Playing Hurt

Gr 10 Up—During her senior year, star basketball player Chelsea Keyes suffers a hip fracture that ends her hopes for a college athletic scholarship. Gabe, her nice-guy boyfriend, supports her through her recovery. The two plan to attend college together once the Keyes family returns from a summer vacation at a Minnesota resort. There, Chelsea's father hires an employee to be his daughter's personal trainer. Clint has his own painful history. After his girlfriend died in a car crash, he gave up on both hockey and love instead of trying to "play hurt." Chelsea and Clint spark right away. They challenge each other to various sports, push each other's buttons, and try to keep their hands off each other. After Chelsea helps Clint survive an ATV accident, they indulge in a summer fling. When the family vacation ends, they both try to return to their old lives. The closing staccato chapters play out like the final minutes of a close game as Clint dates another townie who immediately sees through his act, and Chelsea tells Gabe that she's been unfaithful. Throughout the novel, chapters alternate between Chelsea's and Clint's voices, giving it some boy appeal. Some of the passages lack refining, but the main characters' chemistry keeps the pages turning. Supporting characters, especially Chelsea's bass-playing younger brother, are all well drawn. With its rural setting and flirty competitive training scenes, this sexy summer romance will appeal to fans of Catherine Gilbert Murdock's "Dairy Queen" series (Houghton Harcourt).—Amy Pickett, Ridley High School, Folsom, PA