Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Cree Jacobs never thought she’d be friends with a member of the Ballers Club, until she got to know DeAndre Parker. Seventeen-year-old Cree isn’t impressed by the Ballers Club, a group of four boys who have looks, style, and athletic prowess and run the hallways of Moorehead High in Akron, Ohio. They’re known for wooing girls—and then dumping them. Cree doesn’t understand their appeal until she encounters DeAndre, a former NBA player’s son who doesn’t believe in love or happily ever after but seems different from the other Ballers. After an Honors English class discussion in which they disagree about what love is, the two become friends—but can they resist turning their friendship into something more? This teen romance is narrated in DeAndre’s and Cree’s alternating first-person perspectives. The story centers on a group of boys who have “wealth, status, and a sprinkle of tattoos” and who frequent a strip club, and a girl who speaks her mind and is called afeminazi by the boy she later falls for. The stilted dialogue is at times cringey (“I’m not aimin’ to win a Pulitzer, but I’m a real dude, and you, you’re a real chick, so let’s get together and write something real”), and the story leans into the misguided narrative that the right girl can make a wandering boy settle down. Main characters are Black. Tired gender stereotypes make this romance feel outdated.(Romance. 14-18) Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

School Library Journal
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Gr 10 Up—Shakespearean classic The Taming of the Shrew finds its latest modern interpretation in the will-they-won't-they dynamic between fiery, independent Cree and lothario Deandre. After a classroom discussion ignites into the two teens debating the meaning of love, they are rapidly pulled into each other's inner circles. Cree distrusts Deandre, a member of their high school's "Baller's Club," an exclusive group of athletes and serial daters (to put it lightly), but cannot seem to avoid his charms. Deandre is attracted to Cree's intelligence and pride but has vowed to forever focus on basketball over women. At over 400 pages, their inevitable declarations of love feel hard-fought, especially when Cree is so consistently appealing, while Deandre is irksome for many chapters before his soft underbelly is revealed. Grandison, no stranger to YA romance, keeps the pace moving with the help of alternating POVs. The book may need to be put in the hands of a real fan of slowburns, but it should appeal to many readers of the genre. The protagonists are Black. VERDICT 10 Things I Hate About You meets Love & Basketball for Gen Z.—Alexandra Quay