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All for the Game is a series of novels by author Nora Sakavic. The series contains three novels, the last of which, The King’s Men, was self-published December 2, 2014.^[1] The novels follow the protagonist Neil Josten on the run from his father and his father’s people, as well as Neil’s, and his team’s (The Palmetto State Foxes) journey to make it to the Exy championships, and beat their rivals, The Edgar Allen Ravens.

The books, despite lack of promotion, have been rated best sellers on Smashwords and top ten in Amazon’s sports fiction category^[2], and have an extensive young adult fan base on social media. There has been no discussion, as of yet, for a movie or TV show adaptation for the series.

The novel opens with the protagonist, Neil Josten being approached by David Wymack, coach of the Exy team, The Palmetto State Foxes. Neil mentions that the foxes are notorious for being “talented rejects and junkies” from broken homes.^[3] Neil tells Wymack he won’t play for him because of Kevin Day, a former national champion who had recently joined the foxes line up that year and who Neil shared a gruesome past with. Neil, realising Kevin doesn’t recognise him accepts Wymack’s offer. Neil explains to the reader Kevin’s past, and his ‘inseparable since birth’ relationship with Riko Moriyama. The two even tattooing the numbers 1 and 2 on their faces, until he broke his wrist and joined the Palmetto State Foxes. The novel shifts to South Carolina, home to the Palmetto State University Campus, where Neil meets half of his team, Nicky, Kevin, and the twins Andrew and Aaron. Neil has a rocky beginning, between Kevin’s insults to him on the court, and Andrew’s distrust of him off of it. One night Neil heads to the stadium to find Kevin practicing and Andrew spectating from the stands, he talks to Andrew and discovers that the reason Kevin recruited him is because he believes he can make it to court. Neil is adamant to disbelieve it. Neil has a flashback to the moment his mother died, and believes that the life he was living now was “a dream he’d have to wake up from eventually”.^[3] Later in the novel Neil hears Kevin distraught inside Wymack’s apartment, and discovers that the Edgar Allen Ravens, Kevin’s old team, and the team of Riko Moriyama, had transferred districts to play against the Foxes that season. Kevin is hysterical that Riko and the Ravens will force him to return to them. When Wymack realises Neil is in the apartment he confides in him that the Moriyama family were part of the Japanese mafia, and that Kevin’s injury had not been an accident. Neil puts two and two together and realises that his father had been business partners with the Moriyamas and terrified that they’d remember him, decides he must run before the Foxes play the Ravens and it’s too late.

The semester starts and Neil meets the remainder of his teammates. His roommate Matt, Dan, Renee, and Allison and Seth. With all of the team here, Neil can see the obvious fractures between the members, and the role that has in their performance on the court. After a fight breaks out between Neil and Kevin, Andrew demands that he join their group in Columbia, and Neil, knowing he doesn’t have much choice, agrees. In Columbia, Neil is drugged by the group and is forced to stay by Nicky, Aaron and Andrew, despite trying to escape. The next morning when Neil wakes up in the cousin’s house in Columbia, he breaks out of the house and hitchhikes his way back to the Palmetto State campus. Once back, Neil goes to Wymack’s apartment and Wymack calls Andrew, demanding him to come over and explain his actions. Once over Neil, realising he will have to give Andrew information about himself and his past, tells Andrew a half truth, that his father worked for the Moriyamas, who had executed his parents after his father had stolen their profits. Neil had escaped and taken the money with him, which was the only reason he was alive now, and why he knew Kevin and Riko. Neil begs Andrew to let him stay, and Andrew, satisfied with Neil’s explanation, agrees. Kevin, and an unbeknownst Neil make an appearance on Kathy Ferdinand’s morning show. The interview takes a sour turn when Kathy announces that they have another guest on the show and Riko Moriyama appears. Riko criticises Kevin’s choice to change to the foxes and to play again at all, demoralising him on live television, until Neil speaks up, combatting and humiliating Riko before telling him he will choke on his words by the end of the season. Back at the Foxes dorms Andrew queries Neil on why he’d make a stunt like that if he were so afraid of the Moriyamas. He asks if Neil will run when Riko finds out who he is and Neil says he will. Andrew asks what it would take to make him stay, and promises to protect him for one year. He gives him the choice: either he’ll run or he’d join Andrew’s group on a trip to Columbia again that night, to prove he’d accepted Andrew’s protection. Neil chooses to stay and that night in Columbia, Aaron gets a call from Coach Wymack, who tells him Seth had overdosed and was dead. Andrew tells Neil that Seth’s death was Riko retaliating against Neil’s stunt that morning. He tells a worried Neil that he’s not “going anywhere”, and places a key to the cousin’s apartment in Neil’s hand.^[3] Neil goes to sleep that night holding the key in his palm and telling himself he’s home.

