Originally, I picked up this book because of the summary and cover, and I have to say, it was enjoyable! The three main characters, Alice, Violetta, and Leylah, were complex, with their own share of struggles and flaws. Throughout this story, they learned more about themselves and began to understand what type of people they wanted to be. I really appreciated how this book touched on things like addiction to weed and inappropriate relationships between teenagers and adults, topics that aren’t often discussed. While I enjoyed this book, there were a few elements I disliked! There wasn’t as much tennis as I expected and the writing felt a bit juvenile. Other than that, I enjoyed my time reading ‘The Misdirection of Fault Lines’.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and the author, Anna Gracia, for providing me with an e-arc of this book!!

♟️Rating:2/5⭐
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Thank you Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review!

This is one of the books where it wasn’t entirely good or bad but somehow just boring. When I first picked this book up, I was expecting something akin to Haikyuu but a tennis version. I thought I would be able to read through exciting tennis matches coupled with friendship and magic vibes and I was all for it. However, I was devastatingly mistaken when I realised that there weren’t a lot of tennis scenes in it which would make the book far more interesting.

The writing style was pretty mediocre and there was a lot of telling instead of showing. There were lots of instances where the sentences were “I (action)” or “I feel (emotion)”. This kind of made it frustrating for me as a reader since the sentences seem increasingly repetitive. Not a good start to maintain my attention span. On top of that, the writing just doesn’t seem memorable enough. Also, there were some typos here and there but I hope they will get fixed before this book is published.

Moving on to the characters, oh where do I even begin? The characters felt so artificial and more of like a parody of actual teenagers (imagine teenage characters on Disney shows). Even though the writer did attempt to not make the characters a full on 100% optimist, I can’t help but feel that there was something uncanny about the characters. There’s just something off about the way the characters speak which makes me cringe sometimes. For example, Leylah’s point system and the petty bicker between Violetta and Leylah. Plus, Alice being reckless was just so out of character. Like, you don’t need to do all of these dangerous stuff to be cool for once and destress. Then again, I’m not sure how teenagers in the states speak but I’m 100% sure that teenagers are capable of speaking in proper sentences without using slang.

The character development was heavily rushed towards the end and the romance plot in Leylah’s story was sort of left abandoned at the end. Also, I feel that the author was trying to bring up the issue of racism in this novel but the person who repeatedly made racist comments seemed to make no impact on the characters themselves. In my opinion, us readers were unable to empathise with these characters because of how those comments were just easily swept to the side. I think this was due to how the characters are mainly made up of Asians descent which made it hard to compare between the main characters and characters who are more privileged. I feel like this book can try to have more nuances by actually showing how white people can have more opportunities on court and rob the chances of those who actually deserved it. The cheating scandal was a decent attempt but these incidents could be more impactful if the controversy was dragged out.(like how the Asians characters had to struggle in order to get the justice they deserve)

Overall, this was a pretty mediocre book that was a pretty meh experience for me. I wouldn’t really recommend this book due to how it lazily tried to address racism and age gap relationship issues (This was so uncalled for and it was written in a very iffy manner).

a really beautiful self discovering and journey of three young girls figuring out their place in the world and in the tennis world. i think this book did an amazing job shedding light on parents death, eating disorders in sport, and inappropriate relationships between coaches and athletes. these are issues we are always hearing about in a daily basis and i think it was so important to include them. i do wish this book was marketed differently. it was said to be "the sisterhood of the traveling pants" vibes, and it was not. i went in expecting certain vibes and was met with the opposite. i think it would've been more fascinating if we got to see more of the tennis aspect. overall this was a cute book (:

thank you netgalley for the arc <3

✰ 3.5 stars! ✰
I liked the three different POVs we got, especially since they each had a distinct voice. The book tackled important topics such as pressures (from self and family), losing a parent, coping mechanisms, and self-discovery, which many teens will probably be able to relate to in some way.
I think I would have enjoyed the book even more if some things like the coach issue were handled a bit better (it felt a little rushed). I also would have loved for there to be more tennis.
Overall, I found the book to be an easy read that kept me interested!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Three teens at crossroads is a really cool idea, but I felt the sport aspect was a lot less emphasized than I would have thought or hoped for. I also found some of the problems very hastily handled. Still it was a decent and charming little read. 3.5 ish, maybe 4. Thanks for the arc

What drew me to this book was explaining it was Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants meets the French Open, and as an honest reviewer, I have to say that isn't what this is. That isn't a critique, rather it's a reality of the story. What this is really about is three young women figuring who have athlete (tennis, specifically) as part of their identity. They're each at crossroads for different reasons trying to figure out if that's what they really want. And that's a big question! Through alternating narrations, this struggle is told through each of their eyes. I will say I wish this did have a bit more tennis. Another reason I picked this up was because I haven't read much about this sport. But it was an interesting look into the world of three young women trying to figure it all out - Then again, isn't that what we're ALL out here trying to do? Thanks to NetGalley for the early look at this April 2024 release!