The Foxhole Court

Neil has just been recruited to a university Exy team... a life-long dream. Except that he's also been on the run from murderous criminal, so his dream has been an impossible one. If he stays in one place too long, he's dead, and playing on a top Exy team will mean he'd be dead sooner than later. But he's tired of running, and the Coach and top player who want him won't take no for an answer. This is a non-magical, but alternate world, as Exy is a highly popular game that doesn't exist in our world. But it's an exciting mix of lacrosse and hockey and hold attention even for a non-sports type like me. There is a lot of implied abuse, murder and violence. The Coach is known to recruit team-members who have had difficult lives, and Neil is a prime example... he's scarred and has witnessed murder and violence and his mother's death. Plus, hey, it's not like team sports aren't contact-free, no matter if there are penalties!-- but beyond that, the top team is positively psychotic and they are out to get Neil's team, as if he doesn't have enough problems. And the criminal organizations are about as ultra-violent as possible. Even Neil's own team members are known as psychotic and violent. A lot of the violence is implied and off-stage. That which is on-stage is enough, however. So this is a pretty dark story... BUT, beyond that, there are fascinating characters and situations and it's hard to not want to read along, even when darkness and violence isn't really what I want in a story. There is an almost fairy-tale feel to the evil. I mean, it's as bad as it can get... but then so are witches who eat children who get thrown into their own ovens, if you can see what I mean. It's nearly over-the-top, but the author manages to make it work. There are, of course, good parts, and those are fairy-tale in a way, too. I mean, Neil is living his dream even while he's living his nightmare... There are such highs and lows that it's all given a sense of wonder. It's hard to explain... but there's really something here. You root for Neil and his team (dysfunctional as they all are), and want those wins as long as the near hopelessly impossible happy ending. There are three books in this story and they end at good places but are definitely a continuous story. I nearly wanted to quit a time or two, but it was worth it to carry on. Definitely not for the faint of heart, however. There are some same-sex relations, but pretty much no romance/sex until the last book. The story is mainly a very dark YA sports fairy-tale that is probably more for mature adults, although the YAs tend to go for dark... and as I said, it's not like fairy tales aren't free from very dark themes, and those are told to kids! If you are curious, definitely try it! As I said, I'm not a YA or into sports or into dark tales or violence or extreme situations... These are very unique books... the author is definitely following a passion and that comes through. Very quirky and different, but basically compelling story-telling that is worth reading.

I really enjoyed this book. I'm a sucker for martyrs. Neil feels trapped and out of control, without a reason to live, but willing to seize an opportunity to be happy for a moment despite being certain it will become lethal. The writing is lyrical and descriptive. I think that the author made interesting characters and gave them fascinating tics. Neil is occasional too sharp/insightful to be believable and the criminal stuff tends to be ridiculous, but it's nothing a little suspension of belief can't handle. I have the eBooks, the audiobooks, and the paperbacks. Safe to say I'm a fan.

REVIEW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED AT DEAR AUTHOR Neil Josten is the newest addition to the Palmetto State University Exy team. He’s short, he’s fast, he’s got a ton of potential—and he’s the runaway son of the murderous crime lord known as The Butcher. Signing a contract with the PSU Foxes is the last thing a guy like Neil should do. The team is high profile and he doesn’t need sports crews broadcasting pictures of his face around the nation. His lies will hold up only so long under this kind of scrutiny and the truth will get him killed. But Neil’s not the only one with secrets on the team. One of Neil’s new teammates is a friend from his old life, and Neil can’t walk away from him a second time. Neil has survived the last eight years by running. Maybe he’s finally found someone and something worth fighting for. Dear Nora Sakavic, I bought (that is, I downloaded since the book is free on Amazon) your book several months ago on the strength of a great review by someone whose tastes are quite close to mine. However, the book has been sitting in my TBR mountain until recently, when a friend whose tastes coincide with mine about 95 percent of the time highly recommended it. Of course whatever she recommends I have to read. I loved your voice very much. I have not read a book for a while where I simply fell in love with the raw energy of the writing; it almost literally swept me away. This is also a most unusual book – which is both a good and a bad thing as far as I am concerned. First and foremost this is not a romance or a love story – *at all*. I have heard that the writer has promised some romance in the last book of the trilogy, but I have not read that comment myself, so I cannot guarantee anything. Right now this is a book about a teenager on the run who loves a particular sports game and who gets drafted to play for the most unusual University team in this most unusual game. When we learn that Neil is running from his father who is a mafia Boss (Don, whatever you want to call him), I understood that this book would have a lot of violence. After I read it I think that while the book is bursting with hints of future violence and we learn about some past violent things which took place in the narrator’s (and some of his teammates’) pasts, there is no graphic violence happening in this book. The interactions between Foxes definitely had violent undercurrents, but for me it did not go over a line that would disturb me. I have heard that the second book “Ravens king,” which is already out, does have a lot of on-page violence though. What I loved the most in this book are the characters. Neil is someone who lived through the violence his father unleashed on him and people around him, so his everyday concern is to survive, run, and never stop in order to survive. Neil is not your typical angsty teenager. He is sarcastic and angry with good reason, but in fact while I can definitely call him a tortured character, there is very little angst in this book. There is a lot of anger, but not angst. “He glanced up at the sky, but the stars were washed out behind the glare of the stadium lights. He wondered – not for the first time – if his mother was looking down at him. He hoped not. She’d beat him to hell and back if she saw him sitting around mopping like that”. The only problem is Neil still loves one thing in his life – Exy. Exy is a fictional game that is very popular in this world and to be honest, because it is taking place in a world equivalent to ours I could not fully accept it as fictional. The author’s brief explanation of Exy as a mixture of several games known to us also did not help me to see this game as something completely abstract, which was both a good and a bad thing. “Exy was a bastard sport, an evolved sort of lacrosse on a soccer-sized court with the violence of ice hockey, and Neil loved every part of it from its speed to its aggression. It was the one piece of his childhood he’d never been able to give up”. Neil lets himself be convinced to sign up with the Foxes and play for a while until his past catches up with him. The problem is that this happens faster than he expected. One of his teammates was somebody Neil knew from his violent past and he appears to have so many issues on his plate that he just does not recognize Neil from several years ago. The Foxes turned out to be a strange team – their coach basically formed a team of second chances, team of misfits, who almost all of them had different kind of problems. A lot of this book is devoted to this sport and how much these men and few women love Exy (almost all of them anyway), but also the violent dispositions of many characters bring very interesting tensions in their everyday communications even when they were not on the training field. Remember when I said that it was a good and bad thing that Exy felt to me just as another game from our world – it has college tournament, it has governing body, etc? Well, one of Foxes has to take antipsychotic medications on the regular basis as a part of the plea bargain he struck after doing something bad. He is allowed to play by Exy’s governing body and I could not completely suspend disbelief about that. I also could not completely suspend disbelief about a coach striking a private agreement with this boy and allowing him to get off his medications when he is playing. It kind of felt too real world for me and meds making him feel worse than he felt without them? He was described as feeling high while *on the medications* and experiencing the symptoms of withdrawal without them. What? Change the medication people. Neil’s conflict between wanting to run and wanting to stay is one of the main themes in the book, along with his process of building some kind of communication with his teammates. The guys were all very interesting; especially Andrew and Kevin, and I can safely call these two tortured characters as well. I was also trying to guess who will be romantic couple in the book (if any), but I keep going back and forth between several possibilities. There are couple other things I was really having trouble suspending disbelief about when I was reading this book (I did not get it for review initially so I read several other reviews and there is a review on Goodreads which is called “A Book of No” by Julio, which described those issues really well), but the sheer drive of the story and characters made me enjoy it despite that. The ending was not an ending of a separate book and I heard it is worse in the book two. Apparently it feels more like one novel split in three parts rather than a trilogy. I am not starting book two till book three is out. 3.5 stars

You won’t be disappointed. I’ve yet to find another series that makes me feel the same way AFTG made me feel. This series is next level amazing. You’ll fall in love with the characters and it’s so well written.. I can’t explain how great this book and the others are… READ IT

If you enjoy character-driven stories with grit, emotional depth and morally complex characters, then this book is a must-read! The tension, suspense, and occasional quiet moments of camaraderie make the book more than just a regular story in my opinion. It's about survival, loyalty and finding a place to belong. What stands out the most to me is Neil's character development (as well as the character development of other characters), Neil goes from this guarded, wary outsider to someone slowly learning to trust throughout the series and I love it. 10/10, will definitely re-read it in the future.

Lo leí digital. No tenía muchas expectativas ya que los libros de deportes no me llaman la atención, y fue una sorpresa porque me gustó mucho! Es un libro que te engancha por completo. Y a pesar de que el deporte juega un papel muy importante aquí, ciertamente los personajes son los que te hacen no despegarte del libro. No se trata solo de jugar, se trata de toda la mafia que hay detrás. Quiero leer los otros dos libro y esta vez los quiero físicos, lástima que Amazon no los tiene disponible en Amazon México

Wow this book is so absorbing!!! It's so good that I wanted to ignore everything else to keep reading. XD Damn, Andrew is such a fascinating character. I grew to like him near the end. Kevin is...I still dislike him, but I sympathize with him. Neil is a sympathetic character too, but like with Andrew, I took quite a while to warm up to him. I felt fine towards Matt, but didn't feel very strongly about him. As for Allison, Seth, Renee, Abby, David, Aaron, Nicky, I have conflicted feelings towards them. The only person I can say that I like with no reservations, is their team captain, Dan (Danielle). She's so tough but also kind at the same time. 😁 The slow-burn romance is really getting me, in a good way. The suspense, tension, and uncertainty are wonderful! I like that the romance is not that obvious, either, especially as I found the blurb a bit misleading. But since most of the popular highlights on my Kindle were about a certain character, there's no doubt about who the love interest is anymore, haha. The popular highlights function was a fun extra dimension of experience to the book.

A rollercoaster ride to read this story!