The Academy: Game On

By Monica Seles and James LaRosa

The Academy is the hottest international sports school for teen athletes. There are only two ways in: money – and lots of it – or enough talent to earn a scholarship.

Young tennis star Maya's dreams have finally come true! She's got the scholarship. She's got the drive. She's on her way from small town to pro career . . . But when Maya starts boarding at the sports training school, her fantasy of the Academy doesn't quite match the reality – because where there are beautiful, talented teens, there's plenty of drama.

Meet the players:
Nicole: a tennis star who feels threatened by Maya (although she'd never admit it).
Cleo: Maya's rebel / punk room-mate who's reaching the top of the golf world.
Renee: a super-rich, super-gorgeous swimmer.
Travis: the son of the Academy's owner and perfectly groomed to be the next big star of the National Football League.
Jake: Travis's younger brother – and the bad boy of the school.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Release date: Jun 6, 2013
• ISBN: 9781408841617

Monica Seles

MONICA SELES won the French Open at the age of sixteen. She went on to become the number one ranked woman in tennis, winning a total of nine Grand Slam titles. Monica was inducted into the Tennis Hall of Fame in 2009. She is now a board member of the Laureus Sports for Good Foundation, using the power of sport as a tool for change. Her memoir, Getting a Grip: On My Mind, My Body and Myself was a national best-seller. Monica lives in Florida.

Reviews for The Academy

[lsmurphy524 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I had a difficult time with this book. Honestly, I went into it without high hopes for spectacular writing, but I did hope to get inside the mind of an elite athlete. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. My biggest problem with this book was the clichés and stereotypes. Maya fought to get into The Academy. It’s her dream, her mission in life. The novel opens with Maya fulfilling her dream. She steps inside the gates and is where she wants to be, where she needs to be to become a pro tennis player. That’s where I expected the story to go, but it turned into chick-lit. There wasn’t enough of Maya the athlete. In fact, there was very little tennis in the book and very little sports all together. Maya could’ve been written younger. Her voice often times sounds more middle grade than young adult. At others, she sounds more like an adult in her thirties. The inconsistencies in her character come across as unbelievable and most readers will jump on those. The Academy: Game On is more of a prequel to the series. It’s an obvious set up for more books, and I hope the athletics take top priority in the next several novels. Monica Seles clearly has a unique insight into the world of elite sports. I would love to read about a character involved in that world. Maybe that will be Maya in the next book.