Series: Standalone
Release Date: August 6th, 2013
Hockey player Penny Jones can’t imagine a life outside of Seldon. Though she has tons of scholarship offers to all the best schools, the last thing she wants is to leave? Who’ll take care of her absentminded gramps? Not her mother, who can’t even be bothered to come home from work, let alone deal with their new tenants next door.
Penny’s not interested in dealing with Bishop’s crappy attitude, and Bishop’s too busy sneaking pills to care. Until he starts hanging out with Gramps and begins to see what he’s been missing. If Bishop wants a chance with the fiery girl next door, he’ll have to admit he has a problem and kick it. Too bad addiction is hard to kick … and Bishop’s about to run out of time.
• Native Alaskan main character
• Alzheimer’s
• No descriptive sex scene with OW/OM
• Does have the Hero and Heroine pushing away
• Does not have a separation between the Hero and Heroine
• See Ending for HEA status.
• See Possible Triggers for Abuse and OTT sad parts.
Rating: 4/5 stars
I was wary purchasing Out of Play, mainly because drugs are a serious issue, and if not properly addressed the book will suffer. The main character, Bishop’s addiction wasn’t so bad that he didn’t realize he needed a change in his life.
I feel that the two authors, Dawn and Perry, did an excellent job balancing the story between the two main characters, Bishop and Penny. Bishop’s drug problems were handled in a mature and informative way but were also realistic for a boy who’s is in a world-famous band.
And I absolutely loved our heroine, Penny! She was so kick-ass and held nothing back. If the fact that she plays on the highest level all-boys hockey team available in Alaska isn’t awesome, I don’t know what is! And her relationship with her Gramps was so sweet, but it seriously showed the huge gap that was between Penny and her mother.
The overall writing of the novel was handled splendidly, allowing a flow to be created between each main character’s personal story by each confiding in Gramps. Also, the pace of the book and the plot were in sync so I wasn’t left feeling that parts were too rushed or too slow.
Out of Play mainly focused on the anticipation for Bishop and Penny’s relationship to develop and dread that something bad was going to happen–because drug and alcohol addiction is one of the main topics in the story.
I loved how mature (although Bishop did have his moments) both the characters behaved and handled their lives. And the fact that Penny was a heroine who knew what she wanted and went after it was something to be admired. I think it’s because Penny was such a strong person, that Bishop really found someone to push him to fix his ways. However, Penny also needed a person to lean on since she was stuck managing her house, watching Gramps and playing hockey, etc. It was a lot for a girl of seventeen/eighteen to take on, but again the authors did this realistically.
Out of Play was a really enjoyable read, with meaningful themes, and a sweet, slow-burn romance.
