My vision has adjusted to the darkness, and I can see his face more clearly now. He's frozen in place, dark eyes intent.
If you won't go out with me, he says, don't go out with anybody else. Okay? He grabs my hand and squeezes it. His palm is calloused.
Look, it's not you that's the problem. I try to take my hand back, but he threads his fingers through mine. It's me.
He steps closer. How about I kiss you? That should convince me it's not going to work.
You're only interested in me because I'm not interested in you, I tell him. If you kiss me, you won't find me nearly as fascinating.
He brings his face close to mine. Close enough to a yes.
Jessie McIntyre, 17, starts her last year of minor hockey-and high school-with loads on her mind. Her AAA team is short a head coach, her future plans are unclear, and some of her teammates aren't impressed with her new role as team captain. On top of it all, her little sister is making some lousy decisions while Jessie's parents seem unaware. But, hey, should Jessie be critical? She's made some pretty bad ones herself-especially when it comes to guys.
Breakaway is Book Three in the award-winning #jessiemachockeyseries. Power Plays (Book 1) won a Moonbeam gold medal and was a finalist for the Saskatchewan Book Awards, Snow Willow Awards, and BC Young Readers Choice (Stellar) Awards. Face Off (Book 2) was a recipient of a Moonbeam silver medal.
Having spent 25 years in the classroom with junior and senior high school students, I love to write for teens. I have my feet firmly planted in two worlds -- the arts and sports. When I'm not writing, there's nothing I'd rather be doing than watching football, baseball, or hockey, travelling, riding my motorcycle, or going to plays. I hope you enjoy meeting my characters as much as I've enjoyed bringing them to life.
I'm a fan of local authors so this book was a treat to read as were the others in the series. Living in Estevan, most of the characters I can picture. A great series for young readers with timely topics covered.
As hard as it is to believe, there are some people who have never embraced hockey as a Canadian life focus. I am one such person. My family never watched hockey when I was young. I had no brothers or cousins nearby whose hockey passions I could follow. And although I had friends who watched hockey, girls were not playing hockey when I was growing up. I never even went to my first hockey game until I was in my 20's. So reading and reviewing a book called Breakaway with a cover predicting a story suffused with hockey would not be a compelling read for me. Or so I thought.
Breakaway is far more than the hockey story suggested in the title and cover art. Breakaway tells the story of seventeen-year-old Jessie McIntyre of Estevan, Saskatchewan. Jessie and some of her former teammates have recreated themselves into a new Triple A team called the Estevan McGillicky Oilers. Being part of a new league and being a senior preparing for university, hopeful of being scouted for the university hockey team and getting a scholarship, Jessie finds herself at the crossroads of many new pathways.
She's still trying to get over a very short relationship from two years ago with Mark Taylor, now a University of Calgary hockey player, headed for the World Juniors. And she needs to decide what she wants of her friendly relationship with Evan Gedak who plays basketball at U. of C. But there's Liam McCarthur, also a senior, who is obviously taking an interest in Jessie who doesn't know how to deal with him except with animosity and embarrassment.
Her Oilers team is having to turn away some former teammates and recruit new players and coaches, and Jessie, as elected captain, has to help everyone come together as a team, even when some players make poor decisions that threaten the team's very existence. Moreover, as Jessie attempts to go forward in her new team, her circle of friends and acquaintances seems to be in more flux, with enemies becoming friends and friends becoming strangers or worse.
And at home, Jessie's eleven-year-old sister, Courtney, has decided to give up on figure skating and go out for hockey, latching onto new friends and trying on the uniform of a rebellious and temperamental teen and dragging Jessie into the midst of her drama.
Within 10 pages this book had already brought to the surface one of my pet peeves in literature: girls who use "boy talk" to sound cool, as in "I have to take a leak." While I am not a prude, I just can't possibly imagine a high school girl that I would recommend this to. Perhaps it is the cultural differences of American vs. Canadian teens but this would be a hard sell in my suburban school library. (Disclaimer: we also don't even have a boy's hockey team at our school so an entire series on girl's hockey would be a stretch.)
I did not finish this one. It is book 3 of the Jessie Mac series.