Playing Defense

3.5 “Sweet and cute hockey player” STARS
PLAYING Defense is another good example of a YA contemporary romance that is cute and easy to read.
The MC here is Claudia, a super smart senior working extra hard to get the perfect application for college. Claudia has her future planned: it involves a lot of studying and no fun at all. That’s exactly how she’s been living for many years. Until she’s assigned to tutor a guy who knows how to have fun.
Chris is a super cute hockey player who lives for the moment – especially if the moment involves fun pranks. He’s an easygoing guy, but he’s also sort of lazy. Instead of trying to achieve greatness, Chris is happy to settle for average (or at least that’s my first impression of him – and Claudia’s too). After he spends some time with hard-working Claudia, he realizes he might want more out of life.
You put these two together and it’s bound to get messy and interesting, right?
Claudia and Chris are the perfect example of opposites attract. They initially have nothing in common, until this new “club” helps solidify their friendship and turn it into something else.
Paired with Karen, the MC from the first book in the “Corrigan Falls Raiders” series, Claudia comes up with a sisterhood idea. The point of the Sisterhood is to have a support system while you become the most awesome version of yourself – the “sisters” try to challenge themselves by doing things they normally wouldn’t and they have the other members to support them through it. Pretty cool, huh? I truly loved this idea and I wish it was real. This was definitely one of my favorite aspects of this story.
One of the nicest things about the Sisterhood is that despite its name it’s not exclusive to women. Chris is the first guy to join the club (and not the only) and his challenges bring him closer to Claudia. Since they’re spending more time together, it makes perfect sense for their feelings to develop the way it did. Claudia saw in Chris an opportunity to really live her life, instead of hiding behind pile of books and the promise of a great future. And Chris saw in Claudia the chance to be more than a “stupid jock” – which he never really was.
The author explored these character’s insecurities well with internal and external factors. Besides doubting herself and her ability to have a successful future, Claudia also had to deal with pressure from her mother. That woman was pretty horrible. Sure I get that she was worried about her only daughter and wanted her to have the best future possible, but to Claudia’s mom that only meant a successful career. She didn’t seem to remember love, friends and family were just as important in a person’s life. Maybe that’s because it didn’t seem like she had any friends of her own. Or love in her life. Her husband was pretty much useless – I don’t even know if he had a single line even though he was present in at least a couple of scenes. He’d simply stand there and watch as Claudia’s mom tried to make their daughter give up on anything that wasn’t studying and preparing to go to university. I really despised the both of them. And Claudia’s childhood friend – that girl was insufferable.
While I wished Claudia had confronted her mother (and her friend) more often, I was happy to see her choose her own path in life in the end. I also wished I’d seen more of Claudia and Karen’s friendship. Even Oliver seemed like an interesting character, but he was forgotten and swallowed by the rest of the story. If the story had focused more on the Sisterhood and the friendship between the kids, as well as the romance (obviously) instead of Claudia’s drama with her crazy mother, I think I would’ve enjoyed it even more.

Overall, this was a good read and I’d recommend it to people looking for a cute YA love story.

*The review will be part of the book tour organized by Chapter by Chapter Blog Tours from March 14th to 25th. I'll also post it on Goodreads and Amazon on the day it goes live and update the feedback here with the link*