The last thing that ex-star basketball player Chelsea Keyes has on her mind when she arrives at Camp Lake in the Woods is a summer of training. She is miserable, reliving the awful accident on the court that ended her college-ball-bound career, not to mention her relationship with her father and her standing at school. No longer Chelsea "Nitro" Keyes, pride of Fair Grove, she is bitter about her loss and the metal plate holding together her hip. Scared of reinjuring herself, she refuses to participate in even the slightest activities, thus complicating matters when her father hires a trainer for her for their summer vacation at the camp. Chelsea tries to resist Clint and his attempts to rehabilitate her, but the former sports star is drawn to the mysterious ex-hockey player. He, too, knows the agony of playing hurt and the difficulties of letting go. Playing Hurt chronicles a summer of healing for two teens who help one another work through personal tragedy. Told through alternating narratives, Schindler's novel reads like a summer afternoon. Both heartbreaking and thrilling, the emotional journey that Clint and Chelsea embark on together is more than a heady romance; the characters are realistically drawn, and the book does not shy away from the reality of the characters' experiences: anger and grief mixed with desire and yearning. The book speaks to personal struggles and triumphs and the ability of the human spirit to heal. Playing Hurt is a good read.