Review: Out of Play by Nyrae Dawn and Jolene Perry

Title: Out of Play
Author: Nyrae Dawn and Jolene Perry
Genre: YA Romance
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Length: 320 pages
Original Publishing Date: August 6th, 2013
Series: Standalone
Where I got it: NetGalley
Links: Goodreads Amazon

Synopsis from Goodreads:  
Rock star drummer Bishop Riley doesn't have a drug problem. Celebrities—especially ones suffering from anxiety—just need a little help taking the edge off sometimes. After downing a few too many pills, Bishop wakes up in the hospital facing an intervention. If he wants to stay in the band, he’ll have to detox while under house arrest in Seldon, Alaska.　

Hockey player Penny Jones can't imagine a life outside of Seldon. Though she has tons of scholarship offers to all the best schools, the last thing she wants is to leave. Who'll take care of her absentminded gramps? Not her mother, who can’t even be bothered to come home from work, let alone deal with their new tenants next door.

Penny’s not interested in dealing with Bishop’s crappy attitude, and Bishop’s too busy sneaking pills to care. Until he starts hanging out with Gramps and begins to see what he’s been missing. If Bishop wants a chance with the fiery girl next door, he’ll have to admit he has a problem and kick it. Too bad addiction is hard to kick…and Bishop’s about to run out of time.
 
Main characters: 3.5/5
I LOVE the fact that Penny plays hockey- especially on a guys team. I am a huge hockey fan and I was thrilled with the fact that Out of Play integrated my favorite sport. Penny's determination and tenacity coupled with her hot temper and fear to leave what she has always known made her a complex and interesting main character. I think one of the coolest things about Penny and Bishop is that I would have never pictured them together. Unfortunately, I also didn't feel the passion/romance that much either.

Secondary characters: 3/5
Bishop was an interesting guy: a famous drum player with a fear of crowds and a drug addiction. I thought that the fear of crowds aspect was unique and quirky, especially because it helped explain part of the reason why he started taking pills.
Other cool secondary characters: Gramps. That's about it. We didn't get much about Penny's mom, Gary was chill but not very interesting, Mitch seemed like a sweet best friend but a little underdeveloped.

Writing style: 2/5
I wouldn't call the writing style bad but it was difficult to wade through at times. The pacing was pretty slow and although I enjoyed the plot and characters for the most part, the story moved so slowly. In some parts, slow pacing was good. For instance, the romance was definitely not instalove. However, I was overall disappointed in the pace of the writing. Especially in scenes like the hockey games- they are so exciting and I felt the writing sometimes took the tension out of it.

Plot: 3/5
Okay, so this story has everything that I love: hockey, snowmobiling, and love. As stated before, the pacing was slow, but the progression of Bishop and Penny's romance was a little quirky. They seemed only vaguely attracted to each other and then suddenly the heat was turned on and then they were in love. I wasn't sold on their romance. Beyond the romance however, I liked Bishop's progression of learning that he had a problem and working to solve it.

Ending: 2.5/5
Kind of an odd exodus after the climax. There's so much tension and then it's all just... gone. I did like the places where Bishop and Penny ended up: emotionally and in their relationship.

Best scene: The snowmobiling scene

Positives: The unique characters, the premise, Gramps,

Negatives: The pacing, length, unmemorable secondary characters, flat romance

Cover: a) Meh, it's not very pretty. b) I feel like the hair color on both Bishop and Penny is wrong.

Verdict: I wanted to like this unique romance more than I did.

Rating: 5.6/10 (3 stars)

Your Thoughts: Have you read it? What did you think? If you haven't, will you be adding it to your TBR list? Let me know!