Breakaway

Ekaterina Rodchenko thought her life would have been simpler if she'd been born a boy. Simpler, not easier. Not that she herself wants to be male. She likes being a girl—even if she isn't into pink lace and ruffles—and she has an incredibly hot boyfriend who is as supportive as he is gorgeous. And her family is nothing but encouraging. But she had long since decided that it would frustrate her far less to fight her way out of the shadow of her famous father, than to constantly be told by everyone except her family that she is crazy.

Her father is one of the greatest players ever to set foot on the ice. Ekaterina idolizes him and she intends to make a name for herself as a hockey player. She has the skill and the speed. And she has the size for the sport. Ever since grade school, she's played on the boys' teams and been the best. Now no longer a little kid, she wants to continue to be the best she can. That means competing against the best which—however much she admires women athletes, most especially her own college hockey champion mother—means continuing to compete against men.

Her goal is to be the first woman to play in the NHL as a full-fledged member of a team. But the establishment is against her, from players to coaches to owners to officials. Even the public, from friends to strangers to the media, protests. But the longer and harder she fights, a strange thing starts to happen. She gains a cheering section beyond her immediate family, and it's growing.