I really enjoyed the premise of Playing Hurt and I connected well with Chelsea. The romantic tension between her and Clint but I did not appreciate the cheating. I think that Gabe got played and while it is realistic and I could see it happening, it just is hard for me to read and accept and pull for cheating. Love triangles to me are somehow different because there isn't that attachment already there and established over a long period of time, and also, the guys normally know about each other so it seems more fair.
Despite that hang up, I loved the story. It flowed well, I sympathized with Chelsea and she had some real emotional turmoil going on. I also devoured Clint's story. I think that his pain, and his past really are the depth to this story.
The romance between Clint and Chelsea could have stood on its on without the Gabe aspect, and with him being in the picture, I just wish that he would have really had a shot and that it wouldn't have been the comfortable and the adding the tension because I think that was already present.
I will say that this maybe should be considered NA because it is pretty sexual and steamy in the real sense, not letting much to the imagination.

Bottom Line: Good character development, just had issues with the cheating. ( )

I haven't come across too many contemporary YAs where the heroine is a sports player, so I was waiting eagerly for the library to get their copy. I'm so glad I read it, it was good.

Chelsea Keyes was the star basketball player in her hometown. She had a bright future with plans to attend college on a sports scholarship. She's going places...or she was, until she fell during a game and broke her hip. Now everything is changed. She's no longer comfortable in her own body, her relationship with her dad is beyond strained. She still has her amazing boyfriend who stuck with her through everything. But she can't get over what could have been.

Clint Morgan is an ex-hockey player with a broken heart. He goes to college and works, but doesn't have much of a life beyond that. He went into a funk when he lost someone close to him tragically. His friends despair of his workaholic ways when he comes up with his latest scheme, a boot camp to get people into shape. Can a girl with a broken hip mend a broken heart?

This book. OMG. Layers and layers and angst and lust and yeah, definitely a book for a more mature audience. But so good!

At the heart of it all is Chelsea and Clint, two very wounded individuals who have these hard, brittle exteriors that no one has been able to crack. When they first meet, they are definitely not what the other expected. And that's the first crack, I think. Then when Clint tries to push Chelsea to pick up a basketball, her shell cracks a little bit more.

"Show me what you've got," Clint says, casually swinging his arms and clapping his hands once in front of his hips.Doesn't the moron know that just touching the ball has caused the worst kind of ache to thunder through me? That it's like touching the warm skin of a man I love while he shakes his head, telling me no? That's what it's like for me to hold this basketball. It's like looking into the eyes of the man I love, who suddenly refused to love me back. You can't have me.

Then Chelsea pushes back, unknowingly, because Clint is attracted to her. And he hasn't opened himself up to anyone in a long time. But his growing attraction to Chelsea threatens his sense of self and his flinty exterior cracks a bit more.

Now, I'm going to tell you straight out - Chelsea is on her family's annual summer vacation when she meets Clint. So her boyfriend who stuck with her through everything is waiting for her back at home. And this is something that Clint and Chelsea both have to come to terms with. I relished the developing relationship between Chelsea and Clint though. If infidelity is a big no-no for you, then steer clear of this book. But if you don't mind when teenagers make mistakes and learn from them, then things aren't as bleak as they sound then, are they?

Also enjoyable was the broken relationship between Chelsea and her father. His hopes broke just as much as her hip did. She was his star. Chelsea feels like he's mad at her for what happened. She couldn't be more wrong. I liked seeing how they finally came back to understanding each other.

Playing Hurt is not your typical YA romance. I highly recommend it. ( )

I haven't come across too many contemporary YAs where the heroine is a sports player, so I was waiting eagerly for the library to get their copy. I'm so glad I read it, it was good.

Chelsea Keyes was the star basketball player in her hometown. She had a bright future with plans to attend college on a sports scholarship. She's going places...or she was, until she fell during a game and broke her hip. Now everything is changed. She's no longer comfortable in her own body, her relationship with her dad is beyond strained. She still has her amazing boyfriend who stuck with her through everything. But she can't get over what could have been.

Clint Morgan is an ex-hockey player with a broken heart. He goes to college and works, but doesn't have much of a life beyond that. He went into a funk when he lost someone close to him tragically. His friends despair of his workaholic ways when he comes up with his latest scheme, a boot camp to get people into shape. Can a girl with a broken hip mend a broken heart?

This book. OMG. Layers and layers and angst and lust and yeah, definitely a book for a more mature audience. But so good!

At the heart of it all is Chelsea and Clint, two very wounded individuals who have these hard, brittle exteriors that no one has been able to crack. When they first meet, they are definitely not what the other expected. And that's the first crack, I think. Then when Clint tries to push Chelsea to pick up a basketball, her shell cracks a little bit more.

"Show me what you've got," Clint says, casually swinging his arms and clapping his hands once in front of his hips.Doesn't the moron know that just touching the ball has caused the worst kind of ache to thunder through me? That it's like touching the warm skin of a man I love while he shakes his head, telling me no? That's what it's like for me to hold this basketball. It's like looking into the eyes of the man I love, who suddenly refused to love me back. You can't have me.

