I loved Dairy Queen, so I was very eager to read The Off Season. It took a lot of turns I didn't expect, which makes it hard for me to review it, because as always I don't want to spoil the surprises for anyone else.

Picking up essentially where we left off, D.J. has passed sophomore English and is good to go with football. The team is totally psyched to have her. Unfortunately, not all that far into things, a certain situation at school puts that all in jeopardy. Add to it a physical consideration, which could impact her entire future, and D.J. has got herself one tough decision to make.

Brian is as charming as ever, especially on their trip to Minneapolis. But it's not long before you start to get a feeling about him. And possibly not the one you were expecting to have.

One of the only lights to really shine in the midst of all this is Curtis, who sneaks around and wins himself an award, all the while never correcting anyone's misconceptions about what he was actually doing. That's just the way it goes in the Schwenk family. Communication pretty much does not exist.

Which makes Win's accident all the more troublesome. Again, D.J., still just a High School kid, steps in to take the lead, pulling the rest of them along behind her, until everyone eventually learns to stand on their own two feet.

I'm not sure I saw any of this coming. All in all, I think this book was nothing that I expected it to be. But I still really enjoyed it, and it's a great testament to strength of character. For all that she thinks she's not all that much, we could all stand to have a little D.J. in us.