Verdict: A quiet, character-driven 2011 celebrity romance: a closeted, retired movie star hires her daughter’s kindergarten teacher as a summer nanny. Readers love the characters, the cute kid and the Hawaii trip; many struggle with heavy info-dumping, sparse dialogue and a rushed final third. Best for: Kate Christie fans and readers who like a slow, … Read more
Verdict: A quieter post-World Cup instalment with more relationship and less soccer than book five. Readers who have followed Jamie and Emma this far enjoy the time with them, but many call it the weakest in the series — an extended epilogue that sets up threads it doesn’t resolve. Best for: Committed Girls of Summer … Read more
Verdict: The payoff the series has been building to — Jamie and Emma at the 2015 World Cup. Fans who love the USWNT call it thrilling, like reliving the tournament; readers who came for the romance find it a match-by-match recap with too little of the couple, and a few object to how the other … Read more
Verdict: A short, soccer-heavy fourth instalment in which a new national team coach reshuffles everything before the 2015 World Cup — satisfying for fans who love the team politics, but the book stops before Canada, and a growing number of readers feel the series is padding its way to the tournament. Best for: Readers deep … Read more
Verdict: The book where Jamie and Emma are finally a couple — and, for many readers, the series’ first real lull. Fans love watching the relationship work, and the women’s-soccer detail stays excellent, but a vocal minority found it a dragging filler instalment once the tension of getting together was gone. Best for: Committed Girls … Read more
Verdict: The Girls of Summer series grows up: ten years after book one, Jamie and Emma are professional players meeting again at a US national team camp. Less angsty and more rewarding than Training Ground for many readers — but it is a very slow, very PG bridge book, and it still leaves the big … Read more
Verdict: A well-written, emotionally intense YA opener about two teenage soccer players whose long-distance friendship becomes first love — knowledgeable about the sport and honest about hard things, but it is book one of six, and it ends somewhere painful. Readers who loved it went straight on to book two. Best for: Readers who want … Read more