‘The Last First Game’ by Gina Azzi was a light, breezy read. I am generally a young adult reader, and even though this story definitely could have fit into that genre if the main characters were just a few years younger, I found myself enjoying the New Adult feel that this novel personified.
Main character Lila is starting her internship at Astor University in California during first semester of senior year, while best friends Mia, Maura, and Emma are all going their own ways as well during that semester. The way that they still stayed close through phone and video chats, as well as through their caring natures for each of the other girls was refreshing and sweet, with no one girl making her personal or professional life seem any more or less important than those of her friends.
When Lila meets Cade in the airport as she treks across the country to start her medical internship, which she may or may not still be excited about (if she ever was), she is almost immediately swept up in the excitement and uncertainty that comes with a new relationship. They hit it off quickly, and before Lila knows it, Cade is calling her his girlfriend. The two soon throw themselves headfirst into a steamy romance.
Trouble begins to brew, however, when Cade, one of the top NFL picks for next season, has an accident during one of his games, throwing his future into a whirlwind of loss, confusion, and unrest. As the novel progresses, Lila’s and Cade’s friends, both at Astor and elsewhere, have a chance to show their true colors, their parents have a chance to be there for them, make up for past wrongs (or continue to do things right), and relationships stumble, grow, and get tested by issues that arise and become stirred further by the campus gossip mill.
The truthful, realistic scenarios that Lila and Cade endure throughout the story are sincere and well-written. I love being able to see the characters in my mind’s eye and hear them speak through their words. The dialogue and writing were relatable for anyone who has ever been in college, in a relationship, or who has been missing friends. The symbolism of the title was also apparent to me as I read the book, not only in that Cade played his last first game of his college football career, but also in that everyone does their last first something at times. Thinking about this makes the reality of senior year and embarking on the rest of one’s life seem all that much more pivotal.
Vacillating between the different viewpoints of Lila and Cade, and hearing about their friends, near and far, helped keep the story moving, and helped keep me invested in the outcome for each and every one of the characters. Besides a few spelling and grammatical issues here and there, the novel did a wonderful job of taking readers through a semester in the lives of two college seniors who make it extremely evident that four months is more than enough time to make a lifetime of changes – sometimes in not-so-good ways, but mostly for the better.
You can find ‘The Last First Game’ by Gina Azzi here.