#individually wymack wouldn’t have recruited them

[purpleshadow-star]

Casual reminder that Wymack did NOT only recruit Aaron and Nicky because of Andrew. Wymack approached all three of them at the same time. He wanted the whole family set because he wanted a strong defense line.

Here is the link to the story from Nora's blog that this came from. I really recommend reading the whole thing!

[neil-jortson]

An AU in which Neil’s father did not go to jail while Neil was with the foxes:

This scene would take place in between the whole team coming in for Neil’s first year and before the Kathy Ferdinand show

Neil’s father is sent by the Moriyamas to basically passively threaten Kevin into returning home (by Nathan showing up it will basically tell Kevin that Nathan is waiting if you do not return to Evermore like we will send him after you)

Nathan is supposed to just come in and talk to Wymack about becoming a financial supporter of the foxes because his son (who has been missing for 10 years) loved exy

The foxes are all chilling in the lounge waiting for practice to start and wymack to say what the plan of the day is before they get changed out

They’re all talking when Nathan and Lola and Romero (because you know that man never travels alone) walk in to the lounge to ask where wymack is

Nathan bores his eyes in on Kevin and Kevin is terrified

Andrew is medicated and his judgement is cloudy and he also doesn’t know this man works for the moriyamas so he watches them but doesn’t see them as a threat

The foxes’ conversations halt for a second as they all look at the newcomers but after wymack invites them into his office and the door shuts they just shrug and keep talking (renee can tell they’re bad guys just by the general vibe but didn’t see any weapons so she’s on the alert but not making a scene about it)

Neil is frozen in his seat with every instinct begging to run but he doesn’t want to leave him team alone when they don’t know how dangerous that man is and what he could do to them

Renee notices Kevin’s heavy breathing first because that boy is about to have a panic attack

He knows Nathan is there for him and he thinks Nathan is going to try and take him from the foxhole back to evermore and that he will kill whoever tries to stand in his way

Renee asks Kevin if he’s alright and Kevin can only say “that.. that man ... he’s going to kill me”

Everyone’s like no he’s not Kevin wtf man come on he’s just here to talk to wymack but it does make Andrew more alert to the individuals in wymacks office

Neil just has these wide eyes staring at the ground as his body is trying to catch up with his mind and all he can think about is Run RUn RUN

No one seems to notice him just yet because Kevin is trying to tel them about the severity of the situation

He says that the only other time he’s met the man was when he took apart a body right in front of “me riko and Natha-“ and he cuts himself off

And everyone asks who he’s talking about and Kevin just responds with “his son, he and mother ran away ten years ago but we were always told he found them and killed them”

Kevin continued: “I’d believe it to because that kid had seen so much. He didn’t even move a muscle when his father made the first cut”

Everyone was trying to stay calm by then and Renee walked over to kindly ask Andrew for one of his knives if things were to go south

They didn’t want to strike if they didn’t have to because they might be wrong and Nathan just was here for business

When Nathan’s crew leave the office with David trailing them Nathan finally catches a look at Neil

It was Neil’s worst nightmare come to life

His father had found him

His father has seen him

Everything his mother did was for nothing

The others didn’t know what was so eye catching about Neil to Nathan until Nathan walked over

(We all know that Nathan definitely talked about “how much he loved his wife and child and how much he wants them to come home safe” so that explains the tone for what comes next)

Nathan walks over to Neil and places a hand on his shoulder looking down on him (attempting to find the iron mark on his arm with a little slight of hand movement)

The foxes are alarmed by having a murderer standing so close to their newest recruit and Kevin is starting to see the resemblance between the two and remembering things about Neil that just don’t quite add up (he’s not liking the conclusion that he’s drawing)

Nathan says to Neil “I’m sorry but you just, you look so much like what I think my son would look like now” with fake emotion seeping through

Lola and co. Catch on almost immediately and they’re eyes go wide for just a second.

Neil responds with his Arizona drawl “I’m sorry sir, I remind you of who?”

“My son, he went missing many years ago and you look just like him” he continues “if you wouldn’t mind could I take you on a drive because there’s just something I wanted my son to see and this might be the closest I can get”

Neil freezes up for just a moment but enough to where his father could feel it: “I don’t think that’s appropriate plus I have practice today so I can’t miss it”

Neil feels his father grip down harder on his shoulder and move it slightly downwards. He knows he’s running out of time until his father has all the information he would need to know it was his son in front of him.

