If you enjoy slice-of-life stories and slow-burn romances, I think you’ll enjoy this! “Don’t Hate the Player” doesn’t really have a plot; we’re just following 2 boys (Elliot and Jack) as they’re forced to practice football together, and slowly become friends and fall in love.

I really liked Elliot and Jack as individual characters. Jack was outgoing and kind, and I enjoyed his relationship with his family – his mum was the sweetest, and their love for each other was so endearing. His difficult relationship with his sister was really interesting. I also liked seeing Jack’s interactions with his nephew (Hugh) and his cute chihuahua (Widget). The Benson family was just really loveable. Elliot was very introverted and methodical. His anxiety and lack of social skills were insanely relatable to me – he genuinely couldn’t hold a conversation or bond with other people, and he had no friends (he’s just like me fr 🥲). Elliot’s family was cold and didn’t care about him at all, so seeing Jack’s family accepting Elliot and basically adopting him was suuuuper sweet! 🥹

I really enjoyed Elliot and Jack’s relationship. Their bond progressed very naturally – Elliot was a bit apprehensive about Jack at first, but quickly started enjoying Jack’s companionship and their practice sessions. Seeing Jack break down Elliot’s walls, and Elliot starting to finally trust someone and feeling loved was very endearing! They cared a lot about each other, and the relationship was just really sweet. Their romance is veeeery slow – most of the book is dedicated to their friendship; they then start developing feelings for each other, but don’t immediately act upon those. I personally prefer slow-burns to insta-love, so I really liked the development of their relationship!  I also like that coming out wasn’t a focus of this book. Obviously, I still really enjoy stories where characters figure out their sexualities, but I also crave queer stories where characters simply ~fall in love~, and that’s exactly what this book gave me.

I also appreciate the way the author incorporated sports into this book. Football was a very big aspect of this story, but it was never *too much*. I personally don’t like football (or sports in general lol), but the way the author wrote about football was very accessible here; she wrote enough for the readers to know what was happening, and for football-enjoyers to be happy (I think), but it was never too much to the point of making me feel bored.

There were a couple of things I think could’ve been better about this book – like Kenny (Jack’s friend) kind of disappeared halfway through the book; I would’ve liked to see more of Jack and his sister’s relationship; I also thought Elliot compared Jack to the sun waaaaaay too many times; Jack’s clumsiness at times felt cartoonish; and I don’t like that this is being advertised as enemies-to-lovers when it really isn’t that – but those are mostly just nitpicks. I think this book was very sweet and enjoyable, so if it seems like the type of story you’d enjoy, definitely pick it up!