Playing Hurt

Playing Hurt
By Holly Schindler
Flux, 2011. 303 pgs. Fiction

High school basketball star Chelsea Keyes suffers a career-ending broken hip and can't seem to get on with life after the injury. When her family goes on summer vacation, her father, concerned about her tendency to mope and do nothing else, signs her up for a personal trainer. Clint, the personal trainer, has problems of his own: ever since his girlfriend died two years before, he's been distancing himself from people. He's given up his beloved sport (hockey) and absolutely doesn't date. However, he's undeniably attracted to Chelsea, and she (despite the fact that she has a boyfriend waiting back home and is actually planning to lose her virginity to him as soon as she gets home from vacation), feels the same connection with him. Soon, each of them are pushing the other to face their fears and get back in the game.

Female readers will definitely be drawn to sexy Clint; Chelsea, although sharing the narrator, wasn't quite as intriguing to me. While the book is supposed to be about dealing with heartbreak and loss, the physical nature of relationships is emphasized more than the emotional. Some readers may find themselves frustrated with Chelsea's indecisiveness, but others will enjoy the steamy (and detailed) romance.

AE