Neil Josten is the newest addition to the Palmetto State University Exy team. He's short, he's fast, he's got a ton of potential—and he's the runaway son of the murderous crime lord known as The Butcher.
Signing a contract with the PSU Foxes is the last thing a guy like Neil should do. The team is high profile and he doesn't need sports crews broadcasting pictures of his face around the nation. His lies will hold up only so long under this kind of scrutiny and the truth will get him killed.
But Neil's not the only one with secrets on the team. One of Neil's new teammates is a friend from his old life, and Neil can't walk away from him a second time. Neil has survived the last eight years by running. Maybe he's finally found someone and something worth fighting for.

Do I read the Goodreads description of the book before picking it up so I’d know what am I getting myself into? Most of the time, no. I thought about changing my habit of just “pick a book up and see what happens” after a few bad experiences when I thought I’d never read the book if I knew what it was actually about, but I guess I’m just too stubborn. And then comes a book like this, a book that I have no idea what’s it about – but it doesn’t matter, because what this book is about turning out to be the exact thing I needed to read right now. The feelings and emotion this book aroused within me turned out to be the exact ones I’ve been experiencing in this point of my life, and I couldn’t have picked a better book to read even if I wanted to. And that’s the thing about reading and books – it can surprise you and fill your heart: before you notice, it brings you home.

But what is The Foxhole Court about, then? The Foxhole Court is about a sport, more specific Exy. Exy is a sport played on a soccer-sized court that has walls and ceilings made of plexiglass. It is "an evolved sort of lacrosse with the violence of ice hockey". The Foxes are a Palmetto State University Exy team that recruits problematic kids; runaways, addicts, criminals too young to go to prison – the ones on the edge of society that everyone likes to pretend are invisible. I always like getting into other people’s worlds and seeing how grateful I should be for having everything. These kids are left to fend on their own, always looking back in fear of their past, so when everyone’s against them - they got to watch each other’s backs. In a world of mafia and blackmailing, where every move might be your last, sometimes you have to be a bit like a fox – cunning and quick, play like you have nothing to lose and everything to win.


What I loved best about this book is the beautiful concept that I haven’t had a chance to read much about – sports. I’m too much involved with sports not to outright love the sheer idea of this book. I’m in an individual sport where arrangements and layouts of the competitions and training are somewhat different, but it’s not about the sport itself – it’s about the feeling. The feeling of being there on the court, seeing nothing but the game and your opponent; because for the duration of that game, there is nothing else for you more important than that. It is a small universe that only ever those who have trained a sport can understand and Neil Josten is one perfect embodiment of such focus and desire that only a hardcore athlete can have.

The grace and exceptional nature of a team is something that can hardly be captured with words, but Sakavic did an amazing job of picturing life in a team – especially a problematic and dysfunctional one as Foxes. Seemingly unpracticed and disheveled in every manner, but when it’s time to play they strike as one, forgetting their differences (mostly xd) and sacrificing it all for the team. It’s amazing how can a bunch of such fucked-up characters create a team of lovable athletes (uwu).

I mostly owe it to characters, for loving the Foxes this much – it’s amazing how I’ve got to love even the “less important” (sided) ones. Neil Josten is a wonder on earth and I think he was created to be loved by absolutely everyone. His past defined him and prisoned him, always keeping him on the run and driven by nothing but fear. The Foxes gave him a chance to see a chance of future for the first time, it wasn’t safe and it certainly wasn’t a good life, but for the first time in his life, he felt like he could belong. He was born to play Exy and he will become a star, the only thing he needs is to erase his past. Being inside his character and seeing him grow, leave his comfort zone to do what he loves filled my heart with infinite emotion and possibilities.


I’d like to see more of the girls in the upcoming books because this one was more or less oriented to Andrew’s group, which was fine actually because I also found the inner circle brilliant. An amazing goalkeeper who is determined to protect everyone from his inner circle, being a huge dick to absolutely everyone along the way. And not to mention he’s a psychotic teenager who’ll end up in jail if caught of meds, but what could possibly go wrong with THAT squad?


(Sorry for the ten thousand quotes this review contains, I just love everything this book has to say)