REVIEW: Body Check by Elle Kennedy
Dear Elle Kennedy,
Body Check was a Harlequin Blaze originally released in 2009. It has been revised, expanded and re-released.
Hayden Houston is a Professor of Art History at Berkeley (25 seems young for that but what I do know about the US education system?). Her father is the owner of the Chicago Warriors hockey team. He was formerly a coach but after a “wise investment in a pharmaceutical company” made him millions of dollars, he bought the team. Hayden’s mother died in a car accident when she was only a baby so it’s just been her dad and her – and hockey. Hayden didn’t enjoy moving around so often as her father moved teams when she was a child, she didn’t enjoy constantly travelling to games. And she didn’t enjoy her father’s attention being on hockey and not on her so much. However, her father did make an effort in the off season to spend time with her.
Since her dad has been a team owner however, things got worse and it was even harder to get her father’s attention, so she decided to move to California and put down some roots. She longs for a home and family.
Hayden has been dating a fellow professor at Berkeley, Doug, but he’s kind of very boring. He’s a nice guy but Hayden’s libido has been frustrated by Doug’s desire to get to know her very well before they cross the “intimacy bridge” (lol). When during a college break Hayden’s dad asks her to come to Chicago to support him through his divorce (he married a much younger woman a few years before and they’re going through a messy separation), she tells Doug she needs a break from their relationship to decide whether she wants to commit to him or not. Hayden’s dad is also embroiled in a scandal; he’s been accused of throwing two games and betting on the outcome of them and players from the Warriors have been accused of taking bribes. This is all happening as the Warriors are in the playoffs so the media is having a field day.
Given the situation with Doug, when Hayden arrives in Chicago her libido is crying out for help and, at the suggestion of her good friend, Darcy, she decides a one night stand is just the ticket.
Brody Croft is star player with the Warriors. He’s more recently decided he’s sick of one-night stands and short term encounters. He’s after a relationship. Still, when Hayden meets him in a bar (not knowing who he is at all given she doesn’t follow hockey), he’s willing to accept Hayden’s terms in order to be with her at all. Still, he’s hoping he can change her mind. After some of the hottest sex of both of their lives, Hayden finds herself quite persuaded by Brody and eventually agrees to have a fling with him while she’s in town. But it needs to be kept quiet given the scandal brewing around the team. Brody agrees but asks Hayden to keep an open mind to the possibility they could be more to one another.
I liked Brody but had a little discomfort about the way he pushed Hayden to change her mind. I get what the author was going for but what I (probably would have) enjoyed in 2009 is not the same as what I enjoy now. I did enjoy that it was Hayden who wanted the one-night stand and Brody’s reaction to her not initially wanting to see him again made me chuckle – the shoe was very definitely on the other foot there.
I did like that Hayden’s dad’s soon-to-be ex-wife had a bit of nuance to her and things weren’t quite as black and white as they may have originally appeared when the book began. The match-fixing/players-taking-bribes subplot took up a little more of the story than I expected it would. It felt like a lot was going on in such a short book. Still, I did believe the connection between Brody and Hayden.
I don’t know exactly what was changed/expanded/revised in Body Check but it feels like a book written in 2009. It was originally a hot, quick read, in keeping with the Blaze line. Now it’s a little longer but it’s still pretty hot and not super long. I usually like Elle Kennedy books but this one was not my favourite. I think the author has grown significantly as a writer in the 15 years since this book was originally published and Body Check just doesn’t compare to something like last year’s The Summer Girl or The Graham Effect (or even The Deal, which was released in 2015). Body Check has pockets of what Kennedy would become but it lacks the vibe and humour of The Off Campus or Briar U books (for instance).
Grade: C
Regards,
Kaetrin
How is it 15 years since 2009???
A 25-year-old could probably become an adjunct professor, and if her dad is rich maybe she doesn’t have to worry about making enough money to live in San Francisco. But I’m more skeptical that a 25-year-old could become any kind of professor at Berkeley. It sounds like there are a few “just don’t look too close” plausibility issues, but most readers probably don’t care about that.
@Kris Bock:
These are the kinds of things that stick out for me. Too many of them in one book and I’m usually annoyed-reading it – at best.
Yes, 25 is too young. An undergraduate degree in the US takes four years to complete and masters is typically two or three years on top of that. If she started college at age 18 and didn’t take any gap years, she would be 24 or 25 when she finished her masters and began her PhD studies, which would likely be another 4 or 5 years. So about 29 or so just to make adjunct professor. If she was really precocious and started college at 16, finished at 19, and had her masters by 21 (you’d have to be a prodigy) then she might be able to be an adjunct professor at age 25. However, even then she would not be a full professor. You have to have tenure to be a full professor and tenure doesn’t come overnight if it comes at all.
Twenty-five would be unlikely but not impossible to be a professor. (Did the book say professor or full professor?) Also the path from undergraduate to PhD varies with field of study and institute. I received my undergrad degree at age 22 and went immediately into a PhD program in Chemistry at an Ivy League university. I took off one semester to teach at a different college and finished with my PhD at age 26. My husband received his PhD, also in Chemistry and without a masters, after only three and a half years which was very unusual.
That university hired a wunderkind as a professor in Chemistry; I believe he was hired without having done a post-doc. He may well have been 25 or 26; he was definitely younger than some of the grad students.
@All From memory the book just said “professor”. I figured it was at the least a bit hand-wavey.