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Football Sweetheart #1
Football Sweetheart
Aimee Freeman is looking forward to the start of her senior year. She knows her best friend Ella has been keeping secrets from her all summer long, but with football season right around the corner, the student trainer decides not to worry about it—they’ll have plenty of time to catch up on the field.
Then Ella goes missing, and Aimee realizes those secrets might be the key to finding her. As the case unfolds, Aimee discovers more than one person may have wanted to harm Ella. Was it Ella’s current boyfriend, a social outcast the entire city seems intent on blaming for her disappearance? Or her ex-boyfriend, the beloved star quarterback who has harassed Ella since their breakup? The list of potential suspects continues to grow after Aimee reads Ella’s journal, but she must first break her best friend’s secret code to reveal their identities.
Unbeknownst to Aimee, her investigation has not gone unnoticed. Ella’s abductor is watching and waiting. Will he decide Aimee needs to be silenced—making her the next target?
Then Ella goes missing, and Aimee realizes those secrets might be the key to finding her. As the case unfolds, Aimee discovers more than one person may have wanted to harm Ella. Was it Ella’s current boyfriend, a social outcast the entire city seems intent on blaming for her disappearance? Or her ex-boyfriend, the beloved star quarterback who has harassed Ella since their breakup? The list of potential suspects continues to grow after Aimee reads Ella’s journal, but she must first break her best friend’s secret code to reveal their identities.
Unbeknownst to Aimee, her investigation has not gone unnoticed. Ella’s abductor is watching and waiting. Will he decide Aimee needs to be silenced—making her the next target?
- GenresMysterySportsYoung Adult
314 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 14, 2012
1 person is currently reading
166 people want to read
About the author
Tiffany A. White
1 book29 followersTiffany has been reading for as long as she can remember. Her earliest memories date back to the early ‘80s when she enjoyed a read per night – particularly Leo the Lop and Muffin Dragon from the popular Serendipity series by Stephen Cosgrove. As she grew older, Tiffany’s passion for reading continued to grow, and she read Charlotte’s Web repeatedly. Eventually, she graduated to the Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, and Bobbsey Twins books which lead her to her favorite genre today—mystery.
While most women have a weakness for buying shoes or handbags, Tiffany’s weakness is buying books. She loves to shop at the local bookstores, and her reading pile has now toppled over and is covering her office floor.
When she’s not reading or writing, you can find her attached to the television remote—she has a slight addiction to TV. She also has a bit of a competitive side, whether it be bowling (high game is 289!), playing fantasy sports, or just rooting for her favorite teams.
Born and raised in West Texas, she bleeds red and black for Texas Tech University and takes pride in being a Texan, despite not owning cowboy boots or a cowboy hat. She currently resides in the DFW Metroplex with the love of her life, dog, and two cats.
To contact Tiffany, find her on any of the social media buttons below, or email her at tiffany (at) tiffanyawhite (dot) com.
While most women have a weakness for buying shoes or handbags, Tiffany’s weakness is buying books. She loves to shop at the local bookstores, and her reading pile has now toppled over and is covering her office floor.
When she’s not reading or writing, you can find her attached to the television remote—she has a slight addiction to TV. She also has a bit of a competitive side, whether it be bowling (high game is 289!), playing fantasy sports, or just rooting for her favorite teams.
Born and raised in West Texas, she bleeds red and black for Texas Tech University and takes pride in being a Texan, despite not owning cowboy boots or a cowboy hat. She currently resides in the DFW Metroplex with the love of her life, dog, and two cats.
To contact Tiffany, find her on any of the social media buttons below, or email her at tiffany (at) tiffanyawhite (dot) com.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
January 22, 2013
Fans of Tiffany White's blog - The Ooo Factor (http://tiffanyawhite.wordpress.com/) will not be disappointed by her debut YA mystery/thriller, Football Sweetheart. It's an homage to pop culture you know and love interwoven with one girl's obsession to find her best friend's killer.
Any good mystery writer leaves you guessing throughout - Whodunnit? And I know I was doing that through the whole story! When Ella, the darling HS trainer of the football team goes missing, she left more than one loose end. In fact, there seems to be a whole string of distraught beaus left behind and none of them can be trusted.
A couple call outs that I loved about the book are the differing POV chapters. Alternating at times between Aimee, the protagonist, the two lead detectives on the case, the kidnapper, and Ella while being held captive - Football Sweetheart is a fast, and sometimes chilling, book to read!
