Review: The Game

The Game by Anna Bloom
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Game falls into what I’ve come to refer to as my paradoxical reads. These are books that take topics I dislike in real life but positively adore in the bookish world. Reality television and the sporting world make up the bulk of these reads. This is particularly true when it comes to the sport of this book.

I really don’t like cricket. If I were to pick a sport, I’d take rugby any day. Cricket is right up there with golf on my list of sports I’m not interested in list. Nevertheless, as I’ve enjoyed quite a few baseball reads I decided I would give a cricket book a read. After all, it was only fair of me to read a book set in the sporting world on my side of the pond.

Not to mention, I’ve recently become a big fan of Anna Bloom. I love her Truth About Love stories, super excited for the next one, and I decided if anyone could make cricket interesting it would be Anna Bloom. After all, the synopsis alone was interesting – I was hopeful the rest of the book would grab my attention just as much.

It turns out that the book was even more than I’d anticipated. Whilst cricket is the backdrop to the story, you do not need to know or like the sport to enjoy this story. In many ways, you could substitute cricket to any sport – all that would change is the specific details of the sporting world. I’m oversimplifying to the extreme, I admit, but I’m merely trying to highlight how this isn’t a cricket book with romance rather it is a romance book with cricket.

As I’ve come to expect from Anna Bloom, this book was thoroughly addictive. From the very first page, you’re pulled into the story, addicted, unable to put it down. It was one of those wonderful stories that begged me to read it in a single sitting, despite how I didn’t start my reading until the early hours of the morning. Sleep took second place to finding out how this story played out. I needed answers. I needed to see how everything came together.

This book has so many elements – enemies to lovers, past ghosts, finding oneself, to name a few – and each element is woven together so beautifully. Everything links back to a gripping story, told through wonderful characters. If forced to choose what I loved more – the amazing storyline or the brilliant characters – I would be unable to do so, because this book hit all the spots. If I knew cricket lingo I would crack some kind of joke regarding it being a high scorer (I want to say it’s a sixer, but I fear I’m wrong here).

Honestly, this is a prime example of Anna Bloom’s work. It is wonderful, and I cannot wait to pick up even more of her work. I have a couple on my Kindle I have yet to read, but I know they won’t last me long – as soon as I’m done, I’ll be eagerly anticipating her next release. If you’ve yet to pick up an Anna Bloom book, I would certainly recommend this one.

Ever if, like me, you’re not a fan of cricket (or even sports), this book is wonderfully gripping and well worth the read.

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