Publisher: Self
Date of publication: September 29, 2015
Callie
Blood, sweat, hard work, and a
disconcerting lack of tears—my entire life—was meant to culminate in a
flourish of glory and significance.
I’d thought I’d always known
exactly what that meant.
But I’d had the timing wrong by
about three minutes.
I knew now.
This moment wasn’t
everything. The one person I found myself wanting more than anything during it
was.
Nik
One preconceived notion can
haunt you for the entirety of your life.
I thought I owed it to myself
and to everyone who’d ever backed me to do what was expected. What was right.
What I was supposed to do.
But nothing is forbidden in
love. Not circumstances or propriety or the denial of the object of said
affection.
I knew now.
This was it.
If I wanted it, I had to take
it.
This gymnastics love story is
more than grips, rips, and battered hands.
For Calia Nickleson and Nikolai
Bagrov, it was everything.
My thoughts:
These Battered Hands is a story about finding a balance in your life and figuring out what comes next. Callie is a two time Olympic gymnast who at age 26 is considered old. That isn't preventing her from trying one last time to score a gold medal. The question that she can't answer is who is she doing it for, her or her father? Nik has been hired by her father to coach her and help her improve before the trials begin. I'll be honest, I have mixed feelings about this book. I did like the romance and the parts about gymnastics, it was the story line with Callie's dad that just didn't ring true for me.
The thing I loved about the book was Nik. He was just what Callie needed to see that there was more to the world than gymnastics. She needed to learn that having more that her sport would make her a better athlete. This is something that her father never taught her. Their attraction was instant and I loved them together. What I didn't get about the story was why anyone would care if Callie was dating her coach. They are both well over the age of consent. As long as he is helping her improve her skills, what did it matter? Also I didn't get why the Olympics committee would care. It's not like Nik would be coaching her in the games anyway since the team had its own coach. This made me question why they took her father's threat seriously. That was the one thing that bothered me about the story. I felt like it was unnecessary conflict and the story would have been better without it.
This is the first book I have read by this author. I did like that way she wrote the end and beginning of each chapter. That was a neat technique that I haven't seen before. I will be checking out this author again in the future!
This is the first book I have read by this author. I did like that way she wrote the end and beginning of each chapter. That was a neat technique that I haven't seen before. I will be checking out this author again in the future!
Excerpt:
His eyes were
like actual pools of water—moving,
flowing, and changing color along with depth. Each time his focus shifted, so
did mine, zeroing in on a new fleck of deep blue and
trying to help it float through the much more abundant aqua. Their magnetism
made it hard to focus on his words, but I wouldn’t
have traded those moments spent studying their nuances for all of the words in
the dictionary.
Sure, looks
were shallow and words could mean everything, but in those split seconds when
his eyes changed before my own, I would have sworn on my every Olympic medal it
was the opposite.
And right now,
I needed the comfort of that feeling. I needed it to swaddle me in its warmth
and make everything feel right again.
The word wrong
had never been a concept worthy of my focus, but as I tried to make sense of
what was happening, denying its existence was no longer an option.
Up felt like
down and left very nearly tricked me into believing it was right.
Voices called
out to me constantly and on repeat, but none of them were the one I wanted.
Like they were speaking through water, every pronunciation of my name seemed
foreign and unwelcome, and my brain did nothing but scream another.
I tried
valiantly to talk my uncooperative body into bending to my will, but for the
first time in my life it wouldn’t.
Digging deep
down into my gut, I found the last vestiges of my energy and willed them into
one single action.
Into one
single word.
“Nik.”
Priorities
shifted and silence mocked me.
My entire life
had been a series of events all specifically driven toward this very moment. I’d known all of my work was meant to
culminate in a flourish of glory and significance. I’d known there’d be a second in time when I knew why
each part of my life had played out the way it had. Why I’d worked, why I’d sweat, why I’d fought to keep going well after most
people’s journeys were done.
I’d even known it would probably happen
now—on this stage, in front of all of these
people.
I’d just had the timing wrong by about
three minutes.
But I knew
now.
This was it.
The thing I
found myself wanting most during this moment—that
was everything.
He was
everything.
About the author:
Laurel Ulen Curtis is a 28 year old mother of one. She lives with
her husband and son (and cat!) in New Jersey, but grew up all over the United
States. She graduated from Rutgers University in 2009 with a Bachelor of
Science in Meteorology, and puts that to almost no use other than forecasting
for her friends and writing a storm chasing heroine! She has a passion for her
family, laughing, and reading and writing Romance novels. She’s
also addicted to Coke. The drink, not the drug.
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