By this time Kevin put all the pieces together and realized the danger Nathaniel was in. He made a sound and everyone looked at him. He panicked and said “we’re late starting practice!” And Nicky very forcibly laughed to try and break the tension

Wymack could sense something was off with his team because they were all on edge about the outsiders in the room. He knew he had to get the out of there, money be damned - his team came first.

“Alright sir I think it’s time for us to start practice and we can finish this discussion later”

Neil feels his father let go of his shoulder and begin to leave the room.

The entire team doesn’t breathe until they’ve left and then when it breaks they all start talking at once

Kevin only has eyes for Nathaniel and Neil can only stare at the ground

Neil’s breathing picks up and he can’t slow it down. He tries to stand up to run but he can’t get very far and falls to his hands and knees on the ground

Everyone’s asking if he’s okay and saying that he looks like he’s going to pass out

Kevin’s voice cuts through the noise: “how the hell did you survive? Where the hell is your mother? Why did you join a fucking exy team Nathaniel?”

Neil shoots back: “don’t call me that” through the panting

Kevin tells him you need to go because he knows where you are

Neil scoffs and says that he’s dead either way

Once Neil regained control of his breathing he looks at all of the foxes and says

“My name is Nathaniel Wesninski and that man was my father”

[aelysalthea]

The Secret Lives of Neil Josten

Chapter 4: Wymack’s Managerial Duties

The new Foxes were always a fuck-tonne of work to break in.

David remembered each and every Fox and their early days. Dan with her proud aggression, fierce and easily riled. Renee and her silent isolation, and Allison with her loudly petulant, overbearing attitude. Matt, when he'd been a shadow of the man he was now, and Nicky, who'd been a little better but only because he was so good at pretending. Aaron and Andrew, as opposite yet somehow alike as flint and fire, and how their own ferocity had been as explosive as Dan's. Kevin, as beaten, broken, yet desperately determined as he'd ever been.

And Neil. Neil, who had been a walking question mark from the very first step and who had remained that way ever since.

There were those before, too. Those who had been a Fox, briefly or for longer, before moving on. David remembered their faces, regarded their pictures on the wall that Dan had turned into a collage of memorabilia. He found himself staring at that wall often when he was alone, after practice and the departure of his Foxes. He stared and remembered the beginning of each and every one, and something in his chest never failed to tighten almost painfully when he considered how far each of them had come.

Unfortunately, the changes in his Class I champions weren't immediately transferred to the newest Foxes. Not their attitudes, their cohesiveness, or their fierce commitment to repeating their die-hard performance of the year before. A fuck-tonne of work? It would never not be when it came to the Palmetto State exy team. Not of David had his way.

Observing the smear of orange and white players on his court, David sighed. There was a clear division, as apparent in the arrangement of the Foxes where they stood at centre court. The handful of new recruits weren't diminutive in comparison to the long-standing team, didn't appear small and shunned, nervous and shamed. Rather, it was quite the opposite.

They were wolves. Cornered wolves ready to bite with sharp teeth at a moment's notice.

"Fucking kids," David muttered to himself as he watched and saw that, rather than return to practice after a brief pause, the tension quivered and erupted into verbal warfare. He closed his eyes, drew a heavy breath, then released it with a gush. Then, turning towards the door into the court, he strode quickly to the rescue. Of who, however, he wasn't yet sure.

At any other instance, David would have let Dan handle it. She was the captain, it was her right and duty, and she had proven herself more than capable time and again. David had never regretted his decision to plant her in the oversized seat of the leader of the Foxes, even in her first year when she'd frayed and nearly split at the seams. Dan was a fighter and clawed her way back from that edge with every ounce of her strength, and David had seen it in her the moment she'd stepped onto his team.

But it was early days, barely the first week of semester, and he didn't want to risk getting blood on his court. Not this early in the season. It would be a right mess to clean up, and he couldn't be fucked to deal with the paper work.

