The Captain's Heart - Paperback

This is a Cinderella story. The girl at the center of it gets around in a power wheelchair.

Ryan Harrison was seventeen when his name went first in the 2005 NHL Draft. By September he was eighteen, standing on his family's dock in Halifax with his grandmother's Saint Christopher medal in his pocket, saying goodbye. Pittsburgh was supposed to be about hockey.

Kelia Langly had a plan. She was in her senior year at Oakland Catholic while attending CCAC. She had been accepted to Carlow University to study Child Development in the fall. A part-time analyst seat with the Penguins that she had earned twice over, because that was what a girl in a power chair had to do to get the same seat everyone else got handed. Lide had taught her the difference between kindness and pity, and she could tell them apart before a stranger finished a sentence. What she hadn't said out loud yet filled a prayer journal on her nightstand instead.

Ryan wasn't part of her plan. He didn't look at her the way she'd learned to expect - not the careful kindness, or pity. She didn't have a word yet for what she saw on his face instead. That was the part that scared her.

What follows is one hockey season, and it doesn't stay contained to rinks and press boxes. Sunday dinners in Squirrel Hill, where her father takes his time getting to whatever he actually means to ask. A Pittsburgh Symphony pops concert, where Ryan reaches over and takes her hand without checking first who's watching. Thanksgiving in Halifax, where he kisses her on his family's dock the Friday morning after everyone's gone quiet from turkey and cards. A February night at the Mt. Washington overlook, snow coming down, a promise ring he's been carrying in his coat pocket since Christmas. They want each other in a way that unsettles them both - a Catholic boy and a Protestant girl, choosing, again and again, what they love more than the easy way out would be.

The Captain's Heart is a New Adult contemporary sports romance set during the 2005-2006 NHL season in Pittsburgh. A debut #OwnVoices novel from a former Miss Wheelchair Pennsylvania. Book One of the Hearts & Ice series.

Heat Level - Warm. Sensual but non-explicit. Ryan and Kelia choose to wait, and that choice is honored as the meaningful, loving decision it is.

Content Notes - Depiction of an emotionally abusive ex-boyfriend (portrayed critically, not romanticized). References to children with serious illness. Mild language. Catholic and Protestant faith practices are depicted with care and authenticity.