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A review by annawhit
The Sunshine Court by Nora Sakavic
4.0
The Sunshine Court caught me completely by surprise – I forgot Sakavic was planning on a fourth book in the All for the Game universe, and I found out about it just days before it was released. This installment picks up shortly before the ending of AFTG, taking us into the world of former Raven and Edgar Allan University student Jean Moreau. After transferring to USC’s Exy team and partnering up with the Trojans’ captain Jeremy Knox (another fantastic POV we get here that we haven’t seen before), Jean has to unlearn everything the Ravens taught him, and come to terms with the fact that the abuse he suffered for years was not something that he deserved. He is Jean Moreau, but he is so much more than just a former Raven.
Spoilers for the original AFTG trilogy ahead.
The plot of this book is very mellow – it’s less of a real plot and more of just “people doing things as time progresses.” I really enjoyed it, though, because it allowed for more focus on who we’re really all here for: Jean and Jeremy. Jean is a very complex character who has suffered immense trauma and abuse at the hands of Riko and his Raven teammates. It’s clear that Sakavic has done her research on cult-inflicted trauma, because it is something that Jean fights with throughout the entire book and is nowhere near easily dismissed. He can only move through it with the help of a new environment and, for the first time in his life, friends – as well as finally succumbing, as everyone does, to sessions with Betsy Dobson.
Jeremy is one such friend, and god, do I absolutely love him. In the shadow of the Foxes and the Ravens, it’s hard to take the Trojans seriously and believe that their good-naturedness is real. Once you see Jeremy, though, that reality is a given. He’s such a sweetheart, and cares so much about his teammates and their wellbeing. When Jean comes into the picture, Jeremy has to delicately balance Jean’s privacy and traumatic past with the urge to get him to see that what happened to him was wrong on so many levels. The two form a relationship that is unexpected yet incredibly tender, and that relationship encompasses both characters’ strengths and weaknesses very well.
The references to AFTG were a delight, and I loved seeing the events of AFTG played out through another person’s perspective. Seeing a totally normal person like Jeremy reacting to things like Riko breaking Kevin’s hand was so interesting because it shows just how insane the world of the Foxes and Ravens is. It’s a perspective that you sort of lose when you’re reading AFTG – you get so immersed in it that you’re like “yeah, this is normal,” and then you read this and you’re like “no, wait, this is actually psychotic.”
Overall, The Sunshine Court works really well as a new addition to one of my favorite series. It links enough to AFTG that it feels familiar, yet its characters and setting are unique and help it stand strong as its own new story rather than just a fan-service continuation of the OG group. There are a ton of new LGBTQ+ characters, including an adorable look into the lives of Laila and Cat, two Trojans who we briefly saw during the Palmetto/USC game. There were a few plot points, such as Jeremy’s family history, that I would have loved to see resolved just out of curiosity, but it’s just as well – it leaves Sakavic an excuse to write #5!
Spoilers for the original AFTG trilogy ahead.
The plot of this book is very mellow – it’s less of a real plot and more of just “people doing things as time progresses.” I really enjoyed it, though, because it allowed for more focus on who we’re really all here for: Jean and Jeremy. Jean is a very complex character who has suffered immense trauma and abuse at the hands of Riko and his Raven teammates. It’s clear that Sakavic has done her research on cult-inflicted trauma, because it is something that Jean fights with throughout the entire book and is nowhere near easily dismissed. He can only move through it with the help of a new environment and, for the first time in his life, friends – as well as finally succumbing, as everyone does, to sessions with Betsy Dobson.
Jeremy is one such friend, and god, do I absolutely love him. In the shadow of the Foxes and the Ravens, it’s hard to take the Trojans seriously and believe that their good-naturedness is real. Once you see Jeremy, though, that reality is a given. He’s such a sweetheart, and cares so much about his teammates and their wellbeing. When Jean comes into the picture, Jeremy has to delicately balance Jean’s privacy and traumatic past with the urge to get him to see that what happened to him was wrong on so many levels. The two form a relationship that is unexpected yet incredibly tender, and that relationship encompasses both characters’ strengths and weaknesses very well.
The references to AFTG were a delight, and I loved seeing the events of AFTG played out through another person’s perspective. Seeing a totally normal person like Jeremy reacting to things like Riko breaking Kevin’s hand was so interesting because it shows just how insane the world of the Foxes and Ravens is. It’s a perspective that you sort of lose when you’re reading AFTG – you get so immersed in it that you’re like “yeah, this is normal,” and then you read this and you’re like “no, wait, this is actually psychotic.”
Spoiler
Something I still don’t know how I feel about are the parallels between Jean and, surprisingly, Andrew. Plot-wise, it feels somewhat repetitive (once you’ve read the book, you’ll know what I’m talking about). Reading those parts, I thought “oh, I’ve read this before,” and it’s rough material to read twice, to the point where you wonder if it’s really necessary. That being said, after finishing the book, I understand why it was there. Not only does it give us some very important backstory on Jean, but for me, it shed some light on who Andrew is as well. We never got Andrew’s POV in AFTG, so seeing what Jean goes through gives us a clue as to what Andrew may have been feeling throughout his own trauma, and there are some heartbreaking connections made in Jean’s inner monologue that absolutely gutted me.Overall, The Sunshine Court works really well as a new addition to one of my favorite series. It links enough to AFTG that it feels familiar, yet its characters and setting are unique and help it stand strong as its own new story rather than just a fan-service continuation of the OG group. There are a ton of new LGBTQ+ characters, including an adorable look into the lives of Laila and Cat, two Trojans who we briefly saw during the Palmetto/USC game. There were a few plot points, such as Jeremy’s family history, that I would have loved to see resolved just out of curiosity, but it’s just as well – it leaves Sakavic an excuse to write #5!