The clamouring of voices raised, shouts bouncing off the walls, assaulted him as soon as David stepped through the court door. It didn't dampen as he slammed it shut with a dull thud, nor when he trudged towards centre court, eyeing his players sceptically. Andrew was idling in the goals, and David exchanged a glance with him as he passed. There was lazy acknowledgement in the way he tipped his head, but David wasn't fooled. He knew how fast Andrew could move, and he would be across the court and swiping someone's head off of their shoulders in a heartbeat if he thought one of the new Foxes – or even one of the older ones – was overstepping the boundaries of his self-appointed coterie. It was another part of the reason David took the initiative to step in; Andrew hadn't had the time to feel out the recruits for himself just yet, which meant that if blood was to be spilled, it would most definitely be theirs.

At least, if Renee didn't step in first. Andrew was nonchalantly – or seemingly nonchalantly – regarding the scene playing half a court away from him, and from the opposite goals Renee was doing the same with the new goalie planted halfway between her and the rest of the players, practically twitching and clearly itched to jump into the midst of the argument. With any luck Renee might be able to reign her in, but David wouldn't bet upon it. Renee chose her battles carefully and often frugally.

A shout, louder than the preceding argument, dragged David's attention back to the cluster. Of the six new recruits, they were as much a motley crew as any six Foxes ever were. There was the quiet one, the one that skirted on the edges, the one who spoke too much and another who hissed and sparked like a spitfire with a single glance. One who actually seemed to have a grain of kindness and friendliness buried beneath their reservations that David thought would likely latch onto Renee if given the opening, too.

The one who was a real problem, however, was planted directly before Dan with his racket raised.

"This is bullshit," he said, the word a repeated shout. "I'm not going to listen to some fucked up ideas."

"You will," Dan replied sharply, "or you're getting off my court."

"Your court?" the girl behind the leading boy said, scoffing, but neither Dan nor the boy spared her a glance.

That boy – he could be a problem. Even more of a problem than Foxes usually were, and David had seen his fair share. Jack, a rolling ball of resentment and rage, stood nearly as tall as Matt and even broader across the shoulders. He dwarfed Dan, looming over her with his face twisted in a glare. Stopping a handful of feet away, David folded his arms as he eyed him. This time. Just this time he would step in. It would be - could be - necessary to avoid a hospitalisation so early in the year. Pre-season was definitely too early for an admission.

Besides, of all the people to knock senseless, David would put Dan towards the bottom of the barrel of those he'd most rather avoid. He didn't prioritise his Foxes in many areas, but this one was an exception.

"Your court?" Jack said, echoing the girl behind him as though he hadn't heard her. His own scoff was louder, almost a laugh. "You're pathetic, the lot of you. How you managed to make it so far last year is a miracle."

"A miracle that we won?" Nicky said from behind Dan, his racket draped across his shoulders and head tipped sideways as he glanced at his teammates around him. "That's some miracle, I tell you."

"Every game we won, huh?" Matt said. "Lady Luck must've been on our side."

"Or Lord Luck."

"I reckon she's a lady."

"You're biased."

"Luck is more a man's field anyway," Allison said offhandedly. "For once, I happen to agree with Nicky."

"Luck had nothing to do with it," Kevin interrupted, ignoring the thick sarcasm, or perhaps not even hearing it. He'd become particularly tunnel-visioned when it came to their success of late. "Everyone worked their arses off last year, and they're not perfect but you would see individual progress if you took the time to rewatch plays. If you didn't bother, that's just laziness on your part."

Jack, glancing away from Dan only at Kevin's words, flinched slightly. David knew that, regardless of his blatant disrespect for the Foxes, he admired Kevin and his ability just as the rest of them did. He'd seen the familiar gleam in Jack's eye the first time they'd met – resentment, deterrence, but also longing. If anything, however, Kevin's words only riled Jack up further.

"It doesn't matter if you've improved," he said. "It doesn't fucking matter that you won, or how many goals you scored."

"Even if that's the point of the game?" Aaron asked more mildly than David him usually capable of.

Jack ignored him. His racket jerked, swinging towards Dan and pointing dangerously closely to her face. David tensed but managed to restrain himself even if, as one, the Foxes took a step closer to her. Matt's expression turned stony, Allison's lip curled, and from the corner of his eye David saw Renee slip from the goals and closer to their group. He eyed them all, cast a glance to Andrew who hadn't moved an inch himself, then back to Dan. To Dan, and Neil standing silently at her side.

