Body Check

February 15, 2003
Janna MacNeil is a publicist with a tough assignment: transform the hard-drinking, hooker-soliciting, Stanley Cup-misusing New York Blades hockey team into family-friendly cash cows for Corporate. Her prime adversary is the competitive, gorgeous, brusque team captain Ty Gallagher, to whom public relations means dating a different model each weekend. Ty's stubborn refusal to do anything resembling a United Way commercial collides with Janna's professional persistence, so of course they despise each other, until they end up discovering each other's hidden virtues and making out on the kitchen floor. Tentative romance ensues, as do hockey-themed double entendres: "Don't come crying to me," says Janna's roommate, "when you find out he's shooting his puck into some other woman's net." Whether Janna and Ty's love can survive the playoffs depends on how well they can overcome stubborn gender cliches, and how well readers can weather the infrequency of board-crashing, Zamboni-shaking sex scenes. A lively plot keeps things interesting, however, and Ro-" bear, "Janna's poetic poseur ex, are downright hysterical. Martin's debut may not melt the ice, but it is heartwarming.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2003, American Library Association.)