Walker Lauderdale hasn’t cried once since his daddy went missing. And even though everyone says his father is dead, Walker won’t give up hope. He knows his father is out there, somewhere, cutting a wild trail through the Ozarks like always. But when a relative threatens to kick Walker and his momma out of the family home, Walker realizes he has no choice but to look for his daddy—a search that leads him straight to a drug-addled and dangerous man named Lukas Fisher. While attempting to balance life as a normal fifteen-year-old boy and star player on the football team, Walker begins a desperate search across the hills of the Ozarks for the man who, for better or worse, taught him everything he knows about strength.

Quite honestly, I thought I was reading a book I had finished months earlier. The plot feels like a recycled story from the sports genre, tweaked a little bit. It does not live up to its authors’ intentions. Also, the graphics at the start of every chapter are quite annoying because readers are forced to guess the first few sentences.

On the positive side, the story’s mood is consistent. Emotions are high and dialogue is impressively realistic, a highlight of the read. Also, the author is good at writing live game scenes in an action-packed setting. But there is less focus on sports than the cover implies. (The cover led me to believe the plot would concentrate on the game, which it did not.) Twists and turns are predictable, and there are unexplored potential plotlines. Lastly, there’s a very poor ending for an intense story; I am a little disappointed it ended in a “nothing” manner.

In the end, the story makes sense, but it lacks originality and simply keeps to a road most sports stories travel.

-Kevin Velayo