Pickleballers by Ilana Long – okayish sports contemporary

Pickleballers didn’t turn out as good as I expected, but if you enjoy sports contemporaries with a tight knit community and a main character finding herself through the game, this one might work for you.

Synopsis

A pickleball newbie looking to recover from life’s swings and misses crosses paddles with love in this debut romantic comedy.

Meg Bloomberg is in a pickle. When Meg’s ex turns out to be a total dink, she and her bestie take off for a mood-lifting pickleball excursion to Bainbridge Island. It’s supposed to be an easy lob, a way to heal, not the opening serve to a new courtside romance that’s doomed to spin out.

No matter how Meg tries, she can’t shake her feelings for Ethan Fine. A charismatic environmental consultant and Bainbridge local, Ethan seems like the real dill. But when Meg discovers that Ethan is sabotaging her home court, she decides the match is over.

It’s time for Meg to take control of her own game. And maybe, just maybe…love will bounce back.

Review

Pickleballers started well with Meg Bloomberg being left by her husband, and to get her out of the blues, her best friend, Annie, drags her to play pickleball. While it doesn’t magically fix her bruised confidence, she gets hooked on the game.

Divorced life hasn’t been smooth. She misses painting, lacks the confidence to revive her art skills, hasn’t improved much at pickleball and is still stuck at the beginner level, and now the school ground where the pickleball courts exist is being shut down for a Wetlands project. To make things messier, the environmental engineer working on that project also happens to be her recent crush, the first man who has sparked her interest since her divorce.

Fortunately, there is the Picklesmash competition. Winning it would mean money for new courts, and Meg can participate at the beginner level. Sounds hopeful, right? No, her ex husband has returned with a shiny new girlfriend, and the pickleball community decides they will all play at the beginner level. If Meg wants to participate, she has to up her game and compete for her spot, against her ex.

Yup, Meg has a lot going on.

She and her family have a pattern. When things go bad, they run instead of fighting. True to form, instead of facing her ex, Meg runs to Bainbridge, the birthplace of pickleball. Things slowly start turning in her favor. She gets a commission for the B&B she is staying at, practices with her best friend, and trains with the Bainbridge pickleball community, who hope she will play for them. They set her up with a partner who turns out to be none other than Ethan, the same environmental engineer.

While the writing and plot were fun in the beginning, the story soon starts going downhill. I lost interest around 30 to 40 percent in. The pacing is bumpy, several scenes feel disconnected from the main plot, and we spend far too much time inside Meg’s head.

Meg is realistic and very much an everyday person, but her low confidence, her inability to move on, and her refusal to embrace her imperfections become grating after a point. She avoids confrontation at all costs and cannot stand up for herself, not even when it involves someone she cares about. This single trait creates half the problems in her life and fuels most of the misunderstandings with Ethan. Things also fall into her lap a little too conveniently when it comes to her art and getting back to it.

One thing I genuinely loved about Meg is her persistence with pickleball. She practices, she improves, and she keeps showing up. She is also lucky to have friends whose confidence spills over into her life. Their support and positivity help her stick with the game and slowly rebuild her chipped confidence.

Ethan is interesting in many ways, but he also struggles with communication and trust. That said, I liked that he was patient with Meg. Even though he is not great at expressing himself, he at least tries to work through their issues while Meg runs away.

The romance, however, fell flat for me. I did not feel the chemistry between Meg and Ethan, and their interactions never quite clicked.

What actually saved the book were the side characters. They were entertaining and kept the story engaging. My favorite parts were reading about pickleball itself, its history, rules, techniques, and most of all, the sense of community around it. I also enjoyed the subplot of Annie chasing her crush, Michael Edmond, in Bainbridge, easily the most mysterious character in the book.

The final competition was genuinely fun to read, and that elusive golden pickledrop made Meg’s face off exciting. The ending delivers a satisfying HEA, not just for Meg but also for Annie.

Overall, Pickleballers didn’t turn out as good as I expected, but if you enjoy sports contemporaries with a tight knit community and a main character finding herself through the game, this one might work for you.

Book Links

Goodreads | Amazon.in | Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Do you Play Pickleball? or Have you read any Pickleball novel?
What’s your favorite sports contemporary?

Just in case you missed,,,

• Pickleballers by Ilana Long – okayish sports contemporary
• Promise Me This (Circle of Vows Book 1) by Inaara Sheikh – romance with portrayal of Muslim family
• Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf – classic fiction that I admirable but didn’t enjoy

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