Playing by Heart
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4.5 • 4 Ratings
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- $4.99
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
"Mateer's turn-of-the-century story is full of characters who will touch your heart."--RT Book Reviews
Lula Bowman has finally achieved her dream: a teaching position and a scholarship to continue her college education in mathematics. But then a shocking phone call from her sister, Jewel, changes everything.
With a heavy heart, Lula returns to her Oklahoma hometown to do right by her sister, but the only teaching job available in Dunn is combination music instructor/basketball coach. Lula doesn't even consider those real subjects!
Determined to prove herself, Lula commits to covering the job for the rest of the school year. Reluctantly, she turns to the boys' coach, Chet, to learn the newfangled game of basketball. Chet is handsome and single, but Lula has no plans to fall for a local boy. She's returning to college and her scholarship as soon as she gets Jewel back on her feet.
However, the more time she spends around Jewel's family, the girls' basketball team, music classes, and Chet, the more Lula comes to realize what she's given up in her single-minded pursuit of degree after degree. God is working on her heart, and her future is starting to look a lot different than she'd expected.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Mateer (Wings of a Dream) takes readers back to Dunn, Oklahoma, and waxes poetical about a time filled with hope, fear, and charm. As World War I rages overseas, Lula Bowman leaves behind a prestigious and burgeoning career in academia to return home and assume care of her newly widowed sister, Jewel, and Jewel's four children. Cognizant of her new role as the family's chief breadwinner, Lula accepts a high school teaching position that comes with a little something extra responsibility for coaching the ladies basketball team a sport about which she knows nothing. With the help of the handsome men's basketball coach, Chet Vaughn, Lula falls in love of the sport and rediscovers things long since forgotten about herself. Filled with warmth and faith, this tale of perseverance and grace serves as a reminder of a more innocent time where, despite life's difficulties, strength was derived from the joys (and amusements) found in a small, close-knit community.
Customer Reviews
Delightful tale
This is the first book I read by Mateer, and I'm so impressed. The heroine, Lula, has made a place for herself in the world of mathematics and is aiming for more ambitious goals–ones women have not yet attained. But when her sister is suddenly widowed, she goes back to help support her and her children.
She's not the type to just throw her dreams to the wind for the sake of family. She intends to only stay until her sister is able to provide for herself. But the finances are worse than they thought, and her sister quickly confides that there's a baby on the way. Gritting her teeth over the delay to her hard-won career, Lula decides she must do the right thing and stay until the baby comes...which also means she has to get a job. There is one position open at the local school–and it's a joint place teaching music and (horrors) girls' soccer.
She must work with other teachers to accomplish her work, and is closely thrown with the men's sports teacher, Chet, who has to teach her the basics of the game she disdains.
But, somewhere along the way, she begins to look beyond her situation and her thwarted plans, and sees people who need love and help. Will she ever go back to her mathematics...and if she can, will she want to?
I really enjoyed that this heroine is not one who sees herself as such and is not prudish in the way she does the right thing. She's plucky and doesn't complain, even when she doesn't like what's going on in her life. Definitely a keeper. Highly recommended!