Review by Wendy Walters • 2025-03-11 • Halifax
Book Review: Line Drive to Love
Line Drive to Love, by Angel Jendrick
Line Drive to Love is a brand new young adult fiction novel included in Canadian publisher Lorimer’s new Real Love Series. This new series features realistic teen relationships featuring a diverse group of characters set. Through fiction, they reflect the everyday experiences of real teens across Canada. The authors are meant to draw from their own lived experiences.
In Line Drive to Love, Rory is a young out lesbian attending high school in Summerside, PEI. She is laser-focused on her prospects to use softball as a vehicle to university. Her drive to earn that scholarship comes from a family situation where there isn’t enough money for university. She meets and falls for her best friend’s cousin Shanti who is visiting PEI for the summer, working in her grandfather’s BnB. Lesbian puppy love ensues. Rory has a lot on the line between home life with her close and supportive family (her dad is suffering from the final stages of ALS) and keeping her summer job. Rory is also fighting for a position on the provincial softball team which will ensure her a scholarship. She has to make some tough choices and that’s what keeps the storyline interesting through to the end.The book weaves a musical theme across the chapters and the author provides a delightful playlist for Rory and Shanti at the end.
For me, a 43 year old lesbian who was raised in rural Newfoundland, I was very inspired that a new series such as this exists. It reads like Sweet Valley High with characters that are more like me and the people I know. I did not get to live the experience of being out in my hometown during high school and I was a terrible softball player so my initial thought was, eyeroll. However, this is a very sweet and age-appropriate story of young love and how it could happen. Rory is in a supportive environment and has the freedom to explore her sexuality and individuality while still under the guidance of her family and friends who can help keep the UHaul away. My experience was that when you wait to come out once you are moved to a city away from your supports, and operate your love life in secret, you can end up with an unemployed Cape Bretoner who comes for a date and never goes home. I hope that having great books like this will prevent these scenarios and instill healthy dating ideals among our community’s youth.
I’m excited about this series and I can’t wait to buy these books for the young people in my life so they can understand diverse perspectives and stories that include people that look and love like them.
