Playing Hurt-Review

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?

★★★

Chelsea is defined by basketball, so in a sense when she can no longer play I felt like her identity was lost. Clint is more troubled by death than anything else, he has a lot going on in his life, but he can not seem to get past his old girlfriend Rosie. Both of their lives are just really dark and depressing, even though each of them have things to be happy about in reality. Each of them struggle with the attraction they share to each other. I really liked Chelsea's family more than anything, they always meant well, but Chelsea was just too depressed to care.  I really loved the setting, it sounded really fun all the hiking and fishing everyone got to do in the book. The writing was extremely beautiful, and the story unfolded nicely, I liked it. The characters were layered, and really complex. It really made you think, that sports do in fact define some people, and others are defined by tragedy, they let it dictate their actions when they should really just move forward with life. I will read Holly Schindler again for sure.