Playing For Keeps

Title: Playing for Keeps

Author: Jennifer Dugan

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Category: 2024 Release (April 29, 2024)

Summary: Ivy has recently been offered a position that will help her towards her dreams of officiating professionally. She believes that with this new position, she has put her issues and her parent's doubt behind her until Ivy meets June, the beautiful star pitcher with a fiery temper on the team she is an umpire for. Fate seems to bring the two enemies together despite their wishes to stay apart, and they soon realize that they need each other more than they could have imagined. This is a heartbreaking and heartwarming story full of love, grief, friendship, and discovering who you are.  

Thoughts: I feel that this book was perfect for its target audience. It addressed concerns without being overbearing and I feel like it could help teenagers in many different situations feel seen. Both girls were going through different struggles and receiving different level of ignorance and support from their parents. As a teenager neglect is often justified because another part of your life is being focused on and I think that topic was done very well in this book. We were able to see how the girls navigated the neglect they were feeling while also justifying the behavior of their parents because of the love they were receiving for others things. I loved that they stood up for themselves in the end and that they had loving and supportive parents who wanted to change the way they were doing things to make sure their children were happy. I thought the aspect of young/first love was done so well. The fact that Ivy saw June in a way that nobody else ever had was beautiful. This book does YA well because it connects to people in that age group without treating them like children. Although I am not the target audience for this book I really enjoyed reading it and felt that the high school version of myself was seen in a way she hadn't been before.