Which was surprising, David realised. Neil was rarely silent. David counted it as a blessing, even if he suspected it only meant Neil was winding up to explode.

"I'm not having anyone tell me what to do," Jack growled, long years of resentment backing his words and making them spoken by rote. The history of a Fox; David didn't even have to ask. "No one, you hear?"

"Then you won't play," Dan said. "Simple as that."

"You don't get to decide –"

"Actually, I do. That's the right of the captain."

"It's the fucking right of the coach –"

"The captain," Dan repeated with emphasis. "In this instance, it's the captain. And that means me. If you don't like it," Dan shrugged, "then get off my court."

Jack's lips peeled in a snarl. His racket jabbed closer to Dan's face and David could hear Matt's grumble from where he stood. "You can't tell me what to do. None of you, but especially you. You think you're above me? That you're better than me?"

"I didn't said that."

"You think you have the right to boss me around?"

"It's not bossing, it's instructing. And captaining."

"You," another jab of the racket, far too close, and this time David took a step forward himself, "don't deserve the respect of a dedicated team. Not any of them, or any other team you face off against."

Dan's eyes narrowed and steel welled forth. She understood, almost certainly, just as David did. Jack's attack wasn't for her but for something else. Something from the past and projecting onto Dan. Whether it was her specifically or someone that merely resembled her in some way wasn't apparent, but Jack had made a target of her.

"Fucking asshole," Allison muttered.

"If you're disrespecting our captain, you're disrespecting all of us," Nicky said, his smile vanished. Matt's grumble grew into a growl, barely heard but pervasive and underlying Nicky's words emphatically.

"Dan has earned her place," Renee said, appearing silently alongside Matt and placing a hand on his arm. "You're welcome to ask any one of us, but I'll wager that the outcome of your investigation would be unanimous."

Jack seethed. David could see it, could feel it, and took another step closer. He didn't like the way the kid was holding his racket, and it was still far too close to Dan's face. Especially when, shifting his gaze from the Foxes, he pinned Dan with a glare twice as fierce as before.

"Got them wrapped around your little finger, have you?" he said through grit teeth. "Fucking hookers. Makes me sick."

Tension rose sharply and snapped. Dan's head tilted and her face smoothed. Growls and mutters not only from Matt escalated, and more than one Fox shifted in preparatory motion. Not before Jack jabbed his racket again, however. Jabbed it directly and far too close, and David took a striding step forward, reached instinctively, and –

The crunch of a racket striking padding, then the muscle beneath, froze him in place. Not quite so resolutely as the second strike that landed heavy and harder than the first. David jerked, reared backwards slightly, and so did each of the Foxes. The only one to properly move was Dan as she staggered a skipping step backwards out of the line of fire. Dan and Jack, that was.

Although, crumpled to the ground as he was, Jack's moving wasn't with quite the same reflexive retreat as Dan's was. A fractured groan managed to push past his lips, but that was all as he struggled for breath.

Standing above him, face a blank mask and racket held with the loose confidence of a gunman slinging his rifle over his shoulder, Neil regarded him. He hadn't spoken, hadn't shifted even a hair's breadth to suggest he'd been coiled with such readiness, but it had been there. There and gone again with two swings of a racket to the belly and, as Jack hunched in upon himself, to the back with his own weight bearing him down. The crack hadn't been from the racket, and David knew he would have to have Jack checked out in case of serious injury, but…

But he was grateful. Just a little bit. Jack's aim for the head shot would have been far deadlier.

"You suddenly forget how to speak, Josten?" David asked, stepping to Dan's side and shooting Neil a glare. Grateful or not, Jack looked like he still hadn't managed a full breath yet.

Neil glanced up at him with so little cowing that David might as well have not bothered speaking at all. "He needed some sense knocked into him."

"So you gave him a goddamn beating?" David shook his head. The suffocating strike to the stomach… He'd seen that before in quite different circumstances. "Of all the people to beat sense into someone, I'd have thought you'd be the last out of this lot. Doesn't seem your style."

Neil only shrugged. "He went for Dan."

"I was handling it, Neil," Dan said, though the touch of a smile on her lips was grateful.

