Review: Great start to new series.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 10 14, 2012
I have been on a complete contemporary kick lately and Offside definitely did not disappoint. I really liked this book and I definitely can't wait to get my hands on more contemporaries from Juliana Stone. I loved the characters she created and the town they all live in. I'll be honest, I'm not the biggest hockey fan and I honestly don't know much about the sport except for what I've seen watching The Mighty Ducks movies, but I didn't feel lost or overwhelmed at all. I really enjoyed this book and it definitely got me wanting to watch some hockey.I think what I loved most about this book is that it features a girl hockey player. Now I'm not sure if there are really any pro girl hockey players out there but I don't care. Billie-Jo Barker was a hockey phenom until she got a bad concussion while playing. Now she's back home and itching to play hockey again so she decides to join the local hockey league. The only problem is because she's a woman no one wants to play with her. Everyone treats her like she's a freak for even trying to play a "mans game." They call her names, trash her car and pretty much just treat her like crap when all she wants to do is play the game she loves. Logan Forrest is one of the only people that stick up for her. Everyone is freaking out about her playing in the league and refusing to play with her so Logan decides to put her on his team. He knows that Billie can stick up for herself and is a damn good hockey player. Who cares that she's a woman?Billie has been in love with Logan for years and even spent one glorious night with him years ago, though Logan believes he was Betty-Jo. When they start to get closer and start flirting with one another Billie is worried that he is only attracted to her because she reminds him of her sister.Logan has never forgotten the night he spent with Betty-Jo or how she treated him afterwards. He's vowed to not get involved with another Barker sister but the more time he spends with Billie the harder he's finding it to keep his hands off of her.I really enjoyed both Logan and Billie. My only issue is that I feel like I didn't see them together enough. I would have liked to have seen more of their relationship play out on the pages rather than behind the scenes. While I loved these two together it just felt like something was missing.Billie-Jo was a great character and I like that we were able to a good sense of who she is. She comes off as this really tough put together chick but there is so much more than that. She's very vulnerable and is dealing with so much. She and her sisters don't get along, her father has dementia and she's just trying to figure out what to do with her life now that she can't play professional hockey. I loved that we were able to see this side of her.All in all this was a great start to a new series. I definitely can't wait to get my hands on the rest of the books in this series. I am in love with Shane and I can't wait to find out what happened to him and Billie's sister Bobbi.