I also LOVED her opening hook. You could call it a prologue, but it's short. An introduction rather, to those of us who may be unfamiliar with the lifestyle of diehard football towns in Texas. The last line of this introduction was so perfectly fitting it was as good as licking the last bit of cake batter out of the bowl before placing it in the sink. Oh yah, she had me hooked!
Basically, you should read this book!
Any good mystery writer leaves you guessing throughout - Whodunnit? And I know I was doing that through the whole story! When Ella, the darling HS trainer of the football team goes missing, she left more than one loose end. In fact, there seems to be a whole string of distraught beaus left behind and none of them can be trusted.
A couple call outs that I loved about the book are the differing POV chapters. Alternating at times between Aimee, the protagonist, the two lead detectives on the case, the kidnapper, and Ella while being held captive - Football Sweetheart is a fast, and sometimes chilling, book to read!
I also LOVED her opening hook. You could call it a prologue, but it's short. An introduction rather, to those of us who may be unfamiliar with the lifestyle of diehard football towns in Texas. The last line of this introduction was so perfectly fitting it was as good as licking the last bit of cake batter out of the bowl before placing it in the sink. Oh yah, she had me hooked!
Basically, you should read this book!
August 12, 2012
This book is a good old fashioned whodunit. I grew up devouring Nancy Drew books and this book gave me two great things: a great mystery and a behind the scenes look at Friday Night Lights. I recently met Tiffany through a writer's group, and we briefly discussed the plotting of her book. I KNEW who did it. Or at least I thought I did. I had to stop myself numerous times from tweeting her and saying, DID YOU CHANGE THE STORY!!?? Because I really thought she changed the end. That's how convinced I was that I knew who it was. Anyway, I sort of pride myself on figuring books like this out very quickly, but yeah, I didn't, so that should tell you what kind of writer she is.
October 16, 2012
If you like movies like Friday Night Lights and Remember the Titans, then you will like this book. Although this book was a mystery, unlike the movies I mentioned, it had the football theme, and it made you feel like you were there with all the guys and girls. I don't know a lot about what goes on behind the scenes in high school football (I just like to watch football games), but I did learn some things about trainers and others involved in the game. And I loved the mystery part. All through the book, I kept wondering what was going to happen, and who did what. This is a GREAT book for young adults, but some of us "older" adults enjoyed it, too.
December 30, 2012
High school American Football enthusiasts should eat this book up. The only familiarity I have with the subject (I'm Irish) comes from TV shows and films I've seen over the years like Varsity Blues and Friday Night Lights. And while watching them I paid almost zero attention to the football part, but enjoyed the characters and storylines outside the game. Same goes with Football Sweetheart.
Aimee is heavily involved with the game at her school in West Texas. She's a trainer and adores the sport, as do all her friends. They're a tight-knit football family, at least until one of their members, Aimee's best friend, Ella, goes missing. Weeks go by and there's still no sign of her. The local cops question her former boyfriend, a much loved football player, and her current boyfriend, a goth-type, skater boy. Of course, suspicion falls on the latter, as per the usual in such high school settings. The race is on to find Ella.
I enjoyed Football Sweetheart but found myself skipping over the descriptions of Aimee's job as a trainer and football games themselves in order to move on to the next part of the story. I was eager to discover who had kidnapped Ella and suspected everyone, including her friends. At one point I was even wondering if Cap (the mystery person in Ella's diary) referred to Carly, Aimee and Pressley, Ella's best friends at school.
Football Sweetheart is a skilfully crafted whodunit. It was only in the last fifth of the book, I became sure of who the culprit was. One issue I did have was with the lead character herself, Aimee. She drove me crazy with her irrational behaviour, keeping her suspicions and evidence from the police. I know she's a teenage girl, but her best friend has been kidnapped, and she doesn't see fit to keep the police informed straight away of scraps of info she learns which could help find Ella? I wanted to shake some sense into her.
I sped through this book over Christmas and after reading the excerpt from the next part in the Football Sweetheart series, I'll be picking up Faceless Shadows.
Aimee is heavily involved with the game at her school in West Texas. She's a trainer and adores the sport, as do all her friends. They're a tight-knit football family, at least until one of their members, Aimee's best friend, Ella, goes missing. Weeks go by and there's still no sign of her. The local cops question her former boyfriend, a much loved football player, and her current boyfriend, a goth-type, skater boy. Of course, suspicion falls on the latter, as per the usual in such high school settings. The race is on to find Ella.
I enjoyed Football Sweetheart but found myself skipping over the descriptions of Aimee's job as a trainer and football games themselves in order to move on to the next part of the story. I was eager to discover who had kidnapped Ella and suspected everyone, including her friends. At one point I was even wondering if Cap (the mystery person in Ella's diary) referred to Carly, Aimee and Pressley, Ella's best friends at school.
