just the important ones. These action scenes were done in a way that made me feel like I was watching from the side, and as it's a fictional sport, it didn't matter that I don't understand every sports term. Team spirit is catching.What I liked most was how the reader was drip-fed information about the different characters pasts throughout the book. It keeps you reading as you are intrigued to find out what's going on and why they are behaving the way they do, in particular with Neil. It's written in a way where you're not confused with what's going on, but you are still sort of in the dark about some motives and needing to know more.I also loved the characters, and what kept me reading was trying to find out if any of them had any redeemable qualities. Stick with me here; the Foxes are a messed up bunch, and from the start do not seem the nicest of folks, but as the book goes on, they seem more human. As they grow on Neil, they grow on the reader.I would recommend this book to those who like character driven novels, who enjoy a cat-and-mouse mystery and secrets, and to those who like finding out what makes people tick. This book is raw. It's not sunshine and rainbows. This is not for those that can't handle troubled and at times unlikeable characters. This story isn't for those that are overly critical of plot points, the plot with Neil's family back story can seem far-fetched at first, but if you were to continue with the series you would see how it falls into place.The first in the series is currently free on Amazon, and the others are low priced. They are not particularly long books either, so with that I think you should all take a chance on the Foxes.

I loved the concept and it was very good and fun read over all. I found it was nice to ǰust sit down and read it