Review: Very Enjoyable Read
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 12 23, 2013
This book is for a mature audience only.  This is not a hockey book, but has hockey players as characters.Imagine your life, if you have been born and bred to be nothing more than a "Stepford wife", living a "forced" life of high society, controlled by your domineering father, who only uses you and your family to further his wealth and political power.  Because of his designed controls, you have no visible means or marketable skills of actually supporting the only lifestyle that you have ever known in your life , on your own.  Your life and happiness are traded and manipulated by men who have the power and the immoral code to do anything they desire without repercussion.  All your other support mechanisms, your mother and sister and all your close friends find themselves in the exact same situation, leading lives of frustration and despair.  The only escapes available are from freely prescribed drugs and desperate illicit affairs in the search for temporary happiness.This is the life that the heroine, J.D. (Jack or Jacqueline), leads with her sibling and friends.  Her father has arranged a marriage to Phillip, a man she does not love, and that has cheated on her numerous times during their long engagement.  J.D.s other love interest is Mike (her childhood sweetheart), a highly paid and talented professional NHL hockey player.  In her youthful past, only Mike had provided J.D. any sense of stability, security and chance for happiness, but even that was on a short term basis.  Mike, as a highly sought hockey star, has also been known as a player.  Even though she is 28 years old, she must take into account that the relationship with Mike may not work out and that she cannot afford to burn any bridges to what little family support she has.After catching Phillip in an act of infidelity, J.D. rebels from her father's control and runs away to Mike.  She is forced to decide whether she will bend to her father's will (and also protect Mike), be rich but unhappy, whether she can trust Mike with her future and happiness, or whether she only cares for Mike as a friend and support, but should pursue other opportunities that arise during her travels.  The story then progresses to her struggle to first find herself and decide what she wants to do with her life in her search for happiness.  All in all, despite a few other negative reviews I've read, I found this story to be very entertaining and enjoyable.