"I know you were," Neil said. "At least you were handling what he was saying. I knew I didn't need to say anything. But if he tried to hit you? Or anyone?" Neil shifted his gaze to Jack, then to the rest of the new recruits shuffling backwards with incremental steps. "It's not like I'm just going to stand here and let his beat the shit out of people."

"So you beat him to it?" David asked. Neil only blinked at him and David sighed, raising his gaze to the heavens in a silent prayer to no one. Shaking his head, he took a step towards where Jack was still crumpled and gasping and grabbed his elbow to haul him to his feet. "Try to ease off a little next time, would you? It would be a shit-fest if I had to explain getting another replacement so early in the season."

Neil shrugged again, and David's sigh this time was resigned. Shooting Neil a glare, he encompassed the Foxes in a jerking nod of his head before turning back towards the doors. "Get your asses back into gear, you lot. Dan, reign them in."

To the sound of Dan's barking orders, David turned and all but dragged Jack from the court. As he passed Andrew's goals, he spared him a glance. "You're a bad influence on each other."

"I didn't tell him to do anything," Andrew aside, rocking on his heels as he leant against the goal post.

"I know," David said. "The fact that he did it anyway is what worries me."

Andrew didn't reply until David reached the doors, muttering to Jack to pick his feet up. "He stepped in when he needed to. Don't complain when you know it was the right time."

David didn't glance over his shoulder, and not because he was pretending to ignore Andrew. At least in a small part of him, he knew that it really had been the right time. Just in time, in fact. Maybe the nature of Neil putting his foot down hadn't been quite right, and maybe Dan might have been able to salvage the moment if she'd managed to duck out of the way in time, but –

But really. Really, David knew it was right. The right time, if not quite the right execution. His Foxes were and likely always would be a mess, unconventional in the extreme, so it was only natural to assume unconventional management techniques. David just hadn't foreseen quite yet that Neil would be stepping up to lend him a hand in that management.

Vice-Captain? He was certainly taking the role by the reigns, and David couldn't say he was necessarily sad to see it.

***

Nicky was still grinning when they stepped off the court that evening. Or grinning again, perhaps, for when the fierce fight of an exy game had passed, humanity settled upon the players once more to replace the single-minded focus. Neil had never been fond of that return to reality, and even less when it seemed to reawaken illogical enthusiasm.

"Good game, good game," Nicky said as they trickled into the men's locker room. "And after someone's performance in particular?"

Neil didn't look his way as he made for his locker, though he knew Nicky was eyeing him specifically. He began stripping off his gear with practised motions.

"What was that?" Matt asked, pausing in his own undressing to turn towards Nicky.

"Him," Nicky replied, and Neil caught him nodding his way from the corner of his eye. "I'm talking about our very own knight in shining armour here. Watch out, Matt, or Dan's going to replace you."

Neil could feel Matt's gaze on him as he packed his gear into his locker. It held a different sort of weight to that of the rest of the room – to Nicky with his smirk, Aaron's bored disregard. and the curious if wary stares of the freshman. Kevin radiated an unspoken chiding of his "foolish behaviour" that "would get you red carded in a game so don't do it when there's refs to see". Andrew's gaze spoke silent words for Neil's ears alone, and Neil could feel them whispering in his ear.

Scooping his towel and a change of clothes into his arms, Neil turned towards where Matt had planted himself beside him. An elbow propped on the locker, his other hand scrubbing absently at his sweat-lathered brow, he studied Neil as though he couldn't get a read on him. Neil watched him, waited, and would have left the silence untouched if Matt hadn't finally worked out his thoughts a second before Neil turned for the showers.

"Dan doesn't like people to fight her battles for her," he said, more curious than reprimanding. "She's always said that."

Neil shrugged. "I know. Which is why I didn't."

"So hitting Jack was…?"

"That was a different fight entirely." Neil stamped down on the flicker of rage that threatened to well within him again, hot and furious. "Dan's job is to lead everyone. The rest of us knock sense into the idiots who can't be led."

A slow smile spread across Matt's face. He shook his head, turning to his locker and beginning to pack his own gear away. "You surprise me sometimes, you know? Everyone always says you're all bark and no bite –"

"Who says that, exactly?" Nicky asked as he passed them for the showers. He shot Neil a wink. "I bet Neil's got a killer bite on him."

Both Neil and Matt ignored him. "I guess I'm just surprised that you'd go on the offensive in that kind of way. Especially towards a teammate, even if it is a rookie."

"You're the one who taught me how to punch," Neil said. "Why're you surprised that I'd hit someone?"

"To punch," Matt said, emphasising his words with a deliberately slow close of his locker door. "Punch. You practically sliced Jack in half with your racket."

Neil couldn't help himself. He glanced over his shoulder to where Andrew was picking through his own locker, fiddling with something out of sight that was for his eyes alone. He often waited for the rest of them to file into the showers before doing so himself. Neil had never asked why; he simply noticed.

"I guess I just thought retaliating like that would have been your last option," Matt said, recalling Neil's attention. "You always said how you – you know, how you always left a situation before it got bad enough that you have to act, so I thought…"

He trailed off with an awkward shrug, the kind he still did when any mention of Neil's past arose. Neil opened his mouth to reply, then paused. Matt was right in his assumption. Neil's entire life had been one of running, of ducking and dodging, of throwing himself from the line of fire to evade rather than return the attack. It was what he'd told his friends, what they knew of him –

But it wasn't quite right, was it? There was a limit, a point that could be reached and pushed to, when running wasn't just fleeing the scene. When it involved jerking to a stop and turning to lash out like an injured dog protecting its weaker side before darting away once more. Neil was only too familiar with the feeling of reaching that point. He didn't ever want to experience it again, even though the urge to run until it was forced upon him still arose sometimes.

Or it used to. Maybe that urge was fading. Neil wasn't sure when it had started, but upon considering it, he supposed it might be. Was it when Coach had made him vice-captain, and it became the responsibility of the position? When they'd won championships and he'd embraced what was his, theirs, his teams, and understood he would protect it with his life? When his father had been killed, when he'd realised he'd rather fight than lose his family, when they'd been threatened – Andrew, Nicky, Kevin, each in their own way – and he wouldn't, couldn't, stand on the side lines and let it happen anymore?

Neil wasn't sure, but something had changed. Something that made him pull the trigger when he'd once hesitated even to protect himself and his mother.

"He punched Riko," Kevin said as he passed them. He shot Neil another chiding glance that Neil ignored, even though he knew Kevin had long ago accepted Riko deserved every hit he'd taken. "At the end-of-season event last year. Surely you remember."

"Oh man, do I," Matt said with a grin. He butted a fist into Neil's shoulder. "One of the best moments of my life, that was. I don't think I've ever been so happy to see someone decked."

"When the situation calls for it, I'm not going to hold my punches," Neil said.

"Yeah, I get that impression from you."

Chuckling to himself, Matt followed after Kevin into the showers. Neil paused for a moment, considering his own words and solidifying them as a certainty, before making after them. Only to pause again as Andrew stepped alongside him. Turning sidelong, he met Andrew's gaze with a silent question.

For a long moment, neither of them spoke. The thundering downpour from the showers was the only interruption. Finally, however, Andrew spoke. "He's going to target you. Fools like him don't take a beating lying down."

Neil considered that. He considered it just as he'd considered the very likely possibility of such resentment arising in the split second before he'd swung his racket to protect Dan. After a moment, he shrugged. "So what? I'll push him back as many times as it takes for him to learn he can't step over the lines we've drawn."

Andrew raised a finger in Neil's face shaking it sharply. "Don't," he said in his usual quiet, flat tone, "get yourself killed." He held Neil's gaze for a long moment before making for the showers.

Neil watched him go. After a moment, shaking his head, he followed after him. Don't get killed? Of course he wouldn't. He had far too much to live for now, and a threat like a volatile freshman with an inflated head wasn't going to get in his way.

***

A/N: Thank you for reading, lovely person! I hope you enjoyed it :D If you have a second, I’d love to hear your thoughts (and suggestions?) over on my AO3. Thank you!!!

[thetypedwriter]

All for the Game or the Foxhole Court Book Review

All For the Game Book Review by Nora Sakavic

Psychotic teenagers, a completely made up sport, a James Bond-esque deliverance ending, and do or die situations with completely over-the-top sass and wit? Yes and yes, I am referring to The Foxhole Court. A grand trilogy by author Nora Sakavic is a bit of a secret gem in my opinion. I could not even tell you how I found these novels or why, only that I had migrated into the deep and secret underbelly of Tumblr and the original fiction community and somehow popped out with a PDF of the first book and a burning desire to read and keep reading.

