review: playing hurt by Holly Schindler

pub date: March 8, 2011
publisher: Flux
pages: 312
source: ALA Midwinter
appeals: romance, sports, contemporary, realistic
content: swearing, heavy make out scenes, sex


my thoughts:
I liked the book. I liked Chelsea and Clint and bought into their emotional trauma. I thought their development and growth as characters was realistic. Schindler is a fantastic writer. I was sucked into the book and didn't want to put it down.

However, I had issues. Chelsea and Clint's relationship is very physical from the get-go. The very first time they go out on a date they have a heavy make out session, and then practically every time they're alone after that they start to undress each other. I bought into their hurts and how knowing each other helped them both heal. I really believed that they cared for each other, and more than just sexually. But for me, their relationship was too physical, too fast, with too much description. And Chelsea's attitude going into their relationship bothered me--it was just a summer fling and once she went home she'd go back to her boyfriend. Everyone had summer flings, right? NO!

Overall a good, well-written book with realistic characters. But too sexy for me.

summary:
Star basketball player Chelsea "Nitro" Keyes had the promise of a full ride to college—and everyone's admiration back home. Then she took a horrible fall during senior year. Now a metal plate holds her together and she feels like a stranger in her own family.

That summer, Chelsea's dad hires Clint, a nineteen-year-old ex-hockey player and "boot camp" trainer, to work with her at a northern Minnesota lake resort. As they grow close, Chelsea finds that Clint's haunted by his own tragedy. Will their romance end up hurting them all over again—or finally heal their heartbreak?