Kirkus Reviews

A refreshing, queer coming-of-age story.Valentina Castillo-Green is captain of her soccer team, and even with her two best friends playing by her side, she still allows herself, as usual, precisely seven seconds to panic before the last and biggest game of the season. Not only is Vale's intensely competitive father closely watching, they're playing against undefeated Hillcrest, the team Leticia Ortiz, her childhood nemesis, is on. The game goes poorly, in large part because of Vale's impulsively angry interactions with Leticia. More bad news follows-coach tells Vale she won't be captain the following year, putting her chances of a college soccer scholarship at risk-so her besties propose a fun alternative for the summer. The three of them return to the soccer camp in Santa Cruz that they used to attend together. It starts out well with some happy reunions, but things quickly go south because not only is Leticia there, she's assigned to co-captain a team with Vale, one that could salvage her college dreams. But in spending more time together, the girls develop feelings for one another. Colombian and Irish American Vale is easy to root for. She sounds authentically her age as she wrestles with believable problems and complaints, engages in self-reflection, and confronts her changing feelings for Letitia. The lively banter and fun cast of broadly diverse characters support a story in which soccer forms the backdrop of a sweet romance and a teen figures out what's truly important to her.Uplifting. (Fiction. 13-18)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Biracial (Colombian and white) 17-year-old Valentina “Vale” Castillo-Green—who describes her sexuality as “almost universally apathetic”—lives and breathes soccer. But following an angry outburst at her rival, Latina lesbian Leticia Ortiz, during a match, Vale is stripped of her captainship. She believes that her dreams of earning a college scholarship and escaping her emotionally abusive father are now forfeit. Her friends persuade her to attend a summer soccer camp intending to play a few games for fun, only for the camp administrators to reveal they’ve invited college scouts to the final match. Vale is certain this is her chance at regaining her lost dreams, but it turns out that Leticia’s at the camp, too, and they’ve been assigned as co-captains. To make it to the final game, Vale needs to train their inexperienced team into fighting shape and figure out how to get along with Leticia, who might not be as terrible as Vale had assumed. Via Vale’s witty and acerbic first-person narration and her palpable passion for soccer, Marie (Ophelia After All) delivers a textured sapphic romp that spins an earned enemies–to–lovers romance amid empathetic depictions of one teenager coming to terms with the effects of her treatment of others, as well as her treatment of herself. Ages 14–up. Agent: Thao Le, Sandra Dijkstra Literary. (May)

School Library Journal (Sun Oct 01 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Gr 8 Up —After her mother's death, Valentina Castillo-Green threw herself into soccer—the sport her mother played as a young girl and that her father pushes Valentina to excel at. Now, four years later, 17-year-old Valentina has lost an important game and the captaincy of her school's varsity soccer team. Her chance of obtaining offers from colleges decreases as her father's disappointment increases. When her best friends Dina and Ovie suggest returning for one last summer to the camp they went to as children, Valentina ultimately agrees. When she arrives, not only is she surprised to find out that the soccer teams at the camp are serious and lead to major school offers, but she also learns that she must co-captain a team with her biggest rival, Leticia Ortiz. What starts off as an uncertain summer co-captaining a struggling team turns into a life-changing experience where Vale finds new friendships and realizations that bring her closer to her brothers, helping her realize she doesn't have to treat others like her father treats her. Along the way, Vale experiences love with the one girl she always thought would be her rival. This realistic fiction novel will have readers turning the pages, experiencing the flurry of emotions Vale does—from uncertainty, to painful confrontations, to hope and happiness. Vale is Colombian on her mother's side and Irish-American on her father's, and identifies as queer. VERDICT A fast-paced novel with a unique protagonist who discovers first love, truths about herself, and takes back the love for soccer she had left behind.—Selenia Paz