Review: Playing Hurt

Playing Hurt 

Holly Schindler

Release Date: March 8, 2011
Publisher: Flux
Rating: 4.5/5

Star basketball player Chelsea "Nitro" Keyes had the promise of a full ride to college—and everyone's admiration back home. Then she took a horrible fall during senior year. Now a metal plate holds her together and she feels like a stranger in her own family.



That summer, Chelsea's dad hires Clint, a nineteen-year-old ex-hockey player and "boot camp" trainer, to work with her at a northern Minnesota lake resort. As they grow close, Chelsea finds that Clint's haunted by his own tragedy. Will their romance end up hurting them all over again—or finally heal their heartbreak?

I've heard such amazing things about Holly's writing. I've been wanting to read her first one since it came out last year (though I haven't gotten around to it yet). Playing Hurt was just as good as I expected, if not better. Once I started, I couldn't put it down.


I loved both Chelsea's and Clint's characters. I also loved the different POVs. They were both haunted by their own demons, trying to get over the past. They were attracted to each other from the very beginning, though not in a "love at first sight" kind of thing, which I appreciated. Their relationship was somewhat just physical at first, but then grew into something more. They helped each other in more ways than one.

Holly Schindler writes so fabulously. It was so pure. My only complaint (though a very small one) would be that the two POVs were to similar. By that I mean that if I didn't already know whose POV it was, I wouldn't be able to tell. This wasn't a big deal; I didn't mind. But Holly's writing was beautiful, and not like I've read in a while.

Playing Hurt was so wonderful. All I can say is that I won't be waiting long to read her first book.