Football Sweetheart is a skilfully crafted whodunit. It was only in the last fifth of the book, I became sure of who the culprit was. One issue I did have was with the lead character herself, Aimee. She drove me crazy with her irrational behaviour, keeping her suspicions and evidence from the police. I know she's a teenage girl, but her best friend has been kidnapped, and she doesn't see fit to keep the police informed straight away of scraps of info she learns which could help find Ella? I wanted to shake some sense into her.
I sped through this book over Christmas and after reading the excerpt from the next part in the Football Sweetheart series, I'll be picking up Faceless Shadows.
September 5, 2012
I have to admit, I don’t know a whole lot about football. We never had football in our school so all I knew was what I got from the movies so I was worried I wasn’t going to be able to really relate to Football Sweetheart. Tiffany White did a great job in explaining the “behind the scenes” of what all goes into a high school football team while still keeping with a good storyline.
Football Sweethearts is a story about a girl named Aimee who’s best friend Ella goes missing just days before the start of their senior year of high school. As the police investigate her kidnapping, so does Aimee. While the book starts out with a typical high school best friend drama, it quickly gets a little more intense and the deeper into this mystery Aimee gets, the closer she is to becoming the next victim and just when you think you might have it figured out, another surprise is thrown into the mix.
This wasn’t the typical murder mystery where you can guess who the killer is right off the bat, there are a handful of people who could be suspects, the current skater boyfriend who seems a little shady, the ex-boyfriend and star football player with a bad attitude, the handsome young coach who is a little too comfortable with the students, and a friend of the coach that all the girls seems to be attracted to. Some pretty big secrets are revealed and Aimee realizes she doesn’t know her best friend as well as she thought she did. With plenty of twists and turns, White kept me reading to find out who the villain really was.
I enjoyed reading this book and recommend it to any young adult who likes to read crime, drama and mystery.
Football Sweethearts is a story about a girl named Aimee who’s best friend Ella goes missing just days before the start of their senior year of high school. As the police investigate her kidnapping, so does Aimee. While the book starts out with a typical high school best friend drama, it quickly gets a little more intense and the deeper into this mystery Aimee gets, the closer she is to becoming the next victim and just when you think you might have it figured out, another surprise is thrown into the mix.
This wasn’t the typical murder mystery where you can guess who the killer is right off the bat, there are a handful of people who could be suspects, the current skater boyfriend who seems a little shady, the ex-boyfriend and star football player with a bad attitude, the handsome young coach who is a little too comfortable with the students, and a friend of the coach that all the girls seems to be attracted to. Some pretty big secrets are revealed and Aimee realizes she doesn’t know her best friend as well as she thought she did. With plenty of twists and turns, White kept me reading to find out who the villain really was.
I enjoyed reading this book and recommend it to any young adult who likes to read crime, drama and mystery.
July 25, 2012
High School football season in a small west Texas town serves as the backdrop for this gripping mystery. Senior Aimee Freeman, like the rest of her classmates at Lee High, is eagerly awaiting the start of another winning Rebel football season. But when Aimee’s best friend and fellow team trainer, Ella, is abducted from her home, Aimee and her friends are left with more to worry about than a Homecoming game against the cross-town rival team. Who would want to harm Ella, and why? And does Aimee really know her friend as well as she thinks? Ella’s diary may have the answers…if Aimee can break her friend’s secret code.
Football Sweetheart is a fun, engaging story, giving readers a realistic glimpse into both the highlights and the struggles of being a teenager in a small town--from the excitement of preparing for school dances to dangerous conflicts that arise between social groups. With likable characters and a solid storyline that keeps you guessing “whodunit,” this book would be an enjoyable read for anyone who likes a good mystery.
Tiffany A. White
Football Sweetheart is a fun, engaging story, giving readers a realistic glimpse into both the highlights and the struggles of being a teenager in a small town--from the excitement of preparing for school dances to dangerous conflicts that arise between social groups. With likable characters and a solid storyline that keeps you guessing “whodunit,” this book would be an enjoyable read for anyone who likes a good mystery.
Tiffany A. White
January 14, 2013
I really enjoyed reading Football Sweetheart! There's always a reason to keep turning the page. I find that some books tend to be hard for me to get into, but not this one! I read it all in one day because I literally couldn't stop. The plot and character development is fantastic- I felt like I could have been friends with these people in high school, which made it even more interesting. I highly recommend it!