The All For the Game trilogy or more commonly known as The Foxhole Court is a trilogy centering around secretive and loudmouthed Neil and his rag-tag team of Foxes that play the fictional sport of Exy for Palmetto State University. The first book is available online in PDF form for free to get a taste of what you are in for (http://aisylum.com/tfcdl/FoxholeCourt.pdf) and the following two books are for purchase for a measly .99 cents for Ebook on Barnes & Noble and Amazon. Normally I would have seen that price and went sprinting in the other direction, but in this case it’s a godsend. I’d give Nora Sakavic my right arm and leg if she asked for it now.

So you might be wondering, what is this damn cheap trilogy about? Essentially it’s one of those “a group of outcasts come together” to save the day situations except the day doesn’t need saving and they don’t exactly come together-they do…but well they don’t. Intrigued yet? I’ll give the more juicy details then.

The main character, Neil, comes from a shady background that slowly starts to take place during the course of the series. Not only do the details come slow and heady, they come intense and traumatic with each new revelation. The story really begins with Neil joining Palmetto State University’s Exy team, the Foxes, mostly against his will and definitely to his distaste and dislike. The forerunner of the the Exy team, Coach Wymack, only recruits kids from troubled pasts for his university team-some think for publicity and some think for penitent reasons, but you’ll have to read to really find out why.

As you could probably guess the Foxes are not an easy group to like or even get along with. Most of them are assholes and a lot of them come from broken families, traumatic childhoods, and horrible beginnings. I’ll give you this warning now: these books are not for the faint of heart. It covers topics from bullying, sexual assault, rape, drugs, violence, torture, and pretty much anything else you can think of. If any of these things are a trigger for you then please do not read or read at your discretion.

But other than a cryptic warning, I became addicted to these books. I won’t lie, the first book is slowwwwwwwww. Like molasses slow. Like waiting for the bell to signal the end of the school day slow. Like going to the DMV slow. It’s a bit of a pain to get through but the set up is needed and understandable and by the time you finish the second book you’ve already forgotten the pace of the first. So there’s that.

But there are so many other things Sakavic does well. Her writing is quite mature and fluid and her characters are definitely her selling point. The Foxes are an amazing group of individuals and I slowly fell in love with each of them. They are the opposite of flat characters, they are round and bouncy and full of secrets and details and likes and dislikes that make reading these books worth it (along with all the extra content from Nora herself on her Tumblr).

And as far as the sport aspect goes, I was pleasantly surprised. I am not a sports person. About ten different people in my lifetime have tried to teach me the rules of football to no avail. I don’t like them, I have no interest in them, and I don’t particularly care to watch them. However, Sakavic does an amazing job explaining her new sport Exy to you. It makes sense, it includes thousands of little details that make it come alive, and she even explains the rules and details to you that you think you wouldn’t care about but you somehow do.

This book isn’t without its flaws, the pace is still slow going into books two and three, the characters-especially Neil and Andrew-can be frustrating, certain plot points can be confusing (there are still some details I’m a bit muddled on), and the romance gives the term “slow burn” a whole new meaning. I’m not joking. If you are looking for romance, this is not your series. It exists and shows up with a vengeance in book 3 but you have to travel thousands of miles and traverse millions of pages to get to that development; so if you are not a patient person I would look elsewhere for your fuzzy feelings.

All in all, The All for the Game trilogy was a fantastic read with fascinating characters, intricate plot points, fluid dialogue, creative new sports and places, and well-built relationships that will make you want to pick up the books (or kindles), read them over and over again to catch all the small details you missed the first time, and then go stalk her Tumblr and seek out all the fan art you can find to fill the hole in your chest after the series ends.

Recommendation: If you like outcast stories, slow-burn romance, and dramatic storylines reminiscent of telenovelas and James Bond than this is probably your cup of tea. Make sure you know all the warnings and triggers before reading just in case, you don’t want to get yourself burned.

