STAR (noun): any large body like the sun, intensely hot and producing its own energy by nuclear reactions SOCCER STAR (noun): Gracie Faltrain Goal-kicking, super-girl, soccer star. Gracie Faltrain is on her way. To the National Championships. To Nick. To everything she's ever wanted. Or so she thinks. Gracie's about to find out that life is messy. And hard. And beautiful. There's a shadow falling across her mum and dad. Her best friend is about to leave town. She's trying desperately to be with the right boy, on the edge of falling in love with the wrong boy. She's rushing headlong into screwing up, making up, trying to keep it all together. Welcome to the life and times of Gracie Faltrain. From first-time novelist Cath Crowley comes this sometimes hilarious, sometimes poignant look at what good can happen when your world is falling apart.

To win a little you have to risk something. To win big, you have to risk it all. Gracie Faltrain is back and she couldn't be happier. Her team won the Championships, she scored a few goals and a boyfriend, as well. Just as she's settling down to a new season of soccer, the stakes are raised. Coach has entered the team in the Firsts – a boys only league. To prove herself, Gracie has to fight harder than ever before. The other teams will do anything to keep her out of the game, and if she makes it, they'll do anything to see her lose. But Gracie is sick of losing. She's sick of seeing friends, like Martin and Alyce, unhappy. Gracie decides it's time to take control and even the score for everyone, on and off the field.

As Gracie begins Year 12, she has only one thing on her mind, and it's not school work. It's not even Martin, now that he's dumped her for the third time. It's soccer: a new season, a new team, a new league. This is the big time, the state trials, and Gracie can't wait. Except there's one small problem. She's no longer the biggest fish in the pond, and one of the other players is the cousin of her arch enemy, Annabelle Orion. Gracie wants to get it right this year, but everything seems to be going wrong – she hardly has time to see her friends, Martin won't talk to her, and she's falling even further behind at school. Gracie needs help both on and off the field, but when it shows up, it is not from the person she expected...