Again, one from the ARC pile at work.

Just very bleh feeling on this book. I didn't mind the sports angle of the book, but I could rarely relate to the characters and their problems. Zachary's a well-enough character, but yes, we get it- he's different from the other hockey players. He reads! He likes goth chicks! He plays guitar! And under no circumstance, does he want to be compared to his late father (an NHL player)! The conflict seems so ready, and then they add molestation and attempted date rape from Mac, the antagonistic team captain. But what really makes it wall bang-worthy is when Zach nearly takes advantage of his friend Sheila- and we're supposed to treat it likes it's no big deal because she tells him it's okay.

The constant repetition got annoying as well. Like above, we get it, Zach's not a normal jock. And that everyone in town thinks his mother's a lesbian. And that he's really, really good at hockey. Also, that Mac hates him, and his Goth love interest, Jane, hates hockey players in general. You make up a drinking game and be sufficiently smashed within 50 pages of a 200 page book.

I didn't hate enough to shelve it on kill-it-with-fire, but I was so bored, I thought that I should just give up and take it back to work. I think the only reason I finished this was because it was so short. ( )

I wasn’t at all sure what to expect from this novel. It’s always interesting reading a debut author, for that reason alone. Secondly, I absolutely hate hockey, and as it happens to turn out it is mostly for some of the same reasons the girls in the novel have. Because I’ve met too many hockey player jerks. Despite what I initially assumed, Waiting to Score surprised me!The characters at first glace, might seem like a stereotypical jock, goth girl, best friend, but there is a lot more going on under the surface that I foresaw. I would have like to seen more depth in Jane’s character, I felt like a was allowed a glimpse and almost had the door fully open, but was left a short. I also had a hard time believing that Zach’s mom would be pushing him into a hockey career considering what happened with his father, I would have thought it would have been the other way around. But regardless of that I enjoyed the relationship between Zach and his mother. And the relationships between the other characters for that matter. But overall I think that MacLeod accurately depicted the complex world of the teen life. ( )

More than just about sports, this book is so gripping and real. It's a short, quick read that keeps you turning pages. The characters are real and flawed and draw you into their worlds. ( )