Then Chelsea pushes back, unknowingly, because Clint is attracted to her. And he hasn't opened himself up to anyone in a long time. But his growing attraction to Chelsea threatens his sense of self and his flinty exterior cracks a bit more.

Now, I'm going to tell you straight out - Chelsea is on her family's annual summer vacation when she meets Clint. So her boyfriend who stuck with her through everything is waiting for her back at home. And this is something that Clint and Chelsea both have to come to terms with. I relished the developing relationship between Chelsea and Clint though. If infidelity is a big no-no for you, then steer clear of this book. But if you don't mind when teenagers make mistakes and learn from them, then things aren't as bleak as they sound then, are they?

Also enjoyable was the broken relationship between Chelsea and her father. His hopes broke just as much as her hip did. She was his star. Chelsea feels like he's mad at her for what happened. She couldn't be more wrong. I liked seeing how they finally came back to understanding each other.

Playing Hurt is not your typical YA romance. I highly recommend it. ( )

I didn’t really know much about Playing Hurt by Holly Schindler when I picked it up. I ended up being pleasantly surprised! The characters were all going through various difficult circumstances and I ended up being pretty invested in how their stories would turn out.

I did know that Playing Hurt involved cheating because that had kept other people from picking it up. Considering the fact that the book features teenagers keeps me from being particularly offended. Y’all, kids make mistakes. If they didn’t, every young adult book ever written would be incredibly boring.

Chelsea Keyes got a tough break. She has a really promising basketball career in her future, but she took a bad fall in a big game. Now she has a leg full of metal plates and one heck of a downtrodden/bad attitude. Her dad decides it would be good for her to go through this wilderness boot camp type program – so the family packs up and heads off to the middle of nowhere.

Chelsea leaves behind her super supportive (overly so, really) boyfriend who she has depended on to try and get through the summer alone. She doesn’t expect Clint, the person in charge of her activities. He is hot. He is brooding. He has something about him. That mysterious, unhappy, guilty piece of him calls to Chelsea – just as the unhappy, angry, wounded piece of Chelsea calls to Clint. Hello attraction. And then, later on, hello sexytimes.

I loved Chelsea and Clint together, guys. I admit it. I embraced the cheating in Playing Hurt. Feel free to judge. But come on, they were really great for each other! They were both working to try and get past horrible things in their pasts. I love the way they were able to help each other work things out. Holly Schindler had some definite real chemistry at work here!

By the end of Playing Hurt, I really wasn’t that fond of Chelsea’s original boyfriend anyway. All the characters made mistakes – but they all grew too. That is what makes a good story!

I would love to read a sequel if Holly Schindler wrote one! I don’t think there will be and there doesn’t really need to be one – but still. I’d read it.

So, while Playing Hurt by Holly Schindler does have plot points that won’t appeal to everyone, I enjoyed it! I definitely wouldn’t recommend it to everyone. Still, if you’re already a fan of contemporary books – it is definitely worth reading. ( )

*This review possibly is going to contain spoilers(depends on what you think of as a spoiler). I’ve read what I’m writing her in other reviews for Playing Hurt, and the stuff I mention below was mentioned in their reviews as well. I don’t think I would be able to write it otherwise.*

You can almost tell by reading the summary for Playing Hurt, that cheating may occur somewhere in the pages. It ends up being a bigger part of the story, which didn’t bother me in the slightest. I thought to myself many times (since I read other reviews where the cheating may have bothered them), is there something wrong with me? Do I have a not have a conscience?! Once I started thinking about it more I came to the conclusion that Playing Hurt is fiction and I did many stupid things when I was Chelsea’s age, so I know what it’s like to be young and kind of stupid.

I’m a sports fan, and I played basketball in high school and understood many things Chelsea was going through. Seeing how different she was treated once her career in high school and college as a basketball star was no longer in the cards for her, reminded me of myself after I decided to stop playing sports. I actually broke a bone during Track, if you ask me I’ll be happy to write up a post and tell everyone the whole hilarious (and possibly embarrassing story). I liked seeing how Chelsea and Clint connected on many different levels, at first without them even knowing they did, which included loves besides sports.

I especially loved the romance and desire between Clint and Chelsea…WOW! I think that pretty much sums it up. Playing Hurt seems to be an older young adult novel, which as you all already know, I love them seeing as I’m an adult myself! I seek them out on a regular basis and I will continually do so.

At the beginning, I thought Gabe was WAY too perfect. I’m thinking (just my thoughts), that Holly Schindler possibly built him up this way for a reason. Maybe this way it was easier for the reader to even forget Gabe existed…I could be completely wrong, but I constantly was thinking, “Nobody’s that perfect!” In my mind, I was thinking from the start Gabe wasn’t the right fit for Chelsea.

I loved the pace of Playing Hurt. I read it very quickly even though I felt like I had no time to read. Playing Hurt was over before I knew it. Sad face :(. Holly Schindler added just the right amount of detail for me. I loved the metaphors and similes she wrote into the book. I especially liked, “It’s like he’s hotter than a steering wheel in August.” Chelsea is talking about Clint…swoon!

My thoughts on this book, even what I’ve written here, seem to be a jumbled mess, but I overall really like Playing Hurt and I would recommend it! ( )