May 6, 2013
Great YA adventure/mystery in the style of Nancy Drew. Written around the background of high school football, clues are all over and there's several people you think might have done it. The ending is a great emotional wrap up to the story.
August 31, 2012
Like Jill, I knew the end from discussing the plot in writers' group, but the book held my interest all the way to the end anyhow. This is a very well written book, particularly for a first effort from a new writer.
February 3, 2013
Such a great book! I can't wait for more from this series. Just when I thought I had part of it figured out something would happen and I'd be back to square one.
July 14, 2018
I ran across Tiffany White a number of years ago, on Wordpress. She wrote regularly about TV shows, and she liked some of the same ones that we watched at the time, so I started reading. She would occasionally write about this book she was writing, and when it was announced that it was finished, I bought a Kindle copy.
I finally read it this week. I'm somewhat behind on my Kindle books.
Football Sweetheart, besides being a great kidnapping/murder mystery, is a great look into the subculture that is Texas high school football. Specifically, WEST Texas high school football. Anyone who has seen "Friday Night Lights" knows what I'm talking about. And as someone who also grew up (and still lives) in Texas, albeit not west Texas (some folks say west Texas begins at the edge of Fort Worth, but I'm not convinced), I can assure you that "Friday Night Lights" is most definitely not exaggerated.
I'm probably not part of the target audience for Football Sweetheart, but I liked it, anyway. It begins with a look at the close friendship of four girls, all involved, in one way or another, with the football program at Midland Lee High School. The actual name of the high school is Robert E. Lee. And it is a real school. Aimee is a student trainer on the team, and is present at all practices and games, and even Saturday mornings, after Friday night games. She is our main protagonist.
The main part of the plot begins when her good friend, Ella, disappears. There is, of course, an immediate frenzy of searching, and most people suspect Ella's recent ex-boyfriend, Bobby, the star quarterback of the team.
Interestingly, Ella is found about midway through the book. Dead or alive? I'll not say. But that's not the end of the story, because we still have to figure out "whodunit," don't we? In the meantime, another "friend," newcomer Jeannie, disappears.
There are several suspects, and I thought I had it figured out by the end. In a way, I did, but I had it backwards.
It's an entertaining story, and I never wanted to put it down when I had to stop reading to either go back to work or get some sleep for the night. I'm not sure Tiffany has completed any more in this series, but this one is definitely worth the read.
I finally read it this week. I'm somewhat behind on my Kindle books.
Football Sweetheart, besides being a great kidnapping/murder mystery, is a great look into the subculture that is Texas high school football. Specifically, WEST Texas high school football. Anyone who has seen "Friday Night Lights" knows what I'm talking about. And as someone who also grew up (and still lives) in Texas, albeit not west Texas (some folks say west Texas begins at the edge of Fort Worth, but I'm not convinced), I can assure you that "Friday Night Lights" is most definitely not exaggerated.
I'm probably not part of the target audience for Football Sweetheart, but I liked it, anyway. It begins with a look at the close friendship of four girls, all involved, in one way or another, with the football program at Midland Lee High School. The actual name of the high school is Robert E. Lee. And it is a real school. Aimee is a student trainer on the team, and is present at all practices and games, and even Saturday mornings, after Friday night games. She is our main protagonist.
The main part of the plot begins when her good friend, Ella, disappears. There is, of course, an immediate frenzy of searching, and most people suspect Ella's recent ex-boyfriend, Bobby, the star quarterback of the team.
Interestingly, Ella is found about midway through the book. Dead or alive? I'll not say. But that's not the end of the story, because we still have to figure out "whodunit," don't we? In the meantime, another "friend," newcomer Jeannie, disappears.
There are several suspects, and I thought I had it figured out by the end. In a way, I did, but I had it backwards.
It's an entertaining story, and I never wanted to put it down when I had to stop reading to either go back to work or get some sleep for the night. I'm not sure Tiffany has completed any more in this series, but this one is definitely worth the read.
October 15, 2024
Exciting murder mystery!
I loved the characters in this book. Aimee was such a baddie and literally kicked butt by the end. Don’t mess with her friends 💪 The excerpt of the next book was so good too. I’m dying to see where the story goes from here. I hope the author publishes more soon!
I loved the characters in this book. Aimee was such a baddie and literally kicked butt by the end. Don’t mess with her friends 💪 The excerpt of the next book was so good too. I’m dying to see where the story goes from here. I hope the author publishes more soon!
November 1, 2012
3 1/2 stars.
Review to follow.
Review to follow.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews