Blind Squirrel

Finished March 8

Blind Squirrel by Dave Mishkin

This novel tells an interesting story. The main character, Noah Nicholson is a minor league hockey player. He has excellent hand-eye coordination, which makes up for his slower skating. The story is told mainly in the present, but also jumps back to Noah's childhood. 

Noah has been on the team in Hershey, Pennsylvania for years, and is the captain of the team. He is also the guy that sets the tone, and guides new players through the team dynamic and what is expected of them. As the book begins, we see him go through this with two younger players. One is a young married player whose wife has recently had a baby, and the sleep deprivation has been causing him to be late often, and not play up to expectations. Despite not having a family of his own, we see how he reminds the young man of the expectations on him, and guides him to resources. The other player is a young Russian player who played in the Canadian minor league the year before, and went briefly to the NHL team affiliated with the Hershey team, but is spending the rest of the season in the minors. Noah guides him to better choices in nutrition than the fast food he's been living on, and gets him into a routine that will serve him to hone his skills and help him mature as a player. 

Noah, despite being admired and liked, has a secret that he has been dealing with for years, since the death of his parents in an accident when he was only twelve. It has him shying away from serious relationships, and living a lonely life. 

In his childhood, raised by two loving parents, both teachers, one of whom was headed towards pro sports before an injury, he had a great life. His parents were supportive, but also instilled a strong ethical core in him. They were active, running and biking. They read a lot, with his mother in particular sharing a love of books with him through a habit of bedtime reading that lasted long past when most kids stop. They didn't just read, they also talked about the books, about the ideas represented and what they meant. He also started young with a passion for baseball with his hand-eye coordination leading to not only playing on teams young, but also practicing regularly with his parents as support. He was an excellent hitter .and catcher, with his best friend as an excellent pitcher. They lived in California, but had a strong community that they were involved in. 

After his parents' death, he moved back east to live with his paternal grandmother and they had a good relationship. It was based on similar expectations to the ones his father had grown up with: a strong work ethic, good academics, and involvement in a sport. Noah couldn't face baseball without his parents, but he took advantage of the great private school his parents had planned for him in this eventuality and access to an ice rink, and taught himself how to skate so he could join the school hockey team. 

We see how he came to be where he is, and when he unexpectedly is injured in a game, ending his career, we see his depression and the actions that led him out of it. Once again, he becomes connected to his community, makes new friends, and might even have a chance of a romance and a new career. But only if he deals with his past trauma. 

I found the main character to have a lot of depth, and his story is told with empathy and sensitivity. We gradually learn the details of his trauma and how he has coped. I genuinely cared about him. 

The author brings his sports experience to this book. He began sports broadcasting in college, and now works for the Tampa Bay Lightning NHL team. He does mainly radio broadcasting but launched into television this year. Because of his experience telling fans about the sports he watches, he makes both baseball and hockey come alive for the reader, which means that the sports details here are never boring. This is his first book, and I definitely would be interested in reading more by him.

Rules of the Game

Finished May 29 

Rules of the Game by Lori Wilde

This book is the second book in a series of novels set in Stardust, Texas. Jodi Carlyle was jilted at the altar a year ago. She's been making progress in therapy, and with her sister's wedding just a few weeks away, she knows she must get her anxiety regarding weddings under control. Her assignment is to attend a wedding. 

But of course Jodi decides to go all out, and makes plans to crash one of the swankiest wedding in nearby Dallas. She is nearly caught, but Jake Coronnado, the new hitter for the Dallas Gunslinger's baseball team rescues her from a tricky situation. She gives Jake a false name and doesn't pretend that their wild night is anything but a fling. What she doesn't know is that Jake has stepped in as best man at her sister's wedding and they are going to be spending a lot of time together.

A case of strong attraction, both characters getting over events in their past, and small town connections, this romance has lots of plot as well. Jodi runs a popular BandB with each room a different railroad car, and I found that interesting too. The Carlyle family is close, and the existence of a special object with deeper meaning and perhaps even a tendency to foretell the future brings an added element to the story that is carried through the series. 

A fun and light read, with many interesting characters. 

The Bromance Book Club

Finished October 10
The Bromance Book Club by Lyssa Kay Adams

This romance novel has a lot of humour and some pretty graphic scenes. It is the first in a series (as I'm writing this there are four books) that deal with romance and relationships in Nashville. It's different because there is a strong focus on the men's side of things in these relationships.
In this first book in the series professional baseball player Gavin Scott is having a crisis. He fell in love and married quickly when his girlfriend Thea became pregnant, just before he hit the majors. Now it is five years later, and his wife and him have been growing further apart for a variety of reasons. When an intimate encounter enlightens him to the fact that Thea has been faking orgasms for years, he can't deal with it, and reacts badly. Thea is now asking for a divorce and he is panicking. Enter the men's book club (it only gains the name on the cover towards the end of the novel). Some of his team members are in the book club, but so are other professional sports players and men with other high-level profiles in town. They are set on helping him save his marriage, and assign him a Regency romance book as homework. It takes him a while to understand that they are serious and to take the assignment seriously, but he begins to understand that his problems aren't really about the sex, but go much deeper. As he learns to communicate better with his wife and show his caring in ways that she can see, things improve.
The other men aren't shown in depth here, but future novels in the series focus on different men, so each gets his focused look. We also see some parts of the story from Thea's viewpoint and see how her background shaped her and the beliefs she has about relationships.
The intimacy not only of the relationship between these two characters, but of their family life as well brings depth to their story. I could already see one future romance on the horizon for the series too.
A fun read, with a different angle and more depth than at first glance. Looking forward to the next one, and have already put it on hold at my local library.