The second novel of the series continues only a few days after Seth's death. Neil spends the beginning of the novel wracked with guilt, not knowing what role he played in Seth's death and because of this is unwilling to face Allison. Andrew gets a call from an Oakland policeman, Officer Higgins. The team is confused about his relationship with Andrew and are convinced that Andrew is in some form of trouble until Aaron tells the team that Higgins was the one who introduced the two twins. The novel delves into the twin's past and their rocky relationship with each other. Neil realises he's been accepted into Andrew's group and Matt, worried that he'd lose Neil to them, tells Neil to keep a grip on each of the groups, and "be the piece that finally brings [the] team together" if they wanted any hope to make it to the championships^[4]. The novel shifts to the Exy fall banquet, where the Palmetto State Foxes and Edgar Allen Ravens, first truly face each other. Neil meets Jean Moreau, a member of Riko's inner circle, indicated by the number 3 tattooed on his cheek. Neil soon realises that Riko has discovered who he is, and overhearing a conversation between Neil and Jean, Kevin discovers who Neil truly is. Later that night it is revealed to Neil that his father and the Moriyama's were not business partners; rather that his father, and himself, were property of the Moriyamas. The next day, Kevin then discloses that Neil was intended to be like Kevin, a member of Riko's inner circle, and a player for the Edgar Allen Ravens, but that his mother had run away with him before he had a chance to be initiated. Kevin tells him to run, before it's too late and he's killed, but Neil refuses. It's at this part of the novel that Neil makes the decision that in spring, after the Exy championships that he will go to the FBI and "tell them everything", before the Moriyamas would inevitably kill him.^[4]

Later in the novel, Nicky approaches Neil and confides in him that his mother had invited him home for Thanksgiving dinner, a big deal as his parents had almost refused to talk to him, after he had come out to them. However, he tells him that they only want him to come if he also brings Andrew and Aaron. Nicky knows that Andrew won't go, and begs Neil to help convince him. Neil does, and Andrew agrees, only if they move the date. Nicky, the twins, Kevin and Neil all go to the suburbs of Southern Columbia, to Nicky's childhood home. It is during this event that Andrew is attacked by his past abuser, his foster brother, Drake. Aaron hits Drake over the head with an Exy raquet, killing him. After a discussion with Andrew and Aaron's lawyers, the decision is made to send Andrew to a rehabilitation clinic, Easthaven, in order to take him off his medication early and to allow him to be able to process and recover from what has just happened. Andrew is reluctant to go due to Kevin, but Neil makes a promise to protect him, giving Andrew another piece of truth, in order to gain Andrew's trust. Andrew leaves and the rest of the group, joined by Aaron, go back to campus. Another banquet takes place and the teams continuing on in the championship games are announced to be, Edgar Allen Ravens, Palmetto State Foxes, Breckenridge Jackals and Belmonte. At the banquet, Riko tells Neil that he's going to spend the Christmas break at Edgar Allen, to train with the Ravens, and tells him that if he refuses, he will put Andrew and Kevin in danger. Neil agrees to go. During his time at Evermore, Neil makes the shocking discovery, that the reason Kevin chose to escape to the Palmetto State Foxes is that he discovered that Coach Wymack is his father. Throughout this section of the novel Neil is beaten, trained to exhaustion and tortured, due to his refusal to obey the commands of Riko and Tetsuji, the coach of the Ravens.

