3.5 stars

Oh well, I made a mistake. I should have read this before I read the other books in the series. Not that you can't understand the things going on, or have to read the books in a certain order, but after the more complex, deeper and somewhat heavier other two books, this one left me a tiny bit disappointed.

Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad story. Like I said, just not as deep or complex as the others as far as the backround story goes.

On the one side we have Duncan. With parents who aren't really interested in him, but love his sexual orientation, his friends and team mates in his LGBTQ soccer team are way more important to him. He cares for them, cares about them and he lifes and suffers with them. After betrayal and humiliation, Duncan has some issues of his own, in addition to some problems with the team. One of them is definitely his lack of... I don't even know what to call it. Empathy? Maybe, but not really, because he is not a cold-hearted bastard. He just doesn't put himself in somebody else's shoes first before he speaks - or looses his temper for that matter.

And then there is Brodie. Growing up surrounded by homophobia, without an undertsanding or supporting famliy, he looses much of himself and his self-confidence because of bullies and his ex-boyfriend.

Put these two together and you get one explosive mix.

I enjoyed it quite a bit, but I didn't fall in love with the characters as I did in the other two books. So a solid 3.5 stars, rounded up to four because, you know, soccer. We loooove soccer. I recommend it for basically everyone. The bits and pieces of Scottish are well explained and shouldn't be problem for readers. And other topics, like soccer or politics, aren't really touched that much. It's easy, it's light - if not really angst-free - and I'd think everyone who liked two boys with some issues falling in love is perfectly fine right here.