I love, love, loved this book. I found it very hard to put down. The story line was so much different than anything else I've come across. Yes there's lots of books that have the sport themes to them, but usually the jock is of the male persuasion. Yes... there are some of those in here too, but the main attraction in this book is about the life of twenty five year old Billie Jo Barker, who happens to be an Olympic champion twice, in fact. She had also played on a professional mixed league in Sweden for the past four-five years, until she sustained her second major concussion in two months time. The last one was the one that ended her professional career.
Now she's back home with her family, such as it is. Her father who is only fifty-four, is suffering from dementia. Her sweet grandfather and her sister, Bobbi Jo has been doing their best to see to his daily needs, which has taken a toll on both of them. Her sister is bitter towards Billie Jo when she arrives back home. Why? Bobbi the more responsible one out of the three identical triplets, stayed home to care for her sick father and their elderly grandfather, while her two very famous sisters ran all over the globe living out their own dreams and not once thinking twice about what was going on back home. So when Billie, the famous hockey player shows up back home with her tail between her legs, Bobbi isn't about to cut her any slack. Billie has no idea why her sister is acting like a total bitch, until she sees for herself the bad shape her father is in. Right then and there she finally realizes for the first time, why Bobbi is acting that way. It was hard enough for her to see the way her father was wasting away into nothing more than a shell of the big strapping man her father used to be, and she'd only been there a day and a half. It must have been pure H*ll on Bobbi to watch her father fading away all these years, while she was out there pursuing her professional hockey career, and her other sister Betty Jo, was traveling the world as a top model all these years.
This book deals with all kinds of different situations.
1) Billie Jo trying to come to grips with the illness that was slowly stealing the man, who'd single handedly raised the three young girls all by himself, after losing his wife over twenty two years ago.
2) Billie Jo trying to figure out what she wants to do with her life from here on out, since playing professional hockey is no longer a viable option for her.
3) Then there's the sticky situation she has to deal with concerning Logan. The man Billie Jo had secretly loved since she was a teenager and gave her virginity to years ago, all while she pretended to be her sister, Betty Jo. They were just now finally starting to build a real relationship between them, so how was she suppose to tell him now, when all these years Logan had thought it had been Betty Jo that he'd fallen in love with. How is she ever going to explain to him now, that it was her he'd had sex with all those years ago and not her sister.
4) Then there's the local hockey team that resents her for invading their team. They along with most of the town's people, resent her for wanting to play on the men's league. Even though she's proved herself to be a much better player than any of the other members on the league. They have tried everything they could think of to get her to quit the team. First by openly taunting her, and when that didn't work they gone on to key her car and slashed her tires. And then when their desperation really set in they inflicted physical damage to her person on the ice, which resulted in serious bruises to her ankles and thighs and ten stitches in her side. Sadly, that just made even her more determined not to let them win.
5) And if all that is not enough for any one person to deal with....she has to find a way to mend the major riff that was growing bigger and bigger by the day, between herself and Bobbi Jo.
6)And just about the time everything starts to settle down a bit...Betty Jo shows up and inflicts her own kind of havoc on everyone, and she achieves it in less then a few hours time.
This story is so intense, but there's also lots of laughs along the way too.
Would I recommend this book? Yes, most definitely! If I could have rated this book a ten, you better bet I would have. That just how good this book really is.
Offside
4.3 | 2,832 ratings
Price: 17.46
Last update: 08-26-2024
About this item
Top reviews from the United States
CINDY F.
Awesome read and so completely different then another other book out there.
Reviewed in the United States on December 3, 2012Softball Mom
Fun Read
Reviewed in the United States on January 29, 2013