The novel makes a significant shift to Neil arriving back in South Carolina. Neil calls Wymack to come pick him up, upon which Wymack tells him that he "sounds like Neil, but he doesn't look like him"^[4]. Neil realises that Riko had dyed his hair back to his natural colour, and removed his contacts, returning Neil to his natural appearance. Neil also discovers the number 4 tattooed upon his cheek and violently tries to remove it, telling Wymack he is still a fox. Wymack stops him and consoles him. The novel ends with Neil and Wymack sitting on Wymack's couch, watching the New Year tick over, and Neil telling the reader that "facing the foxes on the court this spring would be the last mistake Riko ever made"^[4].

The novel begins with Neil lying on his back in the middle of the Foxhole Court, looking at the team's championship banners. Wymack interrupts Neil and Neil realises that he's lost track of time again, something that had been happening frequently since his return from Evermore. Wymack tells him that he made Kevin tell the rest of the team where he'd been and what had happened to him over the break, telling Neil when he protests that he "flounder[s] when they call [him] 'friend'; [he'd] probably have a psychotic break when they freaked out over [him]".^[5] When Matt, Kevin, Nicky and Aaron return, they're horrified at what has happened to Neil, telling him not to tell them that he's "fine". Kevin asks Neil how long he's going to be able to hide his tattoo, telling Neil that Riko is trying to get him found by his father and the rest of the Moriyama family. Neil tells him that it's his problem to deal with and their argument ends at that. Neil, Kevin, Nicky and Aaron then leave Fox tower to go and pick up Andrew, who was being released from Easthaven that day. Andrew sober, is described as blank, cold and uncaring, with little interest in anything. With the team once again all together, they begin training for the championships. At practice, Andrew tries to hurt his teammates, by aiming his throws at them, Wymack, aware of the influence Neil has over Andrew asks Neil to intervene. Neil asks Andrew to stop and he does, telling Neil to tell coach Wymack to "mind his pay grade".^[5] Neil soon realises that Andrew likes him, and is conflicted with his own emotions surrounding Andrew. Later in the novel, the upperclassmen approach Neil, asking if there is some way they could fix the regression in teamwork that had been occurring since Andrew's return. Neil decides it's time the twin's sorted out their issues, and asks Katelyn to somehow convince Aaron to attend joint therapy sessions with Andrew, if Neil could convince the latter. At their first championship games, Neil is approached by media asking about his tattoo and Neil speaks out about Riko and the Ravens, resulting in the vandalisation of the Foxes' cars and their stadium, due to the Ravens' fans retaliation.

At their next game, Neil's locker has been filled with blood and the words "happy birthday, junior" written in the changing room walls, Neil tells the the team that Riko is trying to use his identity and his family's reputation against him, and begs Wymack not to tell the authorities.^[5] Later that night Neil receives a text he would later discover was a daily countdown, and not knowing what it is relating to, deletes the texts. Andrew and Neil begin something akin to a romance, and worried about what danger Neil has brought him into, Neil asks Andrew to break his promise to protect him, and Andrew begrudgingly agrees. After the last game before the semi finals, Neil is taken by his father's inner circle, who torture him and take him to his father. Neil, assumes that he is going to die but narrowly escapes death, when his uncle storms the Wesninski house, and kills Neil's father. Neil is then taken by the FBI and after being reunited with his team agrees to tell them everything he knows about his father. The FBI then give Neil the paperwork to become 'Neil Josten' officially. Neil is approached by Ichirou Moriyama, the new head of the Moriyama family, who then agrees to spare his, Kevin's and Jean's lives, if they give the Moriyama 80% of their Exy career earnings. Information about Neil's past goes public, and worried about the negative attention the information will give Neil and the team, Kevin announces to the media that Wymack is his father, and no longer scared of Riko, also insinuates that his broken hand had not been an accident. The Foxes make it to the championship match against the Ravens and after a violent match beat them. Riko, infuriated at the Foxes, swings his racquet at Neil's head, but is stopped by Andrew swinging his own racquet down on Riko's arms, breaking them. The novel ends the night of the match, with Ichirou summoning Neil, and Neil witnessing the execution of Riko Moriyama. Neil returns to the foxes, relieved that he has Andrew, his team, and a future to look forward to.

Palmetto State University, is the main backdrop for the majority of the series. Located in Columbia, South Carolina, the University, and in particular the stadium, the Foxhole Court, and athlete dormitories, Fox Tower, are where most of the story line takes place.

