Jake Hammond is the current Prince of Juniper Falls. He’s also been labeled the next great player to emerge from the Juniper Falls hockey dynasty. When a hundred-year-old hazing tradition at Juniper Falls pond goes all wrong, Jake is left seriously injured, shouldering the blame for the near death of another student and the knowledge that the quiet new girl saved his life.
Maybe if she’d realized how different this small town was from Austin, Brooke Parker wouldn’t have followed her mum here. Not that she had a choice. Same with saving that cocky hockey player from drowning at the pond. Now, she keeps seeing that same guy, wandering the woods between their houses. And they start to regularly meet at midnight in Jake’s old tree house.
Jake realizes that Brooke is full of life, ideas, places, and experiences bigger and broader than anything he’s ever known. Plus, she’s the first person to ever see him as Jake Hammond, a guy who’s not sure what to do with his life, rather than the future hockey star.
Maybe it isn’t enough anymore to just be the town hockey star? For Brooke, relying only on herself might not be enough, either.
I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Hockey star Jake meets new girl Brooke in this romance that also doubles as an after school special on hazing.
My synopsis is tongue in cheek, but it’s not wrong. This is a romance about two people falling in love. It’s also about the realities of high school hazing. About the perpetuation of the act by members of the group for the simple fact they do not know how to stop it. Doesn’t absolve them of their own complicity, but it does show the courage it takes to go against a well oiled tradition.
Jake was by far the more interesting character. The story worked best when it focused on Jake’s investigation into his high school’s troubled hockey team. Brooke, however, suffered for it. Her story had so many interesting elements, but she was underutilized and under developed. Brooke shined best once she joined the women’s hockey league. This book would have been a solid 4 stars if Brooke’s character development had been a bit more.
tl;dr While I enjoyed the book, it didn’t develop both of the main characters as much as I would like.
