This one has a fantastic synopsis that encapsulates the
characters perfectly.
Caro Cassidy used to be a legend.
During her career, Caro was one of the best defense players in women’s hockey. These days, she keeps to herself. Her all-girls hockey camp is her life, and she hopes it’ll be her legacy. Sure, her new summer hire is charming and magnetic, but Caro keeps her work and personal life strictly separate.
Amy Schwarzbach lives life out loud.
Amy’s as bright and cheerful as her lavender hair, and she uses her high-profile position in women’s hockey to advocate for the things she believes in. Ten weeks in Chicago coaching a girls’ training camp is the perfect opportunity to mentor the next generation before she goes back to Boston.
Letting love in means putting yourself out there.
During her career, Caro was one of the best defense players in women’s hockey. These days, she keeps to herself. Her all-girls hockey camp is her life, and she hopes it’ll be her legacy. Sure, her new summer hire is charming and magnetic, but Caro keeps her work and personal life strictly separate.
Amy Schwarzbach lives life out loud.
Amy’s as bright and cheerful as her lavender hair, and she uses her high-profile position in women’s hockey to advocate for the things she believes in. Ten weeks in Chicago coaching a girls’ training camp is the perfect opportunity to mentor the next generation before she goes back to Boston.
Letting love in means putting yourself out there.
Loving means putting yourself out there. Yes.
It is impossible to not get completely swept away by the
wonderful whirlwind that Amy is. But exciting-ness and guilelessness is not all
that is there to Amy. She has her own issues but more importantly, she is
entirely amazing as a person and as a partner. She totally has it all together
and all right.
Caro is more about her baggage and issues. About her fears and
about her personality problems. By the end of the book, Caro is making and
effort and moving out of her own mental and emotional prison, largely because of
Amy’s positive impact on her.
Farmer write both characters with depth and empathy. She creates
three-dimensional women who such completely realised characters that they become
real. You can totally feel them.
As a couple, we aren’t completely happy with the pairing. We
found it very, very one-sided with Amy putting herself out there and making all
the effort. We felt Caro didn’t give nearly enough (and far from equal) to
either Amy or the relationship. We appreciate that relationships probably work
out that way, but it is hard reading it. Harder to feel so invested in Amy and
feel she’s not getting nearly as much as she deserves on the caring and
emotional level. Yes, by the end, Caro is more open but everything she is doing
is about herself and self-acceptance; we didn’t find anything about her putting
herself out there for Amy.
So that was our rant about wanting a character we loved to
get more.
Rant apart, this is a very, very well written book. Completely
engaging, thoroughly involving and, well, Amy.
We unhesitatingly recommend this one.
⭐⭐⭐⭐★
