Okay, not going to lie, I didn’t know about Pickleball as a sport until this book. And while I have watched tons of videos now, I’m not sure I entirely get it? To be fair, you don’t have to be a pro to enjoy Pickleballers, I just needed to utter this disclaimer! Keep reading this book review of Pickleballers for my full thoughts.
Summary
Meg Bloomberg is in a pickle. When Meg’s ex turns out to be a total dink, she and her bestie take off for a mood-lifting pickleball excursion to Bainbridge Island. It’s supposed to be an easy lob, a way to heal, not the opening serve to a new courtside romance that’s doomed to spin out.
No matter how Meg tries, she can’t shake her feelings for Ethan Fine. A charismatic environmental consultant and Bainbridge local, Ethan seems like the real dill. But when Meg discovers that Ethan is sabotaging her home court, she decides the match is over.
It’s time for Meg to take control of her own game. And maybe, just maybe…love will bounce back.
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
Pickleballers is a book that was a bit confusing to me. Just when I thought we were getting into the romance, meet cute mood, all of a sudden the flame seemed to be doused, not to be picked up for a while. It just meant that in the first few chapters, I thought we were getting a different book than I thought. It then becomes a story about Pickleball and saving the court. Here I ended up unexpectedly enjoying the story about the Pickleball players, but in general, I had a hard time sinking my teeth into Pickleballers.
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For me, I needed a bit more character introspection, or earlier at least, for me to connect to Meg. I’m someone who needs a lot of introspection to really figure out a character. I’ve been having this issue with a few books which jump into the action, jump into decisions, a bit too quickly for my personal taste. I need to figure out the whys of what they’re doing. And while I kept reading Pickleballers, I felt the distance only grew. I wanted to really enjoy Pickleballers because I like this idea of a sports romance with seemingly nemesis – and we love a good sports team dynamic – but unfortunately I just couldn’t get a handle on anyone.
All in all, Pickleballers is, if I’m not mistaken, one of the first larger Pickleball book and I can see avid players enjoying the spotlight. For me, it was an okay read, but I didn’t have either a connection to the sport or the characters. If you love the sport though, maybe it’ll give you a headstart! Find Pickleballers on Goodreads, Storygraph, Amazon, Bookshop.org, Blackwells, & Libro. fm.