{"id":572,"date":"2017-07-27T16:00:25","date_gmt":"2017-07-27T22:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/?p=572"},"modified":"2017-09-10T16:41:18","modified_gmt":"2017-09-10T22:41:18","slug":"book-the-rook-crew-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/2017\/07\/27\/book-the-rook-crew-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"BOOK: The Rook Crew (2017)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"TheThe Rook Crew
\n<\/u><\/strong>Year: 2017
\nAuthor: Mirella Muffarotto
\nLength: 488 pages<\/p>\n

***THIS BOOK WAS RECEIVED FROM A GOODREADS GIVEAWAY***<\/p>\n

Usually, when I enter a Goodreads Giveaway, I have an expectation for what the book is about via the title and the cover. With\u00a0The Rook Crew<\/em>, my expectations were way off. With the cover, I was expecting a\u00a0shoujo (a Japanese term signifying an audience comprised of female teenagers) light novel. I didn\u2019t know what to think about the title, but I honestly can\u2019t say it has anything to do with this book. \u201cThe Rook Caf\u00e9\u201d is a location in this book that\u2019s visited maybe a half-dozen times, with no indication of why it\u2019s significant or unique. Likewise, the \u201ccrew\u201d that visits The Rook Caf\u00e9 regularly was never fleshed out beyond the main characters and one or two minor ones. If it were me, I\u2019d title the book something like\u00a0Soccer Sweetheart<\/em>, which would accurately convey the sports\/romance aspects of the book.<\/p>\n

I will admit that the pacing is pretty good (albeit heavily weighted toward either one of the characters at a single time) and the style is easy to read. There were also a few, well-described and realistic situations, including a cyber-bullying incident. However, I would have appreciated more \u201cscene breaks\u201d in each chapter, as everything just kind of blended\u00a0together with no clear demarcation. In fact, as this book was two books combined, I couldn\u2019t honestly tell you where that break between the two books occurred. And while the occasional proofreading or formatting error wasn\u2019t too distracting, the author\u2019s \u201cnarrator\u201d became a bit difficult to read, especially when it was contradicting what the characters were saying or when it was breaking the fourth wall.<\/p>\n

While the book is classified as Young Adult (YA), I seriously question this as there was quite a bit too much hard swearing and sexuality to be in a book that should be marketed toward, well, young adults. If anything, this book sits on the edge between Young Adult and New Adult for these same reasons. Unfortunately, because it is classified as YA, it follows all of the clich\u00e9s of the genre, even to the point of having an ending that realistically shouldn\u2019t have happened. Maybe it\u2019s because I\u2019m not in the core demographic, but I cringe at reading characters who obsess over shows from\u00a0The CW<\/em>, are in Emo bands who have one original song and twenty covers, and can\u2019t get enough of the\u00a0Twilight<\/em>\u00a0saga. In the end, I felt the characters were mostly flat, especially the women. While the two male \u201clove interests\u201d had passions that defined them (like soccer or music), the female protagonist\u2019s only defining feature was that she had an irrational love for the soccer player. Her focus could have been on reading or dancing, or anything else, but all she ever talked about was her attraction to Matteo. These privileged characters rarely made any sense and caused me to roll my eyes more often than not.<\/p>\n

A standard YA book with all its clich\u00e9s and foibles, I give\u00a0The Rook Crew<\/em>\u00a03.0 stars out of 5.<\/p>\n

\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\"<\/strong>\u00a0\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\"<\/strong>\u00a0\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\"<\/strong><\/h1>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Rook Crew Year: 2017 Author: Mirella Muffarotto Length: 488 pages ***THIS BOOK WAS RECEIVED FROM A GOODREADS GIVEAWAY*** Usually, when I enter a Goodreads Giveaway, I have an expectation for what the book is about via the title and the cover. With\u00a0The Rook Crew, my expectations were way off. With the cover, I was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,54],"tags":[349,55,751,747,752,749,8,748,750,746,30],"class_list":["post-572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-3-0-stars","category-book","tag-349","tag-book","tag-collection","tag-mirella-muffarotto","tag-missing-variables","tag-raspberries-and-a-cherry-tree","tag-review","tag-soccer","tag-sweet-cherry-chapstick","tag-the-rook-crew","tag-young-adult"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=572"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":803,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572\/revisions\/803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}