Happy Book Birthday, Crossing the Line by Lynn Rush and Kelly Anne Blout!

It's romance time! And sport time! Yep, romance with sports. Mix that with a book birthday, and it's a guaranteed emotional rollercoaster with today's read and post. I don't get to romance very often. Well, there's often romance in the YA reads, but I don't read 'pure' romance very often. Still, the mix with track caught my attention.

Grab that box of tissues and a cup or tea because it's time to get lost in moments of teen love!

CROSSING THE LINE

by Lynn Rush and 

Kelly Anne Blout

Entangled Teen

Young Adult Sport Romance

336 pages

A patch of black ice is all it takes for Ryan “Preach” Armstrong’s perfectly planned future to skid out of control. The car crash shatters his hockey dreams…and injures Woodhaven’s newest student, Grace Milner. As much as this feisty track phenom gets under Preach’s skin in all the best and worst ways, she might just be his path to redemption…

Grace can’t believe that all it took was seriously bad timing and a hot but prickly hockey player to threaten her lifelong dream of joining the Air Force. Now, instead of prepping for the track season and upcoming start of basic training, she has to complete community service with the absolute last person she would ever want to be stuck with—the guy who shattered her future.

When two fierce competitors collide this hard, the only result is heartbreak…or an epic victory as they cross the finish line together.

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MY TIDBITS

Sarcasm, frustration, and hard-feelings are chipped away as a budding romance brings along the light of new hope with a couple to cheer for.

Grace's family has just moved to the small town, and she's already had her life basically destroyed. In a few months, she's supposed to be heading off to basic training, but those dreams might be shot thanks to an idiot, who can't keep his car under control. Now, she'll be lucky if her wrist ever works properly again. At the same time, Preach, the guy who hit her thanks to black ice and her determination to 'save' a dog from the middle of the road, is watching his own future implode in front of his eyes. That accident meant his third concussion in a couple years...which also means that he's banned from the ice for good. His guaranteed hockey scholarships are swished down the drain, and the girl, who's responsible, refuses to realize it's her dumb fault. 

This romance is written in first person from two points of view: Grace's and Preach's. Each chapter starts with the character's name at the beginning to keep confusion at bay. Still, for some unknown reason, I was convinced the first chapter's voice was the girl's (it did state Preach but my brain!) and this kept throwing me the whole way through...although I never figured out why.

Anyway, this is a wonderful, enemies-to-friends romance, in which tons of sparks fly. The opening scene with the accident, throwing both sides completely out of their life's games, starts everything out in a great upset. This allows the characters to let their nastiest sides shine, when interacting with each other, and the flood of insults and bickering begins. It's fun, it's even humorously grabbing, and when the first signs of interest between them spark, it's that much more exciting. Both sides are right. Both sides are wrong. And it works magically.

There are quite a few heavier moments in these pages as well. While Preach is working out his future and such, Grace has some deeper issues, which don't come to light right away. So, while there is romance...tons of that...character growth is also key. Both sides need to learn to step into new possibilities and find hope as well as peace. This gives them needed depth and makes them easier to relate to. And this is where the sport aspect filters in perfectly and gives even more reason to root for them and cheer until the very end.