Fix Her Up

Finished July 5
Fix Her Up by Tessa Bailey

This spicy romance novel is the small town of Port Jefferson, Long Island, New York. Travis Ford is a local boy who became a baseball superstar, playing in the majors. He also got a reputation as a ladies man, never staying with one woman for long enough to have a relationship. But after an injury, his skills weren't what they were, and he was traded around a bit before ending up without a contract. So now he's back home, and feeling sorry for himself. Enter Georgette (Georgie) Castle, the little sister of Travis' best friend Stephen.
Georgie has been in love with Travis for years, but never expressed her feelings. Her family knows, but no one has told Travis. Georgie has been working as a clown, making a living doing parties and other events. Now she's looking to step it up and hire some performers and become a larger entertainment company. Only problem is that no one seems to take her seriously, always treating her like a kid. And she's tired of that.
She's easygoing though, and has enough personality to take on Travis. She challenges his attitude, getting him out of his apartment and among the living again, and then she challenges him again, and just keeps on doing that.
And Travis finds himself seeing her in a different light, and feeling guilty for being so attracted to her. But also feeling like he's not felt about a woman before.
And so the story goes.
There is humour, graphic sex, and a decent plot. A fun, summer read.

One Perfect Lie

Finished May 24
One Perfect Lie by Lisa Scottoline, read by George Newbern

This suspense novel takes some time to let the reader into what is truly going on. It starts as Chris Brennan is starting as a teacher and coach at a high school in small town Pennsylvania, not far from Philadelphia. We know that Chris is not who or what he says he is, but we don't know what his real identity is, and we don't find out for a while.
He is interested in a particular group of high school boys, those on the baseball team. He is looking for one that he can get close to, and influence in some way. He has his eye on three particular boys, and those three boys we learn more about, primarily through their mothers.
Raz is the son of Susan Sematov, an executive at the nearby outlet mall. Raz's father died recently and it has affected his normally easygoing and outgoing personality. Susan is worried about him, and his future. They were all hoping that he's be drafted by a good college for his pitching expertise.
Jordan has just made the varsity baseball team after working hard over the summer to improve his skills. His mother Heather Larkin has raised him on her own, working hard at the local country club. But the new ownership is changing the way she feels about her job, and she regrets not being able to go to any of Jordan's games. She worries about the effect some of his friends have, especially those that come from wealthy backgrounds. Evan is one of those kids. His dad bought him a new BMW that cost more than Heather made in the last year, and he seems to throw around his money recklessly. He's always on his phone, and is a boy that likes to party. His mother Mindy Kostis is worried about him and about her marriage. She'd caught her husband cheating before and they'd started fresh after therapy, but he's acting odd again, and she's scared it's starting again. She's afraid that Evan has grown secretive too, and she wonders what he's up to. She's determined not to use alcohol as a coping mechanism like she did during her earlier marital crisis.
As a reader, I wondered what effect Chris would have on these boys, and I didn't like some of his methods to find out more about them.
This is a novel of secrets, of people pretending to be something they aren't, and about families and their ways of communicating with each other. It's about learning to look for the good in people and doing the right thing regardless of what others might want you to do.
I enjoyed it.

The Flood Girls

Finished February 24
The Flood Girls by Richard Fifield

This novel is one that had me laughing and crying. The setting is Quinn, a small town in Montana, and we see things from the point of view of several characters. Rachel is a young woman who left town years before after a series of notorious behaviour climaxed with one causing her mother to throw her out. She's turned her life around, joined AA and is now in the process of making amends. Coming back to town is part of that transition for her. The recent death of her father Frank, has given her a place to live during this time. Jake is twelve and lives next door to Rachel with his mother and her boyfriend and their baby. Jake is a precocious child, with a passion for fashion, pulpy novels, rosaries, and Madonna. Frank was one of the people he related well to. Rachel's mom, Laverna, is a tough woman who owns one of the two bars in town. She also sponsors a women's baseball team, the notorious Flood Girls. Rachel is compelled to be on the team despite her lack of sports experience.
The book is rich with wonderful characters from Martha Man Hands to the two Mabels (Red and Black) to Buley, who owns the local thrift store.
Quinn is also a mining town, and a group of the regulars at Laverna's bar, the Dirty Shame, is a group of rough and rowdy lesbian miners. They are peripheral to the story, but offer an interesting background to the action.
This is a story of friendship and families, of acceptance and prejudice. A book that shows the wonder and tragedy of life.
I loved it.