I loved Grace and getting to see her rediscover her love of football while also becoming more and more herself! I think the question of “what are you willing to sacrifice for the thing you love and do they align with the things we have to sacrifice to survive?” is such an important question for everyone and is even more relevant for trans people. I am a cis person so I cannot speak for the trans community but I think this was such a great portrayal of a trans teen that’s trying to decide what they want out of the world! I hope this is a book that helps a lot of trans teens that need to see that it’s okay to choose yourself and be happy ♥️ I loved Grace’s friend group, they were all so supportive and it was nice to see that support for her! And while I’m not a football fan, I did love how gritty and real the actual football aspects, from practices to games and even to the football parties, were! Just overall, a great book that I hope people are able to get a lot from!

Rating for YA. Narrator was believable as main character. No voices for different characters that I remember, but was still pretty easy to follow conversations.

Not being LGBTQ+ I have a limited perspective — the author did a good job getting into the minds of teens, and what I imagine a trans teen would think, feel, experience. All well as her friends (btw, very impressed with open mindedness of teens today). Yes, there’s teen angst, but it’s about teens & just the right amount.

On a personal note, really enjoyed all the football talk (& feelings ball) & was so excited to root for a girl football player! I wanted to play growing up & girls weren’t allowed. Yay Grace!

Thank you to NetGalley & RBmedia Recorded Books for a free ARC of the audiobook.

This book made me feel so many things. I thought it was really interesting seeing the ups and downs on the journey that Grace went through rejoining football as a trans girl. The negative people really made me mad but that was way over shadowed by the love and positivity.

Charming from the get-go. The incomparable Jen Richards is a great narrator, who conveys character without making it overly dramatic or theatrical. I really enjoyed her narration.
As always, the amount of introductions of fellow students and athletes at the beginning of the book don’t translate well into audiobooks, but I’ve learnt to trust that, if there’s someone I’m supposed to memorize, it’s because they’ll come up again and won’t get lost in the name-dropping shuffle. Still, the beginning does feel a little crowded, y’know?
As a European who knows zilch about football, the descriptions went completely over my head. I caught myself zoning out a bunch. That’s totally on me. It’s a book about a football player. I should’ve expected we might get into the nitty-gritty of it all. Just be warned 😉 there are a ton of play-by-play descriptions. I’m sure they’re great! They just don’t make sense to me.
I didn’t love the second-person (ie. “You walk down the road”) sections until I realized they were a way to frame flashbacks to Grace’s perspective pre-transition. Then it felt tender somehow.
I so appreciate her stance on self-acceptance, how she’s like “yeah, being cis would be easier, but I’m not” and not in a self-pitying way but rather a realistic “I’m working with what I got” way. Of course there are moments where she really struggles and has to put up with A LOT, but I think it’s adding an important perspective to the canon, acknowledging the hard parts but also showing a path through that says I’m not cis, I’m visibly trans, and it’s not the end of the world. She’s a practical person and I enjoyed her journey.
The conflicts felt super realistic and befitting YA. I found the different friend group / team dynamics nuanced and well done.
Grace is absolutely a character to root for. I hope you will too!

Thank you to NetGalley and RBmedia for the audiobook ARC in exchange for an honest review.

🏈 🏆

As someone who has zero understanding of or interest in football, I really enjoyed this! Grace is a brave, badass woman who’s decided to rejoin her high school football team shortly after coming out as trans. Though she faces misogyny and transphobia coming from some of her teammates, her incredible support system of friends is there to back her up and help call out the bigots’ behavior. Grace’s friends are a mixed bag of fellow athletes, theater kids, and queer people, each of whom faced their own unique obstacles throughout the book including coming out, sports injuries, teen parenthood, etc. (I would love to see some of their stories fleshed out even more in the future) Seeing them all come together and rally for Grace to be able to play at the end made me so emotional 🥲 Go sportsball!!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!! 🫶🏼

A TRANS Teens & YA- Written by a TRANS author, Narrated by a TRANS narrator, & read/reviewed by a TRANS reader 🏳️‍⚧️🤍 Such a full circle moment.

Where do I begin… This was literally everything? Like as a Trans Woman, I just related so much. I rarely read books where the MC is FTM, so I was hooked right away, especially ‘cause it was so well done & absolutely relatable- Although, do I know a lick about football? No, but I was in Grace’s shoes. I wanted this win so bad lmfao. And that’s why I feel representation is so important… To be able to see yourself through another’s eyes & another’s story.

This brought me back to when I first transitioned though lol (I didn’t know anyone in the community). So it was a journey navigating everything, but just seeing how supportive most of the characters were in this book was so wholesome like 🥹🤍 I really loved that for Grace. This whole book really just showed that each journey is your own. It doesn’t belong to anyone else & I love that for the coming of age readers or even the readers of age who didn’t have that opportunity or support!! It was a truly just feel good story, minus the phobias- But that’s LIFE. I love how they highlighted certain topics as well, this fr touched so many bases. Even as an ally, you get a look into our minds. Not that all of us are the same, but w share so many similarities in our stories 🤍
Overall, this was everything & more. I’m so appreciative that I was able to listen to this story & through Jen Richard’s AMAZING narration, blessed. Even if you don’t relate, the BANTER had me floored. I had such a phenomenal time lol!!

This book is beautifully written and amazing depicts an underrepresented story. I loved the characters, they felt real and their journey felt so natural I feel lucky to have read this book and will definitely be looking for more by this author.

The narration added perfectly to the story and had me immersed from the beginning.

Thank you Netgalley and RBmedia | Recorded Books fir the free alc. My opinions are being left voluntarily. This was absolutely delightful. I absolutely enjoyed the narration the story jt was just so so well done. I think these are important stories teens that are part of the LGBTQ community need to read and see. More kids need to see themselves in books and having access to them is key.

I will think about this book for a long time.

Suggest giving it a try