Columbia, South Carolina, despite being the location of the Palmetto State campus, also includes settings such as the cousin's house, the diner Sweetie's and the night club Eden's Twilight; the two of which the characters in Andrew's group visit frequently.

Edgar Allen University, particularly the Raven's dormitories and stadium coined 'Evermore', becomes a significant setting for the second novel. The University is located in Charleston, West Virginia. Neil describes "The Nest" as being dark and oppressing, it is here that Neil faces the abuse from Riko and the Ravens.

Baltimore provides the setting for a significant portion of the plot in the third novel, where Neil is taken back to his childhood home, and is tortured by his father and his father's people. It is also here that his team discover Neil's true identity.

• Neil Josten
• Andrew Minyard
• Kevin Day
• Riko Moriyama
• Coach Wymack
• Matt Boyd
• Nicky Hemmick
• Aaron Minyard
• Dan Wilds
• Renee Walker
• Allison Reynolds
• Seth Gordon
• Jean Moreau
• Nathan Wesninski
• Abbey Winfield
• Betsy Dobson

Exy is a fictional sport developed by Sakavic for the series, and is described as being a version of lacrosse with the violent disposition of ice hockey. It was developed by Kayleigh Day and Tetsuji Moriyama, 30 years before the start of the series.^[4] It is played on a soccer-sized court surrounded by a plexiglass wall, for rebounding and passing, as well as audience protection. There are four different positions: striker, dealer, backliner and goalkeeper and six players are allowed on the court at one time. Sakavic goes into more detail about the sport at the conclusion of the second book, The Raven King.

The Palmetto State Foxes were founded by their Coach, David Wymack, and are originally described by Neil as being "a team of talented rejects and junkies because Wymack only recruited athletes from broken homes"^[3]. In the series, the Foxes are considered a particularly small team, especially after the death of Seth Gordon and Andrew's brief removal from the team due to his rehabilitation. Before the beginning of the novel, the Foxes had come "dead last" in the previous three NCAA seasons.^[3]

The Edgar Allen Ravens were established by one of the creators of exy, Tetsuji Moriyama, who also happens to be the team's coach. The Ravens are the Foxes' main rivals throughout the series, and is captained by the series' main villain, Riko Moriyama. The Ravens prior to the beginning of the series have never lost a game and have been Exy champions, since the creation of the sport.

The USC Trojans are renowned for having "one of the best teams in the nation" and are "famous for their sportsmanship".^[5] The USC Trojans have won the Day Spirit Award for eight years running.

• JD Campbell Tornadoes
• Binghamton Bearcats
• UT Longhorns
• Belmonte Terrapins
• UV Catamounts
• Penn State
• Wilkes-Myer Hornets
• Breckenridge Jackals

The All for the Game series, is predominantly aimed at young adults, from late teens to early twenties, and adults. The series fits into many different genre categories, Contemporary fiction, Young Adult fiction, Sports fiction, Romance fiction and LGBT+ fiction.^[6] The novel also features some aspects of the crime and mafia genre, a contrast to the sports centric theme of the novel.

The series, despite being young adult fiction, has many themes and events that may be upsetting for some readers. The series deals with issues such as:

• drug abuse, addiction and overdose
• physical abuse
• sexual abuse, including sexual assault as well as jokes about sexual assault
• homophobia and homophobic slurs
• suicide and self-harm
• violence and gore
• child abuse
• torture
• drugging
• murder

Sakavic's novels, despite being self published and having little to no promotion, have created significant traction with young adult audiences, gaining in many cases, 4-5 star reviews on sites such as Amazon and Barnes and Noble.^[7] Due to this popularity, the series has gained interest from journalists from sources including Publishers Weekly and Herald Scotland.^[8] Publishers Weekly describes the series as an "Unlikely hit... that would be hard to come by in traditional publishing."^[2] "An intriguing and fun read with well developed and interestingly written characters" the Herald Scotland comments in it's review.^[8] Odyssey says "the story moves with such fluidity and speed... and the characters and their relationships are so real, harrowing and honestly effecting..."^[9]

• The Foxhole Court on WorldCat

Category:Young adult fiction Category:Sports novels Category:LGBT novels