"Fine sports romance"

When the ice hockey reporter needs a leave of absence for health reasons, the Seattle Times assigns Jane Alcott to temporarily cover the local NHL franchise, the Chinooks. Jane figures a puck is a character from Shakespeare, so knows she has little time to learn hockey to avoid the team exiling her to the penalty box.

When Jane arrives in the locker room, the players give her the special treatment of rookie initiation (harassment?) but no feedback on the sport. Still she preservers especially with veteran goalie Luc "Lucky" Martineau, who is the key to a Stanley Cup run. Lucky thinks Jane is out of his league in sports and sex. She agrees though he is unaware that she is the author of the pornographic Honey Pie serial. Still the heart does strange things and soon Jane and Lucky see the other as the most valuable person in their life.

Hockey is clearly in among romance writers as several contemporaries of late focus on that sport. SEE JANE SCORE is contains a descriptive story line that ranges from the Impaler's paraphernalia to a toad on the road starring two delightful lead characters and teammates who seem real. This reviewer is biased as anyone who can reference Gump Worsley is either a great researcher or has sit in the top row of MSG in the early 1960s when the maskless goalie was target practice for a much smaller NHL. Rachel Gibson provides sports romance readers with a winning overtime goal even if she had not mentioned the real Gump.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted January 15, 2003