Score: 8/10

[mysleepingheartofdeath]

All for the Game or The Foxhole Court Book Review

All For the Game Book Review by Nora Sakavic

Psychotic teenagers, a completely made up sport, a James Bond-esque deliverance ending, and do or die situations with completely over-the-top sass and wit? Yes and yes, I am referring to The Foxhole Court. A grand trilogy by author Nora Sakavic is a bit of a secret gem in my opinion. I could not even tell you how I found these novels or why, only that I had migrated into the deep and secret underbelly of Tumblr and the original fiction community and somehow popped out with a PDF of the first book and a burning desire to read and keep reading.

The All For the Game trilogy or more commonly known as The Foxhole Court is a trilogy centering around secretive and loudmouthed Neil and his rag-tag team of Foxes that play the fictional sport of Exy for Palmetto State University. The first book is available online in PDF form for free to get a taste of what you are in for (http://aisylum.com/tfcdl/FoxholeCourt.pdf) and the following two books are for purchase for a measly .99 cents for Ebook on Barnes & Noble and Amazon. Normally I would have seen that price and went sprinting in the other direction, but in this case it’s a godsend. I’d give Nora Sakavic my right arm and leg if she asked for it now.

So you might be wondering, what is this damn cheap trilogy about? Essentially it’s one of those “a group of outcasts come together” to save the day situations except the day doesn’t need saving and they don’t exactly come together-they do…but well they don’t. Intrigued yet? I’ll give the more juicy details then.

The main character, Neil, comes from a shady background that slowly starts to take place during the course of the series. Not only do the details come slow and heady, they come intense and traumatic with each new revelation. The story really begins with Neil joining Palmetto State University’s Exy team, the Foxes, mostly against his will and definitely to his distaste and dislike. The forerunner of the the Exy team, Coach Wymack, only recruits kids from troubled pasts for his university team-some think for publicity and some think for penitent reasons, but you’ll have to read to really find out why.

As you could probably guess the Foxes are not an easy group to like or even get along with. Most of them are assholes and a lot of them come from broken families, traumatic childhoods, and horrible beginnings. I’ll give you this warning now: these books are not for the faint of heart. It covers topics from bullying, sexual assault, rape, drugs, violence, torture, and pretty much anything else you can think of. If any of these things are a trigger for you then please do not read or read at your discretion.

But other than a cryptic warning, I became addicted to these books. I won’t lie, the first book is slowwwwwwwww. Like molasses slow. Like waiting for the bell to signal the end of the school day slow. Like going to the DMV slow. It’s a bit of a pain to get through but the set up is needed and understandable and by the time you finish the second book you’ve already forgotten the pace of the first. So there’s that.

But there are so many other things Sakavic does well. Her writing is quite mature and fluid and her characters are definitely her selling point. The Foxes are an amazing group of individuals and I slowly fell in love with each of them. They are the opposite of flat characters, they are round and bouncy and full of secrets and details and likes and dislikes that make reading these books worth it (along with all the extra content from Nora herself on her Tumblr).

And as far as the sport aspect goes, I was pleasantly surprised. I am not a sports person. About ten different people in my lifetime have tried to teach me the rules of football to no avail. I don’t like them, I have no interest in them, and I don’t particularly care to watch them. However, Sakavic does an amazing job explaining her new sport Exy to you. It makes sense, it includes thousands of little details that make it come alive, and she even explains the rules and details to you that you think you wouldn’t care about but you somehow do.

This book isn’t without its flaws, the pace is still slow going into books two and three, the characters-especially Neil and Andrew-can be frustrating, certain plot points can be confusing (there are still some details I’m a bit muddled on), and the romance gives the term “slow burn” a whole new meaning. I’m not joking. If you are looking for romance, this is not your series. It exists and shows up with a vengeance in book 3 but you have to travel thousands of miles and traverse millions of pages to get to that development; so if you are not a patient person I would look elsewhere for your fuzzy feelings.

All in all, The All for the Game trilogy was a fantastic read with fascinating characters, intricate plot points, fluid dialogue, creative new sports and places, and well-built relationships that will make you want to pick up the books (or kindles), read them over and over again to catch all the small details you missed the first time, and then go stalk her Tumblr and seek out all the fan art you can find to fill the hole in your chest after the series ends.

Recommendation: If you like outcast stories, slow-burn romance, and dramatic storylines reminiscent of telenovelas and James Bond than this is probably your cup of tea. Make sure you know all the warnings and triggers before reading just in case, you don’t to get yourself burned.

Score: 8/10